Bulk Actions — Select, Organize, and Manage Multiple Sessions
Select several recordings at once to file, favorite, merge, download, or delete them in one move.
When you're tidying a backlog, doing one recording at a time is slow. Multi-select lets you tick several sessions and act on all of them at once — file them into a folder, favorite them, merge them into a single recording, download them, or delete them.
Turning multi-select on
Tap Done to leave multi-select.
What you can do with a selection
| Action | iPhone & Android | Web | Desktop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add to a folder | Folder | Folder › Add to Folder | — |
| Favorite | Favorite | Favorite / Unfavorite | Favorite |
| Merge into one session | Merge | Merge | — |
| Download as PDFs | — | Download | — |
| Delete | Delete | Delete | Delete |
On the web, favoriting or filing a batch clears the ticks but leaves you in multi-select, so you pick the recordings again for the next action. Download is the exception — your selection survives it. Merging or deleting drops you out of multi-select entirely.
Download bundles one PDF per selected recording into a single ZIP file (named Wave Sessions (3).zip for three recordings) — the same PDF you'd get by exporting a session on its own. The button shows progress while Wave generates them.
Filing works exactly like folders do for a single recording: pick an existing folder, or create one on the spot on iPhone and Android.
Merging recordings into one
Merge is for recordings that were really one event — a meeting that dropped and restarted, a lecture recorded in two halves, an interview split by a phone call.
The merged recording is transcribed and summarized from scratch, so it takes a few minutes to finish processing, exactly like a fresh recording. On iPhone and Android, Wave opens the new session immediately so you can watch it come together.
Merging is non-destructive: the original recordings are kept. If the merged version is what you want, delete the originals afterwards. Merge is available on iPhone, Android, and the web app — not on Wave Desktop.
Deleting in bulk
Bulk delete asks you to confirm first, and the sessions go to Recently Deleted, where they can be restored for 30 days before Wave removes them for good.
- iPhone & Android — Selected sessions will be moved to Recently Deleted for 30 days.
- Desktop — Delete 4 sessions? They will be moved to Recently Deleted for 30 days.
The web app's confirmation dialog is worded more strongly — This action cannot be undone — even though those sessions currently show up in Recently Deleted like any other delete. Check your selection before you confirm; don't rely on the trash to undo a large mistake.
FAQ
No fixed limit. Very large selections take longer to finish — PDF downloads on the web are generated three at a time, so a big batch takes a while to zip up.
Yes. Your library is one library — a phone recording and a desktop recording can be merged together as long as both have finished processing.
You have fewer than two recordings selected. Merge always needs at least two.
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