Why do apple lossless file sizes vary ??

[Ralf11]

I discovered that some rips from CD into Apple Lossless format vary in size (by 3x sometimes).  In some cases at least, they duplicate files were ripped on the same day, so I don't think I changed any parameters.

 

Any ideas?

[Ralf11]

I don't think they were ripped several times.  The same date stamp makes me think not, and that sample rates and compression settings would be the same.  I didn't check the time stamps tho or other info, so cannot be absolutely certain.

 

I saw this when I was cleaning up iTunes to gain some free space on my long suffering Mac Mini (and stop IClod from harassing me with offers to upload all my secrets onto their cloud).

 

Some files are the same size, other vary a bit, and some sizes vary by 3x.  All were ripped from CDs using iTunes into Apple Lossless.

 

Any way I gained about 16 Gigabooties of space so may be able ot hold out until Apple releases new iMacs.

 

It seems very odd however.

[Ralf11]

Yes, the exact same track.  Sorry if that wasn't clear.

[Ralf11]

read the OP - I don't know exactly what happened over the course of time I've been using iTunes (2012 IIRC) but the dates were the same

[Ralf11]

Thx - that's a lot more than the Finder's Get Info facility shows

[Ralf11]

I will if I find any other duplicate tracks - these were ash canned to gain disk space.

[Ralf11]

I have been "fixing" the lo res album art recently so that could have been it.  I suppose the art is stored in the 'container' along with other metadata and the music file per se (?)

 

I still have some AAC files on the machine but I don't think any of these were them - I've worked to kill off any AAC files and they are pretty well segregated.

 

I may not have any more details on this as I deleted the files to get disc space.

 

I'll check the laptop to see if there is anything like this going on there.

[Ralf11]

Could the Lossless compression algorithm work differently on Windows than on a Mac?  IIRC, some files were transferred over from a Windoz machine when I switched to a mac.

 

Alternatively, different versions of iTunes have been used to rip CDs, so maybe the 2012 iTunes algorithm differs from the 2016,..17 one.

[Ralf11]

OK, on the laptop I found 2 versions/files with different sizes (not 3x, just a few percent).  They both have the same Date modified and Date added...

The times are the same (to the nearest minute).

 

 

[Ralf11]

9 hours ago, Jud said:

 

Does this mean there were no files that varied in size by 3x, or that these are different files than you originally described?

 

in the OP I mentioned a range of size variances; later I noted the files on the mini (main computer) had been ash canned - the above files were on the laptop (Macbook Pro)

 

I think they both play, but will make sure tonite; I'll also use the iTunes Get Info facility on them & report back.

[Ralf11]

I think % afhash may be a bit too advanced for me.  I fit the UNIX igno-runt comment @wgscott made a couple of days ago...

 

I did look up the command meaning tho...

[Ralf11]

ok, afhash results...

 

Badge.m4a:

No hash in file.

SHA1 Hash of audio data : 9df09852009e5ccecec6c07e1fdd9c50d54c2b29

 

Badge 1.m4a:

No hash in file.

Format of /Users/randywebb/x/2-04 Badge 1.m4a is not integer LPCM or lossless. No hash will be computed.

 

So, does that mean the file Badge 1.m4a  is AAC?  Yet it is the larger file

[Ralf11]

I think I will re-run the search for AAC file types in iTunes (playlist or smart playlist).  I have been subjecting AAC files to extreme vetting recently and it's possible some escaped over the wall during the replacement process.  Together with album art files being updated to higher res. (or maybe other meta-data) I suspect I could get a whole range of file sizes.

[Ralf11]

I may have discovered how this originally happened.  When you tell iTune to "Replace Existing" when it imports a CD, it does not actually replace the file, and merely renames instead.

 

I have been replacing AAC and some AIFF with Apple Lossless for several months now, as well as putting higher res album covers on, and these operations may have caused this problem, coupled with iTunes odd behavior.

[Ralf11]

I agree on all counts.  I might term it adware tho as it is designed to get you to buy more things from or thru Apple.

 

I've found several other odd behaviors in iTunes, tho the only one that comes to mind right now is that you can only use a right click menu to examine files/meta data in some of the things arrayed along the LH strip: smart vs. regualr playlists, songs vs. album lists etc.  I don't recall which are crippled.  Too confusing.  head hurts. ...