# Find and replace \\\\ separator in Tags
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-separator-in-tags/13291
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [April 4, 2012, 10:44am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-separator-in-tags/13291 "2012-04-04T10:44:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@boborah](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/boborah)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 10:44am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-separator-in-tags/13291/1 "2012-04-04T10:44:33Z")
I've been using dbPoweramp for several years to rip and tag CD's to flac and have only just now come across a problem with the default tag separators \\ in ARTIST, ALBUMARTIST GENRE etc.
Someone in the forum has kindly provided a filter to find the files that contain \\
"$meta\_sep(Artist,\\)" HAS \\
EDIT: In fact used this filter to find them all
("$meta\_sep(Artist,\\)" HAS \\) OR ("$meta\_sep(Albumartist,\\)" HAS \\)OR ("$meta\_sep(Composer,\\)" HAS \\)
but...
Is there any way to find and replace \\ with ; in any of the aforementioned tag fields?
I have 500 (Edit: nearly 2000 using above longer filter) files spread randomly through 18k tracks so it would be a difficult to find and modify them manually.
I'm new to using MP3Tag with filters and scripts so please go easy on me - step by step instructions would help.
Any help will be gratefully received 🙂
Thanks
Bob
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 11:18am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-separator-in-tags/13291/2 "2012-04-04T11:18:56Z")
Perhaps the following is not the most elegant way. But it works.
Filter the files with the double backslash
Then build yourself and actiongroup.
The first action of the type "Merge duplicate fields" for ALBUMARTIST, separator \\
Then, as second action in that group perform a simple replace for that field to replace \\ with comma blank.
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 12:07pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-separator-in-tags/13291/3 "2012-04-04T12:07:53Z")
I'm not sure you really know what \\ means.
It is not actually written in the tags, it just represents multiple tag fields of the same name
ARTIST=a\\b means there are two ARTIST tags in the file (Check with View \> Extended Tags)
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 1:06pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-separator-in-tags/13291/4 "2012-04-04T13:06:52Z")
Yes, I have seen the several artist fields in my test file.
Then I performed the "merge field" action on two files and had a single artist field with all the entries separated by \\. I then executed the replace action on one of the files and got a single artist field with several names in it, separated by comma blank (no wonder).
For the other file I only pressed save and all the merged artists where separate ones again.
I take it that the op does not want to get multi-value fields and so wants to replace the double backslash with something else that mp3tag on save does not interpret as separator between fields.
(I think we had a similar discussion in
[\\ problem](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/13136/9)
So: how do you merge multi-value fields so that they stay merged?
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### Author:  [@boborah](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/boborah)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 2:23pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-separator-in-tags/13291/5 "2012-04-04T14:23:58Z")
> [@dano](#):
>
> I'm not sure you really know what \\ means.
> It is not actually written in the tags, it just represents multiple tag fields of the same name
>
> ARTIST=a\\b means there are two ARTIST tags in the file (Check with View \> Extended Tags)
I guessed as much but couldn't find any via google. \\ isn't something that can be included in searches 🙂
Thanks for replying, I've found out something useful here.
Bob
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### Author:  [@boborah](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/boborah)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-separator-in-tags/13291/6 "2012-04-04T14:35:37Z")
I use a nice plugin called Spicefly SugarCube with Squeezebox Touch and the // messes up some of the useful facilities that SugarCube provides.
What I ended up doing with the information provided by users in this thread was merge the tags separated by \\ and replaced them with either , or &. The software I use searches words within tag fields, so I can still easily search for an artist, band, composer etc within those merged fields.
Many thanks to all. I've managed to 'clean up' nearly 2000 tracks in 15mins - I thinks it would have taken several hours finding and modding each one manually.
And to boot... I've learned a lot about tags and MP3Tag along the way.
Bob
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-separator-in-tags/13291/7 "2012-04-04T17:36:54Z")
It is quicker and safer to merge the tags already with the desired separator, i.e. ", "
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### Author:  [@boborah](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/boborah)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-separator-in-tags/13291/8 "2012-04-04T21:43:46Z")
After a bit of playing around with single tracks, that's what I did.
Bob
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:23pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-separator-in-tags/13291/9 "2026-02-09T12:23:46Z")