# Delete numbers from start of song titles
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/delete-numbers-from-start-of-song-titles/63451
**Category:** Mac
**Created:** [January 16, 2024, 3:11pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/delete-numbers-from-start-of-song-titles/63451 "2024-01-16T15:11:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@roythebus](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/roythebus)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2024, 3:11pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/delete-numbers-from-start-of-song-titles/63451/1 "2024-01-16T15:11:31Z")
First off, I'm getting too old for computers, over 70, I've lost a lot of my record library thanks to Apple music and iTunes, now trying to restore from old hard drives, I now have loads of songs that have a track number at the start of the title that really needs to be deleted.
First how do I get the list of songs across to here, then how do I convert them to not have the number at the start?
Then where should I save them when that's done? Using Applemac
I really don't find any of this easy to take in! Thanks
---
### Author:  [@MotleyG](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MotleyG)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2024, 3:37pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/delete-numbers-from-start-of-song-titles/63451/2 "2024-01-16T15:37:22Z")
> [@roythebus](#):
>
> I've lost a lot of my record library thanks to Apple music and iTunes, now trying to restore from old hard drives
Were these missing files stored locally, or just in "the cloud" on their streaming service? It would be very unusual for anything to happen to your personal files if they were on a your own hard drive. They may have been moved from the original folder location if you had some organization feature turned on, but it is very unusual if they were actually removed.
Before you start to recover and move older files from backup drives, you may want to double check to see if these are actually somewhere on your current storage location.
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### Author:  [@roythebus](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/roythebus)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2024, 3:54pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/delete-numbers-from-start-of-song-titles/63451/3 "2024-01-16T15:54:59Z")
Thanks, a lot of the songs are listed as "waiting " in iCloud and have been for over 3 years! Nothing I can do will get them to download. My backup disc with everything got lost/stolen in France about 4 years ago. I ha a couple of older hard drives that had the sam lot backed up, one of those failed to work, another was password protected on X-drive but WD no longer support that type of disc and I no longer have the password. Another hard drive had a copy of most of the original stuff which I've now copied across to my Apple removable disc. there's about 28,000 songs on there! I've lost faith in apple and their music, nothing seems to stop their system from "waiting". I need to re-title som of the tracks which start with numbers then whittle out a lot of the duplicates. Thanks for your help. Stuff is all over the place so I'm copying bits from all my sources to make a new library.
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### Author:  [@MotleyG](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MotleyG)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2024, 4:13pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/delete-numbers-from-start-of-song-titles/63451/4 "2024-01-16T16:13:14Z")
> [@roythebus](#):
>
> Thanks, a lot of the songs are listed as "waiting " in iCloud and have been for over 3 years! Nothing I can do will get them to download.
This may be because they are still waiting to upload from your missing drive. If they were never matched or uploaded, then you will not be able to download them. If they were matched, there is some chance to get this to work again. See here for a suggestion.
[https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254723962?sortBy=best](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254723962?sortBy=best)
> [@roythebus](#):
>
> First how do I get the list of songs across to here,
This is as simple as dragging the folder that has your music into the mp3tag window. It is a little different for Mac than it is for Windows, but this is pretty generic.
> [@roythebus](#):
>
> then how do I convert them to not have the number at the start?
If you could share a screenshot with a few filenames for examples, that would help. It depends on if you have a distinct character separating the preceding track number from the rest of the title. And to clarify, do you mean the _filename_ when you refer to the "title", or the embedded metadata `TITLE` that is one of the metadata fields within the file itself, like `ALBUM`, `ARTIST`, etc.?
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### Author:  [@roythebus](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/roythebus)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2024, 7:51am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/delete-numbers-from-start-of-song-titles/63451/5 "2024-01-17T07:51:30Z")
To be honest I don't know, I can't even remember how to do a screen shot on my applemac. I really struggle with all but the basics.
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### Author:  [@marian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/marian)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2024, 11:03am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/delete-numbers-from-start-of-song-titles/63451/6 "2024-01-31T11:03:09Z")
Hi roythebus,
on the Mac you can male screenshots with cmd+Shift+4 - than you can choose with the mouse the range of the screen or you can make a screenshot from the whole scrren with cmd+Shift+3
But I supose that you have the same problem as I have (sometimes).
That's why I make here a screenshot with "the problem" (as I said, I presume this).
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### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2024, 3:00pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/delete-numbers-from-start-of-song-titles/63451/7 "2024-02-03T15:00:45Z")
To delete numbers from the start of song titles, you can use a (Quick-)Action **Replace with Regular Expression** for field `TITLE` using a regexp
`^\s*\d+\s*-\s*`
and replace by nothing (empty string).
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### Author:  [@roythebus](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/roythebus)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2026, 9:53pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/delete-numbers-from-start-of-song-titles/63451/8 "2026-03-21T21:53:50Z")
Back after an absence of a couple of years, I finally got round to start copying missing songs from my Applemac to a portable 3TB hard drive. there’s over 3,000 songs that apple music wasn’t picking up but a “finder” search for all MP3s discovered this lot which are now on the hard drive. there’s over 36,000 songs in the apple music libray which I suspect about 3000 are duplicates. Meanwhile I’m going through them one by one (the 3000 with track numberthat is) and need to delete the numbers in front of the titles. What software do I have to download to help me do this? I’m still struggling with computer stuff as I can’t seem to drag and drop as my apple sliding about tracker pad doesn’t seem to work properly.
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### Author:  [@roythebus](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/roythebus)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2026, 9:59pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/delete-numbers-from-start-of-song-titles/63451/9 "2026-03-21T21:59:58Z")
Here’s a copy of what I get on the screen: or try again… have been but computer says no, you can’t copy that to here!
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2026, 10:06pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/delete-numbers-from-start-of-song-titles/63451/11 "2026-03-21T22:06:27Z")
As MP3tag is a tagging program that deals with metadata in files and not primarily with filenames - which data do the files have in the tag fields?
If there is none, then it would be advisable to fill the tag fields first with e.g. Convert\>Filename-Tag
Format string: `(%track%) %title%`
Beware of files that do not really have a track number in the front.
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### Author:  [@roythebus](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/roythebus)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2026, 8:03pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/delete-numbers-from-start-of-song-titles/63451/12 "2026-04-01T20:03:05Z")
Sorry for the delay getting back to here, my macbook has been playing up, moving words and sentences all over the place. I’ve now replaced it with anew model of the same machine, the 2015 version, it’s all I can afford. I’m starting with a new removable disc 3Tb with about 5000 mp3 songs on it. About half have numbers and spaces before the title, so the plan is to “clean” small batches and delete duplicates.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2026, 3:59pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/delete-numbers-from-start-of-song-titles/63451/13 "2026-04-02T15:59:37Z")
I am not sure if your last reply actually answers
> [@ohrenkino](#):
>
> which data do the files have in the tag fields?