Problem with m4a and mp4 files

[elendil]

Hi,
downloaded musicbee and loving it but I can't import or play mp4 and m4a files.

Notes:

1) I'm on Windows 10
2) Yes, I downloaded and placed "bass_aac.dll" in the codec folder
3) if I import my ITunes Library, Musicbee doesn't import m4a and mp4 files to library. But it imports correctly playlists containing those files
4) yes, "import video files" is checked and all audio formats are checked
5) if I click on one of these files on a playlist in Musicbee, it opens an external player to play it. It doesn't happen if I click on an MP3 file in the same playlist
6) the files are not protected - I checked

Anyone knows what the problem is?
I have TONS of such files and don't want to lose quality converting them again.

Thank you to anyone answering.

[redwing]

Did you check inbox node?

[Steven]

mp4 files are probably imported to the Video node. You would need to enable the Video node in the Layout(1) preferences

also the bass_aac.dll file needs to be in the MusicBee folder, not the codec folder

[elendil]

Thank you for answering!

mp4 and m4a files are in fact in the video node, despite being audio files.
But I've seen I can move them to music library manually.

Moving bass_aac.dll solved the problem of external player for m4a files but not for mp4, these are still played by an external player when clicked into musicbee.

[redwing]

You could change file extension to m4a if they are audio files. Then MB will play them.

[elendil]

I needed to download a batch rename software but it worked, thank you.

[edmundpickett]

This is my third request for help on this problem. Here is an answer I got:

mp4 files are probably imported to the Video node. You would need to enable the Video node in the Layout(1) preferences

I searched all the choices on the menu and finally found a preferences choice on the edit drop down. I chose it and found Layout (1) and Layout (2) options. I found the word "video" under "show navigation tabs." I clicked it, applied it and saved. Is this what I was supposed to do?

My mp4 and m4a files still do not show up in Music Bee search. Could someone please explain to me in English what I have to do? I have a great deal of mp4 and m4a files created by Sony MediaGo and they are lost to me at the moment. Previous answers probably make sense to professional coders but they are meaningless to me.

[Muktimom]

This really helped me. Thanks. Just went into File Explorer on Win 10, R clicked on the file. Then then chose Properties on the drop-down menu.  In Properties, the first window to open was General.  The name of the file was in the editing box, where I changed the extension .mp4 to .m4a.  Then the files were recognized by Music Bee.

[spandan888]

hi, i downloaded bass_aac.dll from
https://www.un4seen.com/files/z/2/bass_aac24.zip
and copied the 147kb file to the MusicBee folder
but still .m4a files dont play, they are in the musicbee library database though.

using 64 bit windows 7.
tried restarting my system as well.

[spandan888]

fyi, the m4a i am having problems with are downloaded from the NewPipe android app.
though the files are playing on MPC-HC

here is the mediainfo

Code

Format                      : dash
Codec ID                    : dash (iso6/mp41)
File size                   : 4.59 MiB
Duration                    : 5 min 3 s
Overall bit rate            : 127 kb/s
Encoded date                : UTC 2018-09-18 09:02:39
Tagged date                 : UTC 2018-09-18 09:02:39

Audio
ID                          : 1
Format                      : AAC
Format/Info                 : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile              : LC
Codec ID                    : mp4a-40-2
Duration                    : 5 min 3 s
Bit rate                    : 126 kb/s
Channel(s)                  : 2 channels
Channel positions           : Front: L R
Sampling rate               : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate                  : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode            : Lossy
Stream size                 : 4.54 MiB (99%)
Language                    : English
Encoded date                : UTC 2018-09-18 09:02:39
Tagged date                 : UTC 2018-09-18 09:02:39

[Steven]

i am pretty sure dash files are not supported by bass_aac.dll
and i dont think the bass developer has expressed any indication that support would be added

[sveakul]

hi, i downloaded bass_aac.dll from
https://www.un4seen.com/files/z/2/bass_aac24.zip
and copied the 147kb file to the MusicBee folder
but still .m4a files dont play, they are in the musicbee library database though.

What extension is being used for the dash container files?  You can re-wrap them into a new non-dash m4a container (if "m4a" is being used as an extension) with the code given in the first post here:  https://superuser.com/questions/837067/convert-youtube-dash-audio-youtube-dl-to-m4a-aac-dl

Or, if the extension used is "mp4", for a batch method, check out the post here, only change the (*.aac) to (*.mp4): https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=23193.0

To use the above batch method on originals also named ".m4a" the code would need to be altered so that files with the same filenames as the originals are not being produced/overwritten.  Just change the "%~nF.m4a" part at the end to "%F.m4a" which will result in double-extension output files.  Then you can delete/move the originals and remove the extra extension from the converted ones.  A coder here could re-write this to end up placing the new files in a separate directory I'm sure to avoid that process.

[spandan888]

thanks for taking the time steven and sevakul, it works..!

[sveakul]

Glad to be of help!  There's not much you can't do with ffmpeg.

[Frizbee]

I know it's a bit late in the day but I may well have found the easy solution to this pesky little problem.Following on from a suggestion from EKarcic on another post ,I downloaded Tencoder and it didn't take too long to hit on the fix for corrupted M4a files which won't play in MusicBee.

Try this:

Load the M4a's into Tencoder.
Set the Audio codec to Direct Copy and the Video Codec to None.

Press Encode and when done the new copy should play in MB.

You can use the same settings with Mp4 files if you just want to extract the audio.

Hope this works for everyone