Add some support for iTunes/Voice Memmos fields in m4a/M4a (ALAC) files

General Discussion
1

Hi,
I Love this application and I use it every single day.
However, When editing voice memmos recorded from my iPhone and dropped to my laptop, I wanted to append the recorded date in perenthacies at the end, but mp3tag doesn't see it. MediaInfo does, so I know it's there. I'm not sure where in the stream the tag is or even h how it's implimented. I believe media can be extracted using MediaInfo CLI and then imported into a custum field in mp3tag, but that kind of seems like a long-winded way of doing things.
Sample:
General
Complete name : D:\melissa\LANDrop\New Recording 2.m4a
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Apple audio with iTunes info
Codec ID : M4A (M4A /isom/mp42)
File size : 434 MiB
Duration : 2 h 0 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 505 kb/s
Track name : New Recording 2
Recorded date : 2024-02-23 18:58:16 UTC
Encoded date : 2024-02-23 18:58:16 UTC
Tagged date : 2024-02-23 20:58:26 UTC
Writing application : com.apple.VoiceMemos (iPhone Version 16.7.2 (Build 20H115))
voice-memo-uuid : A5038D36-E323-4EEF-890D-3CBE8FFD19FE

Audio
ID : 1
Format : ALAC
Codec ID : alac
Codec ID/Info : Apple Lossless Audio Codec
Duration : 2 h 0 min
Source duration : 2 h 0 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 503 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 432 MiB (100%)
Source stream size : 432 MiB (100%)
Title : Core Media Audio
Encoded date : 2024-02-23 18:58:16 UTC
Tagged date : 2024-02-23 20:58:26 UTC

I hope that it could be looked at at some point.
Kind regards,
Melissa.

2

Is this an Apple laptop?

3

You want to rename your file from
D:\melissa\LANDrop\New Recording 2.m4a
to
D:\melissa\LANDrop\New Recording 2.m4a (2024-02-23 18.58.16 UTC)
or
D:\melissa\LANDrop\New Recording 2 (2024-02-23 18.58.16 UTC).m4a

Could you please provide a small sample recording?
Maybe by PM?

4

If you check the Extended Tags window for this file, can you see the dates you mention, including the "Recorded Date" or "Encoded Date" with the expected times?

5

Hi all,
No, The extended tags don’t show any of the fields. I only saw them when I looked on my iPhone then MediaInfo desctop.
I’m using a Windows Laptop.

6

Please note that there are also file properties like %_file_create_datetime% and %_file_mod_datetime% - perhaps these are referenced by your player.

7

The data is either from a date user data atom in the udta (user data box) MP4 atom, or from the creation date/modification date of the mvhd (movie header box) MP4 atom.

Neither of these are standard editable metadata fields in the iTunes style. Mp3tag does not currently support reading them, but I'll make a note to research this further.

Moving this to General Discussion and adding feature

8

Thank You. This is interesting.

9

I've added mp4_creation_time , mp4_creation_time_raw , mp4_modification_time , and mp4_modification_time_raw to display MP4 mvhd creation and modification dates with Mp3tag v3.31h.

10

thank You So freaking much! yu truely are the best!
When I get 5 minutes I going to do something I don’t do very often and donate, because I think everyone should be using this program!