wave.Error: file does not start with RIFF id

Question

I am trying to use the SpeechRecognition library (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/SpeechRecognition/). When running the example code (full example) below:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import speech_recognition as sr

# obtain path to "english.wav" in the same folder as this script
from os import path
AUDIO_FILE = path.join(path.dirname(path.realpath(__file__)), "english.wav")
#AUDIO_FILE = path.join(path.dirname(path.realpath(__file__)), "french.aiff")
#AUDIO_FILE = path.join(path.dirname(path.realpath(__file__)), "chinese.flac")

# use the audio file as the audio source
r = sr.Recognizer()
with sr.AudioFile(AUDIO_FILE) as source:
    audio = r.record(source) # read the entire audio file

I receive this error:

/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.2_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/bin/python3.4 /Users/adamg/te/Polli/ASR/SpeechRecognitionTest0.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.2_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site-packages/speech_recognition/__init__.py", line 174, in __enter__
    self.audio_reader = wave.open(self.filename_or_fileobject, "rb")
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.2_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/wave.py", line 497, in open
    return Wave_read(f)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.2_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/wave.py", line 163, in __init__
    self.initfp(f)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.2_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/wave.py", line 130, in initfp
    raise Error('file does not start with RIFF id')
wave.Error: file does not start with RIFF id

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.2_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site-packages/speech_recognition/__init__.py", line 179, in __enter__
    self.audio_reader = aifc.open(self.filename_or_fileobject, "rb")
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.2_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/aifc.py", line 887, in open
    return Aifc_read(f)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.2_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/aifc.py", line 340, in __init__
    self.initfp(f)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.2_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/aifc.py", line 305, in initfp
    raise Error('file does not start with FORM id')
aifc.Error: file does not start with FORM id

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/adamg/te/Polli/ASR/SpeechRecognitionTest0.py", line 13, in <module>
    with sr.AudioFile(AUDIO_FILE) as source:
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.2_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site-packages/speech_recognition/__init__.py", line 199, in __enter__
    self.audio_reader = aifc.open(aiff_file, "rb")
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.2_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/aifc.py", line 887, in open
    return Aifc_read(f)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.2_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/aifc.py", line 340, in __init__
    self.initfp(f)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.2_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/aifc.py", line 303, in initfp
    chunk = Chunk(file)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.2_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/chunk.py", line 63, in __init__
    raise EOFError
EOFError

Process finished with exit code 1

How can this be fixed?

Answer 1

I had the same problem for a while, my mistake is to download the wav file using "save as". When I double click to play the wav file, I am not able to play the wav file using any player. After cloning or downloading the entire zip file, I am able to play the wav file and the error disappears.

Answer 2

Your wav file is probably corrupted. To check try to play the file using any media player if possible. Download the audio file into your environment correctly and then it should work.

I have faced this issue when I did a mistake by downloading the file the incorrect way, I downloaded the audio file using the following command in the google colab:

[!wget 'https://github.com/mozilla/DeepSpeech/blob/master/data/smoke_test/LDC93S1_pcms16le_1_16000.wav']

This threw an error as the audio file was corrupted(could not be played my media player when downloaded). I was able to correct the issue by downloading the following way:

[!wget 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mozilla/DeepSpeech/master/data/smoke_test/LDC93S1_pcms16le_1_16000.wav']

Answer 3

For what it's worth, I ran into this problem when git LFS WAV files I had stored in a repo were not cloned properly. Their pointers were present, but the files were not. A

git lfs pull

fixed the problem.

That being said, this might just happen any time you a file is pointed to that isn't actually an audio file that is "complete". Hopefully that helps!