How to tag m4a files?

I bought some songs from iTunes store. They show up as m4a files. I don't use iTunes to manage the song files because I buy songs from different sites, so I use windows explorer.
Is there a way to add tags to the m4a files that would show up in windows explorer? I would like to add artists, album, comment fields to the files.

Gala_Apple wrote:
In windows explorer, music files like mp3 and wma have tags that can be displayed in details view as columns next to name, date, size, etc.
OK, I know what you are referring to now.
It seems m4a files have proprietary tags that is only viewable inside of iTunes and ipods.
They are not really proprietary (AAC is an accepted standard), but then again they are not as widely compatible as MP3.
Is there another media format that can act as a container for m4a file, but has tags that windows understands and can display?
Container? Ouch. Consider using a good quality (LAME-based) conversion program to convert the purchased M4As to MP3s, so that they will be compatible with Explorer, iTunes, and virtually everything else you might want to use. Since the songs start as AAC/256, they will convert with no noticeable degradation to MP3/256.
You can also save some trouble by buying MP3s in the first place, which can be done at just about any online music download store besides iTunes.

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How to open m4a file in GarageBand from iTunes music?

How do I open m4a file in GarageBand from iTunes music (first recorded on iPhone Voice Recorder). I am recording my foreign language teacher and want to be able to replay at slower pace than she speaks.

ArtDog11 wrote:
How do I open m4a file in GarageBand from iTunes music
http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/GBFAQ.html#importfromitunes
(Let the page FULLY load. The link to your answer is at the top of your screen)
ArtDog11 wrote:
want to be able to replay at slower pace than she speaks.
http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/GBFAQ.html#changeimportedtempo
(Let the page FULLY load. The link to your answer is at the top of your screen)

How to combine .m4a files?

I have an 20 disc audio book that I am importing into iTunes. I have joined the tracks on the cd's so when I imported them I only have 20 tracks, instead of 2000 tracks.
Is there a way to combine these 20 .m4a files into 1 .m4a file so I can then rename it to a .m4b file to make it appear like an audio book with only one track?

If the files are on the Hard Drive...
Download and install a copy of NCH Swift Sound Wavepad here. Open each file with Wavepad Simotaniously. First, select the entirety of the first file (Ctrl+A). Create a New file, and paste it in. Next, copy the entirty of the second file at the end of the new file. Continue doing this until all twenty tracks have been copied into the new file. Save the new file, and import it with iTunes. This will make them into a single large file.

How to merge m4a files

I have dozens of lectures from The Great Courses and have been ripping them in iTunes to use on my new iPod Classic 160gb. I finally took a break to listen and realized that it would be better to have merged all of the separate files for individual lectures. I had iTunes set to create m4a files. I do not want to go back and rip all of the CD's again and choose to merge the files in iTunes. I read on another post from a few years ago that QuickTime Pro could merge m4a files. But, I looked at the current version's description and there is no mention of merging or joining m4a files.
I don't mind purchasing software to do this but I don't want to purchase it if the software will not merge the files.
So...can QuickTime Pro merge m4a files?
Linda

Cooper100 wrote:
i use Allok Video Joiner to join all my files
just line them up and set the quality yourself
1) Video applications do not always work with audio alone as the OP is using.
2) The OP has already found a solution. It was a Mac-specific tool whereas the one mention states:
System Requirements of Allok Video Joiner
* Windows 98/2000/ME/XP/2003 operating system.
3) "Set the quality" suggest it is recoding the file which is not necessary and results in quality loss.

How to play .m4a files?

I have lossless .m4a files in my iTunes library. Files can be synchronized to z10. However, music player does not see them. Tried running files from browser, got "Error: file have unsupported content".
In blackberry specs .m4a is listed as supported file format. What am I missing?

found this: "itunes uses that m4a format so other players can not use it." Is that right? Do not really want to rip my cds again but is there any other option?

How to import m4a files in a USB drive and play them using iTune?

I have set the target directory of iTune to that USB drive, iTune just does not play them. The length of the playing is awful long. But in reality , they are merely 1min long reading when I listen to them using Window Media Player.

CS4 is much older than Windows 8. CS4 is meant to work on XP or Vista. Getting it to run on Windows 7 was a bit of an issue, so I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that you have CS4 running on Windows 8 at all.
It's also possible that a new camera records in a codec that such an old version of AE doesn't understand.
Make sure you're running the latest update to your version of AE. You're on version 9, so make sure you've run the Adobe After Effects CS4 9.0.3 Update (I would not suggest updating in the middle of a project though, as any changes might break AE). I would like to reiterate: you're running a version that was released six years ago on an operating system that was released much more recently. So, be careful how you tread. However, if you're not running 9.0.3, you're missing some bug fix updates that might solve your problem.
I would suggest upgrading to a newer version of AE.
That being said, as Dave mentions, CS4 and earlier had lots of trouble with MPEG-4 and other codecs that used interframe compression. Can you open the files in your version of Premiere? If so, you can use Premiere or the Adobe Media Encoder to convert to a proper intermediate codec. MOV is just a container format. QuickTime with the PNG codec will work in After Effects CS4 with no problems as will the other codecs Dave mentions.

Know how to edit m4a files?

Hi.
Does anyone know of any software out there that will edit m4a (AAC) files without having to convert them into mp3 files, either before you start or when you finish.
I know of Audacity and WavePad but both require converting the files, a process that I'm told can lead to quality loss.
Any suggestions appreciated.

here are step by step instructions for making it a ringtone:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5890860#5890860

How do I open a .m4a file from Mail into Music app?

How do I open a .m4a file from Mail into Music app?
I mixed down a song from my band's latest session and saved it as a .m4a file (Apple AAC Audio format) and I e-mailed it to myself. Then on my phone I opened the e-mail message in Mail and held a long-press down on the attached .m4a file. But I do not see the option to open it up into the Music app. It only gives me the options of iMovie, WeChat, and USB Disk. Why would I want to open it up in those? It's a song. It should open up into the Music app so I can play it. What the heck?
Please don't tell me that I have to use iTunes to do this and sync my phone to my computer, because I *do not* want to add these songs to my iTunes library. They are *practice session tracks* that I want to listen to then delete later when we have new versions.
If there is no way to open them into the Music app, then is there a music player app I can get somewhere that will let me simply save audio files from Mail into it, and use it as a player for those songs? That's all I want to do.
The only reasonable workaround I have found so far is to save them as .mp4 audio files, which the iPhone thinks are movies, so it lets me save them into the camera roll as Videos.
Voice Memos would be acceptable as a place for them to be able to open into as well, but of course that's also not on the options list. Sigh.

TJBUSMC1973 wrote:
You'll have to use iTunes, add it to your iTunes library, then sync it. You can always delete it from your iTunes library later.
Why is that such an issue for you?
Why do people insist on replying to threads without even reading the original post? I explained it there already!
I don't have to use iTunes to save an image from Mail into my camera roll, or to save a PDF from Mail into iBooks. Why should I have to use iTunes to save a music file into Music app?
But I'll repeat it since evidently you can't be asked to read the original posts before spamming a thread with questions that have already been answered. I *do not* want to add these songs to my iTunes library.
My iTunes library is a sacred temple into which I only allow to enter the very best and highest-fidelity musical recordings of all time. I refuse to sully and soil my iTunes library with crappy practice mixdowns from my band, etc.
Want to know why? Because I like to be able to hit "shuffle all" on my iTunes library and know that something that will improve my existence will emanate forth from this amazing device that I have invested thousands of dollars into (yes, I count my cell phone plan amongst the expenses).
I shall not have the crappy burner mixdown tracks from my band's practice sessions come up every five songs (we generate TONS of these... literally hundreds... and they are all high-bitrate .m4a tracks in the 10-15 MB range). I let iTunes keep my music folder organized on my computer. It makes copies of everything being placed into it, and I don't want 159 GB of copies of burner tracks hiding like roaches throughout my temple. We don't name these files anything sensible (in fact the guy who mixes them down intentionally gives them random weird names) and they lack metadata. So there's no easy way to delete them back out of iTunes once they're in there. It's a huge pain; I used to do it, but I swore it off years ago and *I'm never going back!*
The REAL question is, why does Apple force me to have to use iTunes—the most convoluted, kludgy piece of bloatware ever to issue forth from Cupertino—to do something as simple as adding an MP3 from Mail into the Music app on my phone? Why can't there be something simple—something equivalent to the Camera Roll inside the Music app, not only for the files I want to save from Mail, but also for my Garage Band exports, not to mention all the exports from all the various synthesizer, drum machine, and recording apps I use on a daily basis in iOS?
It would be awfully nice to be able to play the songs I've recorded right in the Music app without having to go through the rigamarole of adding those files to my iTunes library, tagging them with metadata, syncing, etc. etc. yadda yadda yadda—just to delete them again as soon as I've synced so they don't pollute my computer's iTunes library!
I bought Apple for ease of use, not so I would be forced to jump through a million hoops just do to something that ought to take one tap to accomplish! That's ridiculous!

How to delete duplicated m4a file in "Recently Added" List in iTues?

I followed the instructions given by WICLEE and managed to customize my Ringtone but I couldn't delete the duplicated m4a file (after created a AAC file) from the Recently Added list where i selected the music for downloading. However, i managed to delete the m4a file from Windows Explorer and uncheck the deuplicated file when i sync onto my iPhone5 as a new Ringtone, it worked. Can Wiclee advise how to delete the unwanted m4a file from the list? Thanks much.

It will disappear from the Recently added playlist after 2 weeks.
Or you can edit the Recently added playlist to include ONLY music.

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itunes is copying/converting 500gb of music from .wma to .m4a files that are on an external drive onto my laptop which doesnt have enough room. how do i reroute these newly converted files somewhere with enough space for them?
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When I have done this, all I did was network the two machines and copy the contents of the iTunes folder to the other machine, and that's it.
My understanding (which may not be 100% correct) is that the one file that is absolutely necessary is iTunes Library, and that the XML file is actually a copy auto-generated from the iTunes Library, appearing in a different format only for non-iTunes apps that take advantage of the iTunes Library data.
As far as I know, if you simply have the Library (database) file and all your original music files, iTunes on that computer should operate as it did on your old computer. I believe that the Album Artwork, Genius Data, and XML files can be regenerated from the Library file. Not sure about the Extras file.

How can I convert an M4A file to an MP3 version?

How can I convert an M4A file to an MP3 version?

Thanks for your reply but that's not my problem.
I know that I can burn an M4A file to a CD and then import it back as an MP3, but that's an annoying process and wastes blank CDs. I thought iTunes had a menu choice to convert a selected file to MP3 format. I guess that's not true with M4A versions.
I will simply buy my music from Amazon from now on and I won't have to deal with this file format and protection nonsense. I can download music from Amazon in MP3 format as the rest of my music is in.

I purchased a song (Awaara Hoon (instrumental)) from itune store but it gives me a non-protected m4a file. I need a protected m4p file. How can i get it from itune store??? thanks in advance

I purchased a song (Awaara Hoon (instrumental)) from itune store but it gives me a non-protected m4a file
I need a protected m4p file.
How can i get it from itune store???
thanks in advance

All the music from iTunes Store aren't protected. You can search the web for a site that sells protected music.

How to see images in m4a file using itunes

So I used garageband to make an enhanced podcast. It has audio and images. That went fine, and I saved it as an m4a file (from the share menu, I chose "Export podcast to disk").
When I open it in itunes, I hear the audio, and can choose the chapters, but I cannot see the pictures (except in the chapter menu). I am using iTunes 10.3.1. How can I get itunes to show the pictures? The pictures show up fine if I view the podcast using Quicktime.
I don't want to put the podcast up on the itunes store or anything like that. Ultimately, I'd like to embed the podcast into a website for my course. I am a college professor.
Thank you!

You can't, iTunes is only used to set the location the photo's are loaded from, they aren't held anywhere in iTunes itself. Since they have to be on the computer anyway to load them onto the iPod you view them from the folder or album they are in or directly from the iPod screen.

I have transferd music from my ipod to my new computer and some of the files are not coming over, i have noticed the m4a files come across but the mp3 do not, any ideas how i can resolve this? thanks

I have just bought a new computer and i am transfering my music from my ipod onto my new computer, I have put the files from the music option from my ipod onto my computer. alot of the songs have come across, however there is alot of songs that havent. I have noticed that the m4a files come across but the mp3 does not. the new computer has windows 8 on it, which is very new to me. when i try and play the mp3 files, it will open them up in a different programme and will not open in itunes. does anyone know what i can do?!?!!?!?!
THANKS

Have you looked at the previous discussions listed on the right side of this page under the heading "More Like This"?
BTW this is the iPod touch forum

How do i get itunes to display my library (which is on an external hard drive)? It worked OK on old PC, but not new my new laptop. They are M4A files. are

My itunes library used to be on a PC - but shortly before the PC went to PC heaven I transferred the library onto an external hard drive. It worked fine. Now I have a laptop - but I can't get itunes to pick up the library location. I have changed in advance preferences, but the library does not display. I have tried holding down shift when starting itunes - but when I do that it looks for *.itl files, and all my files are M4A files. What do I do next?

chevalierdurufle wrote:
My itunes library used to be on a PC - but shortly before the PC went to PC heaven I transferred the library onto an external hard drive
You mean you transferred the media, not the library...
Now I have a laptop - but I can't get itunes to pick up the library location
The library location is in your /Music/ oflder.
Your media files (not yet in your new iTunes library ) is on the external drive.
I have changed in advance preferences, but the library does not display.
Because you have not yet added anything to your library.
Quit iTunes.
On the external, create a new folder named My iTunes library (or something).
Hold Shift and launch iTunes.
Select Choose library... and select My iTunes library on the external.
Go into Windows Explorer and move all the media files on the external into /My iTunes Llibrary/iTunes media/Automatically add to iTunes/ folder.

How to tag m4a files?

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