Issues with songs with certain letters in filenames

[andromeda_m31]

I thought this issue would vanish after Windows 10, but it stays the same under Windows 11 as it was under Windows 7.

Namely, Winamp can't seem to read and play songs which contain certain Latin characters with "accents" in their filenames. They are cataloged with Media Library, loaded and shown in the playlist window, but their length is not displayed and they are always skipped.

So far I've identified two or three such characters (č and either i or e with one of the diacritics: / or \ ). It's super weird also because it has no problems with Chinese, Hebrew, Cyrillic, Arabic, etc.

Any idea how to solve this, apart from replacing those with plain "c" and "i"?

[ChocolateAdventurouz]

Probably Winamp bug on text encoding. You can check if the bug has been solved in WACUP

[ryerman]

Namely, Winamp can't seem to read and play songs which contain certain Latin characters with "accents" in their filenames. They are cataloged with Media Library, loaded and shown in the playlist window, but their length is not displayed and they are always skipped.

Are you saying that these files play properly after they are renamed?
If so, I have no solution.

If not, upload a file that does not play properly.
Maybe we can find another reason that it won't play.
The fact that the length is not displayed is suspicious.

I just played a FLAC and MP3 file, each named 갡èéƣ҉ӑ, without a problem.
I'm pretty sure Winamp can handle any Unicode file name.

[MrSinatra]

it would also be nice to know what kind of files the OP is talking about, mp3 / m4a / flac, etc?

mp3val is good at fixing length errors in cbrs.

[Aminifu]

...
Any idea how to solve this, apart from replacing those with plain "c" and "i"?

No, but I have been able to get Winamp to play the files when these "accents" are only used in the tags for file formats that support tags. I don't know why they are not supported when used in the filenames.

[ryerman]

they are not supported when used in the filenames.

Hi Aminifu.
They are supported by my Winamp.
Please post a file that does not play because of it's file name.
Or at least post a file name that I can try myself.

[Aminifu]

Hi ryerman,

Thank you for your request. It prompted me to pick 3 files at random from my collection and rename them using the accent marks in their artist names (Mýa - Tears On My Pillow.mp3, Zhané & Will Downing & Najee - Piece It Together.mp3 and Zoë - Yearning.mp3). To my surprise they play with v5.666.3516. I've had these songs for years (when I was using Windows 7) and unfortunately I don't remember what Winamp version I was using that didn't play them until I removed the accent marks from their filenames. Since I had a workaround that was acceptable to me (i.e. using accent marks in the artist tag), I never checked for the issue in subsequent Winamp versions. So I don't know when it became no longer necessary to remove accent marks from filenames.

Hopefully andromeda_m31 will tell us what version of Winamp he/she is using.

It may also be possible that the versions of the 3rd party audio plug-ins I was using at the time was the real reason for the issue, instead of Winamp.

Also, as you noted, the lack of song runtime is suspicious. The OP didn't say that simply changing the filename allowed the runtime to be displayed. I can't be sure if I also had that issue along with the accent marks, but I don't think I did.

[andromeda_m31]

To answer the questions...

- Probably the same version as Aminifu mentioned: V5.666 Build 3516 (x86), Dec. 12 2013.
- Yes, the files play properly when renamed.
- It's mostly mp3 and m4a.
- I do have some 3rd party plugins, but they're mainly there for more "exotic" filetypes (s3m, mod, swf, sid...).
- So the fact that the song is in the media library and shows on the playlist, but doesn't play and doesn't display its runtime, could indicate some mp3 decoder issue?

I'll look for some concrete files later on, to upload and/or try to gather more details.

[Aminifu]

- Probably the same version as Aminifu mentioned: V5.666 Build 3516 (x86), Dec. 12 2013.

Probably. Why don't you know what version you are using?

I don't have a problem with v5.666.3516 playing files with accent marks in their filenames. I had this problem years ago, several versions before the last AOL release.

- Yes, the files play properly when renamed.

Do the renamed files show their runtimes?

[andromeda_m31]

I know what version I'm using (the one I wrote in the post), I just wasn't 100% sure about yours (I wrote the full version string just in case).

Yep, after renaming the songs play and show runtimes normally.

[ryerman]

... Winamp can't seem to read and play songs which contain certain Latin characters with "accents" in their filenames....

I keep a collection of odd and/or damaged files.
They sometimes help with diagnosing problems.
I would appreciate it if you would upload one of the files that has a name preventing it from being played in Winamp.
Please allow me to add it to my collection.

[Aminifu]

Hi andromedia_m31,

Thank you for replying quickly. I agree that the first time seeing the build number appended to the version number can be confusing.

As you noted, it may be an mp3 decoder issue. If you are using the in_mp3.dll (Nullsoft MPEG Audio Decoder v4.103) plug-in (which has a few bugs) that shipped with Winamp v5.666.3516, then I have 1 more idea as to what may be causing your issue.

Check your Windows locale setting for the language to be used for non-Unicode programs (even-though Winamp is a Unicode program). Look on the Administrative tab of the Windows Region dialog. Mine is set to English (United States). Reboot, if you change your setting.

If that's not it, hopefully ryerman can track it down. He's pretty good at this kind of thing.

[andromeda_m31]

I've checked, the mp3 decoder is precisely v4.103.
As for the non-unicode setting, it's the default one as well:

Maybe I should check the box (although it says "beta"...)?

[ryerman]

In order to solve a problem, we have to be able to reproduce it.
Show us a problematic filename, or even better, upload a file that won't play.
Otherwise, we're just wasting our time, guessing at a solution.

[Wineroz]

[...]
Any idea how to solve this, apart from replacing those with plain "c" and "i"?

Just rename them using Latin plain alphabet - and keep the proper Titles in tag fields

After all its a mus-go approach for all the illegal characters i FILENAMEs