Mp4 Copyright information not displaying in Windows File Explorer

[MrPlinkett]

Okay so I've had a bit of a headache with this one. For some reason Mp3Tag metadata isn't displaying correctly in File Explorer.

Some of it seems to work (Title, Artist, Year, Genre) but most of it doesn't seem to show at all. I've had to manually enter the data in File Explorer for most of the fields (on top of Mp3Tag metadata) which is tedious but manageable.

Here's the issue, copyright metadata isn't editable in File Explorer and it's one of the fields which chooses not to display/update. Any suggestions? I'm about ready to pull my teeth out.

[ohrenkino]

@MrPlinkett

I'm about ready to pull my teeth out.

Perhaps you ask the folks that write the Windows Explorer Details Tab why thy don't display data that is obviously there ...

Or see here:

MP4: Explorer File Properties Fields: "Subtitle," "Tags," "Directors," "Producers," "Writers," "Publisher," "Content provider," "Encoded by," "Author URL," "Promotion URL," and "Parental rating."

I was wondering if someone can help me regarding creating a field that directly reflects Windows Explorer File Properties for MP4 files. When I use MetaX on an MP4 file, any entry added into the "Director," "Producers," "Screenwriters," "Rating," "Subtitle" and "Stars" fields is directly pushed into the Windows Explorer File properties. I want to apply that same settings on MP3Tag for MP4 files, if possible. I also want to fields for "Publisher," "Content provider," "Encoded by," "Author URL,…

[MrPlinkett]

Seems like a bit of an oversight if it's a Microsoft issue. 2021 and no adequate metadata support for File Explorer... Living on the precipice of technology...

I checked out the link and it seems like MetaX might be a solution to this issue, although entails learning a new piece of software.

Appreciate the response regardless.

EDIT: So MetaX has a small price tag on it, kinda inconvenient. Has anyone figured out a way to do this with Mp3Tag yet? Or perhaps a workaround solution?

[phw]

That the copyright tag is not editable indicates that Windows Explorer just doesn't support reading or writing that tag to MP4 files. So if it's the requirement to have this available in Explorer you are probably out of luck (you can try bugging Microsoft about this of course). But if the goal is to have the copyright tag in the file you can use Mp3Tag to write that.

[MrPlinkett]

Somehow I doubt bugging Microsoft will prove fruitful in resolving this issue. It's possible to write copyright metadata to an Mp4 using Mp3tag, it just doesn't display in the File Explorer copyright field.

I believe that preventing copyright metadata editing within File Explorer is to protect copyright for files. There must be some way to add inherent copyright metadata to an Mp4 file otherwise why have that field in the first place?

[ohrenkino]

@MrPlinkett

There must be some way to add inherent copyright metadata to an Mp4 file otherwise why have that field in the first place?

The field is filled by MP3tag as this is covered by the standard for mp4 tags.
See

Tag Field Mappings – Mp3tag Documentation

The problem we have here: The Window Explorer (a file managing program) does not read this field but prefers to take the information from a proprietary xml-solution.
So you see a genuine third party program display problem.

[MrPlinkett]

I think at this point I'm just going cut my losses and "ignore" the fact that the copyright metadata isn't displayed in File Explorer.

[phw]

I gave this a small test with an MP4 file on Windows and trying different known MP4 atoms that could hold copyright information. The cprt atom Mp3Tag is writing is not read by Explorer. There is also an alternative ©cpy atom supported by some tools, but that's also not read by Explorer either. The iTunes Metadata Specifications also mention an atom ©cak for "Copyright
Acknowledgement(s)" (whatever this exactly means), but this again is also not read by Explorer.

Out of fun I also tried it with ----:com.apple.iTunes:Copyright (which is the most widely used structure for free text tags in MP4), with different casing of "Copyright", but as expected without luck.

If Microsoft supports copyright information in MP4 it is nothing obvious.

This is also an interesting thread for MP4 tag support in general:

MP4-Felder (Atom/Box) in anderer Software

Ich habe mal geguckt, welche QuickTime/MP4-Metadaten-Atoms/-Boxes andere Programme laut ihrer Doku unterstützen und sie mit Mp3tag verglichen. Möglicherweise macht es Sinn, das eine oder andere auf eine Variable und damit ggf. auch auf ein ID3-Feld zu mappen sowie ggf. die Werte aus seltener verwendeten Atoms in semantisch äquivalente zu kopieren. FFmpeg Für FFmpeg habe ich keine offizielle Doku gefunden, aber das Multimedia.cx-Wiki wird öfter erwähnt. Sie scheint nicht ganz aktuell und vielle…