Find an idea

Your library brings recordings, imports and Watch captures together. Search by title, browse the places you recorded, or keep promising ideas in Favorites and folders.

Type part of a recording's title into Search. Matching is not case-sensitive, and the search stays within the current folder or Favorites view. Choose All Recordings first to search across your active library.

On iPhone, tap the library title and its downward chevron to open Folders. On iPad, use the sidebar, where All shows the whole active library. Tap a recording to open it; on iPad it opens beside the list in the detail column.

Scroll through the place headings in the library. Recordings are grouped by their saved place name, with the place of the newest recording first. Recordings without a place name are grouped under Anywhere, always last.

Search matches titles, not place names. To tag future recordings, turn on Settings > Tag Location and allow location access before recording.

Swipe a recording to the right to reveal Favorite, then tap it to toggle the star. You can also hold the recording and choose Favorite or Unfavorite. Open Favorites from Folders on iPhone or the sidebar on iPad to see your starred recordings.

Favoriting a recording does not move it out of its folder. It remains in All Recordings too.

1. Open Folders on iPhone or the sidebar on iPad, then choose New Folder, enter a name and tap Create.
2. Swipe a recording to the left to reveal Move and Delete. Tap Move and choose the destination folder.
3. Choose No Folder to remove a folder assignment, or New Folder to create a destination while moving the recording.

A recording belongs to one folder at a time and remains visible in All Recordings. Folders you created are listed under My folders. Swipe one to the left, hold it, or right-click it on iPad and Mac to Rename or Delete it. Deleting a folder keeps its recordings in All Recordings; the app's system folders cannot be renamed or deleted.

Tap SELECT, then tap the rows you want. All selects the visible list, including any Search filter; None clears that selection. Choose Move, Favorite or Delete from the selection bar, or tap the cross to leave selection.

Favorite adds every selected recording to Favorites without removing stars from recordings already there. Delete sends the selected recordings to Recently Deleted.

Open Recently Deleted from Folders on iPhone or the sidebar on iPad. Tap Restore below a recording to bring it back, or Delete Forever to remove it permanently. These actions are also available by holding the row.

To handle several deleted recordings, tap SELECT, select the rows and choose Restore or Delete Forever. The bulk Delete Forever action asks for confirmation; the individual action removes the recording immediately.

Music Dawn uses your private iCloud database to sync the library between devices. A recording can appear in the list before its audio is available locally; the cloud download icon on its row means the audio has not arrived on that device yet.

SYNCING beside the item count means Music Dawn is preparing or restoring local audio files for sync. It is not a complete iCloud progress display, and its disappearance does not confirm that every device has received the recording. You can record and use audio already stored on the device offline.