Audio format not supported

Question

Level 1

8 points

Audio format not supported

Hi,

I was recently purchasing an album through iTunes from my iPhone and iTunes for Windows downloaded them. When it came to sync between iTunes and the iPhone I got an error messages that some of the music files were not copied because the audio format is not supported by the iPhone.

Does anybody know any solution for this issue?

Thanks in advance,
Peter

iPhone 3G, iPhone OS 3.0.1

Posted on Sep 3, 2009 1:04 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

tobacco_slammers

Level 1

106 points

Sep 3, 2009 1:19 PM in response to goppi

Hi Peter,

It sounds like some of the music files are of unsupported format for the iPhone. Can you tell us what format they are to double check?

I'm thinking it may be a .wma file causing the issues but you say that you downloaded it from the iTunes store so I can't see how a file purchased from within iTunes would not play on your iPhone.

Below is a link to the iPhone specs with a list of all the supported audio file formats(AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV) :

http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html

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Answer 2

varjak paw

Level 10

170,200 points

Sep 3, 2009 1:43 PM in response to goppi

If these are indeed tracks from the iTunes Store, try resetting your iPhone:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1430

If that doesn't fix the problem, you may need to restore the iPhone:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414

Hope this helps.

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Answer 3

goppi Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 3, 2009 1:47 PM in response to tobacco_slammers

The files have the ending m4a, however, if I can't play them with iTunes either. Another thing I noticed is that when I open the info of a working file in iTunes, it says under Kind "Purchased AAC audio file" with the bit rate and sample rate below. When I try the same thing with one of the files that don't work, it shows under Kind "Not available", but below it does show the bit rate and sample rate.

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Answer 4

goppi Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 3, 2009 1:55 PM in response to varjak paw

Based on the discovery that I can't even play the song within iTunes, I don't think it has anything in particular to do with the iPhone. Is there any way to re-download an already purchased song?
Thanks,
Pete

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Answer 5

Sep 3, 2009 2:01 PM in response to goppi

As far as I know, you can only re-download purchased apps again for free, not music...

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Answer 6

varjak paw

Level 10

170,200 points

Sep 3, 2009 2:05 PM in response to goppi

If this problem applies only to certain songs that you've purchased from the iTunes Store - other purchased tracks play correctly in iTunes - contact the iTunes Store customer support department through the form on their web page and explain the problem to them. If the tracks are defective, they'll probably issue you a credit and advise that you don't re-download them for a while so that they have a chance to get a new copy from the record company.

If none of your purchased tracks now will play in iTunes, post back with details about your system (OS version, version of iTunes, etc.) and perhaps someone will have suggestions.

Good luck.

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Answer 7

goppi Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 3, 2009 2:56 PM in response to varjak paw

Thanks both of you. I digged a bit more into this issue and realized that a) not all songs from the album got downloaded and that b) the m4a file was indeed corrupt - when I opened it with a Hex editor, it showed XML code describing the download instructions for iTunes instead of the song.

I got in contact with support and they were veyr helpful. They put the whole albums back in the download queue and this time all worked well.

I think the issue happened because I downloaded those albums when I was waiting at the airport. I had than to put the iphone in air mode before it could finish the download. Later itunes continued with the download, however not fully.

Thanks again for your advice.

Pete

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