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[jb26]

Hi,

I installed JRMC16 (still using trial version), after hearing goods things.

I imported my music folder and it's reported that approx 1800 tracks could not be listed because they're 'bad files'.  Upon investigation it turns out that they're all .m4a files.

However, not all my .m4a files have been rejected.  Many have been imported and play fine (FINE I say, yeah!).  I ripped all the files myself in itunes and they play fine in that program (yeh, i know).

The strange thing is if I re-rip one of these CDs in itunes JRMC16 will happy import the new file (using the auto-import function) and play it without problem.

Any ideas why some of the files won't import?  I'd really like to avoid having to re-rip the 1800 songs again.

Thanks,

JB

[jb26]

.

[Matt]

Could you email a sample of a file that won't import to matt at jriver dot com?

Thanks.

[rjm]

m4a seems to be a strange format. I have one m4a that VLC and MC play as audio, but Quicktime plays as video. VLC always and MC usually plays everything so this tells me m4a is weird.

[jb26]

Hi Matt - I've just emailed you one file.  Let me know if you need more.

I've also un/re-installed JRMC16 and reloaded all my files in again - same result, the same .m4a files are missing and the same .m4a files are in (all other file types have gone straight in again).

[jb26]

Hi Matt,

I had a thought overnight, which has helped - I recoverted the evisting ALAC .m4a file in itunes into a ALAC .m4a (the same file type), and jriver recognised the new file.  This is better than having to find the CDs, but not ideal.  Strangely, the new files on the album i reconverted were consistently .1mb less, even though the bit & sample rates remained unchanged.

Got a better solution?

Cheers,

James

[Matt]

Thanks for the sample file.  There's something about the META atom in the MP4 container that's strange.  Did anything non-standard tag these files?

I'll dig a little more here and see if I can figure anything out.

Thanks.

[jb26]

Hi Matt, the files were created in iTunes. I ran ten through media monkey's 'get tag info' function at one point.  I ran many through, buy not all my files. I'm not sure if this would have an effect to corrupt them.

The easiest way to rectify this for me is to run them through the iTunes convert to alac function again (ie 'convert' alac to alac).  Those I've tested hn show up in jrmc. Could you check the file I sent you to see if this loses any data or creates problems?

[Alex B]

I wonder if Mp3tag could fix them. If Mp3tag can read the file tags you could try to simply re-save the tags once with it - to test this: drag and drop a bunch of files from Windows Explorer to Mp3tag > Select all > press the "save" button. Other options that you can try in Mp3tag are e.g. "select all > right-click > Tag Cut > right-click > Tag Paste" and "select all > right-click > Optimize MP4".

Mp3tag can also show if the files have multiple cover art images, assuming it can read the tags ("select > right-click > Extended Tags", check the image display and its features). A possible cause for the reduced file size could be more or less incorrectly stored embedded image data that is not re-saved to files.

http://mp3tag.de/en

[jb26]

Hi Matt,

This has fixed the problem - the issue must have been with the tags on my files becoming corrupted.

Once I realised I could run a smart play list to identify bad files in MC, then drag/drop this straight into mp3tag the process was easy.

Thanks for your help,

James