Topic: Fre:ac flac files suddenly not playing ??

[Billy Mumphrey]

I usually try to thoroughly troubleshoot my own problems before posting, but I can't figure out why suddenly, out of nowhere, the large flac files of my last 2 taped shows aren't playing in Windows Media Player or VLC. WMP says "We can't open <file name>. It's encoded in a format that isn't supported." Yet, all my other flac's are playing, except for the last 2 shows I've recorded. I haven't changed one single thing in my recording process or computer or software. No setting changes, nothing. Just randomly the large (raw) flac files from the last 2 show won't play. If I use freac to convert them back to wav, they play just fine. The show I recorded 2 weeks ago (and everything before that), the large raw flac files play just fine.

I did a quick mastering on one of the recent shows and rendered a quick 1 min sample to listen in my car, and a flac of that 1 min sample plays just fine in WMP. So strange and random, I'm wondering if anyone else has or is experiencing this. TIA

EDIT: I also uninstalled and reinstalled freac and same thing.

[u2_fly_2]

I usually try to thoroughly troubleshoot my own problems before posting, but I can't figure out why suddenly, out of nowhere, the large flac files of my last 2 taped shows aren't playing in Windows Media Player or VLC. WMP says "We can't open <file name>. It's encoded in a format that isn't supported." Yet, all my other flac's are playing, except for the last 2 shows I've recorded. I haven't changed one single thing in my recording process or computer or software. No setting changes, nothing. Just randomly the large (raw) flac files from the last 2 show won't play. If I use freac to convert them back to wav, they play just fine. The show I recorded 2 weeks ago (and everything before that), the large raw flac files play just fine.

I did a quick mastering on one of the recent shows and rendered a quick 1 min sample to listen in my car, and a flac of that 1 min sample plays just fine in WMP. So strange and random, I'm wondering if anyone else has or is experiencing this. TIA

EDIT: I also uninstalled and reinstalled freac and same thing.

Thats weird...it happend once with a concert I recorded (with Freac I mean)...then I tried DB Poweramp converter and that did the trick. Freac sometimes freezes as well if I convert large size waves or flac:s.

Lately it has worked very well (for the last year or so).

As far as I know I have not updated the software of Freac...if one do so...then thats usually when the problems starts to appear.

All the best to you.

[nassau73]

Just a long shot here - I don't know the size of the "large" files you are dealing with.

Some people have been reporting issues with drive recognition and file corruption due to the latest windows update  (KB5063878).

Try a couple of searches and see if any of the conditions apply to you.

I don't recall seeing if uninstalling the update alleviates the problem.

Also - look further into this forum. Usre Gone Fishin posted about this a few days ago
Windows 11 Large Files Handling - Major Issue for Aug. 2025 Patch New

[Billy Mumphrey]

These are excellent suggestions, thanks guys. I'm gonna try DB Poweramp later today.

I forgot about Windows updates, but I'm on Windows 10 and I just checked my update history. I do not see the specific update you mention, but there was an update a week ago and that definitely is a software change. I may be paranoid, but I would never rule out Windows 10 getting "buggier" as we get closer to Windows discontinuing all support for 10.