# Having issues with Filter/Search
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [October 14, 2023, 12:36am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398 "2023-10-14T00:36:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tomx2](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/tomx2)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 12:36am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/1 "2023-10-14T00:36:31Z")
Hello, What am i missing? I added a few files as a test. Some of these files contain the genre "Jazz Saxophone". However i can not get mp3tag to find the tags. My Genre tags are set up as; Jazz; Jazz Saxophone; Classic Covers. I feel sure that i am missing something, but have read the help files and still can not get it to work.
The filter box looks like this; %genre%Jazz Saxophone. I have tried lower case, uppercase, quotes, just one word (Jazz). Nothing seems to work for me. The goal is to replace some genre tags. Would love to search entire library and do a replace batch using replace action.
I could (I think) just do an action on the entire library, but it seems to be too big for that. Mp3tag takes a long time to load all the files (never waited for it to finish, but seems it may take over night). So paring it down to just the files that have the tag i want to replace seems like a good idea....if i knew how to do that. I'm hoping that choosing genre in the first field box (under quick action), will limit any changes i make to the genre field.
any help you can lend is much appreciated,
tom
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### Author:  [@Doug\_Mackie](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Doug_Mackie)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 3:52am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/2 "2023-10-14T03:52:05Z")
> [@tomx2](#):
>
> What am i missing?
Try
GENRE HAS "Jazz Saxophone"
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 5:40am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/3 "2023-10-14T05:40:36Z")
> [@tomx2](#):
>
> Mp3tag takes a long time to load all the files (never waited for it to finish, but seems it may take over night).
See here and compare it with your collection:
> [@Sluggish performance](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/sluggish-performance/60293/15):
>
> Couldn't you supply some real benchmarks? Like: how long does it (really) take to read the file? I just tried to read some 200.000 files from an external USB3.0 HDD and it took 10 minutes, 55 seconds if MP3tag resides on the same external drive 8 minutes, 59 seonds if MP3tag resides on the internal SSD. It becomes 6 minutes 43 seconds if MP3tag resides on an internal SSD and the data also on an internal HDD. It looks to me like you can expect to read some 20.000 files/minute.
> [@tomx2](#):
>
> The filter box looks like this; %genre%Jazz Saxophone. I have tried lower case, uppercase, quotes, just one word (Jazz).
Perhaps a further look at the documentation helps:
> **[Filter and Search – Mp3tag Documentation](https://docs.mp3tag.de/filter/)**
>
> Documentation on Filter and Search and keywords to form complex filter expressions. Mp3tag is the universal Tag Editor.
---
### Author:  [@tomx2](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/tomx2)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 5:03pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/4 "2023-10-14T17:03:36Z")
> [@Sluggish performance](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/sluggish-performance/60293/15):
>
> Couldn't you supply some real benchmarks?
Not really complaining about performance, just trying to figure out best option with what i have. FYI: here is a screenshot. It shows the progress after 1/2 hour. Files on external HDD 6T, Mp3tag on internal drive.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 5:06pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/5 "2023-10-14T17:06:08Z")
I see that you use 2.88a (current version is 3.22e) and probably you have not switched on the library (see the Option\> Ctrl-O \> Library) which usually makes repeated reading of a whole, big collection much quicker.
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### Author:  [@tomx2](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/tomx2)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 5:15pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/6 "2023-10-14T17:15:26Z")
This didn't work:
GENRE HAS "Saxophone Jazz"
PS- My goal is to replace all instances of "Saxophone Jazz" with "Jazz Saxophone"
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### Author:  [@tomx2](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/tomx2)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 5:16pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/7 "2023-10-14T17:16:34Z")
Thanks, i will upgrade and do as you suggest.
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### Author:  [@Doug\_Mackie](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Doug_Mackie)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 5:24pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/8 "2023-10-14T17:24:25Z")
> [@tomx2](#):
>
> This didn't work:
It works fine here, but perhaps that you were expecting more than a simple list. Also, as Ohrenkino noted, you are **way** overdue for updating Mp3tag. The filter function has evolved greatly over the years! I am using version 3.22d.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 5:27pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/9 "2023-10-14T17:27:03Z")
> [@tomx2](#):
>
> This didn't work:
Even if you type in only the word "Saxophone" in the filter you should get some hits - provided, the loaded files have that word somewhere in the tag at all.
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### Author:  [@MotleyG](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MotleyG)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 5:30pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/10 "2023-10-14T17:30:38Z")
300k+ files will definitely take a while to index the first time. Make sure you enable the Library option in the preferences. Once the library has been completely indexed once, it will open much faster in the future, as mp3tag will only scan for changes.
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### Author:  [@tomx2](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/tomx2)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 5:55pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/11 "2023-10-14T17:55:27Z")
Appreciate the help. Here's my work flow:
I upgraded the version to 3.22b (Note: runs much slower than older version). I checked the library box. I added all the files in my music library to mp3tag up to and including the letter A as a test (about 9,000 files). These files include several genre tags with the word "saxophone". I select all files in mp3tag. I then choose "view" then "filter".
The result is the files listed in mp3tag disappear. If i remove the filter panel they re-appear. Typing " GENRE HAS "Saxophone Jazz" " results in the same behavior as well as "Saxophone" the files disappear.
This is an example what my genre tags look like: Jazz; Jazz Saxophone; Box Set
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 6:02pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/12 "2023-10-14T18:02:45Z")
I cannot reproduce that behaviour. If I enter "Saxophone" I get all the files with that string.
If you press F3 to hide or display the filter and you see no hits in the file list, the have a look at this thread
> [@Can't get v3.22 to work at all (& I'm NOT using filters)](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cant-get-v3-22-to-work-at-all-im-not-using-filters/62355/3):
>
> This is related to the filter and not to file selection or APEv2 tags. It means that Mp3tag has loaded 19 files, but displays none because they're being filtered out. Can you check Manage history from the \> button and remove anything that might not belong there? Edit: similar to what's described here: [Issue after upgrading to V3.22](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/issue-after-upgrading-to-v3-22/61919)
whether that is similar to the behaviour in your system.
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### Author:  [@tomx2](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/tomx2)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 6:26pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/13 "2023-10-14T18:26:33Z")
I tried...
" Can you check **Manage history** from the **\>** button and remove anything that might not belong there?"
and removed everything in manage history.
Now i get filtered results! (saxophone). Typing (GENRE HAS saxophone) works as well. But i am having no luck with getting results from specific genre tags (GENRE HAS "saxophone jazz"). Which i believe i need to do a replace action.Tried (GENRE HAS "Saxophone Jazz"), (GENRE HAS "saxophone jazz;"), (GENRE HAS"saxophone jazz;"), no luck.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 6:35pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/14 "2023-10-14T18:35:43Z")
Great that you could get the filter working.
You could try:
`%genre% HAS Saxophone AND %genre% HAS Jazz`
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### Author:  [@tomx2](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/tomx2)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 6:45pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/15 "2023-10-14T18:45:32Z")
> [@ohrenkino](#):
>
> %genre% HAS Saxophone AND %genre% HAS Jazz
That seemed to work! Thank you!
Now wondering, since i have (Jazz) and (Saxophone Jazz) and (Saxophone) in the genre tags, it should bring up files with all. So a replace action should work (Saxophone Jazz) \> (Jazz Saxophone) without changing genre tags that have (Jazz) and or (Saxophone) correct?
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 7:02pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/16 "2023-10-14T19:02:37Z")
> [@tomx2](#):
>
> correct
Yes. That should work as expected.
(the general rule in electronic data processing applies: create backups prior to such treatments, try it with sample files first)
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### Author:  [@tomx2](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/tomx2)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 7:05pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/17 "2023-10-14T19:05:36Z")
Excellent advice as always, ohrenkino. Thanks to you and everyone else for their help with this.
- tom
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### Author:  [@tomx2](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/tomx2)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2023, 10:57pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/18 "2023-10-14T22:57:58Z")
Oh No!
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### Author:  [@tomx2](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/tomx2)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2023, 1:29am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/19 "2023-10-15T01:29:27Z")
FYI: First attempt (above) took a little over 4 hours before it failed.
Second attempt took 2 hours and 20 minutes before it failed. Unfortunately, looks like i'll need to make all my edits twice, splitting the files in two and loading each half (at over one hour load time for each) separately in the future. I'll report back with the results, Re-loading third try now....
Update: Splitting the files into two groups works fine. A little more effort, but it works. And much better than editing each file individually!
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### Author:  [@poster](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/poster)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2023, 5:03am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398/20 "2023-10-15T05:03:47Z")
You should install the 64 bit version of Mp3tag if not already done to have enough memory for your amount of files.
If you use the windows defender as Antivirus define an exception for mp3tag.exe.
[Next page](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/having-issues-with-filter-search/62398.md?page=2)