Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

[Roxie2401]

Ran the Music Converter and the Batch Converter and get a number of these error messages. What I was doing was just using the converter to add DSP (Normalizing the levels) not actually changing the file type.

When I look at the file properties these are all M4A (AAC) files that were originally "ripped" with iTunes. What is strange is that this is sort of "hit or miss" in that its not the entire disk but an occasional track. See two examples of the properties.

When I attempt to play the file I get a short burst of high pitch sound and then the cursor just moves through the audio file with no audio.

I am now going through the process of ripping the original CDs (these were commercial disks, not anything that I made) using dbpoweramp ripper to fix the digital library.

Two questions: Since these are M4A is there any chance the tags (probably MP3 type) are causing an issue? I don't think its the actual audio but the header that is causing the converter to fail.

And when I went back through the library with the error list, sure enough each file would not play --- but it did at one time. The player I'm using is MediaMonkey 5 (and iTunes 12.12).


Question: is there a way to use any of the dbpoweramp tools (Batch Converter, etc.) to just scan the library looking for failed/corrupt files without actually taking any other action - just to get a printout of the corrupt files that need corrected? Now I am using the error list to only rip the failing tracks and not the entire disk. After I do that I would like to scan the library looking for missed error files. (Current library size" 5,000 files - so it does take a while to run through making conversions or adjustments.

I'm not sure what is "clobbering" the occasional audio file - the player, the tag write process, etc. but this has happened before and for some reason its the same track on the same disk each time if I remember correctly. I've even wondered if I should just rip my entire library with depoweramp and maybe it was the original iTunes encoder process. I don't know what all the information is in the Properties - but maybe someone will see something that indicates the failure.

I want you to know this is not a dbpoweramp issue --- just looking for someone who may have experienced this before ---- and any tools ---- without running the batch converter I would never have known that I had a problem --- other than watching the player skip a track and move on the the next one.

Thanks very much.

[Spoon]

Re: Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

It is possible a tagging program to corrupt the audio. Those flagged files would need re-ripping.

[Roxie2401]

Re: Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

Spoon,

Thanks. What makes this strange is that it's not corrupting all tracks on in the file, maybe just one track --- and I can't seem to find a common issue.

Question: Are M4A files compatible with MP3 Tags? Or should I just rip these files to MP3 --- I only use them for the MediaMonkey player and the car.


Also, is there a way to use the Bulk Converter just go through my files and do nothing (make no changes or something simple) just to generate the error list? Does it really have to convert say an MP3 to MP3 ---just to see the errors?

Or do you know of another "tool" that would work?

I'm going to rip one of the disks with several "errors" and then write tags to see if I can understand what is going on.


Thanks so much!

[garym]

Re: Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

mp3 files have ID3V1, ID3v2 format tags. They could also have APE tags. m4a files should not have those types of tags (not even sure it is possible). m4a tags are some sort of format that is unique to m4a or mp4 files (at least that is what mp3tag reports when I load one to look at). FLAC files should have VORBIS COMMENT tags, but it is possible to (incorrectly) add ID3v1 or 2 tags to a FLAC file.

Just as a data point, I have thousands of mp3, m4a, and FLAC files that all have metadata tags, and I've done retagging with many of these files, and that has never corrupted one of my files. Of course that doesn't mean it couldn't happen in your case, but I suspect something else is causing the problem. Intermittent file corruption is often reported by those who discover later that they have a failing hard drive. If it was me, the first thing I would do is get another harddrive and copy my entire collection to a fresh drive. And after that I would look for corrupt files.

If you load up foobar2000, and install the "file integrity verifier" component (it may be automatically installed in foobar2000 ver. 2) you can check all your files and get a list of corrupt file. Load up all your files in foobar (just point to top level folder in the foobar library). Then select all files, right click, and select UTILITIES > VERIFY INTEGRITY. It will check every file for corruption. And when done you can export the list of corrupt files it creates for your later use. Good luck.

[Roxie2401]

Re: Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

garym,

Thanks so much! Just loaded foobar2000(and yes, the file integrity verifier was included in the install). Its running through the entire library now. Thanks for that tip!

Don't think this is a hardware issue, but I do use a separate program for my library database and it has a function to update the actual audio file information (change things like the track title to match the library if what the rip from the disk has different - probably because CDDB and the disk are different. The program also had the ability to add information, i.e., I add the format (CD, LP, Reel-to-Reel) to the Album title so I can visually tell if I'm playing from a ripped LP or CD, etc.)

This may all come down to my trying to use mp3 tags on m4a (AAC) ripped files. Maybe since my "player" and my ears don't care, I should just rip to mp3 and see what happens.

Here is what I think I'm going to do --- take one of the disks with failing (corrupt) files and just work with that one disk --- rip it to M4A and mp3 and update the track info and see if I can reproduce the errors -- or if you have a better suggestion.........


Hope I made it clear in my original post, this is not a dbpoweramp issue or problem -- I was just using this forum to get some help for anyone who may have seen that "Unable to read....." file issue.

If you have other thoughts and this needs to go off the forum, just let me know how to do that.

Thanks again!

PS: foobar2000 is still running! One quick question - is there a way to add the album name to the error list? It shows the track (file) name, status, warnings, etc, but not the album - can the header be changed or should I only do one folder at a time?

[garym]

Re: Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

Not sure what you mean by adding album in the verify integrity step. I can run this in batch for my entire ~130,000 track library and it checks every single file and reports if corrupted. I don't have to do it album by album. And when done you will see a list of ALL corrupted files, along with their location (folder/subfolder, etc.).

also, you can do the same thing in batch, just do a batch convert using dbpa converter and select your top music folder. There may be an option there to read subfolders. If so, tick that. Then select CONVERT, but in the screen where you choose what to convert to, choose TEST CONVERTER. This will also test for corruption. When done you'll see a list on screen. I recall if you click on the 'i" at upper right of this listing you can export the list to a file and review later.

[Roxie2401]

Re: Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

Here is a test run --- I selected two folders (foobar playlist) and ran the integrity test (foobar integrity)

The playlist shows the album name but the integrity check only shows the title ---- when I ran my entire library all the titles were there but its hard to match them up with the folder/album.

When I export the errors, it does show the album --- guess that's ok, since it was still running I didn't see that the export would list the entire path -- now to filter out all the errors and just get a list of the bad files.

Thanks

[garym]

Re: Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

try the dbpa TEST CONVERTER option I suggested. Something should give you a file list with full directory/location info.

[Roxie2401]

Re: Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

The dbpa Test Converter worked great! Now to plow through and rip those files again.

One more question - since mp3 and m4a are lossy, with this apparent tagging issue, should I just rip the library to mp3?

Looking back, most of my "digital" files were originally created with iTunes long ago - which is why the show as AAC (m4a?)

Thanks for following this issue with me. I learned a lot. If I figure out what is going on, I'll let you know.

[garym]

Re: Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

If you are going to rerip, rip to lossless FLAC. Then with this as your core archive you can easily create a lossy set for use on portables etc.

[Roxie2401]

Re: Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

Well, a little more information on what started this ---- I have found that apparently there were different versions of iTunes encoder over the years and much of my collection was originally ripped into iTunes (all I had available at the time) with an older version of their encoder --- and tag writing was more tolerated; ones done with a new version seem to have the corrupted "header" making the file unplayable.

So, yes, I'm in the process of identifying the original disks and re-ripping.

But have a question about the dbpa music batch converter ----- I have it set up to keep the original path and filename [origpath]\[origfilename] and I select multiple folders in my music tree to convert. The converter will ask me to overwriite a list of files which is what I want, but after the converter runs, it did overwrite the files in the first folder, but just added the converted files in the subsequent folders and I then go back, one by one and delete the original files.

What do I have set up wrong that it does overwrite the first folder but not the next ones? If I don't use the Batch Converter and just use the single coverter for one folder, it does as expected, replaces (overwriting) the original files.

Thanks

[Spoon]

Re: Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

Using the latest version? there have been bug fixed over the years in file naming.

[Roxie2401]

Re: Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

Using the latest version? there have been bug fixed over the years in file naming.

2023-06-26 [64bit].

It's really strange, it will give sme a warning listing all the files it want to Overwrite and I confirm and click "Convert" and the converter runs to completion.

When I go into the individual folders, the first one has the new files but the remaining folders have the new file and the old - the old were not over-written.

I noticed this when the folder sizes got bigger instead of staying the same or smaller since these conversions were just AAC (m4a) to mp3.

Question: If I am just converting the file from m4a to mp3, for example, isn't the file name staying the same? Would the bug fixes affected the overwriting?

Let me know if there is any testing I can do to help figure this out.

Thanks

[Spoon]

Re: Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

No, if converting m4a to mp3 then the extension will change from .m4a to .mp3, the filename is different.

[Roxie2401]

Re: Unable to read track details, file corrupted or not supported.

No, if converting m4a to mp3 then the extension will change from .m4a to .mp3, the filename is different.

OK ---- was there anything wrong with my path setting? Source Drive:\Source Path\Source Filename Just seems strange that it tells me it is going to overwrite the existing files and I accept that warning, but it just adds the new files to the same folder (I have the existing m4a and the converted mp3.)