Skip to main content

FLAC Detective — lossy transcodes hiding inside lossless files: MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus

🎵 FLAC Detective

A lossy file renamed to .flac looks lossless, weighs lossless, and fools every player you own. It can't fool the arithmetic the encoder left behind — and this reads it for you.

MP3, AAC, Vorbis and — partially — Opus, through three independent kinds of evidence. A conviction needs two of them to agree.

PyPI version PyPI Downloads CI Docs License: MIT

Find the fake FLACs in your music library.

A lossy codec throws away the top of the spectrum and never gives it back. FLAC Detective reads each file, spots the fingerprints that loss leaves behind, and tells you which files are real and which are fakes.

pip install flac-detective       # needs Python 3.10+
flac-detective /path/to/music    # scan a file or a whole folder

Every file gets a verdict, like a traffic light:

✅ AUTHENTIC      real lossless         → keep it
❓ WARNING        borderline            → give it a listen
⚠️  SUSPICIOUS     probably a transcode  → likely a fake
❌ FAKE_CERTAIN   definitely a fake     → replace it

The scan only reads your files — it never changes anything.

🟢 New to all this? → Start Here — the 5-minute beginner's guide No command line, no jargon. From "what is this?" to "I checked my music".


📚 More


Licensed under the MIT License.

Metadata

Release files for flac-detective 1.20.1

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for flac-detective 1.20.1
File Size Uploaded
flac_detective-1.20.1.tar.gz 15.8 MB Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for flac-detective 1.20.1
File Interpreter ABI Platform
flac_detective-1.20.1-py3-none-any.whl Python 3 none any Details

Total release size: 31.4 MB

Release files / flac_detective-1.20.1.tar.gz

Download URL flac_detective-1.20.1.tar.gz
Size 15.8 MB
Tags Source
SHA-256 checksum
How to use checksums
bb9fbfe1c7d957e35cd8578256781ef51e9e1392d0c9d2af869417fd68ece357
BLAKE2b-256 checksum
How to use checksums
75e472880b82afb60d7b9be59842902267fd0c76977debe4c209ec5c4abe0b5b
Upload date
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing?
What is trusted publishing?
Yes
Uploaded via twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14

Provenance

Provenance describes where a file came from. On PyPI, provenance is shared via attestations, which provide a verifiable record of the build or publishing details. View details, limitations and caveats.

PyPI Publish Attestation

PyPI verified that this artifact, at this checksum, originated from the publisher listed below.

Signed by GitHub Actions, verified by PyPI on Oct 2, 2026.

Transparency log

Release files / flac_detective-1.20.1-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL flac_detective-1.20.1-py3-none-any.whl
Size 15.6 MB
Tags Python 3
SHA-256 checksum
How to use checksums
7b99c3b94bc33537c2e275f51b7280ce1810c69b9255f8bc179caf0d3575d3c4
BLAKE2b-256 checksum
How to use checksums
1b476a773c27f0f30b4a9432db2f38cbde83a514a93fd854889a0ed88eda6bc4
Upload date
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing?
What is trusted publishing?
Yes
Uploaded via twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14

Provenance

Provenance describes where a file came from. On PyPI, provenance is shared via attestations, which provide a verifiable record of the build or publishing details. View details, limitations and caveats.

PyPI Publish Attestation

PyPI verified that this artifact, at this checksum, originated from the publisher listed below.

Signed by GitHub Actions, verified by PyPI on Oct 2, 2026.

Transparency log

Release history Release notifications | RSS feed

2.5.0

2 release files

2.4.1

2 release files

2.4.0

2 release files

2.3.0

2 release files

2.2.0

2 release files

2.1.0

2 release files

2.0.0

2 release files

This release

1.20.1 This release

2 release files

1.19.1

2 release files

1.19.0

2 release files

1.18.0

2 release files

1.17.0

2 release files

1.16.0

2 release files

1.15.0

2 release files

1.14.1

2 release files

1.14.0

2 release files

1.13.0

2 release files

1.12.0

2 release files

1.11.4

2 release files

1.11.3

2 release files

1.11.2

2 release files

1.11.0

2 release files

1.10.1

2 release files

1.10.0

2 release files

1.9.0

2 release files

1.8.0

2 release files

1.7.0

2 release files

1.6.1

2 release files

1.6.0

2 release files

1.5.0

2 release files

1.4.0

2 release files

1.3.2

2 release files

1.3.1

2 release files

1.3.0

2 release files

1.2.0

2 release files

1.1.0

2 release files

1.0.1

2 release files

1.0.0

2 release files

0.14.1

2 release files

0.14.0

2 release files

0.12.0

2 release files

0.11.0

2 release files

0.10.1

2 release files

0.10.0

2 release files

0.9.11

2 release files

0.9.7

2 release files

0.9.6

2 release files

0.9.5

2 release files

0.9.1

2 release files

0.9.0

2 release files

0.8.0

2 release files

0.7.2

2 release files

0.7.1

2 release files

0.7.0

2 release files

0.6.8

2 release files

0.6.7

2 release files

0.6.6

2 release files

0.6.5

2 release files

0.6.4

2 release files

0.6.2

2 release files

0.6.1

2 release files

0.6.0

2 release files

Anthropic, PBC Visionary sponsor Bloomberg Visionary sponsor Hudson River Trading Visionary sponsor Meta Visionary sponsor NVIDIA Visionary sponsor Microsoft Sustainability sponsor Depot Continuous Integration AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page