MP3 Music On Hold Files Not Uploading
- Merry Arpaia
- Kelli Higdon
SITUATION
You are experiencing difficulty uploading MP3 Music On Hold files. The upload attempt may just spin indefinitely, never actually finishing the upload. This problem may be due to the file being encoded using an unofficial/unsupported MP3 variant: Version 2.5 Layer 3.
BACKGROUND
The audio formats collectively commonly called "MP3" were developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), and have 2 official file type variations: MPEG-1 Layer 3 and MPEG-2 Layer 3. These two are both officially sanctioned file formats that meet agreed upon international standards (ISO/IEC 11172-3 and ISO/IEC 13818-3 respectively).
MPEG-2.5 Layer 3 was not developed by MPEG and does not have an official international standard. While the versions all share the same .MP3 extension, version 2.5 is technically an unofficial and proprietary extension to the MP3 format, and thus there can sometimes be interoperability issues.
In the case of Switchvox, a third-party library is used for validating and playing MP3 files. This library sometimes experiences difficulty with the MPEG-2.5 Layer format.
WORKAROUND
The best workaround is to convert the MP3 files in question to an officially supported format.
There are several free tools available to do so, but we have verified that a tool called Audacity works to convert the MP3 files correctly (Audacity ® | Free Audio editor, recorder, music making and more! ).
This tool is free, open-source, and available for Windows, OS X, and Linux operating systems.
STEPS TO CONVERT FILES (in Audacity)
Load the file into Audacity
Choose the following settings: Bit Rate Mode: Constant, Quality: 192 kbps, Channel Mode: Stereo
Click Export (You will get a warning message that there is a sample rate mismatch and asking to confirm to re-sample the audio file)
Click Yes and chose: 44,100 sample rate
The result of the re-sampled file and MP3 export will be an MPEG-1 Layer 3 file (Supported file type for Switchvox)
You can now upload the new exported file to Switchvox: Tools > Music On Hold, then perform a software restart (NOTE: software restart will drop all active calls)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Audacity manual on MP3 export options and how-to: