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Author Topic: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape (Solved)  (Read 3717 times)

LilyAarseth

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Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape (Solved)
« on: February 04, 2021, 08:08:13 am »

I've looked though all the settings I know about, can't find anything that I know could have caused this. I was messing around in settings yesterday to set up media network but I can't recall touching any settings outside of that section. It's likely something I've overlooked somewhere. I've also tried to re-analyze the files on the server side. Now an album I converted to flac didn't play as well, what the heck. Edit: .wav suddenly doesn't work either.

This is what the log says: 0569181: 6122811392: General: CFileSystemManager::AnalyzeDrive: Drive does not exist (drive: L:, filename: L:/Music/Music Lossy/Laney Jones/01 Run Wild.m4a)
0570004: 6123958272: Playback: CMP4InputSource::Open: failed to open or verify mp4 file. message: Missing FTYP Atom

Have to note that playing the same file on my windows pc works just fine.
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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2021, 08:17:36 am »

I've looked though all the settings I know about, can't find anything that I know could have caused this. I was messing around in settings yesterday to set up media network but I can't recall touching any settings outside of that section. It's likely something I've overlooked somewhere. I've also tried to re-analyze the files on the server side.

This is what the log says: 0569181: 6122811392: General: CFileSystemManager::AnalyzeDrive: Drive does not exist (drive: L:, filename: L:/Music/Music Lossy/Laney Jones/01 Run Wild.m4a)
0570004: 6123958272: Playback: CMP4InputSource::Open: failed to open or verify mp4 file. message: Missing FTYP Atom

Have to note that playing the same file on my windows pc works just fine.
How is it L:
How are you getting to that file?
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2021, 08:23:10 am »

Connected to an external libary ona windows pc on my local network, I have a lot of drives on that computer. I've used jriver for windows for 3 years now and mac for 2 months but this has never happened before. .mp3 works just fine for some reason
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Wheaten

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2021, 08:33:58 am »

As you refere to L:, you're on your windows machine.
  • - Is L accessible through the explorer?
  • - Have you performed any updates on windows?
  • - Which SMB version is you NAS using?
  • - Please check the SMB settings on windows. Use the following key sequence: WIN + R, enter: "optionalfeatures" (without quotes). Scroll down to SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support and make sure that only SMB 1.0/CIFS Client is checked.
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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2021, 08:44:58 am »

You re using MC library server, not Samba?
Does the exact same file play on the windows server?

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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2021, 08:55:10 am »

It's a windows 7 pc, I did no updates or changes on it since last time these files played like normal.
L is accessable both via file explorer locally on the windows 7 pc and SMB from other computers.
I couldn't see any smb settings in that menu, but I can access the files through SMB via Finder.
I tried restarting the media server running on that windows pc.
Since streaming the same files to another windows pc with mc27 works just fine, it seems there is something on the mac MC27 client that has gone wrong.
Flac files works like they should without any issue.
I even made a second install of mc27 on the mac to try the files that are unable to play, no luck.

Edit: All 3 computers are running MC27, The Windows 10 PC is connected to the W7 PC running MC27 as a server (which has the files locally) can play the files I can't play on the Mac client without any errors.

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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #6 on: February 04, 2021, 09:13:17 am »

It's a windows 7 pc, I did no updates or changes on it since last time these files played like normal.
L is accessable both via file explorer locally on the windows 7 pc and SMB from other computers.
I couldn't see any smb settings in that menu, but I can access the files through SMB via Finder.
I tried restarting the media server running on that windows pc.
Since streaming the same files to another windows pc with mc27 works just fine, it seems there is something on the mac MC27 client that has gone wrong.
Flac files works like they should without any issue.
I even made a second install of mc27 on the mac to try the files that are unable to play, no luck.

Edit: All 3 computers are running MC27, The Windows 10 PC is connected to the W7 PC running MC27 as a server (which has the files locally) can play the files I can't play on the Mac client without any errors.
What versions of MC  on the Mac and W7 server?
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #7 on: February 04, 2021, 09:20:13 am »

Silicon Mac: 27.0.58, Windows 7 PC (Server): 27.0.52
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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #8 on: February 04, 2021, 11:06:15 am »

Tried with .m4a on windows 7 PC 27.0.47 and 27.0.61
Mac latest build.
No issues.

On my Mac client I have the client audio conversion set to off but it also worked set to "when necessary".

Did you move the files on the win7 PC to another location??
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Wheaten

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #9 on: February 04, 2021, 01:36:59 pm »

Reason for my remark on SMB, is that MAC stopped supporting SMB 1.0 after Mojave.
Still with Catalina and Big Sur, the mapping to the NAS, using SMB is unstable.
When a windows client is connected to the same NAS and credentials, my MAC has some real issues opening the connection.


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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #10 on: February 04, 2021, 02:37:58 pm »

Thanks for the advice, Wheaten. I didn't know this was the case, learned something new! And yes I've noticed it can sometimes be stuck connecting in Finder.

bob: I didn't change file path/move files at all, they are the same as before I had issues. I even tried to re-analyze them. Tried both toggling conversion if necessary and without, same issue. If I convert the format, and sync changes with libary server, the file still gives error even as a .flac until I restart the server client. Also while doing a mass conversion right now no files can even play. Have to wait until it is done processing.

update: I've converted most of my lossless library to flac to avoid the problem, but I still wonder what could have caused such a weird issue. I still would like to know if there is any troubleshooting I could do to figure out what happened in case it happens in the future.
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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #11 on: February 04, 2021, 04:20:14 pm »

Thanks for the advice, Wheaten. I didn't know this was the case, learned something new! And yes I've noticed it can sometimes be stuck connecting in Finder.

bob: I didn't change file path/move files at all, they are the same as before I had issues. I even tried to re-analyze them. Tried both toggling conversion if necessary and without, same issue. If I convert the format, and sync changes with libary server, the file still gives error even as a .flac until I restart the server client. Also while doing a mass conversion right now no files can even play. Have to wait until it is done processing.

update: I've converted most of my lossless library to flac to avoid the problem, but I still wonder what could have caused such a weird issue. I still would like to know if there is any troubleshooting I could do to figure out what happened in case it happens in the future.
I really don't get it, I just couldn't reproduce it.
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #12 on: February 04, 2021, 06:07:29 pm »

I am just as confused as you and I feel really bad for taking up your time with something this silly. I have absolutely no idea what could have caused this to happen in the first place. I tried to change folder path and update the libary, still won't play for me, so weird.

I might experiment a bit and if I figure it out/it resovles itself I'll post again. As of now after all the conversion work I only have a few albums I imported from iTunes in .m4a aac that I'm unable to play but I could probably convert that too at some point to avoid the issue since I have no clue how to fix it.


Edit: A couple times playback of flac files just.. stopped and gives an error halfway/towards the end. This issue is something I really can't live with. Is there any way I can completely nuke the cache/settings of the mc27 install without deleting the license in the process?
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #13 on: February 05, 2021, 02:53:33 am »

I found some .mp3s to work and some not, but it seems almost random. If I use JRemote to play to the Mac client it works some times, but if I try to play it from the mac client directly it gives an error. like what the heck, this is so strange. Some times the waveform shows up but progress bar doesn't start and the track stops without error.

What is strange is after I had cast from JRemote to the Mac client, the track worked once, then after i tried another song from the same album, not working. And when I tried the same track that worked right before it also errors. I'm actually starting to get anxiety from this because I have a lot of music in .mp3 that I got from various places that didn't offer lossless, I definitely don't want to give up on that music. Sometimes the playback takes like 15 seconds before it starts. I also was able to change tag data and it saved to the server, yet playback still errors.

If I were to consider the possibility of this being a hardware/os issue, how would I start looking?

Edit: the more I mess around with trying to get it to work, the more unstable it is becoming, now like a third of playbacks fails even on fiac, I'm really stressed out and I don't know what to do anymore, I wish there were something I could do. Running chkdsk now on the drive itself because I can't think of anything else.
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zybex

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #14 on: February 05, 2021, 04:31:54 am »

Your random and growing list of failures, and the message on the log about "Missing FTYP Atom" point to corrupt files.

It seems that something is actively corrupting your files as you go. Do you happen to have a copy of one (or more) of your files backed up somewhere, that you can use to compare to the current file that is now not playing? If you have, do a binary compare to see if the file changed (fc /b file1 file2).

Many things can be corrupting your files - here are a few:
- a bad Tagging application may be writing tags to the files in a bad way, corrupting them. MC does write tags back to the file, but if this file-corruption bug was there, there would be many more reports, not just you. Are you using any other tagging app?
- many NAS devices have their own embedded Media Center software - they index all media files in the volume, and if configured to do so they will also try to tag the files. So the NAS itself may be corrupting your files.
- the disk drive itself may be failing
- bad memory on the NAS or your PC can also cause this

So... first try to determine if your files are getting corrupted. Then look for the source of the corruption.

One test you can do to check for instant corruption: copy the same folder of files (at least a few GB to bypass caching) 2 times to 2 distinct folders on your PC; then compare the 2 sets with "fc /b folder1\*.* folder2\*.*". All files should say "no difference".
Note that this only tests one possible type of corruption; even if it passes, it doesn't mean that there isn't something else corrupting the files. Finding an old backup of the bad files would be ideal.

You can also find apps to check the validity/structure of those bad files. Google should help there.
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #15 on: February 05, 2021, 05:36:08 am »

That is really the worst case scenario if any of this really is the case. There is absolutely no chance that this could be the local database of MC27 that is running as server that can be causing it? I did a lot of sync with library server" in the last week when sorting/adding music.

chkdsk /r is currently running and from what I'm reading interrupting it is risky, it's gonna take quite a while to finish, so I won't be able to access/check the files until it completes. I don't believe I have most of the files backed up, but I'll look for a program that could possibly tell if something with the files are wrong.

I've used MP3Tag for years and years without issues, usually to add album artist and year to cue split flac files before importing to MC, but some of the files that doesn't play are also files I've never used that program with. And this is just a very barebone windows 7 pc running with lots of drives as a plex and jriver server. No other software on the computer have automatic access to the music folder that could write changes to the file or tag data as far as I know.
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JimH

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #16 on: February 05, 2021, 08:07:30 am »

If the drive or NAS is failing, I would try copying files to a new drive immediately, hoping to save as much as possible.
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #17 on: February 05, 2021, 03:05:18 pm »

I did a full check of the drive, no errors. What is strange is that if I play the files on JRemote 3.34 (on the Mac) it works just fine, seeking works, files that doesn't start playing at all in MC27 plays just fine in JRemote, so I'm still suspecting it could be something to do with MC27 and how it works over the network somehow.

I also checked the files I know I can't start no matter what in MC27 with an mp3 file integrity tool and, nothing was detected.

Playing these files that doesn't work on the mac MC27 (I checked with both intel and universal version of .61) works just fine on MC27 on my W10 machine : https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/658006776805064766/807349747249315850/2021-02-05_21-38-09.mov
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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #18 on: February 05, 2021, 03:11:49 pm »

I did a full check of the drive, no errors. What is strange is that if I play the files on JRemote 3.34 (on the Mac) it works just fine, seeking works, files that doesn't start playing at all in MC27 plays just fine in JRemote, so I'm still suspecting it could be something to do with MC27 and how it works over the network somehow.

I also checked the files I know I can't start no matter what in MC27 with an mp3 file integrity tool and, nothing was detected.

Playing these files that doesn't work on the mac MC27 (I checked with both intel and universal version of .61) works just fine on MC27 on my W10 machine : https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/658006776805064766/807349747249315850/2021-02-05_21-38-09.mov
Would you mind sharing one of the files you are having issues with just to make sure something hasn't changed here?
If you find one on the small side you could just email it to me
bob (at) jriver (dot) com.

Thanks.
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #19 on: February 06, 2021, 10:55:11 am »

I managed to snag a log from when a flac song suddenly stopped near the end and gave an error.

Hopefully this could prove useful
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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #20 on: February 08, 2021, 01:25:34 pm »

It looks like you are having some kind of network issues to me.
What happens if you put this:
http://192.168.1.177:64739/MCWS/v1/File/GetFile?File=7847495
into a browser?
And I'm wondering why it's using port 64739?
How about posting a screen shot of the Media Network monitor screen from your PC server?
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #21 on: February 09, 2021, 09:19:21 am »

I'm actually relieved that it's very likely not the files themselves.

What happens if you put this:
http://192.168.1.177:64739/MCWS/v1/File/GetFile?File=7847495
into a browser?
had to provide login but it played in browser just fine

And I'm wondering why it's using port 64739?

I'm guessing it's a non-default one, I think I did it to test a couple years ago and never needed to change it back. It just worked.

How about posting a screen shot of the Media Network monitor screen from your PC server?

Unless I am misunderstanding, I don't know what this is, or never seen it. How do I open this/what do I do to display this?

Edit: I actually tried that browser link method on a .m4a aac file and safari downloaded it as 'GetFile', when I added .m4a extension it played just fine with album art and metadata so the path works outside MC27 on the Mac. Somehow.


Edit2: I tried MC27 .49 on my old intel Mac Mini and I could play a file I can't play on my M1 Mac Mini just fine, I'm on Big Sur 11.2 there. Going to install 11.3 and see if maybe the update did a few days ago could turn out to be behind this. Will update.

Edit3: It plays normally on my Intel Mac Mini Big Sur 11.3 with newest MC27 .62. Then this could perhaps be a Apple Silicon specific network bug maybe?
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #22 on: February 10, 2021, 04:45:39 pm »

I did another test, I put an .mp3 album on my other windows pc and tried to stream to my Mac MC27, same result, still get error.

The problem HAS TO BE on the Mac somewhere. I'm in no way qualified to make a specific guess but something something Big Sur 11.3 Network code on M1 Macs must have been updated somehow and the way MC27 fetches the virtual links somehow on non-flac files is now having issues.

I've really tested all the variables and possible causes I can think of, even changed LAN cable, tried using WiFi etc. JRemote which I sideloaded a while back, can play these files just fine on this Mac. Is there a difference in how JRemote streams a file vs MC27? Maybe this could be a clue.

I also tried to convert an AAC file I haven't been able to stream to MC27 on my Mac for almost a week to .flac just to see and yep, it plays without any issue now.
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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #23 on: February 12, 2021, 08:04:02 am »

I did another test, I put an .mp3 album on my other windows pc and tried to stream to my Mac MC27, same result, still get error.

The problem HAS TO BE on the Mac somewhere. I'm in no way qualified to make a specific guess but something something Big Sur 11.3 Network code on M1 Macs must have been updated somehow and the way MC27 fetches the virtual links somehow on non-flac files is now having issues.

I've really tested all the variables and possible causes I can think of, even changed LAN cable, tried using WiFi etc. JRemote which I sideloaded a while back, can play these files just fine on this Mac. Is there a difference in how JRemote streams a file vs MC27? Maybe this could be a clue.

I also tried to convert an AAC file I haven't been able to stream to MC27 on my Mac for almost a week to .flac just to see and yep, it plays without any issue now.
There are only a couple of things I can think of that could be different, for networking, if you have multiple connections (like a wired ethernet and wireless) acvtive at the same time on the M1, maybe turn one or the other off and restart MC.

As for JRemote vs a MC client, the most clear difference would be whether or not you have transcoding enabled.
JRemote has that setting per-server in the Settings.
MC as a client has it on the client settings under Media Network.
I assume you are connecting from your Mac to your PC as a Media Server Client (the PC shows up as PC (Library Server) in the Playing From part of the tree).

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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #24 on: February 12, 2021, 09:11:46 am »

There are only a couple of things I can think of that could be different, for networking, if you have multiple connections (like a wired ethernet and wireless) acvtive at the same time on the M1, maybe turn one or the other off and restart MC.
I've tried this and nothing seems to change now when I tried again.

As for JRemote vs a MC client, the most clear difference would be whether or not you have transcoding enabled.
JRemote has that setting per-server in the Settings.
MC as a client has it on the client settings under Media Network.
Transcoding is off on the W7 MC client side, and also untoggled on JRemote 3.34 on my Mac. Everything is supposed to direct play. But there has to be a difference somehow since the files I can't play in MC27 opens and plays in JRemote o nthe same computer with the same connection. If it's any help some time the waveform loads before it errors, and some times it takes a few seconds before it gives a playback error as well.

I assume you are connecting from your Mac to your PC as a Media Server Client (the PC shows up as PC (Library Server) in the Playing From part of the tree).
Yeah I just connect MC on my Mac to my PC automatically each time I start the client.
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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #25 on: February 15, 2021, 09:31:39 am »

I've tried this and nothing seems to change now when I tried again.
Transcoding is off on the W7 MC client side, and also untoggled on JRemote 3.34 on my Mac. Everything is supposed to direct play. But there has to be a difference somehow since the files I can't play in MC27 opens and plays in JRemote o nthe same computer with the same connection. If it's any help some time the waveform loads before it errors, and some times it takes a few seconds before it gives a playback error as well.
 Yeah I just connect MC on my Mac to my PC automatically each time I start the client.
The only setting that matters to JRemote with regards to transcoding is the one in JRemote itself (just for reference).

Try turning off the "auto sync with server option", restart the Mac client MC and see if that changes anything.
Are you doing anything on the Mac client to run MC on startup?

I assume it works if you turn on audio conversion on the Mac to always convert?
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #26 on: February 15, 2021, 09:43:49 am »

Try turning off the "auto sync with server option", restart the Mac client MC and see if that changes anything.
Are you doing anything on the Mac client to run MC on startup?
Didn't make any difference sadly. And no, I prefer to manually start MC after I boot the Mac.


I assume it works if you turn on audio conversion on the Mac to always convert?
It hanged for a bit and then gave the same error as always.
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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #27 on: February 15, 2021, 10:01:06 am »

I really don't get this at all.
Please start a new log on the Mac client (reset log)
Start to play
When it fails, go to logging, hit Report Problem and attach the entire zipped log file on your desktop to your reply to this message. Thanks.
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #28 on: February 15, 2021, 10:22:22 am »

Just to have checked, I tried connecting to my W7 MC both with local ip and access key to see if it made any difference, even tried to connect through a wifi hotspot to see if it was anything on my local network, still no luck.

Anyways, here's a clean log from an .m4a file that failed to play. I reset the log before trying to play the file and saved right after.

I really, REALLY appreciate your help so far and I'm sorry that I am sort of wasting your time with such an obscure bug/issue.



Edit: added another one after a .flac also failed when the track was changing. This doesn't happen more often than a few times a day.


Edit2: I can play these files locally through mc on a test library on my mac, just for reference. It's not the decoding itself.
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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #29 on: February 15, 2021, 11:17:37 am »

Ok, a couple of tests.
Go the the Mac audio settings.
Set track transitions to gapless.
Seek: standard
Stop: immediate
Pause: immediate
That will likely fix the flac error. Just for reference, how long is your current cross-fade track transition length?

As for the m4a, would you try it with the Mac MC client settings (in Options->Media Network->Client Options->Audio Conversion) set to Always Convert Audio and PCM16 or PCM24 bit.

If that fails, please do that short log procedure for that. Thanks.
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #30 on: February 15, 2021, 11:33:50 am »

Just for reference, how long is your current cross-fade track transition length?
It was already at gapless, 99% sure I didn't change it but it's set to Gapless now in any case.

As for the m4a, would you try it with the Mac MC client settings (in Options->Media Network->Client Options->Audio Conversion) set to Always Convert Audio and PCM16 or PCM24 bit.

If that fails, please do that short log procedure for that. Thanks.

Whoa, now it doesn't want to play at all, tried several flac files after the m4a ones just to confirm, all contained in the log. Turned off conversion and flac plays just fine again. Maybe the issue/bug is somewhere in how MC is handling non-flac files?



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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #31 on: February 15, 2021, 11:55:32 am »

It was already at gapless, 99% sure I didn't change it but it's set to Gapless now in any case.

Whoa, now it doesn't want to play at all, tried several flac files after the m4a ones just to confirm, all contained in the log. Turned off conversion and flac plays just fine again. Maybe the issue/bug is somewhere in how MC is handling non-flac files?
The log said that it was set to cross fade, it appeared the length of the cross fade was affecting the audio output.

As for the conversion, that works perfectly for me.

Try opening this in Safari. Report back results. Thanks.

http://192.168.1.177:64739/MCWS/v1/File/GetFile?File=14655470&conversion=0&playback=2
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #32 on: February 15, 2021, 12:29:59 pm »

The log said that it was set to cross fade, it appeared the length of the cross fade was affecting the audio output.
I see, well it's set to gapless now in any case, thanks!

Try opening this in Safari. Report back results. Thanks.

http://192.168.1.177:64739/MCWS/v1/File/GetFile?File=14655470&conversion=0&playback=2

This works perfectly fine, has it's own player.


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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #33 on: February 15, 2021, 01:22:33 pm »

Yes, that was one of the .m4a files transcoded to wav playing in the apple player embedded in safari.
So what that's showing is that the server is working properly.

On the Mac you are playing to a USB DAC?
In MC's Audio Device settings you hardware buffering should be set to default. If integer mode and/or exclusive modes are on, turn them off and see if that makes a difference.

Other than that,  I'm kind of at the end of what I can figure out here. You might try disabling the firewall temporarily to see if that makes any difference.
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #34 on: February 15, 2021, 01:33:58 pm »

So what that's showing is that the server is working properly.
This is a relief at least.

On the Mac you are playing to a USB DAC?
In MC's Audio Device settings you hardware buffering should be set to default. If integer mode and/or exclusive modes are on, turn them off and see if that makes a difference.
I recently got a NAD M12 Preamp/DAC and it has Asynchronous USB, would that have anything to do with it? It worked for nearly a week before these issues started happening though so I didn't think of that. I turned off integer mode and exclusive a while back since MC kept glitching out "coreaudiod" so I had to forcefully restart the process in activity monitor and restart MC to get audio to work again. like 1/5 times where MC set a sample rate not 44.1 this happened so I got fed up with it and just set to downsample everything to 44.1 and disabling integer and exclusive. I didn't report it because I wasn't sure if this was a MC specific issue or just premature drivers on apple's side acting out. I don't know, might be worth mentioning maybe.

Software buffer is set to 100ms and hardware is set to hardware default. Firewall was actually turned off for some reason, turned it on again and same thing.

Other than that,  I'm kind of at the end of what I can figure out here. You might try disabling the firewall temporarily to see if that makes any difference.
I'm fearing this outcome, is there any way to completely wipe user settings and caches from MC27 without removing the activation?
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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #35 on: February 15, 2021, 01:39:17 pm »

This is a relief at least.
 I recently got a NAD M12 Preamp/DAC and it has Asynchronous USB, would that have anything to do with it? It worked for nearly a week before these issues started happening though so I didn't think of that. I turned off integer mode and exclusive a while back since MC kept glitching out "coreaudiod" so I had to forcefully restart the process in activity monitor and restart MC to get audio to work again. like 1/5 times where MC set a sample rate not 44.1 this happened so I got fed up with it and just set to downsample everything to 44.1 and disabling integer and exclusive. I didn't report it because I wasn't sure if this was a MC specific issue or just premature drivers on apple's side acting out. I don't know, might be worth mentioning maybe.

Software buffer is set to 100ms and hardware is set to hardware default. Firewall was actually turned off for some reason, turned it on again and same thing.
Maybe set MC's DSP studio to resample everything to 192k?
Is anything else using the DAC?
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #36 on: February 15, 2021, 01:49:49 pm »

Maybe set MC's DSP studio to resample everything to 192k?
Is anything else using the DAC?
Tried to resample and it didn't work sadly. Not that I know of aside from MacOS itself, I use it for system and alert sounds.


Also...
I just installed MC26 in desperation and everything is working. User settings and things didn't transfer from MC27 so it was a clean slate, very important info here. It HAS to be a user setting or cache that is sabotaging. Asking again, is there no way to completely wipe an MC install for user settings and cache?
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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #37 on: February 15, 2021, 02:01:54 pm »

Tried to resample and it didn't work sadly. Not that I know of aside from MacOS itself, I use it for system and alert sounds.


Also...
I just installed MC26 in desperation and everything is working. User settings and things didn't transfer from MC27 so it was a clean slate, very important info here. It HAS to be a user setting or cache that is sabotaging. Asking again, is there no way to completely wipe an MC install for user settings and cache?
Yes. Normally the users ~/Library doesn't show. You can change that but alternately you can delete it from the command line. Pull up a terminal and do:
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/J\ River
pwd
to verify that's exactly where you are, then
rm -rf Media\ Center\ 27

That will wipe all of the user data, settings, etc.

You might try doing a library backup first (that goes into Documents...)
Then restore the library after the wipe (don't import the settings in this case).
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #38 on: February 15, 2021, 02:05:04 pm »

I just fixed it now and I feel like the biggest troll on the forum and I am so sorry I made you spend so much time with this.

When all this started 11 days ago I was fiddling around setting up media server to be able to cast to MC since AirPlay directly to my Network Player is super unstable. And during that process I must have ticked or unticked some boxes inside Media Network and after figuring out I didn't need it I unticked the feature in General. I re-enabled it to test conversion and left it.

Back then I had set up a DLNA server that I just deleted just now in a last attempt at backtracking and it somehow it works again. I am so confused to what actually did it but I ticked the "play local file if" and "show playback zones" that was unticked from before and deleted a custom DLNA server I had made nearly 2 weeks ago that wasn't even enabled and somehow it works again. I can't reproduce it.

Again I am so sorry for all of this and I am super grateful for your patience and time put into this. I'd buy you a dinner.
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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #39 on: February 15, 2021, 02:16:34 pm »

I just fixed it now and I feel like the biggest troll on the forum and I am so sorry I made you spend so much time with this.

When all this started 11 days ago I was fiddling around setting up media server to be able to cast to MC since AirPlay directly to my Network Player is super unstable. And during that process I must have ticked or unticked some boxes inside Media Network and after figuring out I didn't need it I unticked the feature in General. I re-enabled it to test conversion and left it.

Back then I had set up a DLNA server that I just deleted just now in a last attempt at backtracking and it somehow it works again. I am so confused to what actually did it but I ticked the "play local file if" and "show playback zones" that was unticked from before and deleted a custom DLNA server I had made nearly 2 weeks ago that wasn't even enabled and somehow it works again. I can't reproduce it.

Again I am so sorry for all of this and I am super grateful for your patience and time put into this. I'd buy you a dinner.
Well it's good to hear you got it going.
I think the "play local file if" is the most likely candidate for your issue. Mines checked and works fine. I'd probably need to understand your entire setup better to figure out why that'd make any difference in your case.
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #40 on: February 15, 2021, 02:26:19 pm »

This is the culprit, now I can reproduce it.

Ticking these boxes is what caused the issue all along. At least now I know. Curious to see if this also gives you issues. Then we know 100%

Edit: Changed the access key, oops
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bob

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #41 on: February 15, 2021, 02:33:26 pm »

Ok, great. That makes sense. It probably isn't as functionally useful on the Mac, it's mostly a linux function.
That said it explains why the .m4a might not work. Many of them can't be streamed because they don't have the size ATOM at the front of the file and those checkboxes disable disk buffering in MC. When disk buffering is enabled it will make some unstreamable formats streamable.
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LilyAarseth

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Re: Suddenly unable to play .m4a and .ape
« Reply #42 on: February 15, 2021, 02:57:26 pm »

That makes a lot of sense, thank you.
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