# Other, than tags, textual data in music files?
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300
**Category:** Off-Topic
**Created:** [June 14, 2020, 1:25am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300 "2020-06-14T01:25:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@incifinci](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/incifinci)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2020, 1:25am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300/1 "2020-06-14T01:25:49Z")
I would like to know, if there is any personal information in a music file somewhere other, than the tags. I opened a FLAC in a simple text editor (EditPad), and could find the contents of the tags. But nothing else. Does anybody know about more, possible hidden data?
(The one, i know, of course: EXIF or IPTC data of the embedded images.)
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2020, 7:57am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300/2 "2020-06-14T07:57:07Z")
I would think that you have to follow some kind of standard if you want to add something to a file - as otherwise that additional data would appear as garbage of some kind, a dead giveaway.
The ID3 standard allows to add "PRIV" fields which may contain any data they like, rather often some kind of binary data, which can only be read by the original application.
MP3tag does not show the presence or the contents of PRIV fields.
---
### Author:  [@MP3Freak\_Peter](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MP3Freak_Peter)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2020, 10:09am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300/3 "2020-06-14T10:09:53Z")
Adding Data in such way is not "hidden".
It's pretty easy to get this data using common hex editor or something.
Are you searching/try to include hidden messages into audio files? 😃
> **[Steganography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography)**
>
> Steganography (/ˌstɛɡəˈnɒɡrəfi/ (listen) STEG-ə-NOG-rə-fee) is the practice of concealing a file, message, image, or video within another file, message, image, or video. The word steganography comes from New Latin steganographia, which combines the Greek words steganós (στεγανός), meaning "covered or concealed", and -graphia (γραφή) meaning "writing".
> The first recorded use of the term was in 1499 by Johannes Trithemius in his Steganographia, a treatise on cryptography and steganography, disguis...
There are several ways to "mark" and file, maybe to identify owner on shared music files.
Several ways you will never find out even you know how it has been done,
I know just a few techniks about that, some technics are even used on geocaching (mostly D5 Caches - if you know what's geocaching is)
I'm curious, what are you trying to do?
---
### Author:  [@incifinci](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/incifinci)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2020, 3:00pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300/4 "2020-06-14T15:00:17Z")
@ohrenkino, @MP3Freak_Peter, thank you both for quick and valuable help. I am studying it now.
My goal is to **remove** any such data.
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2020, 3:09pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300/5 "2020-06-14T15:09:09Z")
see here on how to remove PRIV fields:
> [@Remove WMP PRIV Tags](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-wmp-priv-tags/10871):
>
> I have many files that WMP tagged with it's PRIV tags. I have tried several ways to remove these tags with no luck. I created an Action Group, Chose Remove fields as the action and entered this for the fields to remove: WM/MediaClassPrimaryID;WM/MediaClassSecondaryID;WM/WMContentID;WM/UniqueFileIdentifier;WM/WMCollectionID;WM/WMCollectionGroupID;WM/Provider The tags are not removed when I run the group. So, how can I remove these tags? Thanks for any tips.
---
### Author:  [@MP3Freak\_Peter](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MP3Freak_Peter)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300/6 "2020-06-14T15:21:08Z")
The correct way should be something like:
1. export tags (you need)
2. clear tag (completely remove Tag) - can be done with mediapurge
3. import tags from previous export
@ohrenkino
Is there a way do export/import (1) (3) tags with mp3tags? I remember to read about here.
(2) cleanup tag (remove completely) can be done for example with mediapurge [https://www.peter-ebe.de](https://www.peter-ebe.de)
Menu "Edit filenames and Tags" -\> "Copy or remove Tags"
Select "Delete ID3v2" tag, it will remove anything within the Tag.
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2020, 3:23pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300/7 "2020-06-14T15:23:43Z")
> [@MP3Freak\_Peter](#):
>
> Is there a way do export/import (1) (3) tags with mp3tags?
The function is called "Export" and can be found in the File menu.
The import can be configured in Convert\>Text file - Tag.
Removing a tag with Ctrl-R removes all tags that are set in File\>Options\>Tags\>Mpeg.
No additional program needed.
---
### Author:  [@MP3Freak\_Peter](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MP3Freak_Peter)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2020, 5:39pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300/8 "2020-06-14T17:39:47Z")
ok, fine, can mp3tag do this as batch job for a couple of files?
---
### Author:  [@incifinci](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/incifinci)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300/9 "2020-06-14T17:45:49Z")
You can export all tags to CSV or even TXT, previously replacing all white space characters (line breaks, horizontal and vertical tabs) in multiline tags, like %comment%, to something temporary else ( **CR** or such) with $replace. After batch inserting back, replace them back.
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300/10 "2020-06-14T17:45:52Z")
With as many files as you dare to treat in one go.
There is the gap between cutting and pasting where the tag data is only held in the memory - so any computer failure until the tags are written again will lead to data loss.
---
### Author:  [@MP3Freak\_Peter](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MP3Freak_Peter)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300/11 "2020-06-14T18:00:25Z")
Hopefully, nobody would be so stupid to do without backup.
Well, even layer8 could cause data loss (the probability of this is significantly higher) 😉
---
### Author:  [@incifinci](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/incifinci)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2020, 6:39pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300/12 "2020-06-14T18:39:36Z")
All right, i read and tried. Really:
- the PRIV frame can be read with a simple text editor;
- cutting and re-pasting the tags in Mp3tag will remove it;
- to find all mp3 files with PRIV frame(s), Total Commander's text search function is good enough (searching for "PRIV");
- PRIV is really just an entry level: there are watermark, acoustic fingerprint, and so an...
Another interesting news for me is, that Mediapurge can be used to batch scan files by the fingerprint. It can come in handy in several things, for example to identify a familiar sounding song. (But it seems, there **are** better programs.)
So thank again both you for your help.
---
### Author:  [@Bluesrule](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Bluesrule)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2020, 12:58am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/other-than-tags-textual-data-in-music-files/49300/13 "2020-06-15T00:58:59Z")
Thanxs for the heads up about Mediapurge , certainly looks useful to assist in managing a ridiculously large collection ....