FLAC support in iOS 11 - FINALLY

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by MrRom92, Jun 6, 2017.

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  1. MrRom92

    MrRom92 Forum Supermodel Thread Starter

    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    Rejoice my dear friends, for the day is finally upon us.

    It's been found that iOS 11 can natively play FLAC files, at least those accessed through the new "Files" app. Of course there's no way to sync them to your music library just yet but an eventual iTunes update will probably fix that. Fingers crossed it'll happen in time for the iOS 11 launch.
     
  2. Archimago

    Archimago Forum Resident

    Yes, finally if this is true...

    I wouldn't get too excited yet until FLAC becomes native for the Mac and iTunes.

    Apple... Isn't it at least a decade overdue?
     
    Grant, LarryP and MrRom92 like this.
  3. Radio

    Radio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Michigan
  4. Mike-48

    Mike-48 A shadow of my former self

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
  5. liv3evil

    liv3evil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate NY USA
    This development really doesn't amount to much if FLAC won't be integrated w/iTunes, i.e. still having to use a 3rd party app to get FLAC files natively onto your Apple device? Am I missing something (else)?

    Being able to play FLAC files via the Files app, without the benefit of library structure, metadata, etc. is certainly not going to convert the ALAC faithful.

    Here's hoping Apple will integrate FLAC 'cross the board!
     
    Mike-48, Billy Infinity and MrRom92 like this.
  6. Kristofferabild

    Kristofferabild Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denmark
    The support is also in Macos High Sierra, so could this mean lossless FLAC is coming to Apple Music?
     
    MrRom92 likes this.
  7. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    On the bright side, they at least sussed gapless out years ago!!
     
    petercl likes this.
  8. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    Major iTunes releases usually come in the fall, announced at the same time as new iPhones. So, I think there is still a chance we'll see iTunes support for FLAC later this year.

    I suppose I could run a batch process to convert my FLACs to ALAC, but something about that transcode makes me uncomfortable.
     
    SBurke, crispi and MrRom92 like this.
  9. Rentz

    Rentz Forum Resident

    Location:
    Texas
    this is what ive been waiting for on the iphone!
    and honestly i'd rather play from a files folder than using itunes anyway.
     
  10. SammyJoe

    SammyJoe Up The Irons!

    Location:
    Finland
    Ok, I have to upgrade my old trusted iPhone 5 and Ipad (4th gen.) to newer editions as they won't be getting iOS11 support at all.
     
  11. liv3evil

    liv3evil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate NY USA
    Even if you have tens of thousands of tracks/files, and have to select each file at-a-time?
     
  12. liv3evil

    liv3evil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate NY USA
    I might do the opposite as all the lossless files in my iTunes library are ALAC. If converting to FLAC retains all applicable metadata (which it should) and artwork, the space savings would be significant considering my current library is 1.6TB. FLAC encoding has somehow always been more efficient than ALAC. Converting to FLAC might save (me) as much as a 100GB; possibly more?
     
    forthlin and MrRom92 like this.
  13. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    Yeah but HDD space is so cheap? Saving even 100GB is about $5 worth of disc space, for all that (potential) headache?
     
  14. Rentz

    Rentz Forum Resident

    Location:
    Texas
    not a problem on my phone, wouldnt have room for that many flac tracks
     
    liv3evil likes this.
  15. liv3evil

    liv3evil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate NY USA
    I'm toying with the idea of putting all of my music in the cloud, using iCloud to store all 1.6TB of my lossless ALAC files (the contents of my iTunes Library folder) which I can then access via iTunes on differing CPUs. That may be an unwise idea for any number of reasons, but a hundred, or hundreds of GB saved would obviously be worth it in that regard.

    Otherwise, can't argue that 100GB saved with storage being so cheap is worth re-encoding my entire lossless library.
     
  16. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    Actually, now that you mention the cloud storage option.... At $10/month for 2TB, I would consider storing all my FLACs in iCloud. Especially if there is native iTunes support.
     
  17. Instant Dharma

    Instant Dharma Dude/man

    Location:
    CoCoCo, Ca
    Hopefully blu ray is next.
     
  18. liv3evil

    liv3evil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate NY USA
    Would be interesting to test it out. After uploading everything, I wonder how iTunes will (natively) respond on a local CPU pointed to the iCloud directory? I'd wager the response rate could be sluggish/high latency.

    Some may ask why I don't just use Apple Music, and the quick response is that a significant portion of my library isn't (currently) available via Apple Music, and then further that I've created my own metadata and high-res artwork scans that I want to 'take with' me.
     
  19. Instant Dharma

    Instant Dharma Dude/man

    Location:
    CoCoCo, Ca
    Well, why don't you just make 10 be the highest number and make that a little louder?
     
    beercanchicken and Madness like this.
  20. tuttle

    tuttle Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I don't know why it would. Converting from one lossless format (FLAC) to another lossless format (ALAC) is a lossless transaction. The resulting lossless file will retain all the music data and metadata that were present in the original.

    You can convert back and forth a thousand times and the end result will still match the original, as confirmed by CRC checksum. Lossless really does mean no loss, as absolutely no musical information is lost.
     
    Hotdog, Atmospheric and Rolltide like this.
  21. Jack Flannery

    Jack Flannery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    I am a cretin but why would anybody want to load and run large files on an iPhone? This just sounds like one of those things that nobody will use. Very few anyway.
     
  22. liv3evil

    liv3evil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate NY USA
    Us! Heh. Indeed, the very few.
     
  23. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    I dunno, just a vestigial "fear" I suppose. Not about sound quality, more about file/tag corruption. I guess if there was a way for dBPoweramp to auto-verify via CRC checksum and report out, I would feel better.
     
    SBurke likes this.
  24. RiCat

    RiCat Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT, USA
    With HDD storage as inexpensive as it is and external HDD hardware and NAS Systems at reasonable prices I see no reason nor am I willing to to turn over possession and trust to cloud storage. My content (music files) is the most costly and irreplaceable element in my system. Having secure redundant copies in my possession is for me the only acceptable way to go. As an aside, I know people who have lost entire libraries when paid storage services have ceased operation. Doubtful ICloud or Google will collapse but if you do not need the open sharing for all devices or users then cloud makes no sense to me for a music collection.
     
    JimmyCool likes this.
  25. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    You would then have to decide which one you want in your library. I've converted a few FLAC albums to ALAC just so that I can import into iTunes and load onto my iPod. Since I have both the FLAC directory and the iTunes (ALAC) directory scanned by Logitech Media Server, if I forget to remove the converted ALAC files the album appears twice in the LMS library because the tags are identical.
     
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