Custom fields & mp3tag

Jimothy · Post by **Jimothy** » Tue May 08, 2007 12:08 am

I use Mp3tag a lot to enter tag information, and it has worked well with MM, except when it comes to MM custom fields. I entered a tag in MM in the Custom 3 field, and found the name of the tag in Mp3tag (COMMENT SONGS-DB_CUSTOM3). I used that to create a new column in Mp3tag to easily enter the tag info there. But that info doesn't show up in MM. Rescanning in MM doesn't help either.

If I enter the tag in MM after I already entered it in Mp3tag, an additional field shows up called COMMENT followed by a bunch of squares.

So is there a way I can get MM to recognize the tags I entered in Mp3tag in the COMMENT SONGS-DB_CUSTOM3 field?

Jimothy · Post by **Jimothy** » Sat May 12, 2007 1:47 am

Well, my first experience here on the forum wasn't very fruitful, but I found the solution to the problem myself. To get the custom tag info entered in Mp3tag to show up in MediaMonkey:

1) Rename the files through Mp3tag using the Tag -> Filename option. Use whatever tag info you normally use to name your files, plus the tag info from your custom field. (If you have MediaMonkey Gold open when you do this, it will automatically detect the name change; otherwise, you'll have to manually add the renamed files to the library.)

2) Now that the custom tag information is in the filename, remove the custom tag through Mp3tag (otherwise MM will add an extra custom tag) - select the files, press Alt-T, select the custom tag and delete it. OK.

3) Select the renamed files in the MM library, right-click and choose Auto-Tag from Filename... Here you can convert the filename back into your custom tag info. You can find help on this step elsewhere.

That should do it. Hope that helps somebody eventually.

Bex · Post by **Bex** » Sat May 12, 2007 2:11 am

I'm sure mp3tag can't mimic the exact way MM does write this tag.

Anyway, thanks for the detailed workaround and welcome to the forum!

Mizery_Made · Post by **Mizery_Made** » Sat May 12, 2007 2:13 am

I add information to the Custom Fields with MP3Tag all the time, and never have trouble with it showing up in MediaMonkey.

I just add the information to the field in MP3Tag (COMMENT SONGS-DB_CUSTOM#), save the tag. Go to MediaMonkey and rescan the folder that the files are in and the changes are shown in MediaMonkey.

Not sure where it's going wrong for you. Maybe Tools > Options > Library > "Update Track info from Tags when rescanning files" & "Only for files with changed timestamp or filesize"?

Mizery_Made · Post by **Mizery_Made** » Sat May 12, 2007 3:58 am

Strange, I just did it again, and this time I ran into the same problem as you. The information isn't being imported by MediaMonkey. The only thing that has changed is that I upgraded to MP3Tag 2.38, maybe the problem lies with that.

Mizery_Made · Post by **Mizery_Made** » Sun May 13, 2007 1:33 am

I believe I just found the problem. Through some investigation, I found while opening the MP3 in a Text Editor, here's what I found out, tested MP3Tag 2.37a, 2.38 & MM 2.5 and here's how each writes the field in the Tag:

MediaMonkey 2.5 - "COMM XXXSongs-DB_Custom1"
MP3Tag 2.37a - "COMM engSongs-DB_Custom1"
MP3Tag 2.38 - "COMM engSONGS-DB_CUSTOM1"

Noticing this, I decided to test something. Took an MP3 and made two copies of it, both copies having the exact same data, same tag information, etc. Saved both tags in MP3Tag 2.38, but opened one of the copies and changed the tag from all Uppercase, to the previous way. Loaded them both in MM 2.5, low and behold, the unmodified copy left the Custom 1 field blank while the modified one showed up perfectly fine.

Strange...

Jimothy · Post by **Jimothy** » Sun May 13, 2007 3:06 pm

Thanks for the detective work, Mizery_Made! And also for making me aware of the Mp3tag 2.38 update.

I checked my Library Options, and "Update Track info from Tags when rescanning files" & "Only for files with changed timestamp or filesize" were both checked. That might have something to do with it. I unchecked that second one, so we'll see if I run into the same problem in the future. But wouldn't the added tag info increase the file size by a few bytes? Or does MM not notice?

But then again, you said you ran into the same problem anyway when you used 2.38. Should I not upgrade then?

I'm still trying to understand the differences you noted in the capitalization of the tag names. Where did the "eng" come from? I never saw that before. And when you look at extended tags in Mp3tag (2.37a at least; haven't upgraded yet), all the fields are in all caps - is that because MM wrote them that way, or does Mp3tag just display them that way? And when you modified the capitalization, are you doing that in Mp3tag?

Mizery_Made · Post by **Mizery_Made** » Sun May 13, 2007 9:04 pm

The modified caps comes from the way it's actually written in the file. In MP3Tag, the extended window, it does show in all caps, but if you open up the MP3 in a file editor, and find the frame, you could notice the cap problem. The "eng" comes in there aswell, MP3Tag, when writing the file is designating it as an "English" tag I believe, or, whatever language you use, while MM ignores this and just uses "XXX", don't think that makes much difference though.

I took my findings to the MP3Tag forum, and got some help here, maybe it will help you out aswell.

If you try it again, and it's still not showing up properly, then you could give the solution given there a try. Though, since you haven't upgraded to 2.38 already, you may be suffering a different issue.

Link to my post on the MP3Tag foum here: Click Me!