# Cannot add tag info into large wav files
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [December 30, 2021, 3:15pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667 "2021-12-30T15:15:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@shilei97.1](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/shilei97.1)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2021, 3:15pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/1 "2021-12-30T15:15:19Z")
Hi fellas,
I have a wav file which is 5.16GB large. I dragged this file into Mp3Tag and I coudln't add tag info to the file, the software popped up an error message. I figured that it was because the file was so large. Any help with this??
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2021, 3:18pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/2 "2021-12-30T15:18:24Z")
Have you done this already?
> [@How to check files for errors?](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-check-files-for-errors/44633):
>
> It’s required and often helps to reduce support cycles to check files for errors before filing a bug report. Symptoms of erroneous files are often missing or wrong bitrate or length audible blips or skips tags seem to be sticky and cannot be removed There are some really good tools to check the files for errors, namely MP3 Diags — identifies many different issues in MP3 files Website: [http://mp3diags.sourceforge.net](http://mp3diags.sourceforge.net) Download: [MP3 Diags - Getting MP3 Diags](http://mp3diags.sourceforge.net/010_getting_the_program.html#binWindows) If the font size in MP3 Diags is …
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### Author:  [@shilei97.1](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/shilei97.1)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2021, 3:40pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/4 "2021-12-30T15:40:11Z")
> [@ohrenkino](#):
>
> Have you done this already?
Yes and my file is intact and has no errors. I cut the file in half by Adobe Audition and Mp3Tag allowed me to write tag info in the smaller files. It just cannot handle files larger than what, 5GB or so? Do you need my file to have a check?
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2021, 4:01pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/5 "2021-12-30T16:01:20Z")
Perhaps we can save transmission bandwidth.
If you load the original file into audition and save a copy of it and then try to tag that copy ... what happens then?
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### Author:  [@shilei97.1](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/shilei97.1)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2021, 4:17pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/8 "2021-12-30T16:17:38Z")
> [@ohrenkino](#):
>
> Perhaps we can save transmission bandwidth.
> If you load the original file into audition and save a copy of it and then try to tag that copy ... what happens then?
I did this and the cpoy file was 4.91GB. And Mp3Tag still did not work on this file size. I think the dev team should work on this. I can imagine that few people have ever encountered such large audio files, let alone to tag them.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2021, 4:24pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/9 "2021-12-30T16:24:02Z")
Yes, I am out now.
Here was a report on 2GB files:
> [@\[F\] WAV files over 2GB cannot be opened for writing](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/f-wav-files-over-2gb-cannot-be-opened-for-writing/40989):
>
> Like the software but this issue I really need a fix for this. yes i have searched the forum and read all the post about this i found but none solved my problem. first the setup W 7 professional 64 Admin NTFS formatted drive v2.86 WAV files 5.0 PCM 352 (dxd) created from Merging technologies MTDSD Convert or Weiss Engineering Saracon. I can not edit tags for some files in a folder while other files in that same folder I can edit the tags just fine. the only correlation between the files…
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### Author:  [@shilei97.1](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/shilei97.1)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2021, 4:43pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/10 "2021-12-30T16:43:47Z")
@Florian
Hi Florian, can you please provide a fix on this?
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2021, 4:51pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/11 "2021-12-30T16:51:03Z")
According to Wikipedia, the maximum size of wav files is less than 4GB:
> **[WAV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV)**
>
> Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or WAV due to its filename extension; pronounced "wave") is an audio file format standard, developed by IBM and Microsoft, for storing an audio bitstream on PCs. It is the main format used on Microsoft Windows systems for uncompressed audio. The usual bitstream encoding is the linear pulse-code modulation (LPCM) format.
> WAV is an application of the Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) bitstream format method for storing data in chunks, and thus is similar to ...
" The WAV format is limited to files that are less than 4 [GiB](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibibyte), because of its use of a [32-bit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/32-bit) unsigned [integer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integer) to record the file size header"
So I doubt that really a fix wlll be feasible.
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### Author:  [@shilei97.1](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/shilei97.1)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2021, 5:13pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/12 "2021-12-30T17:13:11Z")
> [@ohrenkino](#):
>
> According to Wikipedia, the maximum size of wav files is less than 4GB:
Well it seems that the Wiki page needs to be updated. With any editing software and recording devices the WAV file size can be as large as possible nowadays. I got my WAV file from capturing audio tracks from my vinly LPs. It's got 4 LPs in this album, and I captured them all and I linked them into a full uncut recording, then it came to 4.91 GB.
Anyway, the file size that Mp3Tag could handle has got nothing to do with so called max file size from a Wiki page. It's just a software coding limitation, and I think Florian can fix it easily.
I could convert this WAV to FLAC file so that the size would be smaller enough for Mp3Tag to tag it, but I prefer not to doing that, 'coz my hardware is large enough.
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### Author:  [@MotleyG](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MotleyG)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2021, 6:41pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/13 "2021-12-30T18:41:17Z")
There are several other benefits to moving to FLAC, including much better tag support for starters. Too many players have limited support for tags in wav files. Even if @Florian can/will make changes to mp3tag, I suspect you will still have issues down the line with the files in excess of the current 2GB limit.
I also use wav when I transfer my vinyl to digital, but I then separate them into the individual tracks and then convert to lossless.
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### Author:  [@shilei97.1](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/shilei97.1)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2021, 7:13pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/14 "2021-12-30T19:13:22Z")
Thanks for the info. I am capturing Enigma albums which are meant to be uncut. The album was produced like an "uncut" feeling.
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### Author:  [@phw](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/phw)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2021, 7:35pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/15 "2021-12-30T19:35:06Z")
The WAVE format uses 4 bytes to store sizes as 32 bit unsigned integers. Hence the format is limited to 4GB. That's a hard limit inherent to the design of the WAVE format and not specific to MP3Tag.
There are extensions to the format that allow for larger file sizes. E.g. the Broadcast WAVE format allows storing larger data across multiple files. Another format is RF64, which replaces the size definition of WAVE with its own structure with 64 bit sizes.
But both are technically similar but different file formats. See here for details:
> **[RF64](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RF64)**
>
> RF64 is a BWF-compatible multichannel audio file format enabling file sizes to exceed 4 GB. It has been specified by the European Broadcasting Union. It has been accepted as the ITU recommendation ITU-R BS.2088.
> The file format is designed to meet the requirements for multichannel sound in broadcasting and audio
> archiving. It is based on the Microsoft RIFF/WAVE format and Wave Format Extensible for multichannel
> parameters. Additions are made to the basic specification to allow for more than 4 GB...
> **[Broadcast Wave Format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_Wave_Format)**
>
> Broadcast Wave Format (BWF) is an extension of the popular Microsoft WAV audio format and is the recording format of most file-based non-linear digital recorders used for motion picture, radio and television production. It was first specified by the European Broadcasting Union in 1997, and updated in 2001 and 2003. It has been accepted as the ITU recommendation ITU-R BS.1352-3, Annex 1.
> The purpose of this file format is the addition of metadata to facilitate the seamless exchange of sound data...
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### Author:  [@MotleyG](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MotleyG)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2021, 7:37pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/16 "2021-12-30T19:37:39Z")
Not a problem with lossless formats. They have gapless transitions that many players support. So you can listen to the entire album as if it wasn’t “cut” into tracks. Plus you can still have the benefit of accessing specific tracks when you do decide to that.
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### Author:  [@phw](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/phw)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2021, 7:42pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/17 "2021-12-30T19:42:44Z")
I second the suggestion to use FLAC. You will save several GB of storage and get much better tagging capabilities. Much more suited for storing an entire album.
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### Author:  [@shilei97.1](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/shilei97.1)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2021, 2:26am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/18 "2021-12-31T02:26:53Z")
Speaking of FLAC I think of a side question. If you convert a FLAC file into a FLAC, does it comprise the audio quality? Say i link 2 FLAC tracks into 1 long track and save it into a new FLAC file.
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### Author:  [@poster](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/poster)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2021, 7:07am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/19 "2021-12-31T07:07:47Z")
> [@shilei97.1](#):
>
> If you convert a FLAC file into a FLAC, does it comprise the audio quality? Say i link 2 FLAC tracks into 1 long track and save it into a new FLAC file.
As the flac-format is lossless there is no change in audio-quality. You can even transfer them without changing the music quaility to wave again.
[https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-join-flac-files](https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-join-flac-files)
But I wonder why you want so big files. There is no way to tag songs in the file individually. If it's for gapless playing: There are players that can do this.
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### Author:  [@shilei97.1](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/shilei97.1)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2021, 7:26am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/20 "2021-12-31T07:26:35Z")
> [@poster](#):
>
> As the flac-format is lossless there is no change in audio-quality. You can even transfer them without changing the music quaility to wave again.
> [https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-join-flac-files](https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-join-flac-files)
> But I wonder why you want so big files. There is no way to tag songs in the file individually. If it's for gapless playing: There are players that can do this.
Thanks for the info. I guess i am just used to use .cue files for cut audios in some specific large "gapless" albums. And for albums that is not "gapless", yes i would also save audios one by one.
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### Author:  [@phw](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/phw)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2021, 7:32am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/21 "2021-12-31T07:32:38Z")
> [@shilei97.1](#):
>
> I guess i am just used to use .cue files for cut audios in some specific large "gapless" albums.
I personally also would cut it into separate track files. But FLAC allows to store a CUE sheet as part of its metadata, so many do store complete albs in a single FLAC, and if the player supports the CUE sheet that's a nice solution for also getting metadata.
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:29pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-add-tag-info-into-large-wav-files/55667/22 "2026-02-09T12:29:35Z")