Some mp3 audio files don't work in iOS Anki but work on macOS

[Joey]

Hi, recently I downloaded several audio files from Frovo, all of which are mp3 files. But I found that some of them cannot be played in iOS Anki, when I click on the audio icon in iOS Anki, nothing happens, no error, no response. But all of them work in macOS anki.

I uploaded a sample to Google Drive, so anyone checking the issue can download and reproduce it. Here is the link: デート-1234781.mp3 - Google Drive

I tried changing the filename to 123.mp3 and changing the file extension to wav, but none of these methods worked.

[kelciour]

It’s not an mp3 file. It’s an ogg file and iOS doesn’t support and can’t play it.

Here’s the output from MediaInfo.

General
Complete name                            : デート-1234781.mp3
Format                                   : Ogg
File size                                : 33.5 KiB
Duration                                 : 2 s 509 ms
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 109 kb/s
Writing application                      : Lavf53.21.0
FileExtension_Invalid                    : oga ogg ogm ogv ogx opus spx

Audio
ID                                       : 1929446074 (0x730102BA)
Format                                   : Vorbis
Format settings, Floor                   : 1
Duration                                 : 2 s 509 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 160 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 kHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 49.0 KiB
Writing library                          : Lavf53.21.0

Maybe the file was downloaded using Simple Forvo Audio Downloader - AnkiWeb as it seems to be a common issue based on a few reviews mentioned iOS.

Aside from transcoding it to mp3, for example, maybe using Handbrake, the mp3 file can be also downloaded manually from Forvo after signing in to make the Download MP3 button to appear.

[Joey]

Thanks, that’s really helpful! I’ve been searching for the reason for a long time. Now I know the reason, I can use ffmpeg to pinpoint and convert those files in batch.