# How to autotag ORIGYEAR into YEAR field? If not exist \> oldest release date
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-autotag-origyear-into-year-field-if-not-exist-oldest-release-date/41003
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 9, 2018, 11:20am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-autotag-origyear-into-year-field-if-not-exist-oldest-release-date/41003 "2018-03-09T11:20:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bascurtiz](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/bascurtiz)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2018, 11:20am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-autotag-origyear-into-year-field-if-not-exist-oldest-release-date/41003/1 "2018-03-09T11:20:17Z")
How to autotag %originaldate into year-tag?
Problem nowadays is the Release data of compilations or remastered albums are set as their Year-tag.
So for ex. ''The Beatles - Hey Jude'' will get the year-tag 2017 (if there was any remastered album released that year).
Not good, when you sort your tunes on year & want to grab the ''zeitgeist'' for a playlist.
Seems it is possible using MusicBrainz Picard, see here:
[https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=171592&pid=1868269#pid1868269](https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=171592&pid=1868269#pid1868269)
Only problem remains, if there's no value in %originaldate, then it should seek for older releasedate and insert that value.
Anyone has a clue how to approach this with MP3tag?
Filetypes: MP3 + FLAC
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2018, 3:06pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-autotag-origyear-into-year-field-if-not-exist-oldest-release-date/41003/2 "2018-03-09T15:06:01Z")
> [@bascurtiz](#):
>
> Anyone has a clue how to approach this with MP3tag?
As MP3tag does not compare separate files, I do not see much hope there.
In a way this would be something like a search for duplicates which has often been requested but never been implemented.
So you would have to resort to some kind of external tool to find these duplicates.
Once you have them, it should be easy to copy the tags from one file to the other.
---
### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2018, 3:16pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-autotag-origyear-into-year-field-if-not-exist-oldest-release-date/41003/3 "2018-03-09T15:16:45Z")
> [@bascurtiz](#):
>
> Anyone has a clue how to approach this with MP3tag?
Based on the link you've posted above, I think this entry from the FAQ is what you're looking for:
> [@Actions and batch-operations](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/actions-and-batch-operations/967/15):
>
> How to copy one field value to another field? Example how to copy the content of the ARTIST field to the ALBUMARTIST field: Create a [new action](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/actions/967/2) in an existing action group or make a new action group. Action type: Format value Field: ALBUMARTIST Format string: %artist% Note: If you want to copy all possible values of a field (in case you have multiple artist fields), the internal scripting function [$meta\_sep](https://docs.mp3tag.de/scripting) can be used in the format string, e.g., $meta\_sep(artist,\\\\)
If you only want to copy the `ORIGYEAR` field, if it actually exists in the file and preserve the `YEAR` field otherwise, you can use
`$if2(%origyear%,%year%)`
---
### Author:  [@Zerow](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Zerow)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2018, 4:27pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-autotag-origyear-into-year-field-if-not-exist-oldest-release-date/41003/4 "2018-03-09T16:27:13Z")
As for how to store multiple year information, you can read this topic:
> [@\[Discussion\] Best way to handle Year tag for movie scores/soundtracks?](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/discussion-best-way-to-handle-year-tag-for-movie-scores-soundtracks/40902/4):
>
> I am a score buff and most of my music is what you can call a score music. And your question is something I was struggling for years, changing the rules governing my info storage system; and this is what I have settled on and believe it cannot be done better: YEAR: the year of first release of the album; not some re-release and not of the premier of the movie or of the recording session ALBUM: if this is some later re-release ["special edition" or "complete recording session" and such] then Iā¦
---
### Author:  [@bascurtiz](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/bascurtiz)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2018, 4:50pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-autotag-origyear-into-year-field-if-not-exist-oldest-release-date/41003/5 "2018-03-09T16:50:46Z")
Bummer...
Seems like I need to find an autotagger app that has the option of enabling only to alter YEAR tag, with the option of Select OLDEST RELEASEDATE or ORIGYEAR.
SongKong Pro for ex. didnt do the trick for me, since the data/input based on album YEAR wise.
---
### Author:  [@bascurtiz](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/bascurtiz)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2018, 12:16pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-autotag-origyear-into-year-field-if-not-exist-oldest-release-date/41003/6 "2018-03-10T12:16:55Z")
Thanks Florian.
IF the ORIGINAL YEAR tag excists, it copies that value over to the more common used YEAR tag.
This means, the value should already be there, but it's a start š
Now, some have a value of 1996-05-20 for ex.
I just want to end up with 1996.
How do I limit the value written into YEAR to those 4 digits?
---
### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2018, 12:30pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-autotag-origyear-into-year-field-if-not-exist-oldest-release-date/41003/7 "2018-03-10T12:30:04Z")
> [@bascurtiz](#):
>
> How do I limit the value written into YEAR to those 4 digits?
`$if(%origyear%,$left(%origyear%,4),%year%)`
See [Mp3tag Help ā Scripting functions](https://docs.mp3tag.de/scripting) for an extensive list of other goodies š
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:27pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-autotag-origyear-into-year-field-if-not-exist-oldest-release-date/41003/8 "2026-02-09T12:27:16Z")