cannot decode, data might be damaged

Hi gaddkk,

Does this happen on the same set of songs or different songs? Next what we will want to do is remove the song and re-add them, then test to see if they work.

Let us know the results and we will go from there.

Cheers!

Hi gaddkk,

You've done a great job with troubleshooting. What we'd advise to do next, is to contact Apple Support so they can take deeper look into why this could be happening.

Apple Support

Take care!

thank you, I'll give that a try if my issue continues

I spent a significant amount of time with Apple Support and they were NOT able to solve the issue. They even downloaded diagnostic data and were not able to figure it out. They thought possibly digital rights issue, but that made no sense considering it would be just one song from an entire album on my phone. Any why would the issue pop up after have listening to the song several times. They also stated it was perhaps my computer, but I doubt that as my wife had the same issue (her own music and her own laptop). I tried restoring my iphone, removing all music from my iphone and then reinstalling. Still, I would get issues with random song thats would all of a sudden stop playing and show the error "cannot decode, data might be damaged". I went through all my songs on my phone and removed the 50 songs with the error and readded them back. Frustrating to say the least.

Hello gaddkk,

To start, you'll want to add more specific details to your post. You mentioned the error "cannot decode, data might be damaged", but there's no info on where you're seeing that. Is this something that is just randomly appearing on your device? Are you getting this message when using a certain application or performing a specific function? Etc.

Details like these will help give the community a better idea of exactly where you're coming across this error so members can provide more relevant responses.

In the meantime, make sure you've covered the basics like restarting your device and making sure it's up to date.

Restart your iPhone

Update your iPhone

Cheers!

This happens to me too and no one at Apple has been able to correct. They just stop responding after a few replies. They need to correct the issue with their system updates. The songs play just fine on all other devices except iPhone. Just got a new phone and same thing! Random songs with this decode error!

Great job gaddkk, we’re glad you found what was causing the issue!

Feel free to reach back out if you have any further questions or issues with an Apple device or service.

Have an excellent day!