Big problems with M4A after updating to Windows 11 22H2

Anonymous
2023-05-16T09:52:13+00:00

Dear colleagues, after updating Windows 11 to 22H2, there were significant problems with playing files purchased from iTunes in .m4a (AAC, ALAC) format. This problem has been fixed by a lot of people all over the world and is especially evident on the DJ forums. Problems are observed with the quality of playback, and with the volume and with a number of other parameters. This problem is detected on software that uses the built-in Windows 11 22H2 codecs (on earlier versions, the problem is not observed), Windows Media Player, RekordBox, Serato DJ Pro, etc. On players that use their own codecs (VLC, iTunes, JetAudio HD, etc.) there is no problem. When converting m4a to mp3, there are no problems. What it looks like: https://youtu.be/WqAA12pfWjg and https://youtu.be/um3QSTuLg6s Software vendors fix this issue after the 22H2 update as well, label it as a Microsoft issue and offer a workaround, such as converting the entire m4a database to other formats, which of course is completely unacceptable advice with a database of several thousand files. https://forums.pioneerdj.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/12212808237337-RekordBox-5-8-7-m4a-problems Does Microsoft acknowledge the existence of this problem and when is it planned to release an urgent fix, since. the problem has been observed for a very long time and prevents normal operation?

Thanks in advance!

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2024-03-27T00:42:35+00:00

I installed KB5035942 and unless I'm severely mistaken, the issue seems to be resolved.

Can anyone else confirm?

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-11-18T20:44:46+00:00

    As i wrote it day's ago as one of the first guy's.

    We know about this bug since the start of win 11 but I never reported that bug because i thought, that one day it will be fixed. But now with 23h2 my patience had an end.

    The songs in m4a have a very strange wave form. They get louder an quieter. They do not have a connstant volume. Thats the problem. You play the song and the volume jumps up and down the hole time ...

    Only on Windows 11

    I went back to win 10. There is no porblem there ether on Mac or Linux. Only Win 11 an m4a.

    Yes, we know about the issue now. But because no one had actually reported it, we're only hearing about it now.

    The main ways we find out about bugs:

    1. Our testing before we release. If we don't catch a bug then, and the product releases with it, then it's a scenario we're not testing for.
    2. Telemetry in the case of crashes (this is not a crash so that wouldn't happen)
    3. Partner reports in partner center (there's one recent report on this topic from a month ago. Nothing older than that)
    4. Feedback hub reports.

    Because none of those things were present, we didn't know we had a bug, and so we wouldn't know to fix it. I appreciate that you ran out of patience and reverted to an older version, but you all were waiting for us to fix something we didn't know needed fixing.

    That's why the first reply in this thread says to use Feedback Hub to report the bug.

    Pete

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-11-20T16:14:13+00:00

    I have one report from a customer that the fix that is currently in the Windows Insider Canary channel does, in fact, fix this problem. We may need additional confirmation from others to be sure so if you have experienced the problem and are able to test on a Canary Insider build on a non-production PC, that would be very helpful.

    Once I know when this fix will go out into retail channels, I'll update here.

    Pete

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-11-20T18:45:15+00:00

    Can confirm, that with build 25997.1010 (Canary Insider) the problem seems to be fixed.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-11-20T20:02:05+00:00

    Can confirm, that with build 25997.1010 (Canary Insider) the problem seems to be fixed.

    Excellent. Thank you for testing :)

    Pete

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