Time for imported AAC files is changing to 789:57:13

All of my affected files were converted with FFmpeg. Most with Audacity. Some with another app, most likely using the same library. Libavcodec Checking the songs with COMMAND I to get information and going to the options tab revealed that they were encoded with Lavf55.33.100bbe.

Audacity does not do batch conversions to AAC. Only one at a time. It does do batch conversions to mp3, wav and a couple of others. So you might try that.

I used FISSION by Rogue Amoeba software. $29. I am not affiliated with Rogue Amoeba. Just a user. It does have batch conversion available to AAC. https://rogueamoeba.com

To do this:

1. In iTunes Set View Options to display time and make sure to view as songs so you can see a column view.
2. click the header column for time to sort by time.
3. Select all the 789:57:13 and drag to a folder in the finder, then delete from iTunes and move to Trash, not just delete from library.
4. perform your batch conversion to another folder and drag the converted songs back into iTunes.
5. Delete both folders you just created from your mac to save space.

I use a mac and am having the same problem. There are examples of this problem going back to 2006, but I never experienced it until a recent update.

All of my affected files were converted with FFmpeg. Most with Audacity. Some with another app, most likely using the same library. Libavcodec Checking the songs with COMMAND I to get information and going to the options tab revealed that they were encoded with Lavf55.33.100bbe

Audacity does not do batch conversions to AAC. Only one at a time. It does do batch conversions to mp3, wav and a couple of others. So you might try that.

I used FISSION by Rogue Amoeba software. $29. I am not affiliated with Rogue Amoeba. Just a user. It does have batch conversion available to AAC.

To do this:

1. In iTunes Set View Options to display time and make sure to view as songs so you can see a column view.
2. click the header column for time to sort by time.
3. Select all the 789:57:13 and drag to a folder in the finder, then delete from iTunes and move to Trash, not just delete from library.
4. perform your batch conversion to another folder and drag the converted songs back into iTunes.
5. Delete both folders you just created from your mac to save space. I have never used Windows, but I assume the process can't be all that different. But Fission is Mac only software. As a windows user, I suppose using an Audacity macro to convert to wav or something might be your best choice. You can always convert back to AAC in iTunes if you want.

Agree with ajkopop. I've just updated to Mojave 10.14.5 and iTunes 12.9.5.5. This appears (for Mac at least) to have fixed the issue with .m4a files generated by Audacity. Note that these were created with the latest 64-bit version for Mac - Audacity 2.3.1.

Yes happy to report that I have the same experience on 10.14.5 and 12.9.5.5. Files already added to iTunes were NOT resolved, however dragging the 789.57.13 files to the desktop and then reimporting DID resolve the issue for those files. Newly imported files were fine.

Any luck finding a solution. Please send feedback back to iTunes about the problem. That is the only way we can get their attention.

Someone please tell customer support that iTunes 12.9.4 cannot read .m4a files with more than one entry in the stts atom.

Hi, Yes I did uninstall and reinstall. Probably no need to reinstall right away as I did.

See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash - Apple Community for steps to restore a previous version of your library after downgrading iTunes.

tt2

what is a 'tag'?

I would check the other discussions regarding the Genius Issue as well as you may find a solution for that there too. Here's one: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250037180

Problem fixed with 10.4.5 and iTunes 12.9.5.5

Each time you convert files from one lossy format to another you lose some quality. This issue is resolved in iTunes 12.9.5.5 for Mac. Hopefully a new build for Windows will be out soon.

tt2

I installed Version 12.9.5 for Windows today. Seems to work ok.