OK, so I took one folder of music from my stick, and backed it up on a second stick. This has 138 songs.
I ran them thru MP3 Diags. A number of problems were there, including null streams, invalid ID3V2 streams, among other things.
I figure nothing to lose since it is all a backup anyway, and I ran these thru MP3 Diags, using hammer #4 - to fix literally everything it can fix.
I am not working today, so not sure if I will get a chance to test the results, but I will tomorrow. But the files play in VLC and Winamp exactly as they should.
So I am now doing a second folder. Below I will list all the errors MP3 Diags gives for that folder....except for ones dealing with audio quality, since that doesn't affect tags. There's far fewer errors in this second folder...but here is what is there...and am about to fix..
ae - Incomplete MPEG frame at end of MPEG stream
ak - invalid MPEG stream stream has fewer than 10 frames
dk - Unsuported ID3V2 tag - unsupported flag
ec - ID3V2 tag has at least one valid APIC frame but no frame associated with album cover
hd - two ID3V1 tags found - file should have at most one
hk - invalid ID3V1 tag - invalid characters in comment field
jb - truncated MPEG stream found
kb - unknown stream found
of - unsupported stream found
Not all the files have all of these errors. This is a similar, but shorter list than the first folder had.
I am applying hammer #4 again.
I'll report back when I have results, as long as the topic does not get closed. I hope this time I am on the right track. I finally seem to have figured out how to use MP3 Diags.
MP3diags likes ID3vx tags but not APE tags. (Yes, this is a program that has problems with these tags). So get rid of the APE tags first, then run MP3diags again. The number of "Unsupportd ID3V2tag" messages should be lower.
Two ID3v1 tags looks a lot like a good cause for the problems that you have with your player.
And files with unknown or broken streams should be repaired as otherwise pointers inside the files may point to the nirwana.
Besides: the request of an integrity check was the first reply in your first thread:
so we could have come closer to the root cause 22 replies earlier.
Well, I am doing all my folders now, as described, one at a time, since I am off work.
No loss no matter what, since this is all backup, and I end up with clean files. I may be at times annoying, but I have my own way of coming at things, and sorry if I annoyed you before, not my intent.
That I cannot answer.
You are the only one who knows where you got the files from and/or which tools you used to convert them. But it would be along that chain that some program messed things up.
BTW: you do not need to convert the wav file. Wav files can also get tags. The better format, though, as there is wider support for it, would be flac, a lossless codec. See if you player can cope with that.
Well, let me get this all done first with MP3 and see if it solves the problem.
THEN, I can try another backup and see if I can do FLAC files.
Are there other lossless formats, in case FLAC does not work?
By the way, I use Any Video Converter to convert to MP3 files. Sometimes, I download from You Tube and then convert. I refuse to pay twice for music. I won't do the above on anything I have not already bought...but if I have already bought it once, I have no trouble with the above process.
I think AVC can convert to FLAC. Just checked. It can.
There are several lossless compression formats. FLAC is probably the most universally usable one other than with Apple devices (still doable but not native). The ALAC format is similar in function to FLAC and works natively with Apple but is not universally supported by some players, especially on Android. There are others that are more esoteric in nature but again the support diminishes.
Hard to say pinpoint, but I usually find that files "converted" from web sources using free "tools" often have the biggest issues. Next on the list would be files downloaded or traded with others where you don't know the actual original source. It is highly unlikely these issues arise when the original CD is ripped on your own end or if purchased directly from the standard web stores.
Some stores offer an option to redownload your purchases. But with huge storage options now available at affordable pricing, the best advice is to keep at least one complete backup to preserve your purchases.
An easy way would be to check the files (with MP3diags) before you convert them and afterwards. If no errors have been added, then this tool seems to work ok.
Ok. So I took my music...one folder at a time and ran them thru MP3 Diags.
A lot of errors got fixed. The interface is not entirely intuitive...I had to figure out how to get things out of the list after they were done. You have to use the filter and uncheck what you are not working on.