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Avid Error of the Day: File is not in the header-specified format

As usual with these error message posts, if you're a casual reader here, just skip ahead to other content. I post these so a) I can find them again when I get stuck and b) to help other people who are stuck.

I got this "Exception: File is not in the header-specified format" error when importing a large batch of .mp3 files in Avid MediaComposer. Some didn't import -- the ones that caused this error to pop up. (I wish you could walk away from batch imports like this, certain that the files that didn't cause errors would still continue to go in. But you can't, you have to babysit the import and clear these errors as they come.)

Once my batch of .mp3 files was (partially) done, I cross-referenced the bin contents with the contents of the folder I was importing from and pulled out the files that didn't import. These I opened in Quicktime and exported (Sound file to AIFF with my project's settings of 48k 16bit). The new .aif files I was able to import into Avid no problem.

About J. Ott

John Ott is a writer, filmmaker and futurist. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.