FLAC cannot be imported into iTunes & iPod touch

Historically Apple have not supported FLAC on their devices. I like I suspect quite a few people reading this was therefore very surprised to see it listed in the iPod Touch specs.

It would seem likely the FLAC support is due to the chipset of the iPod Touch supporting this format, as Apple use often the same chips other manufacturers use it is in hindsight not an impossibility. Furthermore relatively recently Apple updated the hardware of the iPod Touch i.e. June 2019. It could be that this is when FLAC support was added.

Interestingly the new iPhone 11 also lists FLAC support but the iPhone 11 Pro does not.

I would therefore say that Apple do appear to be adding FLAC hardware support to a number of their devices. I therefore expect that a future iTunes update may include support for FLAC.

For what it's worth over the weekend my Windows machine installed a new version of iTunes which added support for iOS 13. It is possible this along with iOS 13 may unlock FLAC support. I will have to check this at some point, first I need to get a FLAC file. :)

As an alternative solution consider the following.

1. Windows 10 natively supports both FLAC and ALAC aka Apple Lossless including meta tags
2. FLAC and ALAC both being lossless formats can be converted between each other with zero loss of quality and the embedded meta tags also get converted including any album artwork
3. The file size of FLAC and ALAC is virtually identical and as they are both lossless as mentioned above the audio quality will also be identical
4. You could therefore convert all your tracks to ALAC and still use them in Windows Media Player and then also be absolutely sure it will work in iTunes and on all Apple devices

I have for many years had all my music in ALAC and shared between iTunes and WMP. (I was the person who devised the original solution that allowed playing ALAC in WMP.)

Hi,

The information relating to FLAC is contained in the link you provided in your original post.

Read this https://www.macworld.com/article/2064868/high-fidelity-how-to-get-lossless-and-high-res-audio-on-ios-devices.html

Jim

Why would you need to keep multiple libraries or even multiple copies?

As I mentioned Windows supports Apple Lossless so for that you don't need to keep FLAC. It is also possible to configure iTunes to auto convert Apple Lossless to AAC when syncing to an iPod/iPhone and it does not result in it keeping a duplicate on the computer.

The existing .m4a tracks presuming they are AAC can be left as they are and if not yet in iTunes added to that.

I have my entire library in Apple Lossless and shared with Windows Media Player and it is configured to watch the iTunes folder and auto add to the WMP library so when I rip a new CD the tracks get added to both iTunes and WMP. This results in a single copy that plays in iTunes and WMP. When I sync to my iPhone iTunes auto-converts to AAC. (Or you can leave them in Apple Lossless but that is overkill for a mobile music device.)

It seems JRiver MC also supports Apple Lossless, it is my belief most software does as per the list below.

VLC, MPlayerX, Foobar2000, WinAmp, dbPowerAmp, etc.

See also https://www.jriver.com/audiophile.html

Hi,

Whilst FLAC can be played on iPhones and iPod touch, it is not compatible with iTunes. I suggest that you provide feedback to Apple Feedback - iTunes - Apple

Jim

Hi,o

I am referring to this link

https://www.apple.com/ipod-touch/specs/

I suggest that you look in the App Store for apps to play Flac.

Jim

Hi,

FLAC is not supported by iTunes. I suggest that you convert the files to ALAC. Whilst I Use XLD on a Mac, there are a number of apps that you can find by searching the internet.

Jim