johnwanser

Q: GarageBand - Exported m4a / AIF files won't play

I have been trying to share an m4a file of my latest GarageBand project via email as I have done countless times in the past, but there appears to be a problem that I am guessing could be related to the latest update to the app (I am running on iPhone 6). Once I have emailed the file to myself, have downloaded it and press play, nothing happens. When I press "play" on the Quicktime media player directly on my phone, the play button turns into a grayed-out button with a slash through the play icon. I tried playing the file through the media player in my Gmail account on my computer, and though it shows the attached file and pulls up the media player window, when I press "play" nothing happens - it is as if there were no file at all. I have even tried using the iTunes file sharing feature, and once again even though it shows the desired AIF file in my file sharing list on my computer, when I try to open the file for playback, it gives an error message that the file cannot be located.

 

This issue has been maddening. Has anyone else had problems similar to this since the latest app update or otherwise know what might be going on here? I hadn't done any exporting of a GarageBand file in a little while but the only thing I know of that has changed since the last time I successfully exported and shared a project was the latest update. This is very frustrating as I like to export instrument tracks I have been working on so that I can listen in my car during my daily commute and begin to test out ideas for vocal parts to go with them.

iPhone 6, iOS 9.2.1

Posted on Feb 22, 2016 11:19 AM