Technical Support

Be sure to read the Membership FAQs for answers to many common questions about the Streaming Membership plans.

• Can I receive more specific technical help?
• Trouble receiving e-mail from us (JoeFrank.com)?
• Where do I download purchased shows from?
• Errors opening Compressed (ZIP) downloads?
• Trouble downloading from the Shop using an older iPhone oriPad (iOS device)?
• PayPal Subscription failing?
• Audio quality – streams, CDs and MP3s
• Using the Streaming Membership Area
• Joe Frank Streaming Media Information and a List of tested devices/browsers

Last Updated: Friday May 10th, 2024 @ 8:53AM PST

Can I receive more specific technical help?

We’re proud of our Team’s rapid response. You will never receive an auto-responder email with a generic “someone will get back to you soon.” We usually respond within 24 hours – most of the time sooner – and will help you through whatever problem you may encounter with the Membership. Please e-mail us at support@joefrank.com.

Trouble receiving e-mail from us (JoeFrank.com)?

If you have any trouble receiving e-mail from us please make sure to check and try the following:

• Check your Junk or SPAM folder in case your e-mail provider has accidentally flagged the message.
• Add *@joefrank.com (check with e-mail host for correct syntax) to your Whitelist or Address Book (some systems check Address Books as a Whitelist)
• Make sure you aren’t over quota with your e-mail provider. If you aren’t getting any mail this may be the cause and if so please contact them.
• Typically we will see e-mails fail to send/bounce. In these cases we will use an alternate e-mail service to contact you.

MIPSpace: We have found out that any e-mail service using MIPSpace will not be able to get e-mails from @joefrank.com. We reply to all e-mails usually within 24 hours. We will see if MIPSpace is blocking us from sending to you and use an alternate e-mail service on our end to directly e-mail you and work around this.
NOTE: If you use a spam control service requiring messages sent to you to be approved, please let us know so that you may receive our response in a timely manner. Failure to do so may cause a delay in our response.

Where do I download purchased shows from?

You can always see your downloads (even if you checked out as a Guest) with the following steps:

1. Click on Shop, then Track Your Order
2. Put in the JoeFrank.com Order ID (not PayPal Transaction ID) – this was given in an e-mail from Joe Frank Shop; Contact us at support@joefrank.com if you can’t find it
3. Put in the Billing Email address used when placing the order
4. Click TRACK
5. You will now be at the Order Details page and you will see “Download file: SHOW NAME” highlighted in yellow for the links to download from

NOTE: Please note that on the final page of checkout (after you paid) you are on the Order Details page. You were also sent an e-mail from the Joe Frank Shop with a copy of your invoice and a link to Download the show(s); check your Junk or Spam folder if you don’t see this e-mail.

Errors opening Compressed (ZIP) downloads?

PROBLEM: Errors “Error 1 – Operation not permitted” or “Decompression Failed” when trying to open (uncompress/unzip) the Compressed (ZIP) downloads on a Mac.
 
REASON: This is a known issue with any ZIP files on MacOS for several years now. Most people will never run into this, but if you do see the following solution.
 
SOLUTION: You need to unzip the file using the Terminal. Below are steps with screenshots on how to do this, along with a link to a YouTube video (unaffiliated).

1. Note where your file has been saved. Example: JF-Selex-Vol-3.zip is in the Downloads folder. (Screenshot).
2. Go to Applications > Utilities > and open the Terminal app. (Screenshot)
3. In the Terminal use the following steps, assuming the file and folder as given in the example on step 1(Screenshot)
• Type “ls” and hit ENTER/RETURN to see where you are currently.
• Type “cd Downloads/” and hit ENTER/RETURN; replace the “Downloads/” part as needed.
• Type “ls” and hit ENTER/RETURN again. You are just checking to see if the file you are looking for is here before going to the next step.
• Type “unzip JF-Selex-Vol-3.zip” and hit ENTER/RETRUN; replace the “JF-Selex-Vol-3.zip” part as needed.
• You then will see “creating: …” and “inflating: …” several times. If it doesn’t do this (see screenshot from above) then you should check the spelling of the file or make sure you are in the correct folder.
• Once it has completed you will see a new folder in the same location where your file is and all the MP3s will be in this new folder. In this example you will notice the JF-Selex-Vol-3 folder in Downloads.
• You can now close the Terminal (ie click the Red button)
• NOTE: You can delete the _MACOSX folder if one shows up after doing this. Nothing is in there.
4. Enter the new folder (JF-Selex-Vol-3 in this example) to see the MP3 audio files and/or add them to iTunes (Screenshot)

NOTE: YouTube Video (not affiliated with JoeFrank.com or its staff): How to unzip/uncompress (Error 1 – Operation not permitted) using terminal on mac

Trouble downloading from the Shop using an iPhone or iPad (iOS device)?

SOLUTION: If using an iPhone or iPad running iOS 7.0 to 15.6.0 you may need to first download the purchased show(s) via a Mac or PC first and then use iTunes or another method to put the show(s) on your iOS device for listening on the go.
 
CAUSE/REASON: Because of an old bug since iOS 7.0, and not fixed until 15.6.1 and newer, you may need download all purchases onto a Mac or PC and then sync them to your iOS devices (typically via iTunes). The issue is that known audio files types are now “streamed” instead of prompting to downloading so they won’t be saved for later playback on the iOS device and most of the time the “stream” will stop and cause a Expired error when trying to download the file later.
 
NOTE! If you have already had this happen and now your download shows Expired please e-mail us at support@joefrank.com to get in touch with the Joe Frank Online Support team so we can reset the show. We usually respond within 24 hours – most of the time sooner.

PayPal Subscription failing?

PROBLEM: You show your subscription to JoeFrank.com (or any other place) as Failing on PayPal even when the payment platform you have setup is still valid.
 
SOLUTION: First try to contact PayPal Support and if they do not know the reason why then transfer the money needed for the subscription payment into your PayPal account so the money is “on hand” with PayPal.

Audio quality – streams, CDs and MP3s

Joe started creating shows in the mid-1970s using reel-to-reel tape. In the 1990s, he recorded the shows on DAT (digital audio tape). Also in the 1990s, shows on reel-to-reel tapes were transferred to DATs.

In the early 2000s, when we started JoeFrank.com, each of the shows were digitized from DAT to .AIFF (audio interchange file format) or .WAV (waveform audio file) as uncompressed 16-bit stereo with a sample rate of 44100Hz. Each of these one-hour files about 600mb.

These uncompressed files are then burned to CD to create masters from which we create the CDs for sale. (We create new masters often.)

The MP3s are exported directly from the original 600mb uncompressed files to create what you receive here streaming at 128kbps (kilobytes per second). A one-hour show is about 50mb.

Note: We are aware that the music Joe selected is integral to the show. We tried encoding the MP3s at 256kbps, however, found those files to be prohibitively large for most users to download. If you would like a larger file to enhance your listening experience, we suggest that you purchase the CD and create your own lossless file. Thank you.

Streaming in Membership area:

Please check out the Membership FAQs!

If you do not see the Membership you subscribed to listed under “Your Subscriptions” on the right-hand column (where the login is/was) then please “Logout“, close all of your browser windows and then log back in. This has been seen to happen randomly on a variety of devices/browsers.

Selecting the name of the show you want to listen to should create a pop-up of the player that will auto-reload to display and auto-play (when it can) the show. If you do not see a pop-up please disable the Pop-up blocker for your browser and click on the show name again.

Note: The shows are available for download only through the shop – the Membership is subscription-based access to online streaming content only.

Joe Frank Streaming Media:

All streams throughout the site are compatible with the Adobe Flash Player and/or most HTML5 Browsers, so this means you do NOT need to have Adobe Flash to enjoy listening to Joe! We aim to auto-detect the best display method between HTML5 and Flash for your device and browser. Currently Chrome for most Operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android; not iOS) provides the best playback solution because of the way they handle HTML5, while other (very old) browsers may require Adobe Flash Player to be installed or may not be able to stream shows provided by JoeFrank.com at all. Streaming content is delivered in a MPEG4 container of the .M4A (AAC, audio) or .MP4 (H.264, video) file types.

Special Note: Current iOS devices (i.e. iPhone or iPad) work best when using Safari.

Below is a table showing all the devices/operating systems/browsers we have tested and confirm work. Just because your device/operating system/browser isn’t listed doesn’t mean it won’t work, it just means that it hasn’t been personally tested by the Joe Frank Team to ensure it will work correctly: