mp3 file plays on iPad Pro, but not on MacBook Pro. Please Help.

Question

Level 1

27 points

mp3 file plays on iPad Pro, but not on MacBook Pro. Please Help.

Hello All,

I have four mp3 audio files saved in “Files” “On My iPad” on my iPad Pro (10.5, iPadOS 14.8). I can play them each individually from “Files”. I emailed all four mp3 files to myself using my Gmail email account (from IPad to Gmail account). Using the Gmail app on the iPad Pro I can open the email message and listen to each mp3 file. Using the Safari internet browser app on the iPad Pro I can open my Gmail account, open the email message, and listen to each mp3 file. Using my MacBook Pro (15 inch, mid 2010, macOS 10.13.6) I open the Safari internet browser and access my Gmail email account… I open the email message and try to play the mp3 files, individually one at a time… Each of the mp3 attachments will open and show the player within Gmail and the blue speaker icon appears in the Safari URL bar at the top of the page, but none will play. I downloaded each mp3 file attachment from Gmail to the MacBook Pro, they all appear to download just fine, but none will play. I tried playing them each individually from within the downloads folder they are saved to, none will play. I tried playing them each individually by opening them with iTunes; iTunes opens, but the files do not load (do not save to iTunes) and do not play. I can play other items in my iTune library. I can use Safari to visit a website and play video with the sound playing just fine. I have closed all apps on the MacBook Pro and restarted the machine, then tried to play the mp3 files again. This did not help resolve the issue, I still could not listen to the mp3 files within Gmail or from where they are downloaded and saved on the MacBook Pro.

Many times previously I have sent mp3 files to myself, from the iPad to my Gmail account, and successfully used the MacBook Pro to play them in Gmail and download and play them with iTunes. Today this is not working. Is this a MacBook Pro issue, a Safari issue, or something else? What is the problem and how can it be fixed?

All help and assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and any help you may have to offer!

Best regards,

imorndew

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Sep 21, 2021 1:41 PM

Reply

Answer 1

imorndew Author

Level 1

27 points

Sep 22, 2021 10:28 PM in response to BDAqua

Hello BDAqua,

Thank you again for your reply.

I have a converter application called All2MP3 on the MacBook Pro. I tried to use this application to see if I could make the MP3 files able to be opened/played. This did not work, All2MP3 did not seem to acknowledge the MP3 files when I tried to place them into the converter. Per your suggestion I downloaded the Macroplant Adapter application and installed it on the MacBook Pro. I did have success with this application, Adapter converted the files to MP3 files which I was able to play and save to iTunes on the MacBook Pro. I am glad this application made the files usable, but I still do not know why they would play on the iPad Pro and not on the MacBook Pro. It is particularly interesting the files would play in Gmail via Safari on the iPad Pro, but they would not play in Gmail via Safari on the MacBook Pro.

Thank you for all of your time and assistance!

Best regards,

imorndew

Reply

Answer 2

imorndew Author

Level 1

27 points

Sep 21, 2021 4:28 PM in response to BDAqua

Hello BDAqua,

Thank you for your response to my posting.

I tried playing the downloaded mp3 files on the MacBook Pro with QuickTime Player and VLC media player. When trying to open with QuickTime Player the file does not open/play and the message “QuickTime Player can’t open…” appears. When trying to open/play with VLC the mp3 files open and play just fine. I do not know what to make of this.

Also of note; when I check “Get Info” for these mp3 files on the MacBook Pro the general information shows they are mp3 files (“Kind: MP3 audio”).

Please kindly let me know if you have any other suggestions or ideas how this issue may be resolved. Thank you!

Best regards,

imorndew

Reply

Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Sep 21, 2021 2:19 PM in response to imorndew

Does it play in in quicktime and/or VLC player?

Reply

Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Sep 22, 2021 7:57 AM in response to imorndew

Good info, you might try converting them, I use Adapter.app

Free Image and Video Converter for Mac and PC · Adapter (macroplant.com)

Reply

Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Oct 5, 2021 2:30 PM in response to imorndew

Well, you'd copy the Bytes after dragging that mp3 to Hexfiend's icon, then paste the Bytes here! :)

Reply

Answer 6

imorndew Author

Level 1

27 points

Oct 5, 2021 1:48 PM in response to BDAqua

Greetings BDAqua,

Thank you for your responses and all of your help!

I’m still not sure what to make of this issue, but investigating it any further may be beyond what my current knowledge and experience can support. Even if I could figure out how to review the bytes of data, I would not know how to interpret what I am looking at. I think it is best I let this issue stand and not invest any more time on it.

I greatly appreciate all of your help and the resources you have been able to share with me. Thank you very much! Hopefully our posts here may help others as well!

Best regards,

imorndew

Reply

Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Sep 23, 2021 8:00 AM in response to imorndew

Well, good to hear for the most part my friend. :)

I suspect either they were mis-extentioned or the stuff was just in an mp3 wrapper

Q. Are there different types of MP3? (soundonsound.com)

Might be interesting to compare the 1st couple of hundred bytes of playing & non-*laing ones...

ID3ATT2

alarm1-b238COMengiTunPGAP0TENiTunes 12.6.1.25COMhengiTunNORM 00000084 0000007D 000004E3 000004E7 000004B0 000004B0 00002795 0000289F 00003750 000015C0COMÇengiTunSMPB

Hex Fiend, a fast and clever hex editor for macOS

Reply

mp3 file plays on iPad Pro, but not on MacBook Pro. Please Help.

Similar questions