[Q] Nexus 5 Won't Play WAV Voicemail attachments

cocopete5243 · Nov 7, 2013

Our phone system at my job sends voicemails as WAV attachments through our Exchange server when someone leaves a message on your extension. Even up to when I was on my Galaxy S3 I've had to install a third party audio player that supports WAV files to play these.

I recently discovered that Kit Kat (4.4) now plays these WAV attachments natively. I and two of my fellow IT teammates all purchased the N5 on release day but while both of their N5s will play them as expected, I get a popup that says "Sorry, cannot open this file". I tried a factory reset and only installed apps that weren't audio related, but still get the same message. Anyone else able to open WAVs or getting this error? How would I troubleshoot this? I also tried resetting all app defaults in the app manager to no avail.

Thanks in advance for any help with this. Minor annoyances are usually the ones that eat at me the most.

spotdog14 · Feb 18, 2014

All of a sudden my phone has started doing this. I use to work fine with just Play Music installed and would just play the wav file from the email screen but it doesn't do it anymore.

phazerorg · Feb 18, 2014

spotdog14 said:
All of a sudden my phone has started doing this. I use to work fine with just Play Music installed and would just play the wav file from the email screen but it doesn't do it anymore.

This just started happening to me as well. Just minutes ago I went to play a voicemail I received through my Exchange email and had the same result. I even tried saving the .wav file but nothing will open it. I could probably install an audio player that will handle wav files, but I'm pretty sure this previously used to work fine.

Has anyone else experienced this, or have any ideas?

spotdog14 · Feb 18, 2014

phazerorg said:
This just started happening to me as well. Just minutes ago I went to play a voicemail I received through my Exchange email and had the same result. I even tried saving the .wav file but nothing will open it. I could probably install an audio player that will handle wav files, but I'm pretty sure this previously used to work fine.

Has anyone else experienced this, or have any ideas?

Its the same sort of thing for me as well, even if I download it it won't play. I think and this is only me guessing but its probably something to do with an update to Play Music since that is the only thing that has changed on my phone since it stopped working.

phazerorg · Feb 18, 2014

spotdog14 said:
Its the same sort of thing for me as well, even if I download it it won't play. I think and this is only me guessing but its probably something to do with an update to Play Music since that is the only thing that has changed on my phone since it stopped working.

It looks like others have noticed similar things, such as here on a Motorola phone: https://forums.motorola.com/posts/fe2e143972

In that thread, two people reported that rolling back Play Music (and Quickoffice?) fixed the problem, while one person said that didn't fix it. I just tried it myself and still have the same problem after going back to the factory versions of Play Music and Quickoffice.

I also found that Google officially doesn't even list wav files as supported by Play Music: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1100462

It looks like people are just installing other media players that will handle wav files... but I liked that I could play them directly in the email without even having to open another app...

spotdog14 · Feb 18, 2014

phazerorg said:
It looks like others have noticed similar things, such as here on a Motorola phone: https://forums.motorola.com/posts/fe2e143972

In that thread, two people reported that rolling back Play Music (and Quickoffice?) fixed the problem, while one person said that didn't fix it. I just tried it myself and still have the same problem after going back to the factory versions of Play Music and Quickoffice.

I also found that Google officially doesn't even list wav files as supported by Play Music: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1100462

It looks like people are just installing other media players that will handle wav files... but I liked that I could play them directly in the email without even having to open another app...

I don't even have Quickoffice installed. I have tried a few different music players but for some reason they don't like to play it from within the email app.

xda_fanboy · Feb 18, 2014

I have this problem too with the copy of my voicemail that is delivered via MMS to Hangouts (see my thread here). Play Music and VLC just won't play them. Installed MX Player which opens and plays them without issue.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mxtech.videoplayer.ad

geoffott · Feb 18, 2014

.WAV Issues

spotdog14 said:
I don't even have Quickoffice installed. I have tried a few different music players but for some reason they don't like to play it from within the email app.

I am a new N5 owner, and have the same issue. This was my first major disappointment with the phone, coming from a N4. My N4 handled .wav voice mails native in the mail app, which I was excited about, coming from a HTC One S where I had to download each attachment and play it in an alternate app. I feel like I have moved backwards.

floepie · Feb 18, 2014

I have noticed for a very long time on my N5. In fact, not sure it was working from the very beginning. When trying to pick the WAV as attachment in Gmail, I'm presented with the native picker only a couple XBMC remote control apps. The odd thing is is that if I select that WAV from a file explorer app, such ES File Explorer, it presents many more apps with which to play the file, including Google Play Music itself, which then is played flawlessly in Google Play. I wonder why the native app picker doesn't present you with all the music player apps that are installed.

phazerorg · Feb 18, 2014

Mine definitely used to work... I was very surprised today when I found it didn't work anymore. I've had my Nexus 5 for over 3 months and I'm positive I've listened to voicemail email attachments during that time. Not sure what's up with this, but I'd really like this feature back...

I tried MX Player and many other players... some will open the file after saving it, but I couldn't make any work from email. Tapping on the attachment just says "Couldn't play the track you requested."

daystrom · Feb 19, 2014

Sad to see this go too. I was playing .wav files through the native gmail app as well until just a few days ago. Now I get no app installed to open this file.

Ended up buying Wav Player by Dennis Lockshine. This app will play within the gmail app.

tenf00t · Feb 20, 2014

Same here on my nexus 5. Already had this issue back in december ended up fixing it when I rooted and reinstalled everything. Now the problem is back again.

---------- Post added at 02:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:11 PM ----------

daystrom said:
Sad to see this go too. I was playing .wav files through the native gmail app as well until just a few days ago. Now I get no app installed to open this file.

Ended up buying Wav Player by Dennis Lockshine. This app will play within the gmail app.

Just bought Wav Player. Works great. Not a free fix but for $0.99, well worth it.

Thank you

geoffott · Feb 20, 2014

Just uninstalled Play Music App updates in settings and was able to listen to a .wav voicemail for the first time.

Sent from my Nexus 5

cc16177 · Feb 20, 2014

I have the same issue and I didn't always have this problem... I'll try the app mentioned above.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

phazerorg · Feb 21, 2014

geoffott said:
Just uninstalled Play Music App updates in settings and was able to listen to a .wav voicemail for the first time.

Sent from my Nexus 5

I tried this the other day, with no luck. I even cleared the Play Music cache, rebooted, wiped cache and dalvik cache in TWRP, still nothing. After seeing your post I decided to just try a .wav voicemail again and now it actually works... I haven't changed anything since the other day. Really strange. I've disabled automatic updates to Play Music and will just leave it be for now, since this is working again...

floepie · Feb 25, 2014

For those for whom removing updates does not work, could it be that you're running a custom ROM or have a Gapps package with an update to the app that can't be reverted back to the version with which WAVs can be played from Gmail?

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[Q] Nexus 5 Won't Play WAV Voicemail attachments

cocopete5243

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spotdog14

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phazerorg

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