I am new to MP3Tag and used it for the first time recently. I mainly added some album covers and fixed some missing tags. It all went very well and I was very happy with how my library looked afterwards.
Unfortunately though, I discovered an issue that occurred right after I was done editing: All of the modified files were kind of corrupted, i.e. the sound was distorted. I am absolutely sure that the issue stems from the editing as I tried to open the files with different music players (Windows Media Player, VLC) and on different systems (Windows 10 Laptop, Android Smartphone) to eliminate any possible error source. The the problem persists however.
Thats why I am addressing you guys now. Is this a known issue and/or is there a fix available? I undid the changes on some files to see if the files would get restored back to normal, but to no avail. As I edited almost 5 GB of files in one go it would be really unfortunate if I cant rescue the songs...
Dont know about that. I mean they werent corrupted before I used MP3Tag, which makes it hard for me to believe that it was caused by anything else. The remaining unedited files that are located in the same folder are still working perfectly fine too.
But yeah you are right, not creating backups was dumb.
Anyways, I ran the program and apparently there are errors (as far as I am able to understand what it says at least). Is there some kind of log-feature so I can show you?
Ok so apparently you take me suspecting MP3Tag to be the cause very seriously. I am not trying to badmouth the program in any way, in fact I was pleasantly surprised how well and easy the process of modifying the files went. Unfortunately though an issue occurred, and as the only thing that actually had anything to do with the files recently is MP3Tag, I am suspecting it to be the origin of the issue simply because it is the most obvious option. The rest of the files show no problems whatsoever btw.
I am not here the blame anyone or claim anything, I'd only like to find a fix .
I tried mp3val and fixed the broken files, but it didnt help.
@stanman thanks for the heads up! Here's the screenshot.
You should have a look at all the files as they all have different peculiarities, e.g.
kimdracula has the errors:
aa - two mpeg streams
ah - different channel mode
ak - invalid mpeg frame
bc - frame count mismatch
kc - unknown stream
These are the serious errors. And that is a file from the same folder - so that is apparently no criterion.
I would seriously check the files for integrity and repair them with mp3val, mp3diags and foobar2000 before you do any further tagging.
MP3tag was here the messenger, not the origin.
aa - two mpeg streams - 10 Remove multiple ID3 streams
ah - different channel mode - not sure about this one, experiment
ak - invalid mpeg frame - 5 Remove unsupported streams
bc - frame count mismatch - try 13 Repair VBR if that doesn't work 14 Rebuild VBR
kc - unknown stream - 3 Remove unknown streams
Select the files you want fix, do only one type at a time.
Click the hammer with the down arrow and RIGHT-click the fix you want to use, that will apply the fix to only selected files.
Also use Mp3tag to do a Tag Cut and then a Tag Paste to remove unsupported tag frames.
Make sure you do the Tag Paste and NOT Tag Copy because that will delete the data.
I tried to repair some of the files with m3val and mp3diags, but I have to admit I have no clue what I'm doing. I basically scanned the programs for 'repair'-options and applied them - no idea if I have done it correctly.
The same folder as before now looks like this in mp3diags (see screen). Apparently something changed, but I cant tell what exactly (the audio didnt change, it remains in the same state as before).
Also, how can I check the files for integrity and fix them with foobar 2000?
Didnt help . I applied mp3val and mp3diags for different folders now and neither of them changed anything in terms of restoring the original audio. Both programs fixed some errors though.
Thousands of users have used Mp3tag to tag millions of files without causing damage.
That is why it is hard to believe that Mp3tag has damaged your files.
But statistics prove nothing.
In order to prove that Mp3tag caused damage, the damage must be reproducible by others.
One way to do that is to provide a copy of an undamaged file; one that you believe will be damaged by Mp3tag, but before it is touched by Mp3tag.
If lots of other users are able to process it in any way you describe, without causing damage, then Mp3tag probably has nothing to do with the damage.
If other users also suffer file damage, Mp3tag might be the culprit.
If the audio part was in a mess before (with invalid pointers to the start of the audio, for instance) you will never get the "original" (=corrupt) audio back.
You may have another look at the audio part with mp3directcut that shows you some audio data.
So: first check the files that their audio part is OK, then start tagging.
Three weeks old topic, but heck ... removing tags could "trigger" distortion, if volume is too high and your playback chain does play back at digital full.
Try the following (on a copy of your files)
A ReplayGain-aware audio player (foobar2000, I'd suggest)
Replicated this issue successfully with same file repeatedly. The same file after changing tags through mp3tag get curropt. Did this many times to be sure of it. No avail.
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. I applied mp3val and mp3diags for different folders now and neither of them changed anything in terms of restoring the original audio. Both programs fixed some errors though.