MM is erasing Tags

Bystepper · Post by **Bystepper** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 8:49 am

This Bug Report is somehow similar to the problem described here:

http://www.songs-db.com/forum/viewtopic ... a8492187c7

However, the incompatibility of MM to special characters has another desastrous impact. I had about four gigabyte of classic mp3 in a folder, all perfectly tagged. After I added them to the MM library and let MM additionally check for the sound level, all ID3-tag entries with speacial chars were simply erased by MM!!!

Well, I love MM for some features but I surely hate it for that bug.

Post by **jiri** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 9:30 am

There isn't any known MM bug that would destroy anything in tags, the topic you referred you was a Freedb problem that was already fixed quite some time ago.

Could you more clarify what was done to the files, what MM version are you using, what Windows version, etc.? Also, in case you can reproduce any problem on any mp3 file, please e-mail it to me.

Jiri

Bystepper · Post by **Bystepper** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 10:00 am

Thank you for your reply.

MM is in fact destroying tags, I successfully reproduced this bug.

I am using MM version 2.2.2.781 the interface language is German. My Windows version is Windows XP Professional SP2 with all security updates.

Now to the way I reproduced the problem:

1. I realized that some of my mp3-files miss tag-information, although I tagged them accurately with ID3v1 and ID3v2.

2. I tagged all files again

3. I used "File" > "Add/Rescan Tracks to the library" and selected the folder on my hard disk containing all the files, tagged in 2.

4. After MM added all files to the library, I added them to a playlist and chose "Tools" > "Analyze Volume".

5. I checked the tags and realized MM had erased some tag information again.

As for sending you a file: isn't it illegal to share files? Anyway, I can tell you the tag information MM erased for the field %track% of one file:

Mi chiamo Mimì (Puccini - La Bohème)

Maybe you are able to reproduce this bug by giving one of you own files this tag information in the field %track%.

Post by **Lowlander** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 10:19 am

5) In this case it shouldn't be illegal as the developers will just use it to investigate your problem.

Did you check in other programs if the problem songs are missing tags, like in WinAmp? Maybe MM is just missing the tags in the DB??

Bystepper · Post by **Bystepper** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 11:40 am

Yes, I checked the MP3-tags in this program:

http://www.mp3tag.de/

The information is definetely missing in the mp3-file, i.e. it was erased by MM in the file directly. That's why it is so annoying to me as I don't want my files to be truncated (who wants this anyway...).

Post by **Lowlander** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 12:13 pm

Just making sure, that it isn't MM misrepresenting things.

So this is bad. I would advice you to send a song to the devellopers so they can look for the problem. This hasn't been reported before. There is someone with a problem whereby MM wrote the same album artist in all files.

If you do decide to send a file it is probably best you send one where the tags are re-entered by you.

sadao · Post by **sadao** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 5:43 pm

Bystepper wrote:Thank you for your reply.

MM is in fact destroying tags, I successfully reproduced this bug.

I am using MM version 2.2.2.781 the interface language is German. My Windows version is Windows XP Professional SP2 with all security updates.

Now to the way I reproduced the problem:

1. I realized that some of my mp3-files miss tag-information, although I tagged them accurately with ID3v1 and ID3v2.

2. I tagged all files again

3. I used "File" > "Add/Rescan Tracks to the library" and selected the folder on my hard disk containing all the files, tagged in 2.

4. After MM added all files to the library, I added them to a playlist and chose "Tools" > "Analyze Volume".

5. I checked the tags and realized MM had erased some tag information again.

Try repeating these steps again, but make sure that before you run step 3, you sync the files you just updated (highlight them in the track list and hit CTRL + S). Remember that MM edits tags in its own library, so if you tag a file in the library and don't sync, you will lose the information if you reload the mp3 as the mp3 wasn't touched by MM. There is an option that allows you to make sure the tags are updated in the mp3 files every time you make a change to a library entry.

I think this is what happened to your library:

1- when you first read them in MM wasn't able to comprehend the special characters and left blank entries in it's database where the special characters were

2- when you ran the autoleveling, it synched the tags back to the mp3 file, including the blank entries thereby deleting what was in the mp3 file.

If this is indeed what happened the developers need to look at it.

Bystepper · Post by **Bystepper** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 7:12 pm

I will separate the two steps "add files to the library" and "analysing volume level". Between those steps I will check out at which step MM erases the information.

Additionally, I'll send the altered file to jiri.

Bystepper · Post by **Bystepper** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:51 pm

Well, the test showed that MediaMonkey erases the tag information when it analyses the volume levels. Now I will provide jiri with one file that which tags have been erased.

Post by **jiri** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 3:33 am

Bystepper,

how did you find out that any tag is missing in the file after tagging by MM? I reviewed it and it has the same set of tags as the original file (tested in MM, WinAmp and by directly checking the file). The only difference is that track title field after tagging is converted to Unicode because it contains characters that wouldn't be shown correctly if you change your system settings. That's perfectly correct, if MP3Tag application you mentioned cannot read the tag then, it's only this application's fault.

If you for some reason don't like MM to convert some frames of ID3v2 tags to Unicode (although as I said there's nothing wrong with it), you can set in options to write only ASCII frames and make them readable again for some older applications.

Jiri

Bystepper · Post by **Bystepper** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 5:13 am

jiri wrote: how did you find out that any tag is missing in the file after tagging by MM?

As I stated above I use the program MP3tag.

jiri wrote: ...track title field after tagging is converted to Unicode because it contains characters that wouldn't be shown correctly...

So MM converts tag fields to Unicode only if they contain special chars? That may be correct but it seems to be nonsequential somehow.

jiri wrote: ... if MP3Tag application you mentioned cannot read the tag then, it's only this application's fault.

That's right, MP3tag has no support for unicode tags: http://www.anytag.de/forums/index.php?s ... &p=&#entry

jiri wrote: If you for some reason don't like MM to convert some frames of ID3v2 tags to Unicode (although as I said there's nothing wrong with it), you can set in options to write only ASCII frames and make them readable again for some older applications.

All right! I tested it again and changing the option to ASCII solves the problem perfectly... in MP3tag. As I understand, unicode is way more convenient than ASCII especially when dealing with somehow unusual chars.

So thank you very much for your efforts and I hope this support issue will help some people to understand the difference between ASCII and unicode coded tags.

Sincerely yours,

Bystepper[/url]