Right, so I hear a song by Hem. It’s a cover of South Central Rain. Well and good.
There it is! It iTunes! So I purchase it.
But my iPod nor iTunes will play the thing. I get a ‘cannot play this format’ from iTunes and a ‘Was not tranferred because your iPod cannot play this format’ messages.
I looked at the file, which I am at pains to point out I purchased from iTunes and it’s .mp4.
Can anyone clue me in about this situation and how I could convert the file to something that will play?
An m4p is a protected mp3; that’s how all iTunes purchases appear.
Make sure you have authorized the computer you are on through iTunes; if you haven’t you won’t be able to play it or transfer it to an iPod.
It plays everything else I’ve got and purchased through iTunes. For whatever reason it’s wigging out because of this one file.
Call’em. iTunes customer service is reported to be very accomodating.
Well, I’d love to do that. But I can’t seem to find a number. Got one?
1 800 275 2273 is the number given in a Slate magazine piece. Enter 7, 0. Say iTunes for the product and answer the rest of the questions as appropriate and have the serial number for your iPod available.
If you go under the iTunes menu you can check for updates. You may have a slightly out of date version of the iTunes or iPod software.
Wait, is the file extension .m4p or .mp4? It should be the former, so if it’s the latter, try manually changing it and see if that fixes the problem.
It most certainly is not.
An m4p is a protected .mp4 (or .aac) file, not .mp3.
Let us know if you find an answer! I’ve been too lazy to try and figure it out myself, but I have one music video I bought through the iTunes store (White Stripes - Hardest Button to Button) that will play fine in iTunes but won’t copy to the iPod, with the ‘Was not tranferred because your iPod cannot play this format’ message. I noticed that the video is no longer available at the iTunes music store. I wonder if this problem had something to do with them pulling the video from the store?
When I have had this problem it’s been because I was running an older version of iTunes. Check for updates if you haven’t recently.
Updated tonight (I was only a week or so behind) and still no go. It’ll play stuff I purchased before and after this one song…but not that one.
I doubt it, I have automatic updates turned on for my Macintosh. I’m on iTunes 7.1.1 right now.
Try downloading something like MediaMonkey and using it to convert from mp4 to mp3.
It’s not outside the realm of possibility that this particular file is just corrupt, or maybe the download is incomplete.
Reported
iTunes can handle just about any file format that works with QuickTime and will play any file purchased or downloaded from the iTunes Store. If you’ve got video files that end with a .mov, .m4v, or .mp4 file extension, you can import them to iTunes with ease. However, the video especially the MP4 video must meet the following specifications: it must be encoded as 540 kbit/s (minimum) MPEG-4 video (H.264) with an approximately 128 kbit/s AAC audio track or encoded as 1.5 Mbit/s (minimum) MPEG-4 video (H.264) with a minimum 128 kbit/s AAC audio track. If not, you will fail to import MP4 to iTunes.
Even if your MP4 files meet the above specifications and are added to iTunes successfully, it may still fail to sync to iOS devices. For iPhones, iPads, and video-capable iPods play videos in more specific video formats and codecs.
In order to successfully add MP4 to iTunes as well as sync MP4 to iPod, iPhone, iPad, we have better convert the MP4 files to both iTunes and iOS supported MPEG-4 format.
Spa reported. (Rick Caine)
That’s an article, not spam. Or a spa.
It’s a software company. Guess what they sell?
You ever follow a recipe on the back of a package and not use the exact brands that are in the recipe?