Backup tags ?

[Vongalin]

Hey all. Is there any option to somehow backup my tag data ? I recently goofed and did something in iTunes that really messed up my tags - 4 hours later, they are all back the way I want them.

Besides backing up my entire collection (which I do), is there a export/import/backup tag option ? If not, (if you do) how do you backup your tag data ?

Many thanks...

[Florian]

I once had an idea for tag backup by creating zero-bytes copies of each file and using copy/paste [Ctrl+C] and [Ctrl+V] to backup the tags from the original files to the mirrored files.

Mp3tag's export feature can create the mirror for you; for example with an export configuration like

$filename(make_mirror.txt)
$loop(%_folderpath%)md "%_folderpath_rel%"
$loop(%_filename_ext%)echo > "%_folderpath_rel%%_filename_ext%"
$loopend()
$loopend()

After export, copy the file make_mirror.txt to your backup directory, rename make_mirror.txt to make_mirror.cmd (which I've omitted in the export configuration for safety purposes), and execute that file.

Copying tags to empty files only works with MP3 and ID3v2. Other file types may give error messages.

Kind regards,
Florian

P.S. There is also always the option to use a Backup application to backup your audio files. 500GB drives are not very expensive at the moment.

[chrizoo]

@Vongalin

Hey all. Is there any option to somehow backup my tag data ? I recently goofed and did something in iTunes that really messed up my tags - 4 hours later, they are all back the way I want them.

Besides backing up my entire collection (which I do), is there a export/import/backup tag option ? If not, (if you do) how do you backup your tag data ?

Many thanks...

Hi Vongalin,

there is a quite handy solution for you if you prefer backing up the tags in addition to your entire collection:

http://cuemaster.host.sk/tidymp3.php

TidyMP3 is a free command line tool which has 2 very nice features:
(1) it can process the mp3 file and strip all non-audio frames ... (it even has an optional frame-reconstructor if frames are broken)
(2) it can save the stripped data as .trash files and when you rename them to .mp3, you can view/edit/copy the tags just as if they still had the audio data with them ...
So it's easy to restore some tags back to your files.

It has no mass-restore-function built-in though, so if you plan - for any reason - to really restore all the tags back to your files, you should either have a secondary tool which can copy and paste the tags from the saved mp3 (trash) files back,

.... or you use this:

http://jampal.sourceforge.net/tagbkup.html

quote from the webpage:

When creating a backup, the program creates files with names like tag_486c9c23c09d87c8_000.mp3. The long string of hexadecimal digits identifies a checksum of the actual mp3 sound data. This tag file is a real mp3 file containing a few milliseconds of silence, you can examine it with a tag editing program (e.g. load it into the jampal library). In Windows XP you can display the song titles, artists, etc. in the backup files by selecting options on the title bar.

In the same directory is the file "tagbkup.log". This contains a list of the backup file names and the original files they came from.

[Frobozz]

@chrizoo

.... or you use this:

http://jampal.sourceforge.net/tagbkup.html

Oh, that looks neat. I'm going to have to give it a try.

I backup my MP3 folders to an external hard drive. But a full restore takes time to copy gigabytes of files back. I suspect that tag backup utility would be faster and more convenient if I ever need to recover my tags from an accidental mass modification.

[chrizoo]

OK, great if it can help you.

Just make sure you try it on a small subset before, just to make sure that everything works as you want. And read the website closely for caveats. I remember one:

Warning: If you have two or more copies of the same song file (not just the same title, but copies of the same mp3 file), tag backup will recognize them as the same. If you are backing up both in the same run, it will name the second one with an _001 in the file name, the third with _002 and so on. If these have different tag data you will not be able to correctly restore them, they would all be restored from the backup file with _000 in the file name. Therefor it is a good idea to look through your backup directories for any files called tag_xxx_001.mp3 and eliminate the duplicates from your library.

[Oblio]

Hey did anyone manage to make TagBackup work on sub directories? I can only get it to backup files in a single directory. I need a mirror image structure of my collection with tag only mp3 files as Florian described.

@chrizoo

OK, great if it can help you.

Just make sure you try it on a small subset before, just to make sure that everything works as you want. And read the website closely for caveats. I remember one:

[DetlevD]

@Oblio

... I need a mirror image structure of my collection with tag only mp3 files as Florian described.

If Florian could support an option or action like "Write all Tags (option: including covers) and remove all other binary content" (user has to give target root folder, explicitely disabled any further touch than reading to the source files) we would have a simple to use Mp3tag native backup feature.

DD.20080423.0842.CEST

[Oblio]

It was easier than I thought.

I can use dbPowerAmp batch convert with the Grabber action set to zero. The reference version is required to replicate the folder structure.

This is not a perfect solution as I found some frames are not handled e.g. USLT is lost and multiple comments are screwed up - the extra comments are converted to TXXX frames (so some iTunes frames are lost). Its not a true "backup" as such because the tag is re-written, but for my needs it works.

@DetlevD

If Florian could support an option or action like "Write all Tags (option: including covers) and remove all other binary content" (user has to give target root folder, explicitely disabled any further touch than reading to the source files) we would have a simple to use Mp3tag native backup feature.

DD.20080423.0842.CEST