Windows Desktop Some Audio Not Playing - Tried all the other fixes

[oowa13]

Thank you for all the incredible work you do.
Some of my audio will not play (AnkiHub AnKing deck) - the play button shows up, but pressing it does nothing. For other audio files, it’ll autoplay normally.
Version 24.06.3, Windows

1. Starting Anki without Add-Ons doesn’t change anything
2. All the audio files are mp3s with the same naming pattern
3. When I drop both the good and the “bad” audio files into mpv, they play, and they also plays using VLC
4. The audio does not work on AnkiWeb (pressing play does nothing), which implies it might be a sync issue? But it’s downloaded on my laptop, so it should work there, regardless.
5. I have no additional audio outputs
6. I’m not sure if this helps, but when I play it on AnkiDroid, I get an error message “Failed to load…” but I don’t care about that rn
   Any help is greatly appreciated

edits: evolving situation

[sorata]

Have you used Check Media to see if the files exist?

[Danika_Dakika]

@oowa13

2. All the audio files are mp3s with the same naming pattern

2. It sounds like they have mp3 extensions – but have you checked to make sure that’s what they actually are? I ask because one of the dictionaries I download audio from provides “.wav” files – but they are actually mp3 files. Have you checked what they actually are with an app like MediaInfo?

@oowa13

3. When I drop both the good and the “bad” audio files into mpv, they play, and they also plays using VLC

3. When you check that the file plays outside of Anki, are you going to your collection.media folder – Managing Files - Anki Manual – and testing the exact same file that Anki is trying to play – as opposed to another copy that you downloaded?

.7. What’s in the field of your card where this file is referenced? Look at it both from the display view and the HTML view (by clicking < > above the field).

[oowa13]

Had no idea that existed. They’re listed as missing under check media, but they’re in the Anki2 collections folder. What does that mean?

[oowa13]

@Danika_Dakika

Have you checked what they actually are with an app like MedialInfo?

I mean, in the Anki2 collections folder they’re called [title].mp3, doesn’t that mean they’re mp3s?

@Danika_Dakika

When you check that the file plays outside of Anki, are you going to your collection.media folder and testing the exact same file that Anki is trying to play – as opposed to another copy that you downloaded?

Yes, I’m dragging and dropping from the anki2 collections folder

@Danika_Dakika

.7. What’s in the field of your card where this file is referenced? Look at it both from the display view and the HTML view (by clicking < > above the field).

Text field:
What kinda heart sound is going on here?<div><br></div><div>{{c1::see extra below}}</div>

Extra field:
<img src="[title].jpg">

Audio field:
[sound:15 Aortic, Sys Mur &amp; Absent S2, Sitting, Bell.mp3]<br>

When I use “check media,” which @sorata suggested, the file is listed as missing, but it’s in the collections folder. I have no clue what that means

[sorata]

@oowa13

I mean, in the Anki2 collections folder they’re called [title].mp3, doesn’t that mean they’re mp3s?

I have .mp4s that I don’t want others to see so I rename them to .pdf so it becomes unusable. As you can see, you can rename the extensions.

@oowa13

When I use “check media,” which @sorata suggested, the file is listed as missing, but it’s in the collections folder.

That means Anki cannot find the referenced file in your media folder.

[oowa13]

I figured it out, thank you both @sorata and @Danika_Dakika
I hadn’t noticed before, but the title of the source file was somehow changed by one character, so Anki couldn’t find it. Fixed the name and it worked perfectly. No idea how the file name got changed.

edit: It was because the person who created my deck tried to use an ampersand in their file name, which was preserved in the audio file titles in the cards, but was converted to a space in the actual file name