Below is a guide on how to mass convert M4A files to MP3 using WinFF but using Command Prompt instead of the WinFF’s user Interface. The process is a bit of a long one, but if you are converting hundreds or thousands of songs at once then it will save you a lot of time and effort as you only have to do it this once and can leave command prompt running without user intervention instead of just being able to do one folder at a time in the WinFF program or even worse converting one file at a time in VLC like I used to do before I discovered WinFF.
You will have to download the WinFF program to do any other the below. Link to the file on cnet.com is below
http://download.cnet.com/WinFF/3000-2194_4-75914710.html
First of all visit one of my previous posts below on how to export a full list of the M4As that you want converting. Link below
https://www.webtechie.co.uk/2015/12/02/how-to-copy-a-list-of-files-in-a-windows-folder-into-an-excel-spreadsheet/
Once you’ve run that, delete any folders that appear at the very top of the txt file so you only have a list off the full directories ending in .m4a like the below:
Then in your notepad file Find and Replace (Ctrl+H) .m4a and change to .mp3 and save that notepad as something else so that you have two notepad files, one with files ending in .m4a and one ending in .mp3
And then download the below template:
Copy and Paste as many lines in the Excel Spreadsheet as you will need depending on how much is in your notepad files.
Then copy everything from the .m4a txt file into column B. And copy everything from the .mp3 txt file into column D. Make Sure you don’t remove and of the spaces at the end of column A and the start and end of column C as these are need later on.
Then you need to find and replace the following things in Excel.
Find What: D:\ Replace What: "D:\ Find What: .m4a Replace What: .m4a" Find What: .mp3 Replace What: .mp3"
You then need to use concatenate to put your 4 columns into 1.
On Column E type in “=conca” and click tab, it should then fill in =CONCATENATE(
Then you need to hold CTRL and click Column A, B, C and D and click enter. All four columns should then be filled in Column E. Then click at the bottom right of E1 and drag that to the end of your spreadsheet to fill out the rest of the rows.
You should then get something like the below:
– Mass Convert M4A to MP3 With Files Inputted
Then copy column E into a notepad file and enter a new line at the top and enter the below (Your WinFF program might be installed elsewhere)
cd “C:\Program Files (x86)\WinFF
And then save you notepad file as a batch file (name the file massconvert.bat)
Run the batch file and then your files should start converting to MP3. It will create a MP3 file in the same directory as the M4A file so your file structure is still the same and you can delete the M4A afterwards once you’re happy. You’ll see the progress in the Command Prompt that opens.