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AAC (.m4a) file can play in Quicktime player... but not in iTunes!

I have QuickTime player v7.6.9. I also have iTunes 10.2.1.1

I have an AAC-encoded file which can play perfectly in the QuickTime player. It shows the song has a duration of 3:46.

I tried to add this to my iTunes library. It shows up with a duration of 789:57:13 and iTunes refuses to play it... just moves on to the next song on the list.

What's this all about?

AMD, Windows XP

Posted on Apr 14, 2011 10:03 PM

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2 replies

Apr 14, 2011 10:39 PM in response to jvalatka

Well, I'm not sure how this file was encoded originally, but luckily I had "faad" (Freeware Advanced Audio Decoder) installed on a nearby Ubuntu Linux machine.

I copied the AAC/.m4a file to the Ubuntu machine.
In a terminal, switched to the directory where the AAC file was and typed "faad your music_filename.m4a" which created a .WAV file.
I copied the .WAV file to the Windows machine running iTunes.
Had iTunes add the .WAV file to the library.
Selected the .WAV file in the library and did "Advanced -> Create AAC Version".
Now I also have an AAC version of the song in the library that will play in both iTunes and QuickTime.

Say, wouldn't it be nice if iTunes would actually FIX the file on its own in the first place... or at least be a little more receptive to any AAC file you can throw at it like its QuickTime brother?

Apr 14, 2011 10:51 PM in response to jvalatka

jvalatka wrote:


Say, wouldn't it be nice if iTunes would actually FIX the file on its own in the first place... or at least be a little more receptive to any AAC file you can throw at it like its QuickTime brother?


Yes, it would be nice, but unfortunately the opposite is true: iTunes is one of the most finicky players, and often has trouble with files having even minor corruption that does not bother QT or other players.

The error in displaying duration is usually a problem with VBR header. The brute force approach - converting to WAV and back - works as well as anything.

AAC (.m4a) file can play in Quicktime player... but not in iTunes!

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