I have never used mp3tag and am requesting a very basic tuition for Windows 11. I’ll start from the beginning, my choice of mp3 player is MediaMonkey (MM), and all tracks once were neatly tagged, (complete with albumart) - even the physical mp3 file itself (in a different folder) also was disguised with albumart. One day for no reason whatsoever all the albumart - which only is still displaying in MM itself - gradually started disappearing from the mp3’s and now every mp3 only displays the generic windows’ music symbol. What I have done so far in mp3tag is import every mp3 and discovered that under the “Tag” column there are multiple & different ID’s; I also found out that in order to keep the albumart I should remove all other ID entries, except ID3v2 - how do I remove all unwanted entries? At the start of this message I mentioned, “very basic tuition”, - this is because I was born with brain damage, which includes a learning disability; so please keep any guides in non-technical terms and in step-by-step terms (thanks). My mp3tag version is 3.33.1 (64 bit)
WARNING NOTE:
Before you execute the following steps, you should create a backup from your entire collection. Just to be sure. 
If you're not absolutely sure what you're doing, you should also read up (for example this explanation in German) on what you could lose if you delete APE tags.
Steps:
Select your tracks where you want to remove "all other ID entries".
Right-click on them and choose Utils -> Remove Tag Types.
Choose the one that you want to delete, for example "ID3v1".
Press the Remove-Button.
Just to be clear:
The above steps will not bring back your albumart!
As a music lover and ever since the days of windows 3.1 - I have found out the hard way that the No. 1 rule in computing is “Backup, Backup, Backup”. And please accept a genuine & very big “thanks” for providing these steps and coming to my rescue. At step 2, the dialogue box only has 3 options: ID3v1, ID3v2 and APEv2 - but in mp3tag the imported track’s ID column has: ID3v2.4 then in brackets there is ID3v1 Lyrics3v2 & APEv2. If something is in brackets, does it signify anything? Regarding the “explanation in German” can it be translated into english?
ID3v2 has two "sub-versions": 3 and 4.
Combined you see ID3v2.3 or ID3v2.4
Don't delete them! These are the most commonly used tags out there.
You can choose which version you want to write in
File -> Options -> Tags -> Mpeg
in the "Write" Section. These seetings are used if you read and write ("save") your mp3 tracks.
Even if you don't modify any content, these write settings will be used.
If you like to have ID3v2.4, choose the Write setting ID3v2.4 - UTF-8.
If you like to have ID3v2.3, choose one of the two available ID3v2.3 settings.
The right choice depends heavily on the capabilities of your devices.
For example: Not all car audio players support ID3v2.4. You will need to test the best fitting version for your devices.
Yes, you can use your browsers translation feature.
Depending on your browser you can translate the entire page or only some selected text snippets.
Alternatively, you can use some translation services like Google Translate or DeepL or any other service with which your are familiar.
i still am confused with what I posted you (and which remains unanswered) - I have at least 5 ID’s for 1 mp3 and as i queried; what is happening with those in brackets (one is also marked “Lyrics” how do I remove Lyrics), how did it even get in there? We’ll chat further tomorrow (thanks again)
If you ask about the Tags column content like this
This is showing what exactly was read from your track.
It depends on the settings I mentionend above.
For example: If you read APE tags (according to the Read-Section in File -> Options -> Tags -> Mpeg) and such APE tags exists in your track, it will be indicated in the Tags column.
The same is true for ID3v1 and ID3v2.3, ID3v2.4.
If you see for example
APEv2 (ID3v1 ID3v2.3 APEv2)
it tells you, that what you currently see on the left side in the Tag Panel is the content of APEv2.
It also indicates that there is more content in the formats listed in brackets.
If you see Lyrics3v2, then Mp3tag informs you, that this tag type is also included in your track.
Mp3tag currently does NOT SUPPORT this kind of lyrics, only UNSYNCEDLYRICS.
There are several existing topics about how to remove Lyrics3v2, including this one:
and this one:
I have no idea, because I don't know what other software you use - in addition to MediaMonkey and Mp3tag.
Before we go on, I’m starting to wonder if mp3tag can even help in this my catastrophe (or if i’m even using the right tool); as mentioned at the start - i’m simply wanting to reattach the lost albumart to the physical mp3’s, find out why this happened & take steps to prevent this from happening again. Any idea’s?
You would have to find out:
- are there any files that still have embedded covers?
- do you have picture files somewhere in the file system that could be imported as covers?
- do the file names or the folder structure allow to assign the correct pictures to the corresponding files?
The most likely cause is: the pictures were never embedded but only stored as separate files in the folders or handled by a player that loaded the pictures only into its database.
Please check if there are any hidden files in the folders like e.g. folder.jpg.
You can look for files with embedded covers with a
filter: %_covers% PRESENT
or for those without one:
Filter: %_covers% MISSING
(check the number of displayed files in the statusbar)
You could try a wild shot and import any picture file from the track's folder with an action of the type "Import cover from file" and the
Format string: *.jpg
Now check the number of files in the statusbar again: if it has decreased, then there were jpg files in the folders.
As a next step you could export all the covers that you already have and hope that they are the right ones for the other files in that folder:
Filter for %_covers% PRESENT
Action "Export cover to file"
Format string: %album%
Invert the filter to %_covers% MISSING
Now import covers again as described above with the format string %album%.jpg
Refresh the filter with 2x F3
All the files that are now displayed do not have an embedded picture and there is also no picture available and you have to add them individually and manually.