Apple adding support for lossless FLAC audio files

hjames

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Reddit users who have installed copies of the developer beta of iOS 11 are reporting that Apple has finally added support for lossless FLAC audio files in their new mobile operating system.
The Next Web reports: The functionality was first spotted on an iPhone 6S Plus running iOS 11 Beta 1 and is reportedly available as part of the newly announced file-management app, Files. Up until now, Apple had deliberately opted to ignore offering playback support for FLAC files in both iTunes and iOS -- though there are numerous third-party apps to do the trick. But it appears things are finally about to change.
(The above text is from slashdot.com, a tech site)
https://apple.slashdot.org/story/17/06/06/2144220/apple-adds-support-for-flac-lossless-audio-in-ios-11

The story talks about FLAC on IOS, the software used on the iPhones and ipads. The next version of OSX on the Mac desktop/laptop platform is High Sierra, probably due in the fall. https://apple.slashdot.org/story/17...dds-support-for-flac-lossless-audio-in-ios-11
From what I can read, it may be a while before we see native support for FLAC fiiles directly in iTunes itself, but it is a promising move forward! https://apple.slashdot.org/story/17...dds-support-for-flac-lossless-audio-in-ios-11
 
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Very surprising. The primary reason that they have never supported FLAC is because of ALAC. Any time that Apple has their own version of something, they pretty much do everything that they can to force their customers to use it, even if there is a more popular and established format available. Hopefully this represents a shift in that ideology, and not simply an exception...
 
Very surprising. The primary reason that they have never supported FLAC is because of ALAC. Any time that Apple has their own version of something, they pretty much do everything that they can to force their customers to use it, even if there is a more popular and established format available. Hopefully this represents a shift in that ideology, and not simply an exception...

Yes but I think they didn't have a lot of choice because ALAC never really caught on. Hopefully iTunes 11 has native FLAC support.
 
From the rumors swirling around no, it seems some of the Reddit folks saw a FLAC optioning the IOS beta application "Files", to allow you to manage files in IOS on your iPads and iPhones - we can hope they will allow FLAC in iTunes as well, but no one knows for sure yet.

But the next OS X (Mac Computer OS) named High Sierra has just been announced this week so it is approaching beta tester status.

I have an old early 2009 MacPro, technically unsupported to run Sierra, but I hacked it to emulate the newer MacPros. I installed a 240Gig SSD to speed it up, but its gotten pretty full so I ordered a 480G drive yesterday to swap in as my "boot" drive, and if I find a source for High Sierra beta, I may install it and see what it can do!
(Allegedly, High Sierra should run on any mac that supports Sierra)

Looking for the FLAC support!

Sierra20170608 -MacPro.png
 
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Yes but I think they didn't have a lot of choice because ALAC never really caught on. Hopefully iTunes 11 has native FLAC support.
LOL They have been doing fine without Flac support...though it is supported in numerous apps, so we are simply talking about native support.

Also, do we know if it has caught on or not? Hard to say what is in people's personal collections.
 
Sure - I have a bunch of FLAC files I've gathered over the years and had to convert to Apple Lossless (ALAC) files ...
Would be nice to use them directly in iTunes, through airplay, on my phone, etc ...

I'll stay optimistic and wait to hear more this fall!
 
Sure - I have a bunch of FLAC files I've gathered over the years and had to convert to Apple Lossless (ALAC) files ...
Would be nice to use them directly in iTunes, through airplay, on my phone, etc ...

I'll stay optimistic and wait to hear more this fall!
I used to have everything in FLAC, as well. It has been a long time, but when the 160GB Classic came out, I used Foobar or some other program to batch convert everything to ALAC. I do a have a few FLACs floating around I use for testing, though. I believe they claimed at the time that ALAC used less battery power on their iPods as the rational, but I could be misremembering since that was a long time ago.

I am not against FLAC being supported in iTunes, I am just saying there has been third party options to play FLAC on OSX/macOS and iOS for a long time. Back in the day, I used to use a third party program (I think it was called Firefly Media Server or something like that) and it would allow my FLAC files to show up in iTunes without manual conversion.
 
Sure - but the third party tools don't play FLAC natively across the board in all the devices ...
One tool won't allow FLAC in iTunes and on my Phone and on her iPad ...
but if/when Apple allows it natively, I'd be more happy.
 
This is probably a dumb question, but what is the difference between ALAC and AIFF?
 
Sure - but the third party tools don't play FLAC natively across the board in all the devices ...
One tool won't allow FLAC in iTunes and on my Phone and on her iPad ...
but if/when Apple allows it natively, I'd be more happy.
The main issue is that if they simply put it in their new iOS Finder app (or whatever they are calling it), you probably won't get the metadata advantages you get from an app on iOS/MacOS that is built around music rather than file management. Personally, I would use a third party app to access files rather than playing them from Finder. If they allow FLAC in iTunes and the Music app, that is a different story. That could be very useful for some people.
 
Guess we'll all have to wait and see what they actually do ...
 
LOL They have been doing fine without Flac support...though it is supported in numerous apps, so we are simply talking about native support.

Also, do we know if it has caught on or not? Hard to say what is in people's personal collections.

Yeah thats fair. But it does seem like lossless music is starting to finally make some headway and from what I've seen FLAC is much more common than ALAC. Like, if there's a place selling lossless music they always have FLAC but not always ALAC.
 
Yeah thats fair. But it does seem like lossless music is starting to finally make some headway and from what I've seen FLAC is much more common than ALAC. Like, if there's a place selling lossless music they always have FLAC but not always ALAC.
I know HD Tracks has both. Not sure about others, but FLAC has always been open source...not sure if the same can be said of ALAC.

That being said, ALAC is supported natively in the most used music app in the world, the best selling "MP3" players in history, and is supported natively in a billion iOS devices. Chances are it makes up for the minuscule support of lossless music sellers on the web.

I should mention again that I am happy they are adding it, if they are actually giving it iTunes and Music app support. If they are simply supporting it in their new finder app, it isn't really that exciting to me.
 
I know HD Tracks has both. Not sure about others, but FLAC has always been open source...not sure if the same can be said of ALAC.

That being said, ALAC is supported natively in the most used music app in the world, the best selling "MP3" players in history, and is supported natively in a billion iOS devices. Chances are it makes up for the minuscule support of lossless music sellers on the web.

I should mention again that I am happy they are adding it, if they are actually giving it iTunes and Music app support. If they are simply supporting it in their new finder app, it isn't really that exciting to me.

ALAC was originally closed source but then some folks hacked it so Apple made it open. As I recall FLAC gives slightly better compression but ALAC uses less processor resources. Not too big of a deal now but a significant concern when first released.
 
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