I have been using Mp3tag without issue (currently on v3.24), but this week, my library (on my NAS), appears to fully load into Mp3tag, then spinning blue wheel and 'Not Responding'. I have left this overnight on two consecutive nights and it would appear it's never going to get past that point.
I have turned off the library function, no change, then uninstalled and reinstalled Mp3tag, no change.
Assuming that there is a problem somewhere in my library causing this, does anyone know how I could narrow down the problem?
AppData\Roaming\Mp3tag\Mp3tagError.log is blank.
I would try to load only parts of the collection from the NAS and see if that works.
Alternatively, you could copy (some of) the files from the NAS to a local drive and see whether the problem is still there.
You could just rename the entire Library file in your Mp3tag configuration folder \data\mp3tag.db3 to something like mp3tag.db3.old and then load your collection of tracks into Mp3tag.
This will increase the first loading time (depending on the amount of files and the file sizes) but you will see if you can get Mp3tag running this way.
Or you can disable the library function at all (File -> Options -> Library -> Deactivate "Enable Library").
This way you should see if one of your tracks is damaged.
For example, you could add a new column with this definition:
Thank you for the advice.
The music files won't complete loading, with or without 'library' activated (I tried deactivating library and deleting the mp3tag.db3 file, but it still loads the files then 'spinning blue circle').
I am currently running the integrity checker in Foobar2000, as suggested here:
I think 'Beatunes' is the cause, which I use as well as Mp3tag. I haven't encountered issues using both before, and I've been using Beatunes for over ten years, but this is since performing edits in there.
Hopefully, Foobar2000 can identify the issue(s).
Foobar2000 identified 50 or so files with corrupt streams, usually with other issues. I recall these albums being problematic to rip because the CD was damaged.
I have deleted all of those.
There were, in addition, several thousand flagged with 'minor' issues, referring to the duration (I don't recall the exact wording), maybe tracks with amended start/end times?
I have just tried again, loading the files into Mp3tag, and the 'spinning blue circle' issue remains.
Next, I'm going to try to load files in batches to see if I can isolate the cause.
If the problem has its root cause in simultaneous access that leads to a deadlock, it could be that loading in batches circumvents the problem as the other program has its focus on other files during that shorter time.
Thank you for the advice.
I wasn't able to source the cause by loading the files in batches, as the batches all loaded without issue.
That my Synology NAS auto-indexes audio files may be a factor, but hasn't caused issues before. Otherwise, I ensure that the files are not being accessed elsewhere while using Mp3tag. There definitely appears to be something Mp3tag doesn't 'like', despite Foobar2000 and Beatunes loading all the files without complaint.
Is there anything I should be aware of that Mp3tag might take issue with, for example, certain characters in tags/filenames? Or the character length of them?
I was able to resolve this issue by again loading the files in batches, and, for each batch, removing superfluous tags. I did this by selecting all files in the batch, right-click, 'extended tags', and removing only the ones that I have no need for. I could've more easily done this with an Action, but I wanted sight of what I was removing.
When I moved away from iTunes several years ago, I trialled multiple tagging tools before choosing Mp3tag, some or all of which added more tags (Beatunes is guilty of this too), so some files had 20+ tags, most of which served me no purpose. Cleansing the tags, and/or the process of having Mp3tag rewrite every single tag enables me to load the 90,000+ files without issue.
