What causes "Corrupt File Detected"?

ilove1981
ilove1981 Member Posts: 45 Helper

Last night whilst playing a track I don't think I have ever played before, I got the message:

Corrupt File Detected - Playback of this track may stop anytime

I tried it again today and I see the same message, at the same point. I've not seen this before so I was slightly worried. It happened right at the end of the track and I was mixing out anyway, but interestingly, the track did play right to the end with no issues.

Does this mean simply that the MP3 file is somehow corrupt or invalid? And yet the song still plays normally?

Thanks for any insight anyone can offer!


Best Answer

  • JesterMgee
    JesterMgee Member Posts: 2,530 Expert
    Answer ✓

    Usually it's just a slight error of some kind in the file. MP3/Flac files have several data chunks in them for the audio, the metadata and the image and if any one of these fails the checksums it could cause this so could even be some corrupt data in the non-audio part but could also just be a simple byte that is a problem and may not be audible.

    Sometimes it "can" cause playback to stop or hiccup depending on the issue so is a caution warning really. Ideally if it's an important part of your setlist you would want to get another copy just in case, otherwise it's probably no big deal if you have tested it to play fine.

Answers

  • JesterMgee
    JesterMgee Member Posts: 2,530 Expert
    Answer ✓

    Usually it's just a slight error of some kind in the file. MP3/Flac files have several data chunks in them for the audio, the metadata and the image and if any one of these fails the checksums it could cause this so could even be some corrupt data in the non-audio part but could also just be a simple byte that is a problem and may not be audible.

    Sometimes it "can" cause playback to stop or hiccup depending on the issue so is a caution warning really. Ideally if it's an important part of your setlist you would want to get another copy just in case, otherwise it's probably no big deal if you have tested it to play fine.

  • ilove1981
    ilove1981 Member Posts: 45 Helper

    Thanks. I'm now wondering if there are macOS tools to check MP3 files for these issues. I'll have a look around but if anyone knows of any way to test for internal corruption, let me know. Thanks.

  • DJ ShinYellow
    DJ ShinYellow Member Posts: 1 Newcomer

    Hi!! Lately I have experimented the same problem, but is not exactly that way.

    Randomly, I put a song on the deck and then happens. But I know that is not a file problem, because later I close Traktor, play again that same song and, magically, the error disappear. And then, the error starts with other song that is not related to the other at all.

    I scanned all the songs with Frontened, and it says that ain't no problem with any MP3 file. I don't know what to do, because I don't know where is exactly the problem and I can't solve it

  • lord-carlos
    lord-carlos Member Posts: 2,218 Expert
  • Isaiah86
    Isaiah86 Member Posts: 1 Newcomer

    Does accessing the any said "file" from a cloud service promt that error message due to the cloud services' custodial ID/nature? or the downloading process found therin?

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