If you recently upgraded from an iPhone 12 to an iPhone 16 Pro and noticed that your voice memos didn’t transfer, follow these steps to retrieve them:

Solution 1: Check iCloud Sync Settings

Your voice memos may be synced to iCloud. Make sure that iCloud sync is enabled for Voice Memos:

1. Go to Settings > Your Name > iCloud.
2. Scroll down and ensure that the Voice Memos toggle is turned on.
3. If it’s off, turn it on and wait for your voice memos to sync.
4. If your voice memos are still missing, try going to Settings > iCloud > iCloud Backup and check if your previous iPhone 12’s voice memos were backed up to iCloud.

Solution 2: Check Your iTunes or Finder Backup

If you didn’t use iCloud for backups, check your iTunes or Finder backups for your voice memos:

1. Connect your iPhone 16 Pro to a computer and open Finder (for macOS) or iTunes (for Windows).
2. Select your device from the sidebar and choose Restore Backup.
3. Pick the backup from your iPhone 12 and restore it. This will bring back your voice memos along with other data from your old device.

Solution 3: Check the Voice Memos App

Sometimes voice memos may appear in the app but are hidden or not properly loaded. Make sure to check the Voice Memos app thoroughly:

1. Open the Voice Memos app.
2. Scroll through the list of memos and check for any that might have not been synced properly during the transfer.
3. If necessary, check if any old memos are saved as drafts or are stored in a different folder.

Solution 4: Re-enable iCloud Voice Memo Sync on Both iPhones

If the above steps didn’t work, try turning off iCloud sync on both devices and then turning it back on:

1. On your iPhone 16 Pro, go to Settings > Your Name > iCloud and turn off Voice Memos.
2. On your iPhone 12, do the same and wait for the data to sync.
3. After a few minutes, turn the Voice Memos toggle back on for both devices.
4. This should trigger the syncing process again, and your voice memos should appear.

Solution 5: Use a Third-Party App

If none of the above steps work, you can try using third-party apps like iMazing to extract voice memos from your old iPhone 12 backup and transfer them to your new iPhone.

Conclusion

Retrieving your voice memos after transferring to a new iPhone can usually be resolved by checking iCloud settings, restoring from a backup, or syncing the data properly. If none of these solutions work, using third-party software is an option to manually recover the missing voice memos.

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