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.m4a

Low risk

MPEG-4 Audio

AAC or ALAC audio wrapped in an MP4 container. Born from iTunes and best supported inside the Apple ecosystem.

MIME types

  • audio/mp4
  • audio/x-m4a

Category

audio

What opens this file

  • Music.app
  • iTunes
  • VLC
  • foobar2000

How to open by OS

Windows

  • iTunes, VLC, foobar2000.

Mac

  • Music.app, QuickTime Player.

Linux

  • VLC, Audacious.

Ios

  • Music.

Android

  • VLC, Poweramp (device-dependent for ALAC).

Safety notes

  • ALAC-inside-m4a inherits MPEG-4 Core Audio CVEs — keep OS audio stacks patched.

Common mistakes

  • ALAC-encoded m4a often fails to play on Android. Fall back to FLAC or MP3 when cross-platform support matters.
  • .mp4 and .m4a share a container but have different MIME types. Serve audio with audio/mp4.

Related extensions

References