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Import Local Audio and Video Files

What This Solves

If what you want to study is not on YouTube, Bilibili, or a podcast platform — a movie, documentary, audiobook, course recording, or foreign-language radio recording you already downloaded, for example — you can upload the file directly to Aelano. Aelano transcribes it, adds subtitles, and you study it the same way you study online content.

Situations where this helps:

  • Movies, shows, and documentaries already downloaded to your computer or phone
  • Language classes or speaking practice you recorded yourself
  • Audio clips or audiobooks a friend shared with you
  • Audio and video files exported from other tools

Where to Find “Upload Audio or Video”

Open the Aelano Home page and go to the upload panel, where you will find the “Upload Audio or Video” entry. Tapping it opens your system file picker so you can choose the file to upload.

Which File Formats Are Supported

Aelano supports the vast majority of common audio and video formats.

Video formats

mp4, m4v, mov, avi, wmv, flv, webm, mkv, mpeg, mpg, 3gp, 3g2, ts, mxf

Audio formats

mp3, wav, aac, flac, ogg, m4a, wma, aiff, alac, opus

Ebook formats

epub

If you pick a file that is not on the list above, Aelano tells you the file format is not supported.

EPUB books open in the dedicated book reader rather than using the audio/video transcription flow below. For the table of contents, page modes, translation, and reading styles, see Import an EPUB Book.

How to Use It

1. Get the file you want to upload ready

Put the file somewhere your system supports — your computer, your phone, or iCloud / Google Drive. Aelano reads it through the system file picker.

2. Open “Upload Audio or Video” on the Home page

Go to the Aelano Home page and tap “Upload Audio or Video” in the upload panel. Your system file picker opens.

3. Select one file or several

  • One file only: Aelano opens the player directly and starts generating subtitles for that file
  • Several files: Aelano starts the “batch transcription” flow and transcribes all of them in one go. This is currently a members-only feature; if you are not a member and select several files, you are taken to the membership page

4. Wait for transcription to finish

Short files take anywhere from under a minute to a couple of minutes. Longer content (a one- or two-hour movie, a lecture of several dozen minutes) takes longer. When transcription finishes, the file appears in your library and you can open it and continue studying any time.

A single audio or video file can be at most 12 hours long. Content longer than that cannot be transcribed as one piece — you need to split it into parts with an external tool first and upload them separately.

A Few Practical Tips

  • Run a batch overnight: before you go to sleep, select all the files you collected during the day and submit them. When you open Aelano the next morning you can start studying right away instead of waiting for them one at a time.
  • Decide on the file name before uploading: the file name becomes the content title. Garbled names or random strings of English characters are hard to find in your library later. It helps to rename the file to something meaningful in your file system first (for example, “BBC News 2024-05-20”).
  • Audio is faster than video: if you only need the speech (an audiobook, say), uploading MP3 or M4A takes less time and less storage than uploading a video of the same length.

Common Questions

Why does my file fail to upload with “file format not supported”?

Your file’s extension is probably not on the supported list. Convert it to MP4 or MP3 first with a transcoding tool (HandBrake, FFmpeg, CapCut, and similar), and then upload it.

Why does selecting several files tell me I need a membership?

Single-file upload is available to every user. Batch transcription — submitting several files at once — is a membership feature. If you only upload a file now and then, single-file upload is enough.

What do I do with content longer than 12 hours?

You need to split it into parts with an external tool first — by chapter or by episode, for example — and upload them separately. Each part is transcribed and studied on its own.

Where are uploaded files stored? Will I still see them after switching devices?

Once uploaded, a file goes into your own library, and other users cannot see it.

  • Members: files are also synced to the cloud, so you can keep studying them on any device signed in to that account
  • Free users: files are stored only on the device you uploaded them from, and are not visible when you sign in on another device. To use locally uploaded files across devices, you need to upgrade to membership.

I cannot find iCloud or My Files in the file picker on iOS / Android.

In the file picker you usually need to tap “Browse” or the menu icon in the top-left corner to switch to iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Files, and so on. This is system behavior, and it can look slightly different on each device.

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