# Copy mp3 idv3 tags to flac tags
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-mp3-idv3-tags-to-flac-tags/7671
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [December 30, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-mp3-idv3-tags-to-flac-tags/7671 "2008-12-30T01:22:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@gb24](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/gb24)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-mp3-idv3-tags-to-flac-tags/7671/1 "2008-12-30T01:22:59Z")
Hi all,
I'm planning to re-rip a large number of CDs to FLAC, which are currently encoded with MP3 and have well-organized and clean IDV3 tag data. I want to use the same tag data which I have in the MP3 files for my new corresponding FLAC files.
I know I can export my MP3 IDV3 tags to a flat file (one line per file), then import into the FLAC files using Convert | Text File - Tag.
Is there an easier way or a tool to copy tag data from MP3 IDV3 to FLAC tags?
Thank you.
Mark
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### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2008, 6:06am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-mp3-idv3-tags-to-flac-tags/7671/2 "2008-12-30T06:06:25Z")
Hi Mark,
you can use Mp3tag's  Export feature with, e.g., txt\_taglist as export configuration to export the tags to a flat file or just load both your MP3s and your FLACs and use [Ctrl+C]/[Ctrl+V] to copy/paste the tags from the MP3s to the FLACs.
Kind regards,
Florian
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### Author:  [@gb24](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/gb24)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2008, 9:04pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-mp3-idv3-tags-to-flac-tags/7671/3 "2008-12-30T21:04:48Z")
Thank you for the quick reply! This works great. đŸ˜ƒ
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### Author:  [@gah789](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/gah789)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-mp3-idv3-tags-to-flac-tags/7671/4 "2009-01-17T18:55:28Z")
I would like to pursue the question of mass copying of tags a little further. The solution of -c [copy tag] and -v [paste tag] works well on a small scale, but it is very cumbersome when one has \> 1000 albums because it is necessary to be absolutely sure that the numbers and orders of tracks are identical, otherwise there will be a disastrous mis-match.
I have tried exporting tags to a flat text file, but I found it very difficult to get the import format correct for the Convert / Text File - Tag command. Would it be possible to provide standard import filters that match the standard export formats provided in the Export as csv or as txt\_taglist commands? Perhaps they exist and I don't know how to find them.
But, on a larger scale what I would really like to do is to search an exported tag text file by, say, %artist%, %album%, %track% and then transfer the rest of the tag information to the new tag. The organisation of my library is \%artist%\%album%\%track% - %title% but for historical reasons the album names and track numbers don't always match - e.g. I may have multiple discs for an opera in separate directories for my iTunes files but in a single directory for my flac files. Performing the search described will copy tags when everything matches, leaving a much smaller number of tag copies required when things don't match.
Is there any way of setting this up? Any suggestions would be gratefully received.
Gordon
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### Author:  [@Moonbase](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Moonbase)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2009, 2:14am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-mp3-idv3-tags-to-flac-tags/7671/5 "2009-01-18T02:14:47Z")
If you copy tags from MP3 to FLAC, be sure to re-calculate any _Replay Gain_ Tags — Replay Gain and peak values are _different_ for FLAC files.
Also, be sure not to _blindly_ copy anything that might have a different meaning. For instance, the Album Artist is often stored in TPE2 frames in ID3v2 tags, which would blindly copy over to »BAND« (the name Mp3tag uses) into a FLAC file, while you would surely want it to be »ALBUMARTIST« or »ALBUM ARTIST«!
There might be others to watch, so at least some checking is needed đŸ™‚
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### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2009, 10:53am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-mp3-idv3-tags-to-flac-tags/7671/6 "2009-01-18T10:53:07Z")
> [@Moonbase](#):
>
> ... _Replay Gain_ Tags — Replay Gain and peak values are _different_ for FLAC files. ...
Huh? Please explain in detail, is there a different algorithm used for FLAC files than David Robinson has once defined?
DD.20090118.1252.CET
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### Author:  [@gah789](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/gah789)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-mp3-idv3-tags-to-flac-tags/7671/7 "2009-01-18T15:43:48Z")
Thank you for the advice. In practice, I am really only interested in transferring the track title information for matching artist, album & track number - other fields are purely incidental. The reason is that, for classical music, the freedb database is full of errors, whereas Gracenote - used by iTunes - is better, though far from perfect.
Originally, I ripped my large library of CDs to m4a files using iTunes for use on various iPods. I edited many of the track titles to remove errors and to produce convenient file names. Now, I use Squeezebox and want to archive my CDs permanently in a lossless format using a secure CD ripper (dPoweramp) which can't access Gracenote. I don't want to lose my investment in correcting the m4a titles. Hence the problem. I have tried matching and copying tags for one sub-directory structure - about 600 tracks. Despite very careful preparation, the whole thing went wrong because I could not get the directories & tracks in an identical sort order due to problems with upper/lower case, accented letters, etc.
It is much easier to handle large sets of alphanumeric fields outside a tag editor or similar program - e.g. in Excel or a database. Hence, my goal to to do this and then re-import the corrected tags using either the lookup method or the Text File - Tag conversion.
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2025, 3:02pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-mp3-idv3-tags-to-flac-tags/7671/8 "2025-11-12T15:02:20Z")
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