I have searched the existing issues, both open and closed, to make sure this is not a duplicate report.
The bug
Video transcoding fails for video files that contain dual-mono PCM audio where each track carries a positional channel layout. FFmpeg's native AAC encoder rejects the positional layout and no audio packets are written.
Immich then falls back to serving the original file. On the web the browser can't decode the Apple Intermediate Codec video, so the asset shows a frozen thumbnail with audio-only playback; the same clips are also affected on mobile. Re-running the transcode job fails identically every time. QuickTime and VLC play the originals fine.
The OS that Immich Server is running on
Debian 13.5
Version of Immich Server
v2.7.5
Version of Immich Mobile App
v2.7.5
Platform with the issue
Device make and model
Source footage from a Sanyo Xacti HX-WA10 camcorder, later processed through Apple software (Apple Intermediate Codec + dual-mono PCM).
Your docker-compose.yml content
name: immich
services:
immich-server:
container_name: immich_server
image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:v2.7.5@sha256:c15bff75068effb03f4355997d03dc7e0fc58720c2b54ad6f7f10d1bc57efaa5
volumes:
- ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/data
- ${THUMB_LOCATION}:/data/thumbs
- ${ENCODED_VIDEO_LOCATION}:/data/encoded-video
- ${PROFILE_LOCATION}:/data/profile
- ${BACKUP_LOCATION}:/data/backups
- /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
- /path/to/media/photos:/mnt/media/photos
- /path/to/media/clips:/mnt/media/clips
env_file:
- .env
ports:
- '2283:2283'
depends_on:
- redis
- database
restart: unless-stopped
healthcheck:
disable: false
immich-machine-learning:
container_name: immich_machine_learning
image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:v2.7.5@sha256:a2501141440f10516d329fdfba2c68082e19eb9ba6016c061ac80d23beadf7f3
volumes:
- model-cache:/cache
env_file:
- .env
restart: unless-stopped
healthcheck:
disable: false
redis:
container_name: immich_redis
image: docker.io/valkey/valkey:9@sha256:4963247afc4cd33c7d3b2d2816b9f7f8eeebab148d29056c2ca4d7cbc966f2d9
healthcheck:
test: redis-cli ping || exit 1
restart: unless-stopped
database:
container_name: immich_postgres
image: ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:14-vectorchord0.4.3-pgvectors0.2.0@sha256:bcf63357191b76a916ae5eb93464d65c07511da41e3bf7a8416db519b40b1c23
environment:
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
POSTGRES_USER: ${DB_USERNAME}
POSTGRES_DB: ${DB_DATABASE_NAME}
POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS: '--data-checksums'
volumes:
- ${DB_DATA_LOCATION}:/var/lib/postgresql/data
shm_size: 128mb
restart: unless-stopped
volumes:
model-cache:Your .env content
# The location where your uploaded files are stored
UPLOAD_LOCATION=/path/to/immich/upload
# Custom locations for performance-sensitive, regeneratable data (SSD)
THUMB_LOCATION=/path/to/immich/thumbs
ENCODED_VIDEO_LOCATION=/path/to/immich/encoded-video
PROFILE_LOCATION=/path/to/immich/profile
BACKUP_LOCATION=/path/to/immich/backups
# The location where your database files are stored.
DB_DATA_LOCATION=/path/to/immich/postgres
TZ=Europe/Zurich
IMMICH_VERSION=v2
DB_PASSWORD=REDACTED
# The values below this line do not need to be changed
###################################################################################
DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_DATABASE_NAME=immich
Reproduction steps
- Have a video file with Apple Intermediate Codec (
aic) video plus two mono PCM tracks tagged with positional channel layouts (FL and FR) and a tmcd data track — i.e. typical iMovie/QuickTime-exported footage.
- Upload it to Immich.
- The transcoding job runs (the policy transcodes because
aic is not in the accepted video codecs).
- The job fails with
ffmpeg exited with code 234; the asset plays audio only with a frozen thumbnail.
A repro file can be download and used freely at https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c6016926-50d4-4251-9ea2-1763ef686b2d
Relevant log output
LOG [Microservices:MediaService] Transcoding video <asset-id> without hardware acceleration
DEBUG [Microservices:MediaRepository] ffmpeg -n 10 /usr/bin/ffmpeg -i /mnt/media/clips/clip.mov -y -c:v h264 -c:a aac -movflags faststart -fps_mode passthrough -map 0:0 -map_metadata -1 -map 0:1 -v verbose -vf scale=-2:720 -preset ultrafast -crf 23 /data/encoded-video/<...>.mp4
Duration: 00:00:08.98, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 109026 kb/s
Stream #0:0[0x1](eng): Video: aic, 1 reference frame (icod / 0x646F6369), yuv420p(progressive), 1920x1080, 107410 kb/s, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 2997 tbn (default)
Metadata:
encoder : Apple Intermediate Codec
Stream #0:1[0x2](eng): Audio: pcm_s16le (sowt / 0x74776F73), 48000 Hz, 1 channels (FL), s16, 768 kb/s (default)
Stream #0:2[0x3](eng): Audio: pcm_s16le (sowt / 0x74776F73), 48000 Hz, 1 channels (FR), s16, 768 kb/s (default)
Stream #0:3[0x4](eng): Data: none (tmcd / 0x64636D74), 0 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (aic (native) -> h264 (libx264))
Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (pcm_s16le (native) -> aac (native))
[auto_aresample_0 @ ...] ch:1 chl:1 channels (FL) fmt:s16 r:48000Hz -> ch:1 chl:1 channels (FL) fmt:fltp r:48000Hz
[aac @ ...] Unsupported channel layout "1 channels (FL)"
[aac @ ...] Qavg: nan
[aost#0:1/aac @ ...] Error while opening encoder - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height.
[af#0:1 @ ...] Error sending frames to consumers: Invalid argument
[af#0:1 @ ...] Task finished with error code: -22 (Invalid argument)
# video side encodes fine before being discarded:
[libx264 @ ...] frame I:1 Avg QP:20.00 size:213614
[libx264 @ ...] frame P:70 Avg QP:25.94 size: 43819
[libx264 @ ...] kb/s:11079.52
[out#0/mp4 @ ...] Nothing was written into output file, because at least one of its streams received no packets.
Conversion failed!
ERROR [Microservices:MediaService] Error occurred during transcoding: ffmpeg exited with code 234: Conversion failed!Additional information
Root cause
The source audio stream is mapped straight into the AAC encoder with no channel-layout normalization.
Patch that worked for me
Normalizing the channel layout and merging the dual-mono pair into real stereo lets the transcode complete into a browser-playable H.264/AAC MP4:
ffmpeg -i input.mov \
-filter_complex "[0:a:0][0:a:1]amerge=inputs=2,aformat=channel_layouts=stereo[a]" \
-map 0:v:0 -map "[a]" \
-c:v libx264 -crf 20 -preset slow -pix_fmt yuv420p \
-c:a aac -b:a 192k -movflags faststart output.mp4
The minimal trigger is the missing layout normalization on the AAC path: forcing a standard layout (e.g. -ac 2) is enough to prevent the crash, while amerge additionally preserves true stereo from the two separate mono tracks.
I have searched the existing issues, both open and closed, to make sure this is not a duplicate report.
The bug
Video transcoding fails for video files that contain dual-mono PCM audio where each track carries a positional channel layout. FFmpeg's native AAC encoder rejects the positional layout and no audio packets are written.
Immich then falls back to serving the original file. On the web the browser can't decode the Apple Intermediate Codec video, so the asset shows a frozen thumbnail with audio-only playback; the same clips are also affected on mobile. Re-running the transcode job fails identically every time. QuickTime and VLC play the originals fine.
The OS that Immich Server is running on
Debian 13.5
Version of Immich Server
v2.7.5
Version of Immich Mobile App
v2.7.5
Platform with the issue
Device make and model
Source footage from a Sanyo Xacti HX-WA10 camcorder, later processed through Apple software (Apple Intermediate Codec + dual-mono PCM).
Your docker-compose.yml content
Your .env content
Reproduction steps
aic) video plus two mono PCM tracks tagged with positional channel layouts (FLandFR) and atmcddata track — i.e. typical iMovie/QuickTime-exported footage.aicis not in the accepted video codecs).ffmpeg exited with code 234; the asset plays audio only with a frozen thumbnail.A repro file can be download and used freely at https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c6016926-50d4-4251-9ea2-1763ef686b2d
Relevant log output
Additional information
Root cause
The source audio stream is mapped straight into the AAC encoder with no channel-layout normalization.
Patch that worked for me
Normalizing the channel layout and merging the dual-mono pair into real stereo lets the transcode complete into a browser-playable H.264/AAC MP4:
The minimal trigger is the missing layout normalization on the AAC path: forcing a standard layout (e.g.
-ac 2) is enough to prevent the crash, whileamergeadditionally preserves true stereo from the two separate mono tracks.