What a great app! It’s an “apex” tool, and I recommend it all the time!
I’m sorry if this has come up before, or indeed if this is a solved problem and I have simply not realized it!
I have a large music collection and am a bit OCD having the tags I want, and having consistency. Every so often, I load a huge number of files from my NAS into MP3 to check all is well, and often find a number of files that need additional processing that I missed when I ripped from CD, or bought FLACs. Typically that’s things like MP3Gain (for MP3 versions I make for my car) or ReplayGain for FLACs. So I process the files. But, given that it can take 10 mins to load the files all over again into MP3tag (there are a lot!) to check them, can we have (or is there?) a feature/button I can press to get MP3tag to rescan and only load files that have changed? This could save me a ton of waiting. I hope you see what I mean!
Secondly, is there a way to run MP3Tag directly on my NAS? (it’s a Synology running DSM 7.2 on Intel). If this was possible (docker, maybe?), I could free up my PC while tagging the files locally on the NAS - you can see how this might speed things up with a large music collection, or a least speed up my PC!
Have you switched on the library?
See Ctrl-O > Library.
Even though intended to manage large libraries on non-64-bit systems, it also speeds up loading files that have been loaded before.
MP3tag is a Windows program. So if your NAS runs Windows and you can open a remote terminal on the NAS, it could be possible.
I used to run a VM on a NAS, as it gave me native HDD/SSD speed to my music files which are stored on the same NAS.
On a Synology there is the app Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)
This is the tool that enables virtualization on Synology NAS devices and should support Windows, I think.
Below is not quite what you asked for but it may be helpful.
Sort your music files by their Modified dates in Windows File Explorer. Then use the Mp3tag context menu to load your selection for editing
Or
Click in the search box (upper right corner of the Explorer window) of the folder holding your music files or folders. Then type in one of these lines:
datemodified:today
datemodified:yesterday
datemodified:earlier this week
datemodified:last week
datemodified:last month
There may well be other "plain language" variations that will work.
After selecting the found set use the Mp3tag context menu to load only those files for more editing.
The file folders in question should be indexed by Windows. That means that "content search" should be enabled in Control Panel.
Thanks - I know how to filter file selections in windows, and often do this, but with my issue, I’m loading 40K files en masse from a slow NAS to scan for tagging anomalies, not for files with specific dates. I want to change certain files but maintain the current full list in MP3tag and reload only changed files, as I often want to compare the changed files with existing ones in the list. A button that implements “scan file dates and times for any changes and reload those files back into the existing list of files”
I saw a suggestion about the library function, and will check if it speeds anything up!
Thanks, but I don’t fancy buying a windows licence for this. I mistakenly thought MP3Tag was a java program, e.g. like the excellent Universal Media Server is, but that’s another story!….
I have just tried the library and loading is massively faster. This makes [edit] 20x + speed improvement (files on NAS, library on local PC SSD). Thanks for the suggestion - I failed to notice the function!