| Format | Extension | Notes |
| ATSC A/52 (AC3) | .a52, .ac3, .rm, .ra, .rmvb | Supports downmixing for playback of 5.1 streams in stereo |
| ADX | .adx | Encrypted ADX is not supported. |
| Advanced Audio Coding | .m4a, .m4b, .mp4, .rm, .ra, .rmvb | Supports AAC-LC, -HEv1, and -HEv2 profiles |
| MPEG audio | .mpa, .mp1, .mp2, .mp3 | MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 1/2/3 |
| Musepack | .mpc | Supports SV7 and SV8 in mono/stereo |
| OGG/Vorbis | .ogg, .oga | Playback of some old “floor 0” files may fail on low memory targets. Files with album art larger than available RAM will be skipped. Chained Ogg files are not supported. |
| Sony Audio | .oma, .aa3, .rm, .ra, .rmvb | Supports ATRAC3 |
| RealAudio | .rm, .ra, .rmvb | Supports RealAudio G2 (Cook) |
| Speex | .spx |
|
| Dialogic telephony type | .vox |
|
| Windows Media Audio Standard | .wma, .wmv, .asf |
|
| Windows Media Audio Professional | .wma, .wmv, .asf |
|
Note: AAC-HE profiles might not play in realtime on all devices due to CPU performance requirements.
| Format | Extension | Notes |
| Audio Interchange File Format | .aif, .aiff | Linear PCM 8/16/24/32 bit, IEEE float 32/64 bit, ITU-T G.711 a-law/μ-law, QuickTime IMA ADPCM |
| Monkey’s Audio | .ape, .mac | -c1000 to -c3000 files decode fast enough to be useful. |
| Sun Audio | .au, .snd | Linear PCM 8/16/24/32 bit, IEEE float 32/64 bit, ITU-T G.711 a-law/μ-law |
| Free Lossless Audio | .flac | Supports multichannel playback including downmixing to stereo. |
| Apple Lossless | .m4a, .mp4 |
|
| Shorten | .shn | Seeking not supported. |
| True Audio | .tta |
|
| Wave64 | .w64 | Supports same formats as Waveform audio format. |
| Waveform audio format | .wav | Linear PCM 8/16/24/32 bit, IEEE float 32/64 bit, ITU-T G.711 a-law/μ-law, Microsoft ADPCM, Intel DVI ADPCM (IMA ADPCM) 2/3/4/5 bit, Dialogic OKI ADPCM, YAMAHA ADPCM, Adobe SWF ADPCM |
| Wavpack | .wv |
|
Note: Free Lossless Audio multichannel tracks may not play in realtime on all devices due to CPU performance requirements.
| Format | Extension | Notes |
| Atari Sound Format | .cmc, .cm3, .cmr, .cms, .dmc, .dlt, .mpt, .mpd |
|
| Synthetic music Mobile Application Format | .mmf | PCM/ADPCM only |
| Game Boy Sound Format | .gbs | Progress bar and seek use subtracks instead of seconds. |
| AY Sound Chip Music | .ay | Progress bar and seek use subtracks instead of seconds for multitrack files. |
| Hudson Entertainment System Sound Format | .hes | Progress bar and seek use subtracks instead of seconds. |
| MSX Konami Sound System | .kss | Progress bar and seek use subtracks instead of seconds. |
| SMS/GG/CV Sound Format | .sgc | Supports Sega Master System and Game Gear Sound Format. Progress bar and seek use subtracks instead of seconds. |
| Video Game Music Format | .vgm |
|
| Gzipped Video Game Music Format | .vgz |
|
| MOD | .mod |
|
| NES Sound Format | .nsf, .nsfe | Progress bar and seek use subtracks instead of seconds. |
| Atari SAP | .sap |
|
| Sound Interface Device | .sid | Progress bar and seek use subtracks instead of seconds. |
| SPC700 | .spc |
|
Note: NSF and VGM might not play in realtime on all devices due to CPU performance requirements.
| Format | Seek | Resume | Gapless |
| ATSC A/52 (AC3) | x | x |
|
| ADX | x |
|
|
| Advanced Audio Coding | x | x | x |
| MPEG audio | x | x | x |
| Musepack | x | x | x |
| OGG/Vorbis | x | x | x |
| Sony Audio | x | x |
|
| RealAudio | x | x |
|
| Dialogic telephony type | x | x |
|
| Windows Media Audio Standard | x | x |
|
| Windows Media Audio Professional | x | x |
|
| Audio Interchange File Format | x | x | x |
| Monkey’s Audio | x | x | x |
| Sun Audio | x | x | x |
| Free Lossless Audio | x | x | x |
| Apple Lossless | x | x | x |
| Shorten |
|
| x |
| True Audio | x | x | x |
| Wave64 | x | x | x |
| Waveform audio format | x | x | x |
| Wavpack | x | x | x |
| Atari Sound Format | x |
|
|
| Synthetic music Mobile Application Format | x | x |
|
| Game Boy Sound Format | x |
|
|
| AY Sound Chip Music | x |
|
|
| Hudson Entertainment System Sound Format | x |
|
|
| MSX Konami Sound System | x |
|
|
| SMS/GG/CV Sound Format | x |
|
|
| Video Game Music Format | x | x |
|
| Gzipped Video Game Music Format | x | x |
|
| MOD | x |
|
|
| NES Sound Format | x |
|
|
| Atari SAP | x |
|
|
| Sound Interface Device | x |
|
|
| SPC700 | x |
|
|
Note: The seek implementations of NES Sound Format, Sound Interface Device, Game Boy Sound Format, AY Sound Chip Music, Hudson Entertainment System Sound, Format, MSX Konami Sound System and SMS/GG/CV Sound Format use subtracks instead of seconds, whereas each subtrack equals a second.
Rockbox supports different metadata formats. In general those tag formats are ID3 (v1.0, v1.1, v2.2, v2.3 and v2.4), APE (v1 and v2), Vorbis, MP4 and ASF. Few codecs use codec specific tags, several codecs do not use any tags yet. The following table gives an overview about what tag types rockbox supports for which audio file extension.
Note: There is always only one tag type supported for each file extension.
| Tag type | File extension |
| ID3 | .mp1, .mpa, .mp2, .mp3, .rm, .ra, .rmvb, .tta |
| APE | .mpc, .ape, .mac, .wv |
| Vorbis | .ogg, .oga, .spx, .flac |
| MP4 | .m4a, .m4b, .mp4 |
| ASF | .wma, .wmv, .asf |
| Codec specific | .mmf, .mod, .nsf, .nsfe, .sap, .sid, .spc, .gbs, .ay, .kss, .sgc, .vgm |
| None | .a52, .ac3, .adx, .oma, .aa3, .aif, .aiff, .au, .snd, .shn, .vox, .w64, .wav, .cmc, .cm3, .cmr, .cms, .dmc, .dlt, .mpt, .mpd, .hes, .vgz |
| Feature | ID3 | APE | Vorbis | MP4 | ASF |
| Embedded albumart .bmp |
|
|
|
|
|
| Embedded albumart .jpg | x | x |
| x | x |
| Embedded albumart .png |
|
|
|
|
|
| Embedded cuesheet | x |
| x |
|
|
| Replaygain information | x | x | x | x | x |
| Title (string) | x | x | x | x | x |
| Artist (string) | x | x | x | x | x |
| Album (string) | x | x | x | x | x |
| Genre (string) | x | x | x | x | x |
| Disc (string or number) | x | x | x | x |
|
| Track (string or number) | x | x | x | x | x |
| Year (string or number) | x | x | x | x | x |
| Composer (string) |
| x | x | x | x |
| Comment (string) | x | x | x | x | x |
| Albumartist (string) | x | x | x | x | x |
| Grouping (string) |
| x | x | x |
|
Note: Embedded album art for ASF is limited to pictures of maximum 64 KB size.
| Feature | Codec specific metadata (file extension) |
| Embedded .bmp | None |
| Embedded .jpg | None |
| Embedded .png | None |
| Replaygain | .mpc |
| Title | .tta, .spc, .mmf, .sid, .rm, .ra, .rmvb, .nsf, .nsfe, .mod, .sap, .gbs, .ay, .sgc, .vgm |
| Artist | .tta, .spc, .mmf, .sid, .rm, .ra, .rmvb, .nsf, .nsfe, .sap, .gbs, .ay, .sgc, .vgm |
| Album | .spc, .sid, .nsf, .nsfe, .gbs, .ay, .sgc, .vgm |
| Genre | .tta, .spc, .sap |
| Disc | .tta |
| Track | .tta |
| Year | .spc, .sid, .sap |
| Composer | .mmf |
| Comment | .spc, .rm, .ra, .rmvb, .vgm |
| Albumartist | None |
| Grouping | None |