# Option for UTF16-BE for ID3v2.3 tags
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/option-for-utf16-be-for-id3v2-3-tags/10143
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [March 19, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/option-for-utf16-be-for-id3v2-3-tags/10143 "2010-03-19T20:06:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@wpb](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/wpb)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/option-for-utf16-be-for-id3v2-3-tags/10143/1 "2010-03-19T20:06:16Z")
Is there any way to tell mp3tag to encode text as UTF16-BE instead of UTF16-LE? On my Nokia E51, the tags encoded as LE display incorrectly (they miss the last letter!) in the firmware's in-built media search tool. If I could force BE, it would work!
Thanks,
wpb
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### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2010, 8:39am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/option-for-utf16-be-for-id3v2-3-tags/10143/2 "2010-03-20T08:39:09Z")
No, this is unfortunately not possible.
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### Author:  [@wpb](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/wpb)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/option-for-utf16-be-for-id3v2-3-tags/10143/3 "2010-03-20T20:40:00Z")
Any chance of it being added?
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/option-for-utf16-be-for-id3v2-3-tags/10143/4 "2010-03-20T21:09:22Z")
> [@](#):
>
> If I could force BE, it would work!
Is that proven?
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### Author:  [@wpb](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/wpb)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2010, 5:07am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/option-for-utf16-be-for-id3v2-3-tags/10143/5 "2010-03-21T05:07:19Z")
> [@dano](#):
>
> Is that proven?
Yes, pretty much. I have a bunch of tagged mp3s that do work, and examining the files in a hex editor shows they're UTF16-LE encoded. My other mp3s that don't work are UTF16-BE encoded. Not exactly proof, but very strong empirical evidence!
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2010, 10:26am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/option-for-utf16-be-for-id3v2-3-tags/10143/6 "2010-03-21T10:26:45Z")
Did you mix up LE and BE because now you say LE files work?
Maybe you can upload two files, one that works and one that does not so we can check them?
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### Author:  [@wpb](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/wpb)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2010, 11:37am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/option-for-utf16-be-for-id3v2-3-tags/10143/7 "2010-03-21T11:37:11Z")
Sorry - it was early in the morning 😉 To confirm, BE works; LE doesn't. This is almost certainly a problem with the Nokia firmware, not a problem in mp3tag. Anyway, I can't upload examples as they're copyrighted, but here it is in code form. Just one ID3v2 text frame:
```
Little-endian:
54 50 45 31 00 00 00 1F 00 00 01 FF FE 4A 00 6F 00 73 00 68 00 75 00 61 00 20 00 4B 00 61 00 64 00 69 00 73 00 6F 00 6E 00
TPE1.......ÿþJ.o.s.h.u.a. .K.a.d.i.s.o.n.
Big-endian:
54 50 45 31 00 00 00 21 00 00 01 FE FF 00 4A 00 6F 00 73 00 68 00 75 00 61 00 20 00 4B 00 61 00 64 00 69 00 73 00 6F 00 6E 00 00
TPE1...!...þÿ.J.o.s.h.u.a. .K.a.d.i.s.o.n..
```
Notice the different byte-orders of the BOM. Does that help?
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2010, 11:53am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/option-for-utf16-be-for-id3v2-3-tags/10143/8 "2010-03-21T11:53:54Z")
Thanks, that's also good evidence.
I suspect the problem for nokia is not the byte order, but the two missing termination bytes at the end of the field (00 00)
Now the ID3v2 standard gives a little room for interpretations, but we have decided against termination byte(s)
Unfortunately nokia made the opposite decision.
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### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2010, 11:57am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/option-for-utf16-be-for-id3v2-3-tags/10143/9 "2010-03-21T11:57:27Z")
I've just stumbled over codepages ....
1200 — UCS-2LE Unicode little-endian
1201 — UCS-2BE Unicode big-endian
... don't know if this is related to this topic.
DD.20100321.1357.CET