When will the problem with playing m4a files (Traktor pro 3 & Win 22 H2) be solved?

Ulli · April 2023

Still problems playing m4a files (Traktor pro 3 & Win 22 H2)

I love Traktor Pro 3 and really appreciate this community.

I am having problems playing purchased m4a files from I Tunes since my upload Win 22H2.

This problem is known and is being worked on.

I use the Z1 controller and buy my songs from I Tunes and Bandcamp. I convert the m4a files to wav files.

It is always difficult and cumbersome to do this work, also because my spontaneity in life DJing is limited.

Sometimes I am angry about this situation, sometimes patient or in good hope for change.

Now I would like to know what the state of affairs is:

Can this problem be fixed? When is a realistic time?

I do not want to choose another DJ program, previously I had Virtual DJ and switched to Traktor out of conviction.

Greetings Ulli

LostInFoundation · April 2023

“Patient and good hope” is quite a good definition of how NI users must be…

Tom-Swiss · August 2023

I ran into this issue yesterday doing a live djing gig at a party.

I did all the set preparation on my main computer, a machine which is windows 10 based. I djeed however that night using a well powered notebook that used Windows 11.

Apple m4a is not as good as WAV but still better quality than mp3. The party was in the mainstream 80/90/00/10 song field, kinda perfect for my long grown iTunes Library.

I also got various wish lists by people coming to that party one day before the event. Means, I spent half a day organising all songs and creating nice sets.

It was horrible, crackling sound, first I checked cables... etc... . soon spotted that it was always m4a files. I converted them in Itunes one by one during the running party into mp3 before playing.

Learning today that this was all well known and stayed unresolved since ages makes me mad as hell.

lord-carlos · August 2023

Serato and Rekordbox seems also to be affected: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/big-problems-with-m4a-after-updating-to-windows-11/c7a84a9c-f013-4525-b0e4-d162aae122f2

https://forums.pioneerdj.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/12212808237337-RekordBox-5-8-7-m4a-problems

All programs that use the Microsoft buildin decoder.

The "best" solution would be for Microsoft to fix their code. Otherwise Traktor would need to implement another 3rd party decoder.

That said, the least NI could do is to pin the 2 workarounds in the forum. Roll back the 22H2 update or transcode the files to another format. @Kaiwan_NI can we make a pin happen so not more people run into the issue at a gig? 🙏 And also so they ask MS for a fix and not blame NI.

Edit: DeJuced of all programs added a 3rd party decoder :D https://www.djuced.com/kb/my-m4a-and-aac-files-volume-are-too-low-on-windows-11-update-22h2/

Ulli · November 2023

Yay!

Microsoft is trying to find a solution (Comment from 11/17/2013, Pete Brown- Microsoft Employee)

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/big-problems-with-m4a-after-updating-to-windows-11/c7a84a9c-f013-4525-b0e4-d162aae122f2?page=2

When will the problem with playing m4a files (Traktor pro 3 & Win 22 H2) be solved?

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