Four questions from an enthousiastic newbie

[WimYogya]

Hi,
Looking for a way to edit my music filenames and tags I was first recommended TagScanner. Looks fancy but for me it was a bewildering jungle. MP3Tag immediately proved to be MUCH more intuitive: within 10 minutes I could perform a number of actions I wanted. Excellent!

But I came across four issues that I don't have the answers for - so far. Who can help?
1.
I have a very big iTunes Media folder: 70.000+ items. It takes about 30 mins for MP3TAG to load it - in TagScanner it was less than 10 minutes. How come?
2.
Especially in the 'early cleaning stage' I want to use MP3TAG to clean up my whole library. Do I have to load every time for 30 mins? Or is there a way to speed things up?
3.
Once I have cleaned up the library, new 'dirty' items will continue to be added. How can I separate those new, un-MP3TAG-ged items from the ones already done? Is there a filter method based upon a date, e.g. the date the item was added to iTunes?
4.
Quite often I come across items where the TITLE and ARTIST fields have 'swapped' content: the title field contains the artist's name and vice versa. Is there an existing way (or one I can create) to swap back that content?

Thanks for help!

[ohrenkino]

Some attempts to answer:
1: I do not know anything about tagscanner. If it uses an internal database - that might be a reason. How long, by the way, does it take iTunes to build up a library of 70000 tracks? (No, don't answer)

2. If you create a separate folder for the new tracks and read only that one, you are quicker - less data, less time.
   If you undertake the effort to load the files initally, filter for the files that lacks data (and has to be tagged therefore) you could move these files with the help of the converter tag - filename or filename - filename to a new location.

3. you get the filter input filed by pressing f3. there you can enter criteria as you require.

4. see the FAQs for swapping:
   /t/967/1

[stevehero]

This doesnt affect me that much but it interested me none the less. So would it be possible for mp3tag to read the iTunes Music Library.xml file in the future. Ive done a quick search on the forum but no real answers to this question.

Surely mp3tag could in theory use this as there music database and load the same time as itunes itself does. Would be handy if there was an option for people to load the tracks from there.

So hopefully some of the developers can jump on board her and answer my question.

[ohrenkino]

Surely mp3tag could in theory use this as there music database and load the same time as itunes itself does.

There has been a discussion on whether MP3tag shouldn't add a database for quicker access.
It has not been done yet.
For me the striking argument would be: ususally I apply MP3tag to tag new files which are not in the database. So I would have to update the database first before I can see the new files. I don't see much of an advantage in that proceeding.
And, after one has updated the files, it would be necessary to also update the database. In which intervals would you like to do that? After each update or after the end of session?
So, yes, if you cannot be sure that your data is somehow uptodate and you have to load all the files every time, this can be a tiring affair.

[stevehero]

For me the striking argument would be: ususally I apply MP3tag to tag new files which are not in the database. So I would have to update the database first before I can see the new files. I don't see much of an advantage in that proceeding.
And, after one has updated the files, it would be necessary to also update the database. In which intervals would you like to do that? After each update or after the end of session?
So, yes, if you cannot be sure that your data is somehow uptodate and you have to load all the files every time, this can be a tiring affair.

Oh I see, would be a bit messy considering once you change a tag in mp3tag you have to physically play it in itunes for to update in the itunes.xml.

BTW I use your principle, only load new files and in a case were I want to load recent files I have a smart filter in itunes as my friend for recent etc. Looks like @WimYogya should do the same for now.

[mjcm]

.... once you change a tag in mp3tag you have to physically play it in itunes for to update in the itunes.xml ....

The iTunes Music Library.xml doesn't hold much value, it's the iTunes Library.ITL that is important. The iTunes Music Library.xml gets rebuild everytime when you start iTunes, from the ... (you guessed it) the .ITL file. So there is no point for mp3tag or to do it manual in editing the .XML file to make changes to tags.

The only way to update .ITL (the real iTunes database) is as stevehero said, play the actual song in iTunes itself, or press Get Info (or CTRL+I) from within iTunes

But maybe there will come a request for mp3tag to support reading from the .ITL file