Fixing M4A file which got currupted due to not closing the file properly while writing

Question

I have an audio recording that I did with my phone. The recording was running for 3 hours when my battery ran dry. The file is 121 megabytes so it does contain the data, but the file ending and metadata must be corrupted as it can't be played. Is there any way to get the data back?

Answer 1

M4A is an audio-only container, similar to MP4 (audio + video). You can repair an un-finalized M4A by rebuilding its header and indices. So far as I know, this tool can do this for you (not free though).