Poweramp trouble recognizing a FLAC album?

[glimmersdad]

With disk and other storage space plentiful and cheap, I decided to switch to a lossless audio format for all of my future ripping and downloads, and picked FLAC. (You're welcome to knock my choice if you want, but that's not the reason for this note.) Background info: I'm ripping CDs on a Win 7 machine and uploading to a Samsung Galaxy S3 (for now; the point is to have a file format that I can keep around for years and be able to play on just about any machine, now and in future). The Galaxy S3 is the Poweramp machine that's giving me trouble. I'm running V2.0.9, build 534, in paid mode. I downloaded dBpoweramp to create the FLAC files, ripped a Vivaldi CD, and uploaded to the S3. Poweramp refused to recognize the album or tracks, even though it has no trouble recognizing MP3 albums and displaying them in its library as soon as I transfer them. However, when I located the files in a file browser on the S3 and clicked on a track, the file browser offered to let me open the track in Poweramp (and five other players, of course) so I did, and Poweramp played the track just fine. Also, when I clicked on the Poweramp menu and then on Info/Tags, Poweramp displayed full metadata including the album name that it refuses to bring into its library even after multiple scans and full rescans. After some experimenting around, I discovered that I could get Poweramp to bring my FLAC album into its library list by going to the Android application manager, deleting ALL of Poweramp's data, and re-building my library listing (not the audio files) from scratch. (No, Poweramp's re-scan did NOT work.) You might think that, with one FLAC album now in my library, I wouldn't have the same trouble bringing in another one, but No, a second album didn't incorporate into the library until I did the Android application-lobotomy trick again. So, I can now build and use a library of FLAC albums but only at the cost of re-setting all of my options by hand after every addition. Yucko. One last thing to note: I use the Windows file browser to drag-n-drop the album (directory) from the PC to the S3. When I transfer the MP3 album, it just goes, but when I transfer the FLAC album, it asks me if I want to convert all of the files since my phone won't play FLAC files. (Well, it wouldn't if I didn't have Poweramp, but the transfer facility is kind of dumb.) So I say No, Don't Convert and it (presumably) transfers all of the files intact. The Poweramp metadata display confirms that they're FLACs, but if the transfer facility is also doing something to set the album up for cataloguing, it would be happening for the MP3s but not for the FLACs.

 

So - Have I discovered a bug, or did I overlook some simple setting that would let those FLAC albums slither into my library without getting hung up? Is anyone else out there using FLAC files with a Galaxy S3, with or without trouble? Suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

 

   --  Glimmersdad

[glimmersdad]

I solved my own problem - Should I be embarassed to be caught like this? Anyhow, if you put your FLAC files into the S3's standard music directory "Music" on your external SD card, there's no problem: Poweramp finds your FLAC files and puts them into its library and album listing automatically as soon as you disconnect the USB cable. BUT, if you (originally, when you first set up your S3) just copied your "My Music" directory from your Windows box to your S3, keeping the directory name "My Music", Poweramp has a lot of trouble recognizing the FLAC files in it although it doesn't have any problem with the MP3s. No, I don't know what's special about the directory "Music", and I did check off "My Music" as a folder to search in the Poweramp menu, and checked off the individual albums too. If you know what's special about this folder, please add a note here and so wrap this one up.

[TeflonDog]

Why would you be embarrassed? Poweramp should be. 

I too am having trouble with FLAC files... files that are ALL recognized by ALL the other music players I've tried. Even the FREE ones. 

[Jainam]

There is just a simple solution to the problem of Poweramp not recognizing lossless,flac music files just play our lossless music on Google play music than let it play on background and then open Poweramp and then click on rescan then the lossless music file will automatically be added

 

[maxmp]

Usually, behavior like this is associated with broken .CUE file, which may have no enough entries or can have invalid entries (with zero size, size < 6 sec, etc.). If Settings / Library / Scanner / Parse CUE files (OFF) fixes that - that's a broken CUE issue. Just delete/move away CUE file. Thanks!

[OttoKrieg]

On 10/3/2019 at 9:29 AM, maxmp said:

Usually, behavior like this is associated with broken .CUE file, which may have no enough entries or can have invalid entries (with zero size, size < 6 sec, etc.). If Settings / Library / Scanner / Parse CUE files (OFF) fixes that - that's a broken CUE issue. Just delete/move away CUE file. Thanks!

Turning off the CUE file parsing fixed my FLAC issues. Thank you.

[Dan144]

I can play *.flac files on my android Lenovo Z6 mobile with Poweramp but not with my Samsung s5e tablet! Both are android 10 I believe, Very odd. 

[andrewilley]

@Dan144  Poweramp should recognise and play FLAC files on both devices. Are they running similar versions of Android? Do the files appear in the Library list but won't play, or do you not see them in PA at all? (If the latter, check PA Settings > Library > Music Folders to make sure their folder location is enabled, and do a FULL Rescan).

Andre

[Dan144]

@andrewilley I see the flac files  in pa but it just skips each file until it reaches an mp3. I'm running Android 11 on my Samsung tablet. Samsung  support were unable to resolve this one. Vlc, stock Samsung app and pa will not play flac on this tablet. A Samsung  bug I suspect.