# Changing Title to Artist - Title **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Created:** [October 16, 2011, 12:26am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597 "2011-10-16T00:26:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sbkurtz](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@sbkurtz](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/sbkurtz)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 12:26am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/1 "2011-10-16T00:26:12Z")
This is a pretty basic function but for some reason Im a bit stuck. I have a compilation album with various artists. I would like to simply change the title of each song to artist-title. I didnt think this was going to be too difficult, but something just isnt working properly. My action is: Format value "TITLE": %artist% - %title%. At this point, I would even be happy if I could get the title to be the filename. Can someone kindly help me figure why my action is not working? ---
**Author:** ![JJ\_Johnson](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/jj_johnson/32/67_2.png) [@JJ\_Johnson](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/JJ_Johnson)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 12:32am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/2 "2011-10-16T00:32:35Z")
You don't say what the action is doing when you run it. What does TITLE contain afterward? That should work, as long as the TITLE field does indeed contain the title and the ARTIST field contains the artist. When you do get it working you'll have to be careful that you don't run it more than once or it will keep repeating the artist name in front. ---
**Author:** ![stevehero](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/stevehero/32/337_2.png) [@stevehero](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/stevehero)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 12:42am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/3 "2011-10-16T00:42:20Z")
> [@sbkurtz](#): > > My action is: > Format value "TITLE": %artist% - %title%. Is this what you are entering? _Action type:_ **Format value** _Field:_ **TITLE** _Formatstring:_ **%artist% - %title%** What I do and a lot of other users do is leave 'VA' or 'Various Artists' in the **%albumartist%** field. If you use other programs it sometimes comes as **%album artist%** with a space in it. Then add the value '1' to **%compilation%**. And leave the artist as is. Its up to you, but the above action works fine for your needs. ---
**Author:** ![progprog](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/e9bcb4/32.png) [@progprog](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/progprog)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 1:58am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/4 "2011-10-16T01:58:22Z")
> [@stevehero](#): > > What I do and a lot of other users do is leave 'VA' or 'Various Artists' in the **%albumartist%** field. If you use other programs it sometimes comes as **%album artist%** with a space in it. > > Then add the value '1' to **%compilation%**. And leave the artist as is. I don't think he's looking for a way to organize his compilations, but just having difficulty with the **Format Value** function when trying to rename the tracks. @ **sbkurtz:** Does anything at all happen to the title after you run your action? It looks like your format is right (assuming the tags are filled, as JJ said), so I'm curious, too, why it's not working. ![:huh:](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/1X/f15ee73c0fd9ec3b0db7481f0558638f8ee224ce.gif ":huh:") ---
**Author:** ![sbkurtz](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@sbkurtz](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/sbkurtz)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 2:48am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/5 "2011-10-16T02:48:29Z")
Thanks all. This is correct - The action is: Action type: Format value Field: TITLE Formatstring: %artist% - %title% But when I run this, all I get is: Formatted tags in 12 of 12 files. 0 of 12 files renamed. Nothing actually changes when I run the action, the TITLE does not change at all. Its a headscratcher at this point, I would be totally happy just converting the title from the filename but that doesnt seem to be working either ☹ ---
**Author:** ![progprog](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/e9bcb4/32.png) [@progprog](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/progprog)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/6 "2011-10-16T02:58:18Z")
Can you select one of the files and manually change it? ---
**Author:** ![JJ\_Johnson](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/jj_johnson/32/67_2.png) [@JJ\_Johnson](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/JJ_Johnson)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/7 "2011-10-16T03:17:04Z")
Are you trying to rename the files or are you trying to change the TITLE field in the tags (or both)? The action you've shown will change the TITLE field, not rename the files. To rename the files: _Action type:_ **Format value** _Field:_ **\_FILENAME** _Format string:_ **%artist% - %title%** But most people also want to prefix the filename with the track number, so that files will be sorted in track order when viewed in Windows Explorer: _Action type:_ **Format value** _Field:_ **\_FILENAME** _Format string:_ **$num(%track%,2) - %artist% - %title%** ---
**Author:** ![sbkurtz](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@sbkurtz](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/sbkurtz)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 11:41am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/8 "2011-10-16T11:41:37Z")
I can manually change it just fine, but I have a couple of these albums and I wanted to try to automate it. Interestingly, I tried the action below on other albums and it just doesnt seem to work at all on anything. Action type: Format value Field: TITLE Format string: %artist% - %title% I did try the other action for renaming the file (below) and it does work Action type: Format value Field: \_FILENAME Format string: %artist% - %title% Im running 2.49 which is the latest version. Can anyone confirm that they can run the original action on this version? Action type: Format value Field: TITLE Format string: %artist% - %title% ---
**Author:** ![JJ\_Johnson](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/jj_johnson/32/67_2.png) [@JJ\_Johnson](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/JJ_Johnson)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 1:54pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/9 "2011-10-16T13:54:18Z")
> [@sbkurtz](#): > > I can manually change it just fine, but I have a couple of these albums and I wanted to try to automate it. Interestingly, I tried the action below on other albums and it just doesnt seem to work at all on anything. Please answer the question above. What are you actually trying to do - rename the file, set the TITLE field, or both? You seem very unclear about what you're trying to accomplish. Or, at the very least, you haven't explained it fully. Yes, the original action works correctly in 2.49. It would be a major bug if it did not. You haven't clearly explained what the action does on your system. Does it doing nothing, or does it give you unexpected results? There's a large difference. Give us an example or two. ---
**Author:** ![progprog](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/e9bcb4/32.png) [@progprog](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/progprog)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/10 "2011-10-16T16:55:48Z")
> [@JJ Johnson](#): > > Please answer the question above. What are you actually trying to do - rename the file, set the TITLE field, or both? You seem very unclear about what you're trying to accomplish. Or, at the very least, you haven't explained it fully. I thought he explained it very clearly in his first post. He wants to change the TITLE tags on his compilation albums: > [quote="sbkurtz, post:1, topic:12597"] This is a pretty basic function but for some reason Im a bit stuck. I have a compilation album with various artists. **I would like to simply change the title of each song to artist-title.** I didnt think this was going to be too difficult, but something just isnt working properly. My action is: Format value "TITLE": %artist% - %title%. At this point, I would even be happy if I could get the title to be the filename. Can someone kindly help me figure why my action is not working? [/quote] It was only after he reported back the response he was getting, the typical kind of mp3tag message... > [@](#): > > "Formatted tags in 12 of 12 files. 0 of 12 files renamed. " ...that you brought up changing the filename. He never said he wanted to do that. But he did say that message was the only result he was getting....and there was no change in the TITLE at all. **@sbkurtz:** Just for sh\*\*\*&giggles, could you try performing this action on some other album....just any album that you've never had a problem with? (You can always hit UNDO and change it back.) I have absolutely NO idea whether this problem you're having is related _at all,_ but I have had an ongoing issue that, every once in awhile, an album comes up that won't let me reformat the track number. Just completely random....I can't pad with leading zeros like I do on all my other albums. When I brought it up here, the thread eventually died because no had any explanation or solution. I'm just curious to see if anything about this issue you're having is similarly album-specific, or if it's a universal problem with mp3tag for all your albums. (Another interesting experiment would be to see if you can perform any other reformatting action on the titles.) ---
**Author:** ![sbkurtz](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@sbkurtz](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/sbkurtz)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/11 "2011-10-16T17:29:08Z")
Progprog, You are exactly correct. Oddly, I cannot change ANY album using the original action of (below): Action type: Format value Field: TITLE Format string: %artist% - %title% Im using Windows 7 with Mp3tag 2.49. Is anyone with a similar config having the correct results with this action type? ---
**Author:** ![progprog](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/e9bcb4/32.png) [@progprog](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/progprog)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/12 "2011-10-16T17:49:59Z")
Yes, absolutely. I tested it right after your first post and I had no problems performing that action and changing titles to %artist% - %title%. I have that exact same configuration. What kind (codec) of files do you use? ---
**Author:** ![sbkurtz](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@sbkurtz](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/sbkurtz)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 7:43pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/13 "2011-10-16T19:43:27Z")
just regular old mp3's. Ive tried a couple of actions and they seem to work ok but this one is weird. Thanks for your input ---
**Author:** ![ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/ohrenkino/32/4843_2.png) [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/14 "2011-10-17T05:02:58Z")
Sorry to get myself involved: my all-time favourite: do these tracks have APE tags? If so, it could be that you actually have edited the tags but never written them (or see the modification). Either use a filter with %\_tag% HAS APE or define a column that shows the tag version. If these files have APE tags then remove them. And adapt your settings for reading, writing, deleting that you don't read or write APE. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/c/ce7035d426cb755a7916793326d23b465222a407.png) [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2026, 12:23pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-title-to-artist-title/12597/15 "2026-02-09T12:23:23Z")