# Help With Actions, Please

**URL:** <https://community.mp3tag.de/t/help-with-actions-please/15386>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [January 12, 2014, 7:16am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/help-with-actions-please/15386 "2014-01-12T07:16:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![LouieChuckyMerry](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/louiechuckymerry/32/367_2.png) [@LouieChuckyMerry](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LouieChuckyMerry)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2014, 7:16am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/help-with-actions-please/15386/1 "2014-01-12T07:16:01Z")

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Hello again, and thanks again in advance for any help. I recently (and very stupidly; don't ask) deleted the tags on all of my non-mp3 music files, leaving me with 10,000+ .ape, flac, m4a, mpc, wma, and wv files in need of re-tagging. Their folder structure is:

MUSIC/ARTIST.NAME/{year} - AlbumName{year}[FileExtension]

For example, Led Zeppelin's debut album is in the folder:

MUSIC/LED.ZEPPELIN/{1969} - LedZeppelinI{1969}[.flac]

and Jean-Luc Ponty's classic live album with The George Duke Trio is in the folder:

MUSIC/JEAN.LUC.PONTY/{1969} - WithTheGeorgeDukeTrio[Live]{1969}[.wv]

After years of idiocy (and a fat-handful of New Topics here) I'm experienced enough to create an Action group that re-tags the majority of the non-mp3 files properly in a two-step process (Divide And Conquer). Unfortunately, I've quite a few "greatest hits" albums with the same basic folder structure:

MUSIC/ARTIST.NAME/{year} - AlbumName{year}[FileExtension]

where the {year} is in the form {xxxx-xx} instead of {xxxx} (for example, {1953-61} or 1976-03} or {2001-13}). Is there a way to compensate for this non-consistent {year}? Using a Guess Value (%\_directory%; "{"%YEAR%"}" - %ALBUM%"{"%YEAR%"}"[%DUMMY%]) works perfectly for all my single-year albums, but all my multiple-year albums end up with, literally, {} in the album field, and I don't know how to solve this problem. Thanks again for any help.

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**Author:** ![DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/detlevd/32/123_2.png) [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2014, 8:38am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/help-with-actions-please/15386/2 "2014-01-12T08:38:19Z")

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> [@LouieChuckyMerry](#):
>
> ... I've quite a few "greatest hits" albums with the same basic folder structure:  
> MUSIC/ARTIST.NAME/{year} - AlbumName{year}[FileExtension]  
> where the {year} is in the form {xxxx-xx} instead of {xxxx} (for example, {1953-61} or 1976-03} or {2001-13}). Is there a way to compensate for this non-consistent {year}? Using a Guess Value (%\_directory%; "{"%YEAR%"}" - %ALBUM%"{"%YEAR%"}"[%DUMMY%]) works perfectly for all my single-year albums, but all my multiple-year albums end up with, literally, {} in the album field, and I don't know how to solve this problem. Thanks again for any help.

I have to ask a question about understanding.

Do you want to apply the "Guess Values" action against the Filepathname, starting at the directory level including the filename without filename extension, in order to get content back into the tag-fields ARTIST, ALBUM, YEAR?

What do you want to do with the YEAR part "{1953-61}"?  
Should it be splitted in two values "1953" and "61"?  
What to do with the part "61"?

Here is a proposal ...

Begin Action Group **Test\_2014#20140112.GuessValuesFromPath** 

Action #1  
_Actiontype 7:_ **Import tag fields (guess values)**  
_Source format \_\_:_ **%\_path%**  
_Guessing pattern:_ **%FULLPATHNAME%**

 

Action #2  
_Actiontype 7:_ **Import tag fields (guess values)**  
_Source format \_\_:_ **%\_path%**  
_Guessing pattern:_ **%DUMMY%\MUSIC\%ARTIST%{%ERA\_BEGINNING%-%ERA\_END%} - %ALBUM%{%YEAR%}[%DUMMY%]\%DUMMY%**  
End Action Group **Test\_2014#20140112.GuessValuesFromPath** (2 Actions)

 

DD.20140112.1125.CET

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**Author:** ![chrishirst](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@chrishirst](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/chrishirst)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/help-with-actions-please/15386/3 "2014-01-12T15:30:11Z")

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MUSIC/ARTIST.NAME/{year} - AlbumName{year}[FileExtension]

Actions -\> aCTIONS (Quick) -\> Guess Values

Source format:

%\_path%

Guessing pattern:

MUSIC/%artist%/{%year%} - %album%{%dummy%}

Looks like it should work.

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**Author:** ![system](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/c/ce7035d426cb755a7916793326d23b465222a407.png) [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2026, 12:24pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/help-with-actions-please/15386/4 "2026-02-09T12:24:51Z")

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Closed on February 9, 2026, 12:24pm UTC