Big problems with M4A after updating to Windows 11 22H2

Please share with me the link to the Feedback Hub entry from 3 years ago. It's the "share" button when you look at your reported feedback.

Thanks.

Pete

Hello Pete.

We can make things easier. Log in to the “Feedback Center”, and in the “All reviews” section, enter the following in the search bar:

Windows 11 m4a

There will be many reviews with different deadlines. But everywhere you will find that “Feedback received”, but whether the problem has been recorded, whether work is being done on it and the designated deadlines, you will not find, as in those lists of problems that I wrote about above. And “it was the third year” - I wrote about the fact that the problem is already more than two years old. Forgive me my English.

I agree that Feedback Hub could/should be better about reporting status. I think I even said as much earlier. That's not its primary purpose, however, (the purpose is for bug and feedback reporting from the public to Microsoft and prioritization is on getting the bugs fixed, not reporting back) but it would be good to close the loop. There's a bit of a break in the flow where the engineering teams get it.

Feedback Hub -> (if sufficient reports then they are grouped together and put into the) Feedback Hub Triage Database (once reviewed by engineering) -> Official Work Item in Engineering Bug Database

Once it becomes a work item in our engineering bug database, it loses its connection to the Feedback Hub. This is all internal stuff you don't really need to be concerned with, but thought I'd explain it. In the end, I agree we should do better about reporting both to feedback hub and the public known issues list.

The way feedback hub works, one shouldn't look there and say "oh, it's already reported, so I won't report it" because it works *much* better if you also report the bug with your repro info. If you don't have time for that, you can upvote the existing entry. That doesn't do as much, but it does help raise visibility.

And, again, the problem may have been 2+ years old, but the two FB hub reports that are related to this problem are all recent, so we didn't know about it until recently. Folks keep saying "millions of people" and "2-3 years" but none of that is relevant when there are only two reports and the oldest is apx 2 months old. I've beaten this point to death, but it's necessary when folks keep bringing up the age and scope of the issue.

Pete

Dear Pete,

I have encountered this problem for years now; the m4a problem is very well described here, and is still present with the latest Win11 updates. This thread is not the only one on the Internet. I think you don't understand the impact of disregarding this issue.

Users playing m4a files on Windows music software can no longer rely on their iTunes library.

Why?

Because m4a tracks cannot be broadcasted nor played in public with the problem described here.

Translating m4a into mp3 could be a work-around but will have 2 issues

1. all metadata and hotcues will be lost
2. playlists referencing any m4a must be manually updated with mp3 copies - may be very long
3. with the iTunes system, both m4a and mp3 will be stored on the disk - doubling the library space.

We are not talking about a few files bought on iTunes. Professionals do store thousands of tracks and iTunes is a good solution to get the music on different devices instantly, providing tracks with very good metadata information.

The solution - for me and I think many users - and despite the advantages of iTunes - is not buying anything ion the iTunes Store anymore- because m4a library is too complicated afterwards to maintain.

Is it the goal? Killing iTunes? I can't believe it...

The consequence is more like users running Music Software like Rekordbox Virtual DJ or Traktor can regret not having bought a Mac instead of Windows computer.

Now if Microsoft really "supports" m4a, I think that Microsoft must provide a solution - not only work-arounds.

As m4a codec is part of Windows 11 system still have issues, I think there are 3 concretes options to consider today:

a) Microsoft announces that Windows 11 no longer supports m4a - forcing software vendors like Serato providing there own codec part of their product.

b) Microsoft announces a date for a patch to be released

c) Alternative: statu quo and Microsoft supports an agreed vendor able to fix this issue delivered in a third-party driver software.

Thank you for your consideration and feedback about this annoying issue

Very Best Regards