Lost ability to read basic tags on mp4 between 3.28 et 3.33 version

[PasBo]

Between version 3.28 and version 3.33, Mp3tag lost the ability to read tags contained in MP4 files.
See screenshots of mp3tag reading a folder containing MP4 files.

Version 3.28

Version 3.33

Tags were generated during the CD ripping process using Sony Music Center, which uses 'gracenote'.
I read the release notes between these two versions and I didn't find any reason to stop reading the basic tags.
I install and run 3.34-beta.2 with the same result as 3.33
I don't want to report a bug; perhaps I've missed something basic, suggestions welcome

[LyricsLover]

Please show us a screenshot of the content in View -> Extended Tags from one file in Mp3tag v3.28 and the same file from Mp3tag v3.34-beta.2

[PasBo]

Thank you for your quick response.
Here are the requested screenshots.
Extended Tags from 3.34-beta.2 ver

sion

Extended Tags from 3.28 version

I hope this helps explain the difference; I remain available.

[LyricsLover]

Thanks for the screenshots!

Are you absolutely sure that these are mp4 files with mp4 content?
Can you double check the content for the first file 01-Baby Love.mp4 with something like mediainfo (They have a portable version for a quick check)?

If possible, could you also show us a screenshot from such a test tool?

Especially this parts:

and

and

[PasBo]

Here are the screenshots extracted from MediaInfo for the first file. As you can see, it's an MP4 file that doesn't contain any video.

General

,,

Audio

I hope this helps

[LyricsLover]

Thanks again.
Unfortunately, I can't see an obvious reason why the field content is no longer being displayed in the latest versions of Mp3tag.

Just an idea as your music files does not contain a video part:
Would it make a difference if you rename your first file
01-Baby Love.mp4
to
01-Baby Love.m4a
and then load the .m4a into Mp3tag?

Update:
In the screenshot from Mediainfo you can see that there are only two fields displayed with content for your first song: the TITLE Baby Love and the ALBUM Classic Love Songs of Rock 'N' Roll, vol. 2 [disc 1].
There is no ALBUMARTIST, no ARTIST, DISCNUMBER, GENRE, YEAR and so on.

[PasBo]

Thank you for your suggestion, but changing the file extension from mp4 to m4a does not change the behavior of mp3tag: in version 3.28, tags are read, whereas in the latest version, tags are not listed - see the screenshots.

v3.28

v.3.34-beta.2

[PasBo]

Here is the extended screenshot for the 'general' section from Mediainfo. I've cropped the rest thinking it wouldn't be important for the analysis.

I hope to avoid a false lead

[LyricsLover]

@PasBo

it wouldn't be important for the analysis.

It confirms that the metadata is "somewhere" in your file.
Mp3tag v3.28 can read it, but v3.33 and newer behaves differently.

I've run out of ideas at this point.

[PasBo]

Thank you for your time and help.
If no helpful suggestion appears within a few days, I will report a bug.

[Florian]

I asked for an example file and provided an upload link via PM.

[PasBo]

I uploaded the first two files

[MotleyG]

@LyricsLover

Would it make a difference if you rename your first file
01-Baby Love.mp4
to
01-Baby Love.m4a
and then load the .m4a into Mp3tag?

For confirmation and context I almost exclusively use .m4a for lossless conversion from CD and have no issues with metadata right up to beta v3.34-beta.1 in my case. Let's wait to see what @Florian can figure out from the examples.

[Florian]

Thank you for the example files.

The fields which are no longer shown are UTF-8 data atoms that have a trailing NULL character. This is not how it should be (according to, e.g., this documentation from Apple) — but apparently it is. I probably need to relax the validation here.

Do you know which app you used to create or add the metadata to those files?

[PasBo]

Thank you for your suggestion. It's similar to the one from LyricsLover in message #5. I tested it and posted the results in message #6. In the case of my MP4 files, version v.3.34-beta.2 cannot read the tags, while version 3.28 can — even if I rename them to m4a.

[PasBo]

Good evening,
As I indicated in message #1, the files Tags were generated during the CD ripping process using Sony Music Center, which uses 'gracenote' I used the latest available version of Sony Music Center for PC, version 2.7.2, which was updated on December 11, 2025.
Thank you for all your efforts in resolving this problem so quickly.

[Florian]

@PasBo

As I indicated in message #1, the files Tags were generated during the CD ripping process using Sony Music Center

I missed that part, sorry. It's unlikely that Sony will fix this on their side, and even if so, you'd still have the files that can't be read completely.

I'll find a way of relaxing the validation and will keep you posted when I have a new version for you to try.

[PasBo]

Thank you very much Florian
I've been using mp3tag for many years and thanks to you my music is well organized.

[Florian]

This should now be possible again with Mp3tag v3.34-beta.3.

[PasBo]

Oh yes, I can confirm that with version 3.34-beta.3 the tags are readable and editable again.
Thank you.