Problem with downloading AAC files

Question

Problem with downloading AAC files

Hello, hopefully somebody can help me with this problem i am having.

When i go to a website that has podcasts or audio files in AAC m4a, m4p, m4v format it downloads as a text file with a .txt extension at the end. (this is using the newest version of Safari on 10.4.4)

i have also tried it on my Powerbook which is still running Panther and the most updated version of Safari from the same site and the files download as an audio/video file.

Is anybody else having this problem, or does anybody have a remedy?

Thank you in advance!
Justin

iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Posted on Jan 18, 2006 1:58 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Tom Graves

Level 7

20,627 points

Jan 18, 2006 4:21 PM in response to Justin Carter

Can you give us a link to a site with some of these files so we can test downloading them?

Also, have you tried an alternate browser, such as Firefox or Camino, to see if they also have problems downloading these files?

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 19, 2006 4:41 AM in response to Tom Graves

thanks for the response.

i tried using firefox and it worked fine.

the link is

http://www.portablemodel.net/discrography/PMRC007/audio/
http://www.portablemodel.net/podcasts/PMRC010.m4b

thanks.

Reply

Answer 3

Tom Graves

Level 7

20,627 points

Jan 19, 2006 5:16 AM in response to Justin Carter

Your first link gave me a page not found error. In shortening it to http://www.portablemodel.net I was told it was now .com rather than .net and I was redirected. Some of the links on the page consistently freeze up both Firefox 1.5 and Safari 2.0.3 for me, which caused me to force quit them multiple times. There is something drastically wrong with their site.

The second link downloaded with no problem with Firefox. It loaded giberish on the page in Safari. The activity window told me the file was not found (even though it had spewed forth in Safari's window).

I would say the problems are in the coding of the site, not in Safari's ability or lack thereof to download aac/m4* files.

Reply

Answer 4

Jan 19, 2006 2:43 PM in response to Tom Graves

sorry for giving the wrong links tom,
i accidentilly typed the wrong link
http://www.portablemodel.net/discography/PMRC007/audio

and thanks for looking into this for me.
i appreciate it.

the only thing i am confused about is, that when i try it on any other mac using safari, everything downloads fine. (as m4. files)

is there any other answer? or anything i could try deleting, like plist files to correct the situation perhaps?

thanks,
Justin

Reply

Answer 5

Jan 19, 2006 3:32 PM in response to Justin Carter

The problem is neither with Safari nor with your computer. It is with the person tacking care of his/her site. They need to configure their .htaccess file (Mime types and more).

You can still download the songs though, one by one. All you have to do is to wait until the progress bar is finished (inside the address bar) and save the page with the correct extension (.m4a) without ".txt" behind. F11, double click on the icon and it should open in what ever music app you are using.

Reply

Answer 6

Jan 19, 2006 4:57 PM in response to Rollin Montelius

Rollin, thanks for the input, but i am going to have to disagree with you as i have tried downloading .m4a files off many other sites, and it is the same thing at each website.

the first website i mentioned, is my own website. i checked the files you mentioned, and everything looked fine.

i tried to download at the official wilco website, same thing
http://wilcoworld.net/roadcase/wilco_carscant.m4a

and so on and so on
http://www.underratedmagazine.com/music/04%20A%20Little%20Word%20In%20Your%20Ear .m4a

i also want to mention again, that on the same computer i am having problems with, i have tried Firefox, and Flock and both of those download the files as they should WITHOUT the .txt file.

thanks again,

iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Reply

Answer 7

Tom Graves

Level 7

20,627 points

Jan 19, 2006 11:15 PM in response to Justin Carter

Now that I have the correct link, I can confirm that a txt extension is being added by Safari to the m4a files. I have seen Safari not handle m4* in the past so I suspect that this is a bug in Safari and not something you can "fix" by deleting plists, caches, or anything. The last person I know if with this problem replaced the m4* files with mp3 files and his problems went away. The files are "fixed" by deleting the txt extension, but you shouldn't have to do that.

Be sure to let Apple know using "Report Bugs to Apple" from the Safari menu.

Reply

Answer 8

Jan 20, 2006 10:54 AM in response to Tom Graves

Thank you Tom, I really appreciate it! You have been a great help./

justin

Reply

Answer 9

Tom Graves

Level 7

20,627 points

Jan 20, 2006 12:26 PM in response to Justin Carter

You are very welcome. This is the kind of situation in which it might be nice if Safari, like Firefox, gave you a window for asking you how to handle the file.

Reply

Answer 10

Jan 25, 2006 3:41 AM in response to Justin Carter

Sorry Justin, but may I please disagree with your disagreeing.

If you want to solve your "problem" just add this line

"AddType audio/aac .m4a" (without quotes)

to the last line of your .htaccess file and all should be fine.

Or if your host has a CPanel and you want to do this the long way, go to it, clic on Mime Type under Site Management, add "audio/aac" under the Mime Type field and ".m4a" (without quotes) under the Extension(s) field and clic Add. This should add a User Defined Mime Type, which is no more then just adding the line "AddType audio/aac .m4a" at the end of your .htaccess file.

Best regards

PS: For the new Mac users of Google Earth, this is also the way to get .kmz / .kml files to download and not appear as text in Safari (from your own site obviously):

AddType application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml kml
AddType application/vnd.google-earth.kmz+xml kmz

Reply