Zackriya-Solutions/meetily · error

Failed to create decoder: {}

Error message

Failed to create decoder: {}

What it means

Symphonia recognized the track (probe succeeded, sample rate present) but get_codecs().make() refused to build a decoder — the codec is known but not enabled in the compiled symphonia default feature set (e.g. AAC/ALAC behind cargo features), or the codec parameters are malformed for the registered implementation. The media itself is usually fine; the build just lacks codec support, and ffmpeg conversion is the escape hatch.

Source

Thrown at frontend/src-tauri/src/audio/decoder.rs:476

        .codec_params
        .sample_rate
        .ok_or_else(|| anyhow!("Unknown sample rate"))?;

    let mut channels = track
        .codec_params
        .channels
        .map(|c| c.count() as u16)
        .unwrap_or(1);

    debug!(
        "Audio track: {}Hz, {} channels (from metadata)",
        sample_rate, channels
    );

    // Create the decoder
    let mut decoder = symphonia::default::get_codecs()
        .make(&track.codec_params, &DecoderOptions::default())
        .map_err(|e| anyhow!("Failed to create decoder: {}", e))?;

    // Decode all packets
    let mut all_samples: Vec<f32> = Vec::new();
    let mut sample_buf: Option<SampleBuffer<f32>> = None;

    // Calculate expected samples for progress tracking
    let expected_duration = track.codec_params.n_frames
        .map(|frames| frames as f64 / sample_rate as f64);
    let expected_samples = expected_duration
        .map(|dur| (dur * sample_rate as f64 * channels as f64) as usize);

    let mut last_progress = 0u32;

    loop {
        // Get the next packet
        let packet = match format.next_packet() {
            Ok(packet) => packet,
            Err(symphonia::core::errors::Error::IoError(ref e))

View on GitHub (pinned to 0281737d87)

Solutions

1. Convert the file to WAV/PCM via ffmpeg before import — PCM bypasses Symphonia codecs entirely.
2. If you control the build, enable the required symphonia cargo features (aac, alac, isomp4, ...) and rebuild.
3. Update the symphonia dependency — newer versions register more codecs in the default set.
4. Code fix: route decoder-creation failure into the ffmpeg conversion path as a fallback (see exampleFix).

Example fix

// before
let mut decoder = symphonia::default::get_codecs()
    .make(&track.codec_params, &DecoderOptions::default())
    .map_err(|e| anyhow!("Failed to create decoder: {}", e))?;

// after — unsupported codecs fall back to ffmpeg conversion instead of failing
let mut decoder = match symphonia::default::get_codecs()
    .make(&track.codec_params, &DecoderOptions::default())
{
    Ok(d) => d,
    Err(_) => {
        let temp = convert_to_wav_with_ffmpeg(path, progress_callback.as_ref())?;
        return decode_wav(temp.to_path_buf(), progress_callback);
    }
};

// on 'Failed to create decoder', route the file through convert_to_wav_with_ffmpeg (PCM bypasses Symphonia codecs) instead of failing the import

When it happens

Trigger: Importing AAC/ALAC files into a build where the corresponding symphonia cargo features are disabled; codec variants the bundled symphonia version doesn't register; malformed codec init data in the header.

Common situations: Default-feature builds of symphonia (common when trimming compile time/features), older symphonia versions, unusual encoder outputs.

Related errors

• Failed to probe audio format: {}
• Unknown sample rate
• Decode task join error: {}
• FFmpeg not found. FFmpeg is required to decode .{} files. It
• No audio track found in file

AI-assisted analysis of Zackriya-Solutions/meetily@0281737d87 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c2f1d10acfb21f7b. Report an issue: GitHub.