Convert FLAC to WAV on Mac

afconvert in.flac out.wav -d LEI16 -f WAVE

LEI16 writes 16-bit PCM. If your FLAC is 24-bit, use -d LEI24 instead so nothing is cut down. A whole folder:

for f in *.flac; do afconvert "$f" "${f%.flac}.wav" -d LEI16 -f WAVE; done

Check what you have first with afinfo file.flac. It prints the sample rate and the bit depth, so you can match them. Do not pass -r unless you need a different rate.

Yes, and we checked rather than assumed. We converted a 16-bit FLAC to WAV with afconvert, then compared the decoded samples with the original WAV using cmp. They were identical. We repeated the test with a 24-bit file and -d LEI24, and the sample checksums matched the source again.

That is the point of FLAC: it is compression that can be undone. Converting to WAV just unpacks it. You can go back to FLAC later and lose nothing.

Our fixture is synthetic, so your music will compress differently. FLAC ratios depend on the content. The 4,018-byte gap between our original WAV and the converted one is container header data, not audio. Converting to WAV never shrinks the file, so make sure the disk has room before converting a large library.

Yes. Change the container and the data format:

afconvert in.flac out.aiff -d BEI16 -f AIFF

AIFF is Apple’s equivalent of WAV: uncompressed PCM, big-endian, same size as WAV in our test, and the audio samples matched the FLAC. Pick AIFF if you work in Logic Pro. Pick WAV for Windows, hardware samplers and most broadcast workflows. Both are equally lossless.

Not with afconvert. We tagged a FLAC with a title and an artist, converted it to WAV and to AIFF, and read the results back with ffprobe. Neither output had any tags. Plain WAV is a weak container for metadata, and the command does not carry the Vorbis comments across.

Keep the FLAC as your tagged master. If you need tags in the WAV, ffmpeg copied them in our test: ffmpeg -i in.flac out.wav kept the title and artist. We did not test cover art, and it may not carry into WAV, so do not delete the FLAC after converting.

Mostly compatibility. Some DAWs, samplers, car stereos and video editors read WAV but not FLAC. Converting also removes decoding work. The reverse trip is the better idea for storage: if you are tight on space, keep FLAC and only make WAVs when needed. For smaller files you can play anywhere, see convert FLAC to MP3 on Mac.

For occasional jobs, afconvert is all you need. It is exact, free, and already on your Mac.

Smol is worth $29 (once, one Mac) when you convert regularly or in mixed batches: drop a folder of FLAC, M4A and MP3 files, choose WAV, and get per-file progress or a Finder right click. Nothing is uploaded, and by default outputs land beside the originals. See the best audio converter for Mac and the batch audio conversion guide, or buy Smol if that fits. Once edited, you can compress the audio again.