Eric212 Posted May 12, 2017 Share Posted May 12, 2017 An apple AAC file contains my apple-ID, email address and other personally identifiable information or details in every purchased AAC file somewhere. If I convert a purchased AAC music file to Lossless file format does the new lossless format contain any of this personal information ? The reason I want to do this is the risk of my files getting stolen or copied is high in the environment I am currently in and I do not want this personal info to go with files if that happens. If a purchased AAC file is converted to MP3 format I assume the personal information is carried over to the MP3? Is that correct ? I understand that after I convert the files, the audio quality will be roughly the same and that I most certainly will not gain any audio quality. Link to comment
kirkmc Posted May 12, 2017 Share Posted May 12, 2017 Interesting question. I did a test, and after converting a purchased track to Apple Lossless, there was no personal information in it. But, I found that XLD could not open a purchased M4A file, which surprised me, because it's not protected. I had to do the conversion in iTunes. I write about Macs, music, and more at Kirkville. Author of Take Control of macOS Media Apps. Co-host of The Next Track podcast. Link to comment
Bob Stern Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 You can use a tag editor like Yate or Metadatics to inspect the tags of the converted files. Kid3 is free but has a command line interface (i.e., Terminal). HQPlayer (on 3.8 GHz 8-core i7 iMac 2020) > NAA (on 2012 Mac Mini i7) > RME ADI-2 v2 > Benchmark AHB-2 > Thiel 3.7 Link to comment
wgscott Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 You can also just use the unix strings command and grep the output with your email prefix, eg: strings 13\ Wernher\ von\ Braun.m4a | grep wgscott [email protected] Link to comment
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