How to find the song name of a WhatsApp audio file
Track ID Deck · Last updated: 1 October 2026
A song someone sends you over WhatsApp lands on your phone as something like
AUD-20240817-WA0031.opus. The music is intact; the name is gone. This guide
explains what that file name means, where the files are kept, and how to get the real names
back.
Short answer The file name holds a date and a counter, nothing about the song. The song’s name can often still be read from the tags inside the file, for free. When the tags are empty too, the song has to be recognised from its sound: by ear with a listening app, or by a tool that fingerprints the file and renames it.
What the file name means
Take AUD-20240817-WA0031.opus apart:
AUD- An audio file. Voice notes are marked differently: they start with
PTT. 20240817- The date the file arrived: 17 August 2024.
WA0031- A counter that keeps files from the same day apart.
.opus- The audio format. You will also see
.mp3,.m4aand.aac.
None of it comes from the song. Audio saved from WhatsApp on a computer has the same problem
in a different shape, such as WhatsApp Audio 2024-08-17 at 14.03.22.mpeg.
Why the name is lost
When a song is sent as an audio attachment, the app stores it under a name of its own on arrival, and the name the sender’s file had is not kept. A song sent as a document keeps its original file name, so if a friend is about to send you an album, ask them to attach the files as documents.
Where the files are kept
- Android
- In the phone’s own storage, under
Android › media › com.whatsapp › WhatsApp › Media › WhatsApp AudioOn older phones the folder isWhatsApp › Media › WhatsApp Audio - iPhone
- The audio stays inside the app. To get a file out, press and hold the message, choose Forward, tap the share icon and pick Save to Files.
Step 1: see if the song still knows its own name (free)
A file’s name and its tags are separate. The tags are stored inside the file, and a song
that was renamed on arrival often still carries its artist and title there. Open the file in
a music player: if it shows a proper title instead of AUD-…, the tags
survived.
To do that for every file at once, open them in Track ID Deck.
It reads the tags in your browser, without uploading anything, and renames each file it can to
Artist – Title. This step is free.
Step 2: name a few by ear (free)
For a handful of songs with empty tags, play each one and let a song-recognition app listen: Shazam, SoundHound, or the “what’s this song” feature built into many phones. It costs nothing. It is also one song at a time, and the file keeps its old name until you rename it by hand.
Step 3: name the whole folder at once
With dozens or hundreds of files, recognising them one by one stops being practical. Track ID Deck reads the files themselves, with no microphone involved, and renames them as it goes.
On your phone
- Open trackidentify.com in your browser and tap to choose your audio files.
- Browse to the WhatsApp Audio folder above and select the songs.
- Let it name what it can for free, then sign in with your email (a one-time link, no password) and identify the rest. Each identification uses one credit.
- Check the matches and download the renamed copies, one by one or together as a zip.
On a computer
- Copy the WhatsApp Audio folder from your phone to the computer.
- Open trackidentify.com in Chrome or Edge and open that folder.
- Name what can be named for free, identify the rest, and the files are renamed where they sit, tags and all.
Normally only a twelve-second sample of a song is sent for identification, and nothing is kept once the answer comes back. A lookup that finds no match still uses a credit; a failure on our side uses nothing. Credits come in one-time packs with no subscription, and the current price is under pricing.
What cannot be named
- Voice notes. Files that start with
PTTare speech, and there is no song to find. - Recordings of a room. A phone held up at a concert or next to a radio rarely matches.
- Mixes and edits. DJ mixes, mash-ups, unofficial remixes and sped-up versions are not in any catalogue of released recordings.
Leave those out, or label them by hand, rather than spending a lookup on them.
Common questions
Will renaming a file break the chat it came from?
It can. A chat looks for its audio under the name the file was saved with, so a file renamed inside the app’s own folder may stop playing from the chat. Working on copies avoids that. On a phone, Track ID Deck always hands you renamed copies and leaves the originals where they are.
Is my audio uploaded?
Mostly no. The files are read in your own browser, and anything that can be named from its tags never leaves your device. Only a file that needs identifying is sent, normally as a twelve-second sample. The privacy policy has the detail.
Does it work on .opus files?
Yes. Track ID Deck handles mp3, m4a, opus, ogg and wav. The format does not change how a song is recognised, because the match is made on the sound.
What about songs from other chat apps?
The same steps apply to any audio file that lost its name, wherever it came from. There is a general version of this guide: how to identify a song from an audio file.
A folder full of AUD-… files? Open it in the deck and
see how many it can name for free before you spend anything.
WhatsApp is a trademark of its owner. Track ID Deck is an independent tool: it is not connected with, endorsed by or sponsored by WhatsApp, and it works only with audio files you already have.