Extended Tags, clicking OK makes changes, when there is no change

Support
1

MP3Tag v 3.26 64 bit - Windows 10

Can someone verify if this is the way MP3Tag should work?

I load my library
Highlight all files
Open Extended tags

I make no changes, but each time I hit "OK, it "Saves", and writes to the Mp3 tag. (I made no changes to the MP3's, just viewed them....)
I can verify that it does change the files, as when I go to back the files up, it thinks there has been a change to the entire library.

Should it do this, if I just hit OK? Or should I just be hitting "Cancel" there after looking at these fields?

Thanks

2

Are you sure that there is a real change inside your files?
Or does only the timestamp change?

Do you see a difference if you create a hash from some test files (with MD5 or something similar) before and after you click the OK-Button in the Extended Tags window?

(I did a test myself and I can not see any difference using hashes like this:

MD5               : 4de350cf2fbaabb33592628bde90e113
SHA1              : 178a47b545358ecf927e358851162ffe32424ffa
CRC32             : bb50c87d
SHA-256           : ba25b405edefc63c0fb7951fce552f162ea5d91d1e3695ba39aeb9e2b44c8078
SHA-512           : 1c0b9410843be54813db9c49108f22e3431bb549861fb8c2a10a98785770905aabd29094166fe333140403cde27168838cece01ad88c73b89ff54f2aaaa12e43
SHA-384           : 20b2fc2f787f916a3d8b7871839968c2bd16a0c921226f1aedaf842cd9a25fe2460702a99ea0a68f3d9a5b6ff40538c5

They remain the same after pressing the OK-Button.)

What changes in my test is the timestamp. This can be disabled in the Mp3tag options
General -> "Preserve file modification time when saving tags"
image

3

Yes. OK saves the current tag data back to the file.
MP3tag does not compare the current tag data with a possible previous state.
See e.g. this thread:

4

Do you say that if you load 10 Songs, view it in Alt + T and press OK, the content in the tags will be written back to the file and always create a changed file?

5

That is what I think happens.
Just a use case: you have V1 tagged files but set recently to also get V2.3 tags. You do not change anything in the metadata but if you click OK, the V2.3 tags will be created, so the file changes as tag data is written.
Admittedly, not a common use case, I just picked it to illustrate.

6

Thanks for the example.

But this would also lead to changed hashes because the file itself has been changed, right?

7

yes, that would be an indication.

8

@LyricsLover

I just ran a small test, using the "Preserve file modification time", and MP3Tag did perform for me, as I thought that it should when I click OK. No changes that my backup software recognizes.

I then selected a group of files, and made a change to one of the tags, and again, my backup software only recognized the affected files, not the entire library.

For me, this change works, and I thank you for the help!

9

Thank you for your feedback.

Please keep in mind the use case @ohrenkino mentioned:
For files loaded the very first time it could be that even if you don't change yourself anything in your tags they could by changed if you press the OK-Button.
The settings in Mp3tag -> Tags -> Mpeg could cause an "internal" change in your files adding - for example - ID3v1 tags. Or another UTF-/ISO format according to your Mp3tag settings. Or removing APE tags, again according to your actual settings.

10

Understood.

Thank you both for the help!!