What is a .WAV file?
The extension .wav generally indicates a Waveform Audio File Format, which was first introduced by Microsoft Corporation and IBM in 1991, for multimedia audio in the Windows system. Under normal use cases .wav contains only uncompressed raw audio data, but the same format can also contain registered wave format descriptions of data formats such as float, ADPCM, μ-law, A-law, MP3, GSM, as well as many others in its fmt and data fields, hence .wav may mean a wide variety of uncompressed or compressed recordings using the .Wav format envelope
There are a couple of variants specifically designed for particular purposes. Broadcast Wave Format, established by the European Broadcasting Union in 1997, uses a WAV compatible file format and is normally indistinguishable for the regular player as usual .wav file but, includes a bext chunk and may include iXML or aXML metadata field for source information, timecode information, volume level and codec history field. RF64 is another version of the file format by the European Broadcasting Union, which is a "large file" version for audio files greater than the maximum size possible in the classic 4GiB limit. This format starts with RF64 header instead of RIFF, uses an additional ds64 chunk, and bytes #8 to #11 still have value WAVE
There are quite some occasions when you can encounter the Wav file.
How to open a .WAV file
Open a .WAV file on Windows
- 1 Go to the folder with your file in File Explorer. Usually, downloaded files end up in Downloads.
- 2 Double-click your .WAV file if you have an app for .wav files on your computer. In case it does not open, move on to step three.
- 3 Right-click your .WAV file -> select .
- 4 Choose VLC media player in the list (Windows 11: choose Always). For Windows 10 -> put a check on "Always use this app to open .wav files" and click OK.
Still not opening? See common problems and fixes, or view it in your browser.
Programs for Windows
- VLC media player open-source
- Audacity open-source
- foobar2000 free
- Windows Media Player free
- Sonic Visualiser open-source
- AIMP free
- Ocenaudio free
- Adobe Audition paid
Open a .WAV file on macOS
- 1 In the Finder app, locate your .WAV file.
- 2 Just double-click your .WAV file in order to automatically launch the program which is connected with it.
- 3 Need another app on your Mac? Control-click the file (or right-click with a mouse). In the pop-up menu select .
- 4 If it isn't in the list, choose and find the application manually.
Still not opening? See common problems and fixes, or view it in your browser.
Programs for macOS
- VLC media player open-source
- Audacity open-source
- foobar2000 free
- Apple Music freemium
- QuickTime Player free
- Sonic Visualiser open-source
- Ocenaudio free
- Adobe Audition paid
Open a .WAV file on Linux
- 1 Launch your file manager. Depending on the desktop it may be named Files (GNOME), Dolphin (KDE Plasma), Nemo (Cinnamon) or Thunar (Xfce).
- 2 Double-click the file.
- 3 Or choose another program by right-clicking the file -> .
- 4 Install VLC media player (if it is not installed on your computer) from the software centre, repository or Flathub.
Still not opening? See common problems and fixes, or view it in your browser.
Programs for Linux
- VLC media player open-source
- Audacity open-source
- Sonic Visualiser open-source
- Ocenaudio free
- REAPER paid
- BWF MetaEdit open-source
- FFmpeg open-source
Open a .WAV file on Android
- 1 Launch Files or another file management app.
- 2 In Downloads, find the .WAV file and open it by tapping.
- 3 A list of apps capable of opening the file will be shown. Tap VLC media player and press Always to permanently connect the file type with this app.
- 4 No apps able to open this file? Download VLC media player from the Google Play Store.
Still not opening? See common problems and fixes, or view it in your browser.
Programs for Android
- VLC media player open-source
- foobar2000 free
- Apple Music freemium
- AIMP free
Open a .WAV file on iPhone / iPad
- 1 Use the Files app and go to On My iPhone, iCloud Drive or Downloads.
- 2 Tap the .WAV file you want to open.
- 3 If the file can be opened by a built-in iOS app (supported format), it opens automatically.
- 4 Touch and hold the file to get the context menu -> choose -> select VLC media player from the list of apps.
- 5 If there is no such option, download the app first from the App Store and then tap the document again.
Still not opening? See common problems and fixes, or view it in your browser.
Programs for iPhone / iPad
- VLC media player open-source
- foobar2000 free
- Apple Music freemium
Open a .WAV file online
- 1 Move to the online viewer at the top of this page.
- 2 Drag the file there or select it, and its contents will appear in your browser tab. The file is not uploaded.
Still not opening? See common problems and fixes, or view it in your browser.
Programs for Online
- Apple Music freemium
More details about opening .WAV files
On Windows, conventional PCM .WAV files play in Windows Media Player and in the Media Player application that comes with the installation of the OS, also in VLC, foobar2000, and a lot of DAW programs. When editing audio, free applications such as Audacity and Ocenaudio offer trimming and format conversion options, together with cleanup operations. On MAC OS, wav files open in QuickTime Player, Apple Music, Finder Preview, VLC, Audacity, Reaper, Adobe Audition, Logic Pro, Steinberg WaveLab and so on. On Linux desktop the following apps and applications are usually used - VLC, audacious, rhythmbox, Audacity, ffmpeg ffplay, SoX, Ardour, REAPER, sonic visualizer, etc. WAV files on Android are supported by system media components (on some versions), VLC for android application,AIMP , foobar2000 and many other apps; sometimes unusual codecs from WAV may not work correctly in those players. WAV is usually possible to preview in iOS files, iPad files in apps Files and Messages with workflow of Voice Memos, VLC, foobar2000; and works with GarageBand and other audio apps. As web-browser-supported format, wav with PCM typically should open up on a html-audio-element. Sometimes, BWF metadata are ignored.
When opening the file with a wrong application through just clicking - use Open With option, or change file extension association through operating system settings for default programs. In case playing does not occur, check out with MediaInfo, ffprobe, VLC codec-info if stream is PCM audio, or uses some exotic tag. Editing BWF metadata - use BWF MetaEdit, not the media player. Format conversion and waveform-editing - use Audacity, Ocenaudio,Adobe Audition, WaveLab and REAPER.
Technical details
A WAV file is a binary rather than textual format. In general practice it contains the following elements: the signature RIFF placed starting at the 0 offset in an ASCII format; the file size placed starting at the 4 offset in a little-endian 32-bit representation; WAVE form type placed at the 8 offset; sequence of subchunks. RF64 starts from the ASCII signature RF64 at the 0 offset, but retains WAVE form type at the 8th offset.
The necessary audio information is located inside the fmt chunk. For traditional PCM it holds the WAVE format tag, number of channels, sample rate, byte rate, block alignment, and bits per sample. However, the presence of the form WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE in use allows adding valid-bits-per-sample, channel mask, subtype GUID inside the same fmt chunk that describes high-resolution formats and multichannel configurations explicitly.
Sample frames of audio are located in data chunk. PCM samples have a little-endian order. Exception: traditional 8-bit PCM samples are unsigned. Other types of format tags may describe compressed or alternate representations but always hold same chunk layout: chunk identification identifier, chunk size, and its content. Readers unable to interpret certain chunk will ignore it and skip its content.
Metadata could be present in LIST/INFO, bext, cart, cue, smpl, inst, acid, iXML, aXML, MD5 and any other nonstandard chunk. Broadcast Wave Format uses same RIFF layout and additionally some metadata chunks. Traditional RIFF WAV has 32-bit chunk sizes and therefore the limitation of practically existing file size to approximately 4 GiB. RF64 uses placeholders instead of those size parameters and adds a special chunk ds64 for larger files.
Typical sizes of WAV files are relatively big because there are no compression inside the file of a PCM format data. For instance: WAV 16-bit stereo 44.1kHz is 10.1 MiB per minute of recording, but 24-bit stereo 96 kHz WAV takes approximately 33 MiB for recording per minute. Typical MIMEs are audio/wav, audio/wave, audio/x-wav, audio/vnd.wave; with audio/wav as the current common label.
How to convert .WAV files
The following instructions apply to WAVs meant for long-term archival storage: encode in FLAC losslessly to compress them and use the open source playback library; ffmpeg -i input.wav -codec:a flac output.flac. This way FLAC file should compress a PCM WAV by about 30 to 70%. FLAC is a format, hence, unlike a WAV, FLAC will have no unused bytes of RIFF. If you aim at web usage of your content, email, Podcasting or for any application running on your telephone then MP3, AAC or Opus is more appropriate format. They look like: ffmpeg -i input.wav -codec:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k output.mp3, ffmpeg -i input.wav -codec:a aac -b:a 160k output.m4a, ffmpeg -i input.wav -codec:a libopus -b:a 96k output.opus. Those files are going to be smaller than WAV but since the waveform samples get changed permanently, it is important to keep the master.
WAV files will also work well for uncompressed format exchange with Apple and older workflows. For them we need to convert our WAVs in the AIFF format: ffmpeg -i input.wav -codec:a pcm_s16be output.aiff. FFmpeg has also codec analysis capabilities, and it can change sampling rate, channels of your audio and perform all other batch conversions. Better choices to cut out the excess and export your sound clips are the programs called Audacity, Ocenaudio. The SoX program handles sample rate change, bit depth alteration, normalization, various kinds of channel manipulations, creation of tone tests. Dither should go together with lowering of bit depth. Good resampling algorithms should go with any kind of sampling frequency change operation.
| Convert to | Tool | Command / note |
|---|---|---|
| MP3 | FFmpeg | ffmpeg -i input.wav -codec:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k output.mp3 Creates a much smaller lossy file for sharing; high-frequency detail and exact samples are not preserved. |
| FLAC | FFmpeg | ffmpeg -i input.wav -codec:a flac output.flac Lossless compression typically reduces PCM WAV size by 30-70% while preserving audio samples and most metadata. |
| AAC/M4A | FFmpeg | ffmpeg -i input.wav -codec:a aac -b:a 160k output.m4a Useful for Apple/mobile playback; lossy unless using ALAC instead of AAC. |
| OGG Opus | FFmpeg | ffmpeg -i input.wav -codec:a libopus -b:a 96k output.opus Efficient lossy speech/music delivery; not ideal for archival masters. |
| AIFF | FFmpeg | ffmpeg -i input.wav -codec:a pcm_s16be output.aiff Uncompressed interchange common on older Apple/pro-audio workflows; byte order and metadata layout change. |
| Raw PCM | FFmpeg | ffmpeg -i input.wav -f s16le -acodec pcm_s16le output.raw Strips the RIFF header; sample rate, channels, and bit depth must be recorded separately. |
| Resampled WAV | SoX | sox input.wav -r 48000 -b 24 output.wav Keeps WAV but changes technical parameters; dithering may be needed when reducing bit depth. |
Common problems and fixes
Silent sound playback usually does not mean a wave file is somehow corrupt. If the media player stops and there are no audio cues, this means that it failed to decompress the data due to unsupported audio format, most commonly, GSM, ADPCM, DTS, AC-3, or even MP3-in-WAV format. Such issues may be addressed by using VLC media player, and in some cases it will be helpful to employ FFmpeg's wav conversion utility to PCM or FLAC formats in cases if target programs accept only such uncompressed wave.
Truncated or corrupted files would typically display one of the following messages: 'invalid Riff Wave file', 'invalid header size', 'incorrect RIFF Wave header', etc. For checking whether the file is complete and not truncated and if size of file matches the content, examine its structure starting from the first 12 bytes - there must be numbers 52 49 46 46 for a valid header and value '57 41 56 45' of 8th byte should be present. To check, it's easy to use tools like ffprobe, MediaInfo, or the hex editor, looking for discrepancies and incorrect length values.
The WAV format supports maximum of 4 GiB per file - classic format uses 32bit values for length of the audio chunk. If audio exceeds these limits, then you can use rf64 wave files - starting sequence would be 52 46 36 34 - or split big recordings into multiple files.
Incorrect sample rate or distorted sounds may be symptoms of wrong parameters in header - either the sample rate is incorrect or bits per sample is wrong (usually, it may happen to raw PCM files with .wav extension). Use editor program capable of working with the raw data (e.g., Audacity).
Audio editing software often strips various information on saving the file, such as BWF time code, bext, ixml, cue, loop or other additional blocks. Take backups and apply BWF MetaEdit (as well as DAW export options) to preserve that data where it is crucial.
Waves can easily become associated with a certain application incorrectly and start to be loaded in video players, browsers, and all types of media. Fix the association in operating system preferences.
Security considerations
However, as WAV file format is RIFF-based and was developed by Microsoft and IBM, WAV files do not contain a macro language, autorun and executable content embedded. Vulnerability exists in decoder. That means it could occur due to the parser used, which comprises of media players, codecs, tag readers, as well as DAW applications like Audacity, REAPER and Adobe Audition. Maliciously crafted data chunk content, long length field, abnormal WAVE chunk tags and randomised metadata were identified as a cause of crashes and memory safety flaws in parsers. The metadata of the WAV and BWF formats could contain information on recorder, its version or model, recording software and other details on recording process as well as the recorder user, the date and place. Before publication, check or wipe all the metadata in your WAV file with BWF MetaEdit application or using FFmpeg and any digital audio workstation export dialog. If you receive unknown attached WAV file as e-mail content, approach it in same way as media files: update all your applications, scan downloads when practical and verify its file size, as huge WAV could use all your memory.
History and versions
RIFF format was developed by IBM and Microsoft as the concept of chunks based audio media file format inspired from conventions used by Electronic Arts' IFF. WAV was created as soon as Microsoft started supporting Windows operating systems multimedia capabilities starting from 1991 and very quickly became a de facto standard of raw uncompressed sound files exchange. First formats focused on PCM audio and were further refined via WAV format tag registration mechanism for compressed telecommunication oriented audio codecs, e.g. ADPCM, mu-law and A-law.
In 1997 the EBU published Tech 3285 about Broadcast Wave Format thus making WAV suitable for exchanging broadcast quality sound and containing proper metadata of the type. BWF was widely used in radio, film, television, and archival workflows due to the ability to contain the originator information together with the sample-based timestamp information. EBU made RF64 file format available as Tech 3306 in 2006 for overcoming 4 GiB limitations related to multi channel or/and multi hour sound files.
WAV format is used very frequently due to its simplicity, fast decoding and support by various systems like digital audio workstations, samplers, video editors, web browsing, etc.
Related formats
Of all of the audio formats that employ a file format of uncompressed form, only AIFF (.aiff,.aif) comes close to the function served by WAV. They both fulfill the basic role of an audio container format although AIFF is more common in legacy Mac and pro-audio workflows than on Windows. FLAC (.flac) would definitely be the preferred file format to use especially if one is storing the audio for archiving. This is since this format guarantees sample fidelity, compression, excellent metadata capabilities, as well as file checksums. MP3 (.mp3) will always yield smaller-sized files compared to many other formats, is compatible in playing across different kinds of hardware players yet is a lossy format making it ideal for distributing copies rather than master files which can still be edited afterwards. AAC / M4A(.m4a) is lossy like .mp3 and has excellent compatibility with any type of Apple software, yet may produce generation-loss during multiple encode-edit-export cycles.
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