Unable to process >4GB files error for M4B files much smaller than 4GB

[domkm]

Steps to reproduce

Use AudioSegment.from_file(file_path) to load a moderately large M4B file. I am using one which is 638MB.

In case it's relevant, ffprobe -i [MY_M4B_FILE] shows chapter information plus

  Stream #0:0[0x1](eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 125 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2023-06-13T16:57:01.000000Z
      handler_name    : ?Apple Sound Media Handler
      vendor_id       : [0][0][0][0]
  Stream #0:1[0x2](eng): Data: bin_data (text / 0x74786574) (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2023-06-13T16:57:01.000000Z
      handler_name    : ?Apple Text Media Handler
  Stream #0:2[0x0]: Video: mjpeg (Progressive), yuvj420p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 2400x2400 [SAR 1:1 DAR 1:1], 90k tbr, 90k tbn (attached pic)

Expected behavior

AudioSegment.from_file(file_path) should load files <4GB without error.

Actual behavior

AudioSegment.from_file(file_path) throws Unable to process >4GB files error.

Your System configuration

• Python version: 3.10.13
• Pydub version: 0.25.1
• ffmpeg or avlib?: ffmpeg
• ffmpeg/avlib version: ffmpeg version 6.0 Copyright (c) 2000-2023 the FFmpeg developers built with Apple clang version 14.0.3 (clang-1403.0.22.14.1) configuration: --prefix=/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/6.0-with-options_4 --enable-shared --cc=clang --host-cflags= --host-ldflags= --enable-gpl --enable-libaom --enable-libdav1d --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-libsnappy --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-frei0r --enable-libass --enable-demuxer=dash --enable-opencl --enable-audiotoolbox --enable-videotoolbox --enable-neon --disable-htmlpages --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-nonfree

Is there an audio file you can include to help us reproduce?

The audio file in question is not public domain. If this is not expected behavior and will be fixed, I can work on providing a public domain file to reproduce the issue.

[robinFdr]

Hi,
I got the same problem with a mp3 file, unfortunately also not public domain.
my file has 276mb

Python 3.12.0, Win11, 64bit
pydub==0.25.1 (installed via pip)

called via

from pydub import AudioSegment
path = "my full path without spaces.mp3"
AudioSegment.from_file(path, format="mp3")

Stacktrace

  File "C:\projects\python\audio_speed\Lib\site-packages\pydub\audio_segment.py", line 142, in fix_wav_headers
    raise CouldntDecodeError("Unable to process >4GB files")
pydub.exceptions.CouldntDecodeError: Unable to process >4GB files

ffprobe -i

...
Metadata
...
encoder : LAME 64bits version 3.100.1 (https://lame.sourceforge.io)
...
Duration: 06:45:47.92, start: 0.025056, bitrate: 92 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Audio: mp3, 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 92 kb/s
Metadata:
encoder : LAME3.100
Side data:
replaygain: track gain - -4.500000, track peak - unknown, album gain - unknown, album peak - unknown,
Stream #0:1: Video: mjpeg (Baseline), yuvj420p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 500x500 [SAR 1:1 DAR 1:1], 90k tbr, 90k t
n (attached pic)
Metadata:
comment : Other

[zxul767]

The error message is a little misleading: what it should really say is that it can't process uncompressed (i.e., wav) files larger than 4GB.

What happens behind the scenes is that pydub transforms the mp3 file into a wav file. In my some simple tests I ran, I noticed that with a straightforward transformation (i.e., ffmpeg -i audio.m4a audio.wav), the resulting wav file was about 10 times larger.

Maybe pydub does something a bit smarter to try and reduce the size of the resulting wav file, but I guess ultimately the same thing happens.

[Asday]

Is there a reason this 4GB limit exists? I have a lot more RAM than that nowadays.

E: Oh that's why.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/27880366/1149933

.wav files cannot be bigger than 4GB as the wave file format specification prevents that

That's annoying.