# MusicBrainz tags causing inconsistencies in LMS?
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/musicbrainz-tags-causing-inconsistencies-in-lms/64311
**Category:** Mac
**Created:** [April 5, 2024, 10:47am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/musicbrainz-tags-causing-inconsistencies-in-lms/64311 "2024-04-05T10:47:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@steklo](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/steklo)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2024, 10:47am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/musicbrainz-tags-causing-inconsistencies-in-lms/64311/1 "2024-04-05T10:47:58Z")
Hello everyone,
I'm Stefan and I'm new to the forum. I would like to try mp3tag for Mac in the next few days and hope to be able to solve a few problems with my music library.
So far, I've been managing it almost exclusively with XLD and iTunes (now Apple Music). In the beginning I also played music via iTunes, later I switched to Logitech Media Server.
In recent years, a few minor inconsistencies have become apparent in the presentation of the music library in LMS, which I could not find in iTunes and which I could not understand from the metadata and which I initially ignored.
Now, however, these inconsistencies have increased so that I can no longer ignore them. After an initial analysis with KID3, it looks to me as if the musicbrainz tags, some of which are imported via XLD but are not displayed in XLD or iTunes, but which are apparently favoured by LMS, are causing the problems:
Mainly it's about the tag musicbrainz\_albumartistid, which in some places is contradictory to the albumartist I specified. Since LMS apparently favours the tag musicbrainz\_albumartistid, this leads to various oddities. For example, the right album appears in the right place, but with an artist name other than the one I specified. Or the album appears with the correct artist name in a completely wrong place and so on.
I will now test this on a manageable problem case to see if I am right with my assumption.
If this is the case, there are basically two possibilities:
1. in the tag musicbrainz\_albumartistid, I replace the automatically obtained code that is "wrong" for my system with the correct one that matches the name of the album artist I want. Disadvantage: A lot of work and I may overlook problems in places that I haven't even noticed yet and that continue to exist afterwards.
2. I delete all musicbrainz tags. Advantage: Is quick and also addresses blind spots.
My question before I do this: What use are the musicbrainz tags for a private music library? I haven't used these tags yet and have hardly noticed their existence. Above all, they have entered my library completely uncontrolled and only partially. Would I lose important information by deleting these tags that might be useful in the future?
Best regards
Stefan
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2024, 2:15pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/musicbrainz-tags-causing-inconsistencies-in-lms/64311/2 "2024-04-05T14:15:06Z")
Just some general remarks:
MP3tag support even large collections with more than 100,000 files.
MP3tag has a powerful filter function so that you can find files that match certain criteria. These cirteria can be simple words or more complex terms.
MP3tag allows to define "actions" for repeatedly called modification steps.
With this tools in stall, it would be up to you to find out what your player requires.
A help may also be MP3tag's extended tags dialogue that shows more than the just the most common tag fields and also lets you add standard fields as well as user-defined fields.
When you start to overhaul your collection be sure to have backups.
---
### Author:  [@steklo](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/steklo)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2024, 4:38pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/musicbrainz-tags-causing-inconsistencies-in-lms/64311/3 "2024-04-05T16:38:48Z")
Yes of course, a backup will be essential before applying any changes to the tags. Thanks for the reminder!
Is there a way to have mp3tag display all tag fields actually in use with the loaded files? I think e.g. Kid3 does that by default and I find that quite helpful.
Best regards
Stefan
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2024, 5:11pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/musicbrainz-tags-causing-inconsistencies-in-lms/64311/4 "2024-04-05T17:11:14Z")
Did you have a look at the extended tag dialogue?
That is as close as it gets.
If you find interesting fields, you can add columns in the file list or items in the tag panel according to your needs.
---
### Author:  [@Casual\_Tea](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Casual_Tea)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2024, 6:00pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/musicbrainz-tags-causing-inconsistencies-in-lms/64311/5 "2024-04-05T18:00:02Z")
> [@steklo](#):
>
> My question before I do this: What use are the musicbrainz tags for a private music library?
I've come across the same issues that you describe with LMS.
Though only because recent additions to my library usually have musicbrainz IDs while old albums of the same artist do not. That leads to the albumartist being split in LMS, while all other players I use mix together albumartist tag + mbid and same albumartist without mbid.
The potential upside is that you can have multiple artists with the same name that can be clearly differentiated via the mbid.
However that's fairly rare. When I encounter a split artist I usually go ahead and tag the old albums with mbids as well to keep it consistent.
---
### Author:  [@RobertSaunders](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/RobertSaunders)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2024, 10:05am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/musicbrainz-tags-causing-inconsistencies-in-lms/64311/6 "2024-04-26T10:05:23Z")
I've also been affected by the LMS's new preference for Musicbrainz tags, a behaviour which causes issues with my preferred tagging scheme. I run LMS on a Raspberry Pi, but manage the files on my NAS via a Mac - I just started using mp3tag to quite quickly identify files with Musicbrainz tags so i can delete those tags.
It would be nice if one could toggle usage of Musicbrainz on/off in LMS, but I guess the developers are a bit busy since the decommissioning of [MySqueezebox.com](http://MySqueezebox.com) and the subsequent re-branding of LMS.
Robert
---
### Author:  [@steklo](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/steklo)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2024, 3:29pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/musicbrainz-tags-causing-inconsistencies-in-lms/64311/7 "2024-04-26T15:29:39Z")
Hi Robert,
I agree: A button to switch off Musicbrainz tags in LMS would be a nice (and probably easy to implement) feature!
I just downloaded the trial version of mp3tag for Mac. I have added the Musicbrainz tags I want to delete to the tag panel, loaded my complete library with about 76.000 tracks, selected all of them and then set all these MB tags to "remove" and entered "save". Strange but I cannot see any progress bar or anything indicating what is going on. It seems even some of the files with change date of now still have the Musicbrainz tags filled...
Do I have to be more patient?
Best regards
Stefan
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2024, 4:11pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/musicbrainz-tags-causing-inconsistencies-in-lms/64311/8 "2024-04-26T16:11:55Z")
If you want to remove the musicbrainz fields also in all new files, then an action of the type "Remove fields" may come in handy.
> [@Quick Actions and Action Groups](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/quick-actions-and-action-groups/51882#remove-fields-11):
>
> Mp3tag for Mac provides a variety of Actions, which can be used on filenames and tags. The actions can be applied individually via Actions → Quick Actions ⌥⌘ 6 or be grouped into named and reusable Action Groups via Actions → Actions ⌘ 6. Action Groups serve as repeatable workflows in Mp3tag for Mac. When using Quick Actions you can select one of the different available action types from the list. This action will be applied to the selected files and the changes are saved immediately. Tip 1…
This action removes filelds found a list that you entered.
This action helps you to avoid clogging up the tag panel with fields whose sole purpose is to get removed, so the optimum status is to show no data. I am not sure if this is the best use of the tag panel.