Files are truncated/portions don't play

Support
1

I'm wondering if the MP3tags having anything to do with the following two issues:

I'll load an mp3 file on my SAMSUNG GALAXYs5 phone, check it after loading, everything is fine, and the next day or so, when I go to play it, one of two issues occur:

  1. All of a sudden, the file is truncated, i.e. it started at 22 minutes and quits after 10; or 2) the file quits at, say, 4 minutes in, but it you go to 5 minutes in, it will play fine until the end.

As an experiment, I've loaded backup files with NO tags and those files never corrupt.

I've tried this with two different music players and the same issue occurs.

Any ideas why these issues might be occurring?

Thanks,

2

The files are probably corrupted.
Check them with utilities like mp3val, mp3diags and foobar2000

3

And / or convert them to WAV [or any other format] and see, if these new one also have issues; and / or load them to an editor, to see if they look OK or if they have a sudden empty space

4

November 10, 2018 update:

I put together a lot of my own music mixes to listen to at the gym, or I'm listening back to syndicated/old radio shows, etc.

I usually break them up in 15-minute segments and add MP3 tags with info and pictures.

Over the last 18 months or so, I've started having playback issues, despite swapping SD cards, reformatting the card, etc.

The issue is so random, it is hard to pinpoint.

Let's say there are four segments. Somewhere in segment 2, 3, or 4 (rarely in 1), the track does one of three things:

a) it won't play at all (rare);

b) it will only play 1/3rd of the actual track (happens the most); or

c) It will play a certain percentage and quit, but, if you skip forward in the track, it will finish.

What is "interesting" is that "b" happened just the other day. I transferred the .mp3 back to the computer and opened it with my wave file editor. Low and behold, the remaining portion of the file had disappeared , which is why it only played a portion of the original file.

For the moment, to combat this problem, I've been doing two things: A) I keep the original copies of the files in a HOLD FOR DELETE folder on my computer, and B) I also load a non-mp3-tagged copy onto the SD card as well. I have never had any issue with the non-tagged files.

Any ideas on what is going on?

Thanks,

NORM

5

I would still check the files prior to tagging with one of the utilities already mentioned above: mp3val, mp3diags, foobar2000.
An I would repeat that step after each modification of the files.
It is easier then to find out which part of the processing chain messes things up.

6

Thanks. I downloaded mp3val and will use it going forward.

For the record, I should mention this ONLY is happening with files on my smartphone. Mp3tagged files I play back on my computer using ITUNES (for the most part) or any other program have ZERO issues.

When I first transfer the files to the smartphone, I do a quick check to see if they work, and 100% of the time they are fine.

Something happens between that time, and a day or two, or a week later.

When I go to listen back to the file, part or all of it won't play.

Do I have ghosts on my phone? :alien:

Thanks for the help. Norm.

7

In the forum there are reports about smartphones where the player downloads additional information from the internet. Perhaps that happens on your device also. And perhaps that goes wrong ... don't know.

8

I also very rarely also encounter such corrupted MP3 files. But on my desktop computer they do play A-OK, as it is only in audio editor do I see that they have missing parts [empty space]

And I never managed to int point the culprit. And nowadays I cannot recall encountering them- so I assume it was either the fault of old encoding software or of one of my HDDs; or both of those at the same time, interacting with each other in some malfunctioning way

What you mentioned later on points in the direction of your phone as the culprit, be it a hardware issue or software problem

So how about using some other phone for some time- just for that purpose? Even a cheap / old one, just to check this theory out?