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How can I make changes to ID3 track tag metadata with iTunes 4.7 on WinXP and have those changes stick?

  • How can I make changes to ID3 track tag metadata with iTunes 4.7 on WinXP and have those changes stick? [mi] I have a large and heterogenous collection of MP3/AAC files. They've been ripped from CDs at various times with all sorts of programs. Especially with the classical CDs, I've had to do extensive surgery on the track tags, which I've usually done with whatever program I used to rip them. But I've had some annoying problems with tags reverting back to old, uncorrected values. I use iTunes 4.7 for Windows XP (in the past, I've used earlier iTunes versions, MusicMatch, Windows Media Player, and probably some other stuff) and in particular, I've noticed that sometimes when I go to play a track, it will disappear as I click on it. It will then have reappeared under some other artist or genre (the fields I most frequently change). Invariably, that other artist/genre is the one that the track formerly had, and that I thought I had "fixed." I'm pretty sure that the problem is that the iTunes database and the actual metadata stored with the files gets out of sync and that iTunes decides that the files are authoritative. This would be okay, if iTunes bothered to update the files whenever I changed tag info using it. But no, it likes both to leave the files untouched and then, at some later point, to overwrite the changes I was trying to make because the files say different. What's worse, if I go in through, say, Windows to change the tags on the files directly, iTunes is no longer willing to play them -- it just skips the track when it comes up on a playlist. How can I fix my tags and have the changes stick?

  • Answer:

    Use a dedicated tagging program such as Tag&Rename.

grimmelm at Ask.Metafilter.Com Visit the source

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/me seconds Tag&Rename

neilkod

Tag&Rename seems to be a decent program . . . but is there a way to make iTunes pick up its changes en masse?

grimmelm

I second the question. I use iTunes for music playing and iPod integration, and Traktor for DJing using mp3s. Using Traktor causes files to become somewhat changed (it writes additional ID3 fields). The changes made do not reflect in iTunes, and so far the only way I know to update iTunes is to clear out the entire contents and reload the entire library (which, at 50 GB, takes a little while). I'm also concerned that if I clear out the library and reload the files, all the files will be seen as new, not just the ones changed in Traktor, and therefore the iPod will try to reload all files, which takes over 2 hours. Is there any way to get iTunes to recognize changes without reloading the entire library each time?

Bugbread

Do you have iTunes set to "Copy files to iTunes folder" on importing? If so, it may be that there are 2 copies of the file, and the old copy is being read when you go to play it.

cillit bang

cillit bang: Do you have iTunes set to "Copy files to iTunes folder" on importing? If so, it may be that there are 2 copies of the file, and the old copy is being read when you go to play it. No.

grimmelm

/me thirds Tag&Rename. It's the only way. iTunes does make changes to metadata, but it doesn't do a very good job of distinguishing between v1 and v2 tags. That's probably why you're finding that your changes 'won't stick'.

ascullion

Is there a good Mac OS X Tag&Rename equivalent?

Utilitaritron

ascullion: iTunes does make changes to metadata, but it doesn't do a very good job of distinguishing between v1 and v2 tags. That's probably why you're finding that your changes 'won't stick'. At one point along the way I had iTunes upgrade all the tags to v2.4. That undid lots of changes. But I think that even with the upgrade, changes made in the iTunes library still don't show up in the files themselves.

grimmelm

Apologies for perhaps adding more noise than signal but, I too am unclear just when iTunes modifies the ID3's directly and when it doesn't. I imagine if a file is read-only that it'll store the metadata in just the iTunes xml file. It is clear, however, that many times it stores the information in both ID3 tags and the xml library file. I guess I'm asking the same question but perhaps hoping someone can provide a source with detailed mechanics info on the process iTunes goes through in doing this stuff.

basicchannel

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