Windows 8.1 Sound Recorder: Why do you play games?

Recently I have needed to use Windows SoundRecorder to record a few snippets of sound for a project I am working on. What I didn’t realise however, after I had finished recording my samples and laboriously renaming them all, was that windows wanted to hide them from me!

Within the program itself there are no setting to change as to your files’ save location – let alone any actual indication of where they may be hidden.

So after tracking them down I thought this information might be worth sharing to anyone else who made the mistake of using this simple program instead of Audacity.

Firstly, head to your file explorer.

file-explorer

Then head to Local Disk (usually your C: drive unless you’re blessed with more drives/partitions)

localdisk-users

If you’ve not done so already set file explorer to show hidden files by clicking the View tab at the top and making sure there is a tick next to Hidden items as shown below.

show-hidden-folders

Now go into the folder which shares your login name. In my case that is the Benjy folder.

Now you need to drill through some folders. Explore them in the following order:

  • AppData
  • Local
  • Packages
  • Microsoft.WindowsSoundRecorder_8wekyb3d8bbwe
  • LocalState
  • Indexed
  • Recordings

And finally you are there! You should see a selection of your recordings saved as m4a files.

recordings

References:

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6 Comments

  1. March 28, 2014
    Reply

    THANK YOU!! Your explanation is direct and to the point, with no annoying “cuteness” I’ve just been assailed with on YouTube! Bless you for helping me with my frustrating problem.

    • March 30, 2014
      Reply

      I am happy to help daypilgrim! If there is anything else you need help with – feel free to ask.

  2. tashian
    August 28, 2014
    Reply

    Thank you so much! i would have never found it without this…

  3. Peta
    November 14, 2014
    Reply

    Thank you!!!!! I have spent 4 hours this afternoon trying to figure out where all of my recordings are! So very frustrating!

    You are a life saver!

    🙂

  4. sue
    December 13, 2014
    Reply

    Ditto on what previous commenters have said! Thanks!!! Never would have found the files…

  5. Natalie
    April 7, 2019
    Reply

    Hello, I have to chime in here as well… I recently learned how to use the sound recorder app on my PC with a mic I hooked up and like everyone else, I couldn’t figure out how to transfer my saved recordings to an email or save them anywhere b/c I could find them. After much research online, thank goodness I found your article with very detailed info about how to find the audio files on your PC and I did find them! All other articles I found would only show the name of the file to find them but they wouldn’t explain how to get there but you did… I am so grateful, you’ve literally saved my life and possibly gotten me into my dream career so thank you so much!

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