How to play FLAC files on iPhone without converting them

Why FLAC is awkward on iPhone

FLAC is the most common lossless format for music you buy or rip yourself. Apple's own lossless format is ALAC (Apple Lossless). The Music app on Mac lets you import as AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless, MP3 or WAV, but not FLAC (Apple Support). So the usual advice is to convert every FLAC file to ALAC and sync again. Both formats are lossless, so nothing is lost in sound, but you end up keeping two copies of the library and redoing the conversion for every new album.

A player app that reads FLAC itself avoids all of that: you copy the original files to the phone and play them.

Play FLAC with Vaure: three ways to copy the files

1. From a Mac or Windows PC, in the browser

1. In Vaure on the iPhone, choose Drop Web in the import options. You'll see a one-time code.
2. On the computer, open vaure.app/drop, type the code and drag in your FLAC files.
3. They go over your Wi-Fi straight to the phone. Details: how to put music on iPhone without iTunes.

2. From a cloud drive

Put the files in iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive, then in Vaure choose Files and pick them. Vaure copies them into its library so they play offline later.

3. From a NAS or home server

Choose SMB share or WebDAV in Vaure, connect to your NAS, Nextcloud or ownCloud, browse to the album and select the tracks.

What to expect

• No conversion. Vaure keeps the FLAC file you imported.
• Tags and covers come from the FLAC file's own tags. If a cover is missing, Vaure Plus can look it up.
• Gapless playback for live albums and DJ mixes.
• Storage: FLAC files are several times larger than MP3s, so check free space on the iPhone before copying a big library.
• Headphones: Bluetooth headphones, AirPods included, re-encode the audio for the wireless link. To keep the signal lossless all the way, use wired headphones or a USB DAC.