Sessions Not Finding .m4a (MPEG-4) Recording

I recorded a session with my Android smart phone. It stored the file in an .m4a file, which Windows can readily see and play:

  1. I tried adding a new session by the “New From Device…” button. (The Session > New From Device menu option gives me the same results, as expected.)
  2. I clicked on the “Find Files on Recorder/Card…” hyperlink. This results in a browse for folder dialog.
  3. I find the folder on the Android, select it, and press ok.

The SayMore New Sessions from Device dialog does not show any files, even though the .m4a is there.

For now I have gotten around it by copying the file to a place on my computer. I added a New Session. Then I dragged the the .m4a from Windows Explorer into the top-right pane. I now have the MPEG-4 file underneath the session.

I have: a Windows 7 Dell, a Samsung J7 (2016) Android, and the latest release of SayMore (3.1.4).

Okay, after digging some more, I see that SayMore requires either a .wav or an .mp4. “M4A is a file extension for an audio file encoded with advanced audio coding (AAC) which is a lossy compression.”

SayMore has converters available for various MP2 and MP3 audio files. It also has a converter to “Xvid/MPEG-4 AVC video with AAC Audio”, but I’m not seeing any converter available for this .m4a file. I’m assuming for the moment that no converter is available here.

There are online converters to convert an .m4a to a .wav. This is obviously not a very good option for overseas work. I’d prefer a utility.

cnet dot com has a “Free M4a to MP3 Converter”. I downloaded that and installed it. I did NOT give them my email address to stop the ads across the top of the application. (I had a link, but the forum informed me that new users cannot put links in postings. Do a search and you should find it quickly enough.)

Conversion was straightforward. SayMore recognized the .mp3 and and knew what to do with it. When I hit the “Start Annotating” tab, SayMore informed me that the .mp3 had to be converted to a .wav. I pressed the button and it did that.

I am now working with a third-generation recording, but I am not yet hearing any degradation in sound quality.

You might be able to change the settings on the phone to record in mp3 or
wav.

Doesn’t look like I can. At least not with this app.

I am working on adding support for m4a files…

Sorry for the slow progress on this. There have been some delays, but I am still working on it. I hope to have a new version available soon.

I just released SayMore 3.5. SayMore now supports .m4a files (and several other previously unsupported media formats).

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Very exciting. That simplifies what I had to get my teams to do with some of their recordings.