Merlin Bird id app - Problems with long recordings (2025)

Hi all

I'm new member of the birding community and have recently picked up the Merlin Bird Id app. And its amazing! The app identifies the right bird 90% of the time in my location and its surprisingly good at recording through heavy wind etc.
Recently I have been surprised with how many birds the app can recognize if you just place your phone recording in your garden. Sadly I tend to forget that I'm recording which usually ends ups in 30+ min recordings, which my app can't seem to proces. I have a Samsung A55. When I click on my recordings in the app to save new discovered birds the app is just loading and doesn't seem to get any where. Maybe its just my patience idk.

My question is: How long recordings would you guys say that the Merlin Bird id app can handle? Is there anyway to save the recordings I have made, compress them and reupload them, so that I can save the new birds on the my findings list? I have a bit of a competition going on with family members and it sucks to lose out on some rarer birds because the recording was too long.

From the Merlin guidance page:

How long of a recording can I make or import?​

Merlin Sound ID gives best results on recordings of 10 minutes or less. Once you reach that length, Merlin will pop up a notification to ask if you want to stop the recording. You can make and import recordings longer than this, but note that they might load more slowly.​

jurek said:

I once made a recording of slightly over 1h by forgetting to switch off. It saved, it can play, but it cannot be deleted other than re-installing merlin.

Click to expand...

I have had that problem several times. If you go directly through the file system, deleting shouldn’t be an issue.

I tend to do it in shortish bursts, 5-10 minutes, otherwise it takes ages to load and check.

I use it as a backup to my ears, so if I suspect am hearing something, I glance at it as a double-check. Of course it often doesn’t hear what I am hearing, and occasionally it does hear what I didn’t, which is very annoying!