Why won't my .mp4 files play on Windows 10 after installing Apple music?

On 9 November I installed Apple Music on my PC and on my new iPhone 16 Pro. On my PC, this meant that all my music was automatically removed from iTunes and migrated into Apple Music. However, 583 .m4p tracks which I bought from the iTunes store now will not play on any app on my PC.  They will play fine on my phone.  .m4a tracks bought from iTunes play fine on my PC.  At times I bought both an .m4p and an m4a track on the same day from iTunes.  The .m4a will play, the .m4p one won’t. Can anyone suggest how I fix this?  Thank you.  I have Windows 10.




[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Dec 11, 2024 04:50 AM

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5 replies

Dec 11, 2024 06:04 AM in response to skooldog

.m4p tracks are protected. These could be pre-2010 DRM protected purchases, or content downloaded from the Apple Music service. Do you have a subscription service? My experience is that media from the Apple Music service won't import into a different library and must be download fresh. Audio tracks purchased from the iTunes Store post-2009 should be in .m4a format, not m4p.


FWIW if you remove the Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Devices apps you'll be able to access your music in iTunes again.


tt2

Dec 11, 2024 09:51 AM in response to skooldog

The pre-2010 tracks would have originally been subject to a one successful download policy, and would only play in iTunes authorized to your Apple ID. They may not necessarily show in your account's purchase history. Apple once provided a scheme to update .m4p tracks for a small additional fee to what was then called iTunes Plus, and it is potentially possible to update them in iTunes with a subscription to iTunes Match, provided the same songs are still in Apple's catalog. It should also be possible, with iTunes, to burn them to audio CD, then rip back to the computer, although that will result in a small loss of quality.


Apple Music for Windows seems to be missing many features from iTunes. It would seem support for legacy DRM protected music is yet another one.


tt2

Dec 11, 2024 07:01 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks, tt2. Yes, a quick check shows that all my tracks bought from iTunes prior to Jan 2009 are .m4p, and all after that are .m4a. I have Apple Music (although I am still on the first free three months). I have just tried, and I cannot redownload the .m4p tracks as there is no download button beside them. I suspect this is because Apple can see that I have those tracks in Apple Music even though they won't play in Apple Music on my PC. I may try removing Apple Music and Apple Devices on my PC.

Dec 12, 2024 12:39 AM in response to turingtest2

The pre-2010 tracks do show up in my purchase history, and I can't re-download either them or the post-2009 .m4a tracks. But I tried uninstalling Apple Music and, as you said, they all play fine again in iTunes. So I'll use iTunes on my PC and Apple Music on my iPhone and iPad. A nuisance that one Apple app interferes with the working of the other, but there we are. Thanks for your help.

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Why won't my .mp4 files play on Windows 10 after installing Apple music?

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