# Mp3tag behaves strangely upon start
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-behaves-strangely-upon-start/58287
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [August 23, 2022, 4:15pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-behaves-strangely-upon-start/58287 "2022-08-23T16:15:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@azfrankie](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/azfrankie)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2022, 4:15pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-behaves-strangely-upon-start/58287/1 "2022-08-23T16:15:40Z")
I noticed this several times: I'm starting Mp3tag and it behaves weird. The fields on the left are showing pale until I start to tag any file. Much worse, the columns are in weird order, jumbled up. How can I restore the program from the backup setting I've saved in the %AppData% folder? Why does this happen at all? I sat hours to arrange the program the way I want it to and this happened every now and then.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2022, 4:25pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-behaves-strangely-upon-start/58287/2 "2022-08-23T16:25:55Z")
> [@azfrankie](#):
>
> jumbled up. How can I restore the program from the backup setting I've saved in the %AppData% folder?
see here:
> **[Download and Installation – Mp3tag Documentation](https://docs.mp3tag.de/getting-started/installation/)**
>
> Details on where to download Mp3tag, Mp3tag's different installation modes, and system requirements for the usage of Mp3tag. Mp3tag is the universal Tag Editor.
> [@azfrankie](#):
>
> The fields on the left are showing pale until I start to tag any file
This is normal behaviour. You have to select at least 1 file before you can enter any data in the tag panel.
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### Author:  [@MotleyG](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MotleyG)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2022, 2:39am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-behaves-strangely-upon-start/58287/5 "2022-08-24T02:39:59Z")
> [@azfrankie](#):
>
> Why does this happen at all? I sat hours to arrange the program the way I want it to and this happened every now and then.
The program can’t really decide to arbitrarily use or keep the settings as you have chosen, or to “jumble them up.” But have you recently updated mp3tag and gone from Windows 32-bit (which all versions were until recently) to 64-bit? If the old 32-bit program is still present, you could be running different versions.
See here for details of how to properly make this transition.
> [@Notes on the 64-bit version of Mp3tag](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/notes-on-the-64-bit-version-of-mp3tag/57250):
>
> I've released a [64-bit version of Mp3tag](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/455) a few days ago and received a few questions about differences between the 32-bit version and the 64-bit version. To make it short, there should not be any noticeable differences except for two things: The 64-bit version uses 64-bits to address memory and is no longer limited to 2 GB per application. While the [Library](https://docs.mp3tag.de/customization/options/library) feature of Mp3tag is already a very viable solution for large libraries, loosening the memory restriction is one of the key benefits of …
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### Author:  [@azfrankie](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/azfrankie)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2022, 8:26am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-behaves-strangely-upon-start/58287/6 "2022-08-24T08:26:33Z")
Yes, thank you. I've been thorough that problem before a few weeks ago, until I finally noticed different installations in the C:\Program Files and C:\Programs (x86) folder. However I removed all files belonging to the 32-bit version and will in the future download the 64-bit version manually. Thanks for the hint but I don't think that's the source of the problem.
Yesterday I shut down my computer including closing any and al programs **before** doing that. When I started Mp3tag again the columns and various fields were gone. That's why I named that phenomenon _'jumbled up.'_
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### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2022, 8:30am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-behaves-strangely-upon-start/58287/7 "2022-08-24T08:30:24Z")
> [@azfrankie](#):
>
> However I removed all files belonging to the 32-bit version
Are you sure that you also have removed all traces to the 32-bit version in the windows registry?
That's why the developer describe the [change from 32bit to 64bit](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/notes-on-the-64-bit-version-of-mp3tag/57250#installation-and-update-from-32-bit-to-64-bit-1) this way.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2022, 8:35am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-behaves-strangely-upon-start/58287/8 "2022-08-24T08:35:02Z")
> [@azfrankie](#):
>
> the C:\Program Files and C:\Programs (x86) folder.
The userdata is stored in `%appdata%\Mp3tag` by default.
So, any remains there could cause problems.
Do you get any error messages when you close MP3tag?
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### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2022, 8:56am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-behaves-strangely-upon-start/58287/9 "2022-08-24T08:56:13Z")
I don't think that anything regarding 32-bit vs. 64-bit is causing the issues. Normally, both versions would use the configuration from `%APPDATA%\Mp3tag` when installed via the _Standard_ installation.
> [@azfrankie](#):
>
> When I started Mp3tag again the columns and various fields were gone.
This indicates that it was working before and I also can't explain what was happening there.
> [@azfrankie](#):
>
> How can I restore the program from the backup setting I've saved in the %AppData% folder?
Do you have this saved in `%APPDATA%` or `%APPDATA%\Mp3tag`? If it's the former you can extract the contents to `%APPDATA%\Mp3tag`. If it's the latter then there is no much left to do — the Mp3tagSettings.zip gets automatically created whenever Mp3tag is closed, so it would already contain the "jumbled up" settings.
Do you have an external backup with the original working settings? If so, extract those to `%APPDATA%\Mp3tag`.
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### Author:  [@azfrankie](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/azfrankie)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2022, 6:45pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-behaves-strangely-upon-start/58287/10 "2022-08-24T18:45:15Z")
@LyricsLover
Well, I made registry cleanup with Ccleaner (after having de-installed the 32-bit version) to make sure all traces were gone. However, we still don't know if that's the source of the problem.
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### Author:  [@azfrankie](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/azfrankie)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2022, 6:46pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-behaves-strangely-upon-start/58287/11 "2022-08-24T18:46:04Z")
No error messages upon closing the program.
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### Author:  [@azfrankie](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/azfrankie)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2022, 6:47pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-behaves-strangely-upon-start/58287/12 "2022-08-24T18:47:07Z")
You are correct, the restored version has the same faulty columns now (the storing location is %APPDATA%\Mp3tag) and I assumed that all I have to do. I need to make sure in the future that I have a backup safely stored somewhere else. I have no idea why the program all of a sudden behaved differently than before. Thanks for the help.
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:29pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-behaves-strangely-upon-start/58287/13 "2026-02-09T12:29:54Z")