How to play FLAC files on an iPhone

iOS has decoded FLAC since iOS 11. What it will not do is let you put one in the Music app. Here is the way round it, and why no conversion is needed.

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The bMusic player, showing cover art, the progress bar and playback controls

Why your FLAC files will not go on the phone

The confusion here is worth clearing up first, because it sends people to the wrong solution: the iPhone can play FLAC perfectly well. Core Audio has decoded it for years, Files will preview one, and any app that reads its own files can play it. What cannot handle FLAC is the sync path — the Music app’s library, and iTunes or Finder feeding it. Drop a FLAC into that and you are offered a conversion to ALAC or AAC, or nothing happens at all.

So the usual advice — "convert everything to ALAC" — solves a problem you do not have, at the cost of a second copy of your library and a re-encode you cannot undo cleanly. ALAC is lossless too, so the audio survives; the tags, the embedded art and the disc layout often do not survive the round trip, and you now have two libraries to keep in step.

The other route is simply a player that reads files. It keeps the FLAC as a FLAC, reads the Vorbis comments and the picture block the file already carries, and never involves the Music app at all. That is what bMusic does, and the rest of this page is the five minutes it takes.

Step by step

Playing a FLAC on an iPhone, start to finish

  1. 01

    Put bMusic on the phone

    It needs iOS 18.0 or later and runs on iPhone and iPad from the same download. Every part of it works for 15 days from the day you install it, which is more than enough to check your own files play.

  2. 02

    Open the transfer page on the computer holding the files

    On the phone, choose Import from Wi-Fi. On the computer, open the address it shows and point the phone’s camera at the code on screen. The two are then talking directly over your own network — there is nothing to install on the computer, and no cable.

  3. 03

    Drag the FLAC files into the browser

    A whole album, a whole artist folder, or one track. They copy across as they are: no conversion, no re-encode, no "optimised" second copy. Large lossless files take as long as your Wi-Fi takes and nothing more.

  4. 04

    Let the library build itself

    bMusic reads the tags out of each FLAC — artist, album, track number, disc number, year, genre — and files it under Music/Artist/Album. Embedded cover art comes through with it. Nothing has to be typed in.

  5. 05

    Play it

    Gapless between tracks, so a live album or a beat-matched record runs the way it was cut. The ten-band equaliser, the sleep timer, AirPlay, Bluetooth and the lock-screen controls all work the way they do in any other player.

If the files are not on a computer, the same library takes them from AirDrop, the Files app, another app’s share sheet, a direct link, or your own WebDAV server.

What this gets you that converting does not

One copy of the library
The file on the phone is the file you had. Nothing to re-sync when you retag something, and no second "iPhone version" of the album drifting away from the original.
The tags you spent time on
Artist, album artist, disc and track numbers, year, genre and embedded art are read from the FLAC itself. Compilations stay compilations and multi-disc sets keep their disc numbers.
The rest of your formats too
The same library holds MP3, AAC, M4A, ALAC, FLAC, OPUS, WAV, AIFF side by side. A collection that is half FLAC and half MP3 does not need sorting out first.
Files you can take back out
The same Wi-Fi page lists the library and downloads any song back to the computer’s browser. Nothing here is a one-way import.

FAQ

FLAC on iPhone: the usual questions

Does the iPhone support FLAC natively?
Yes, for playback — iOS has decoded FLAC since iOS 11. The limitation is the Music app’s library and the iTunes/Finder sync feeding it, not the hardware or the operating system.
Should I convert my FLAC files to ALAC instead?
You do not need to. ALAC is also lossless, so converting does not hurt the audio, but it gives you a second library to maintain and often loses embedded art and disc layout on the way. Playing the FLAC directly avoids all of it.
Will lossless files fill up my phone?
FLAC is roughly half the size of the raw audio, so an album runs around 250–400 MB depending on the recording. Most people bring the records they actually listen to rather than the whole shelf; you can delete and re-send any album from the same Wi-Fi page later.
Does lossless survive Bluetooth headphones?
No, and that is true of every player: Bluetooth re-encodes the audio in the headphones’ own codec. Wired headphones, a USB-C or Lightning DAC, or the car’s aux socket keep the decoded stream intact.
Can I still use Apple Music?
Yes. bMusic reads only its own folder and never touches the Music app’s library, so the two sit side by side on the same phone.

Other guides

Move a library off Android

Switch to iOS moves your photos and messages. The folder of music files is the part it leaves behind.

Read the guide

Put a ripped CD on an iPhone

You ripped it losslessly on purpose. Getting it onto the phone should not undo that.

Read the guide

When streaming takes a song away

The album is greyed out and the playlist has a hole in it. Owning the file is the only fix that lasts.

Read the guide

Your own music in the car

A tunnel, a data cap or a rural road, and the streaming app stalls. Files on the phone never do.

Read the guide

Lyrics for your own files

Lyrics apps look a song up in a catalogue. The rip, the bootleg and the demo are not in it — so the words have to come from the recording.

Read the guide

Karaoke and practising a part

Take the voice out, move the key, loop the bar you keep missing and slow it down — on a song you own, on the phone.

Read the guide

Bring your own music

Every part of bMusic works for 15 days from the day you install it, with nothing held back. Send one album across and hear it on your own headphones.

Download on the App Store

iPhone, iPad and Mac · iOS 18.0 or later · MP3, AAC, M4A, ALAC, FLAC, OPUS, WAV, AIFF