Why do "enhanced" .m4a file fail to playback in iTunes U.app?

I have audio-only .m4a files in my iTunes U course that play back just fine in the iTunes U.app but "enhanced" .m4a files do not play back correctly.  I get:
Error
Playback Failed
An enhanced .m4a file (aka enhanced podcast file) is created in GarageBand and has images placed at arbitrary points along the timeline to accompany the audio.  Think of an annotated slide show (Keynote or PowerPoint).  These files play just fine in QuickTime Player X on MacOS X and in the Podcasts.app on iOS.  That is, you hear the audio and see the different still images. The images are different from album art.

I have a very similar problem in that my enhanced podcasts WILL play in iTunes U but they don't show any of the enhanced features (no artwork, chapters, etc.)  In fact, they do the same in iTunes, but play perfectly in GarageBand and QuickTime.  This is very irritating because you CAN listen to the podcast but you can't see the pictures that are being discussed making the whole thing pointless.  I have seen other forums where it has been suggested that the podcast be saved as an .mov file and uploaded to YouTube but neither GarageBand nor Quicktime will allow me to save it in any sort of a video format.  Someone else suggested opening it in iMovie and changing the format but iMove won't open an .m4a enhanced podcast file.
ANY suggestions from anybody would be appreciated.

Similar Messages

  • Why the extremely poor sound quality in playback with itunes?

    I am having problems with the sound quality of itunes music. this applies to both downloads and cd's. This problem is new, I believe, and affects bluetooth speaker, earphones, and macbook pro internal speaker. All have extremely poor playback with itunes. This Problem does not happen with playback of youtube videos.
    Thanks for any advice you can give.

    I would be worth playing some tracks with Quicktime so see what the quality is like there.
    iTunes uses Quicktime to play music.
    Also check this Apple help on audio playback problems:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1362

  • Why won't m4a files burned to disc play in cd player?

    Download purchased from itunes and burned to disc (m4a format) BUT WON'T PLAY ON CD PLAYER..WHY?

    Does your CD player accept AAC (.m4a) audio files?
    If not, burn an AudioCD.

  • Why are certain sound files not playing correctly in iTunes?

    I have had iTunes for years and have never had prolonged or unsolvable problems with anything playback related until now. I recently acquired some music, and it plays perfectly when I use WMP. When I added it my iTunes library, however, the audio is compressed during playback and there is a lot of skipping and blips going on in every song. It still plays perfectly in WMP, but not matter what I do the same thing happens in iTunes.
    For reference, here is what the original audio songs like
    http://picosong.com/cNPn
    And here is what it sounds like in iTunes
    http://picosong.com/cNPe

    I have a similar problem. When I try to play TV episodes that were downloaded (in .m4v format) using iTunes, QuickTime (7.0.4) will play video without audio, and when I press "stop", QuickTime locks up!
    My system used to play these files PERFECTLY, until I downloaded some shareware video format conversion programs (that didn't work, anyway). I believe one of them installed a shared DLL or CODEC or something that is conflicting with QuickTime. I'VE UNINSTALLED AND REINSTALLED QUICKTIME AND ITUNES COUNTLESS TIMES, trying to follow different people's advice, mostly from posts on this site, but nothing helps!!
    The thing we have in common is that it sounds like you also have other video software that could have conflicting CODECs or shared DLLs. DOES ANYBODY KNOW HOW TO TRACK THIS PROBLEM DOWN??
    And why doesn't Apple make a CLEAN uninstaller and a COMPLETE installer? People shouldn't have to do the manual registry editing and file deletions that other people are recommending!!!!!
    Intel 915 Mo Bd. 3.2GHz 1G RAM   Windows XP  

  • Why i cant sign in my icloud id in itunes and app store setting?

    Can you help me solve this itunes and app store setting?

    Cannot connect to App Store?
    1. Make sure iPad is using the latest software
    2. Settings>General>Date and Time>Set Automatically>On
    3. Make sure Time Zone is correct
    4. Reset iPad. Hold the Sleep and Home button down until you see the Apple Logo.

  • Problems with M4A files ...

    I bought a series of CDs with compressed mp3 files of the entire series of books in Will Durant's "Story of Civilization".
    My iPod plays some of the segments at "chipmunk speed", so I went online to look for an explanation and solution.  The advice I found was to simply rename (not convert) the mp3 files to m4a files.  I copied one or two mp3 files and renamed the extension to m4a and they seemd to play great (in Media Player)!  So I undertook to rename all 600 mp3 files in the audio book series!
    Now iTunes and iPod fail to recognize them at all!   I have a huge folderful of m4a files that neither iPod nor iTunes will recognize, though some of the existing files they DO recognize are m4a files.  (??)
    I've tried deleting the files from the iTunes playlist and re-importing them, but nothing seems to be happening at all!
    Please advise how to get iTunes and iPod to recognize and import all these files.
    Thanks for your help!
    SS

    The advice I found was to simply rename (not convert) the mp3 files to m4a files.
    That advice was ridiculous.
    If you buy a brand new product and it does not work, return it to the retailer for a replacement or refund.

  • Podcast problem with .m4a files using GarageBand 08

    I create an audio podcast and I have started having an odd problem. I export my show to an enhanced .m4a file. The problem I am having is that these files have stopped working on older iPods. They play fine on iPod touch and the iPhone, but the cause an iPod video to shutdown and reboot.
    Anyone else run into this or know how to fix it? I would hate to have to revert to ordinary .mp3 format.

    Yes, it is correct. I opened up one of the problematic episodes and changed the preferences to save it as "good" quality and the resulting .m4a played fine. Oddly the next setting up, "better" is supposed to record at 24 bits but export at 16 bit. The.m4a from this setting wouldn't play.
    It seems to be the iPod video and older that are effected.
    I tested it on the last generation of Nanos and it plays them. I think i will keep the show at 24 bits for now and see how many listeners have problems. I have gotten only a few comments about it.

  • ITunes Server - iTunes does not play .m4a files

    Hello,
    when enableing iTunes server on NSS326 and connecting to it via latest iTunes, connect goes OK (The name of the server changes, but this is a known bug). The music files are displayed, but .m4a Files are not played back. .wav files are played back. .m4a files are played correct via iTunes when accessed via File System. Is there any fix for this?
    Ognian

    Found it,
    looks like iTunes is very sensitiv to the tags info inside the m4a file. Get mp3tag select all m4a files, and hit Save. That's it. mp3tag saves the tags correct.

  • Why can't JavaFx media player play .m4a file on windows xp sp3?

    Hi All
    Why can't JavaFx media player play .m4a file on windows xp sp3? I got an exception that 'Decoder is not available' when I played m4a file on windows xp sp3(it didn't work on vista either), but it works fine on windows 7 , so I guess Javafx media player needs some system dependencies or resources when it plays media files, do you have any suggestions for this ?
    Edited by: imtoocute on Aug 22, 2012 11:18 AM
    Edited by: imtoocute on Aug 22, 2012 11:19 AM
    Edited by: imtoocute on Aug 22, 2012 3:53 PM

    To allow playback on Windows XP, you need to install the correct software in addition to JavaFX.
    Once the system has been upgraded to meet the minimum requirements for playback of a particular type of video encoding, then playback should work fine.
    See the JavaFX Media portion of the JavaFX 2.2 System Requirements:
    http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/system_requirements_2-2/jfxpub-system_requirements_2-2.htm
    Note, m4a is just a container file and data streams inside the container format need to match a supported JavaFX format for playback to work:
    http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/api/javafx/scene/media/package-summary.html
    Some approaches you could take:
    - additionally encode the media in VP6 format and fallback to VP6 playback if H.264 playback fails.
    - use a 3rd party player like VLC.
    - don't bother supporting Windows XP video playback.
    - direct a browser to a divx install page if playback fails (http://www.divx.com/).

  • Why are my mp3's and m4a files no longer recognized?

    All of a sudden, 95% of the 10,000 music tracks in my iTunes Library has become unplayable. It concerns mp3 and m4a files with music that I purchased and ripped over the years. Wifi syncing to my iPhone 4s made it worse: now the Music app on my iPhone won't play them either.
    All tracks added before Mid September 2012 are dead. They can be seen in the library and metadata can be read in iTunes. But when I click on the file, nothing happens. Newer files do play normally, though. MP3's that were not located in the iTunes library also still are playable.
    I tried opening the files with VLC player, Quicktime and even on a windows machine. All I get is a message that songitle.mp3 cannot be played because it's format is not recognised.
    It has been over a week since I first noticed the problem and I spend many late hours. What is going on? Has Spotlight messed with my music's metadata? Is Apple denying me access to my own files? HELP!
    What I tried:
    - restore files from Time Machine backup: same problem
    - play files on other machines: same problem
    - repair a file with MP3 Scan+Repair. It says: ERROR: Unknown file format!
    - decrypt HD by disabling FileVault: no improvement and Time Machine won't work anymore (Stupid)
    - do a fresh install of Mountain Lion: no improvement
    - restore files from Carbon Copy Clone: same problem (has Spotlight done this while indexing the external HDD?
    - boot from the Carbon Copy Clone (turned out impossible due to the Verbatim external drive that won't boot-should have tested that before I ran into trouble )
    - find solutions in apple discussions, google etc for almost ten days: no solution
    What struck me in Console
    Some messages in Console struck me, but did not lead me to any useful clues:
    25-11-12 22:33:48,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(317) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
    26-11-12 21:06:44,919 sandboxd[970]: ([963]) QuickTime Player(963) deny file-read-data /Users/MyName/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Folder/Album/Song.mp3
    25-11-12 22:51:01,030 mdwrite[422]: *** Assertion failure in +[MDKeyRing _copyKeychainAtURL:canCreate:], /SourceCache/Spotlight/Spotlight-707.3/xpc-services/mdwrite/MDKeyRing.m:131
    25-11-12 22:53:18,757 mdwrite[525]: Metadata.framework [Fatal]: Couldn't add Spotlight Metadata Privacy password to keychain! [osErr:-50]
    26-11-12 21:19:59,863 com.apple.PassXPCService[1166]: PAPassValidator: _signatureIsValid failed to load signature file
    Software Versions:
    OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
    iTunes 10.7 (21)
    Quicktime Version 10.2 (603.6)
    On iPhone 4S: iOS 6.0.1
    Hardware
    MBP 13" Late 2011,
    2.8 GHz Intel Core\
    6 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

    You're welcome: I am happy you are thinking along.
    We may me on to something: I could not access my account on Sep 11 and did a restore from TM. It did not go too smoothly, but it worked. That's when I decided to pick up the habit of making carbon clone copies again.
    Now if something would have been wrong with the songs in the iTunes/Music folder, it must have been copied just as wrong to the carbon clone. Hence the reason why my backed up songs won't play. So you could be right that the files were probably messed up Mid September and not just two weeks ago.
    But why haven't I noticed it before? Probably because all the music I like to hear is in my iPhone, that apperently doesn't do to many wifi syncing? It is strange though that for two months I could still play the music on my iPhone.
    What did happen just before I could not play them anymore, was the iOS update to 6.0.1. My phone's battery was draining fast and it became hot. Maybe the phone's Spotlight had to re-index? I don't know.
    FV was there since Jan, when I set up this machine. I did not run some kind of utility particularly on my music files.
    I think you are wise to stick to your OS version as long as it works well. Upgrading usually comes with some issues.
    About my setup:
    I started out on another MBP (mid 2009) with 10.5. Upgraded to 10.6 then to 10.7. Had some kernel panic issues, but solved them.The machine got stolen in January and I got my current MBP (late 2011) with 10.7 on it that I upgraded to 10.8 this summer. I started using FV in Jan with the new machine. The theft made me wonder if I shouldn't be more Utilities I use ever so infrequently:
    Onyx
    Drive Genius
    ClamAV
    Carbon Copy Cloner.
    Syncing/Backup takes place to
    Time Machine (full drive)
    iCloud (limited data)
    SugarSync (limited data)
    Dropbox (limited data)
    Google Drive (limited data)
    Carbon Copy Cloner (full drive)
    Other things:
    I put a hardware password on my laptop and a use Prey tracking software (not that it helped me to find back my old laptop btw)
    I can't remember what utility I was running at the time of the lockout in September. Maybe there was something like Drive Genius running when I had to close my MBP and leave. But since the music on my TM has the same problem, the whole lockout may not be the reason of the corrupted songs.
    Perhaps I should just accept my losses. I found an older backup with the oldest 90% of the songs that work. It's just that I am curious to know what went wrong to keep it from happening again.
    About moving to another forum: what do you think would be the best choice?  OS X Mountain Lion?

  • I used scripting brigde to add a movie that has size bigger than 5GB, exactly after two minutes iTunes return a failed, but the processing of the file is actually added to iTunes Library successfully. The copying take more than 5 minutes to complete. Why?

    I used scripting brigde to add a movie that has size bigger than 5GB, exactly after two minutes iTunes return a failed, but the processing of the file is actually added to iTunes Library successfully. The copying take more than 5 minutes to complete. Why the iTunes Scripting Brigde returned failed when it is actually success? It occurred exactly 2 minutes after submit the request to Scripting Brigde. Is this 2 minutes related to the Apple Event time out? if it does, how do I get around this problem? thx

    I can tell you that this is some of the absolutely worst customer service I have ever dealt with. I found out from a store employee that when they are really busy with calls, they have third party companies taking overflow calls. One of those companies is Xerox. What can a Xerox call center rep possibly be able to authorize on a Verizon account?  I'm Sure there is a ton of misinformation out there due to this. They don't note the accounts properly or so everyone can see them. I have been transferred before and have asked if they work for Verizon or a third party also and was refused an answer so, apparently they aren't required to disclose that information. I spent a long time in the store on my last visit and it's not just customers that get the runaround. It happens to the store employees as well and it's beyond frustrating.

  • Why do I get an error message saying FILE FAILED TO BE CONVERTED USING ADOBE EXPORT PDF ONLINE?

    Can I find some help about why my Adobe online service suddenly start giving me an error message that says FILE FAILED TO BE CONVERTED USING ADOBE EXPORT PDF ONLINE?

    Are you trying to convert through Adobe Reader (what version?), or directly at the https://cloud.acrobat.com/exportpdf website?
    [topic moved to Acrobat.com Services forum]

  • Why StorageFolder.CreateFileAsync(String) creates file fail without any exception thrown?

    I need to develop a windows phone store app to test file system. And I use
    StorageFolder.CreateFileAsync to create a file on ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder path and write
    1MB text content, and read it, modify it, and re-write it. But after about 5000 times write/read.I found that the applicaition blocked at
    StorageFolder.CreateFileAsync through a test method of log. However, there isn't any exception thrown. Why did the
    StorageFolder.CreateFileAsync  fail? And how to solve this problem? We need to write/read about 150000 times.

    Hi jinchanglin,
    Have you ever tried with profiling the app while debug the app,
    Analyze app performance and
    Analyze memory usage (VB, C#, C++)
    Is it possible that CPU or memory usage reach to the limitation as you need execute the same code with nearly 150,000 times. Also you mentioned, 5000 times is ok, personally I think the code is fine, but you may need to care more about performance behavior.
    As I know if you are working with a Phone device, there is some limitation for memory usage, you cannot let your app use more memory set than that value, try to find the limitation from
    AppMemoryUsageLimit | appMemoryUsageLimit property
    --James
    <THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED>
    Thanks
    MSDN Community Support
    Please remember to "Mark as Answer" the responses that resolved your issue. It is a common way to recognize those who have helped you, and makes it easier for other visitors to find the resolution later.

  • Special Handling of m4a 'enhanced' podcast files?

    I decided to try an enhanced podcast for my first attempt at podcasting.
    I am getting into trouble.
    First I notice that typing the url of my file in a browser window earns me an error message.
    MP3s hosted in the same directory load up in a browser window just fine. m4a files somehow don't load at all. 404 error. MIME type error. My host swears there's nothing wrong with the way their servers are set up.
    At this point I have:
    1 - an enhanced podcast m4a file, produced by Garage Band, and tested fine in iTunes.
    2 - a validated rss feed. http://www.asahramusic.net/podcasts/asahrafeed.xml
    3 - a 'test' podcast (iWeb) of that same m4a file hosted on my iDisk. http://web.me.com/kolai/Site4/Podcast/Entries/2008/10/30_Sounds_at_thebeach.html
    4 - an error message when I try to point my browser to the same file but this time hosted on my 'pro' host. http://www.asahramusic.net/podcasts/AsahraPodcastbyChrisBurns.m4a
    Result: When I test the feed in iTunes (Advanced>Subscribe to Podcast) manually, all information tagged in the xml feed shows up fine. When I click to download the actual epidose I see iTunes spinning its wheel for half a second then hanging up. Kinda like my browser does..
    Which leads me to believe there's something wrong with the way my host handles m4a files.
    I thought I'd ask you all if there's anything I should know about m4a files or hosting enhanced podcasts in general.
    Thanks for any tip.

    The correct URL for your media file appears to be
    http://web.me.com/kolai/Site_4//Media/Asahra%20Podcast%20-%20Chris%20Burns%20set .m4a
    The '%20' bits are spaces in the filename, and you shouldn't do that, but the file will be located at this URL - I can't actually check whether it plays at the moment (I'm on Linux).
    You should use this actual URL in your XML file, not the version starting with the domain name particularly as so far I can't find a version which works).

  • ITunes failing to recognize location of m4a files?

    My iTunes currently has an exclamation mark next to all the songs in m4a format in my library, even though these files have not moved at all and it has dealt with those files for years. Is there some way to get iTunes to recognize all those files where they are? About half my library is in mp3 format and iTunes is having no issue at all with those files. I am using iTunes to organize my music folder, but this problem with m4a files persists.
    If there is a folder-by-folder solution, that would work, but I can't go locate file-by-file since we're talking 10-15 GBs of music (when I locate a file in that fashion, it does work, but it would take a prohibitive amount of time to do for each song).
    I've tried consolidating the library, which accomplished nothing, and when I reimport one of the folders with m4a files, it thinks they're new songs and doesn't delete the exclamation marks on the "old" songs (that's a problem because these songs are already in lots of playlists, etc, and that info would be lost). I've also tried "repairing" (aka reinstalling) both Quicktime and iTunes using the "Add/Remove Program" icon in the Control Panel to no effect.
    This is driving me crazy so any help is MUCH appreciated! Please ask if anything is unclear or more info is needed.

    I could still really use help with this problem. I should add that my music files are stored on an external hard drive. This alone is clearly not the source of the problem, as iTunes has no problem playing and managing the mp3s even as it has put an exclamation mark next to all the songs stored in the m4a format.
    This issue began (I think) when I imported a CD while the external drive was disconnected. This imported the songs to the C:\ drive iTunes folder. When I got back to my external drive, I reconnected to it, deleted the new songs from the library, and reimported them so that they were copied onto the library on the external drive. That was no problem at all, but then this issue with m4a files cropped up.
    Alternatively, upgrading to iTunes 8 may have caused this -- I'm not sure. Either way, I could really use a solution to this.
    Thanks!

Maybe you are looking for

  • Help new ipad 1 does not appear in itunes in windows

    Hi -  just got an ipad - bought used  when I connected it to my PC running Windows XP Prof it did not show up in itunes so I can't set it up. My iphone syncs perfectly ... I'm just installing new itunes 10.2.2 but it was on 10.2.1 so don't think this

  • How to configure double click to open picture in my default editor (Photoshop CC)?

    Hi! I wanted to ask, if it is possible to open an image in my default editor, if I do a double click on the image? In my case, I want to open the image in Photoshop CC for further manipulation. Thanks a lot!

  • Bootcamp internet connectivity problem.

    I have Windows 7 on bootcamp, and it says I have limited connectivity to the wi-fi network, and I can't get an internet connection. This happened after a battery replacement. I have OSX Mavericks as my regular OS, on the same laptop, and that connect

  • Firewire audio problems with OS X 10.5.6

    Hello, I’m experiencing audio problems with Firewire 400 on my Macbook running Mac OSX 10.5.6. I’ve got a 2.4Ghz IntelCore 2 Duo with 4 GB RAM and 59 GB available on the internal HD. It’s hooked up to a brand new Mackie D.4 mixer with 2 Firewire outp

  • What should be the data type for a field in ztable?

    i am desing a ztable , wht should be the datatype for a field if i want to enter values like -1.5 and -2.5 , negative values with decimals what should be the data type???