# Possible Bug in Track Renumbering
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [June 27, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148 "2024-06-27T18:15:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@HarrisMan](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/HarrisMan)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148/1 "2024-06-27T18:15:05Z")
I am a huge fan of mp3tag, so first off many thanks!
I think I have found a bug in the renumbering of a large set of tracks. I attempted to renumber a set of 121 tracks (from 001 to 121) and it appeared to have worked fine in mp3tag. However, when I closed mp3tag and looked at the files in File Explorer (Windows 11) I found that the track number field (shown as #) in Explorer had the wrong track numbers, i.e. they did not seem to have been set correctly even though mp3tag showed that they had been. I worked around this by only selecting 99 tracks at a time for renumbering, and this enabled me to do what I wanted. I chose to do 99 at a time arbitrarily so I do not know of an actual limit for successful renumbering.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2024, 6:18pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148/2 "2024-06-27T18:18:32Z")
> [@HarrisMan](#):
>
> I think I have found a bug in the renumbering of a large set of tracks.
If the files show correctly in MP3tag but the
> [@HarrisMan](#):
>
> File Explorer (Windows 11)
does not treat them correctly, I would think it is a bug in the Windows Explorer.
See here:
> [@\[X\] Problem with leading zeros in the TRACK tag](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-problem-with-leading-zeros-in-the-track-tag/12964/3):
>
> Thanks DetLevD. I did of course mean strip leading zeros. I have now had a look at the scripting functions. Unfortunately, they are not available when converting filenames to tags. However, I have worked out an easy solution to my problem: My filenames have the format aaa - bbb .nnn.ccc where aaa = artist, bbb = album, nnn = track, ccc = title I was using the transformation %artist% - %album% .%track%.%title% This was producing a 3 digit track with leading zeros and Windows explorer was …
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### Author:  [@HarrisMan](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/HarrisMan)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2024, 6:36pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148/3 "2024-06-27T18:36:45Z")
I don't think the problem is in Explorer, because when I renumber only 99 tracks in mp3tag they do appear correctly in Explorer. Therefore I suspect that when I renumbered all 121 in a single pass the new numbers (001 to 121) were not being written correctly to the mp3 files even though they appeared to be correct inside mp3tag.
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### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2024, 6:38pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148/4 "2024-06-27T18:38:16Z")
From a MS forum (I can't directly link to it):
It is the 7th reply in [this thread](https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-pictures/mp3-tags-specifically-the-tags-are-not-correct/625737c9-8497-443b-a2a7-3d7b02e513e2)
See also:
> [@track numbers differ between mp3tag and w7](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/track-numbers-differ-between-mp3tag-and-w7/15664/2):
>
> For some reason, Windows Explorer interprets track numbers with leading zeros as octal numbers instead of decimal numbers. Kind regards Florian
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2024, 6:48pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148/5 "2024-06-27T18:48:58Z")
> [@HarrisMan](#):
>
> I don't think the problem is in Explorer,
Apparently, you did not go through the linked thread as that already describes your observation and the cause for it: WIndows Explorers interpretation of values with 3 digits and leading zeros as octal values.
If you take care that there are not 3-digit numbers with leading zeros in the field TRACK then the Windows explorer will sort correctly
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### Author:  [@MotleyG](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MotleyG)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2024, 6:52pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148/6 "2024-06-27T18:52:39Z")
The CD Redbook stipulates that no disc can have more than 99 distinct tracks. So the idea of going beyond that when recognizing track numbers shouldn't typically be a problem.
But as far as creating digital albums of some sort, this could be an issue for some interfaces. Windows has a documented issue of looking at tracks with three or more digits as octal format. But most other players and devices do not have this problem.
Bottom line - don't depend on Win Explorer to display tag information other than for a quick reference. Let the metadata do the talking in media players and library managers and your songs should appear correctly.
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### Author:  [@HarrisMan](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/HarrisMan)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2024, 7:06pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148/7 "2024-06-27T19:06:09Z")
That is not the issue. The track numbers reported by Explorer appear to be simply wrong. If I create track numbers from 001 to 121 in batches then they come out correct, but if I try to create them in a single operation they are wrong.
This cannot surely be an issue to do with octal representation: even with 99 tracks in a batch there are 9s involved so octal issues would fail. So I think the track numbers written to the mp3 files are not the ones displayed in mp3tag.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2024, 7:10pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148/8 "2024-06-27T19:10:50Z")
Do you have any proof execpt the display in the Windows Explorer?
Have you checked a file that appears out of order with a hex editor to see what is stored in TRCK?
A simple test:
and the same files with 3-digit-numbers and leading zeros,
where the second dump shows 2x8 and 2x9
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### Author:  [@HarrisMan](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/HarrisMan)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2024, 7:39pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148/9 "2024-06-27T19:39:15Z")
Maybe this is too complex for me to understand, but I would point out that I don't think this is to do with sorting - the track numbers shown by Explorer are not the same as those shown in mp3tag. I simply want to be able to select all my 131 tracks in mp3tag and give them track numbers 001 to 131, and this appears to work while I am in mp3tag but not if I use Explorer to examine the files. If I do this by only selecting batches of 99 (my choice and I have not researched to see whether this is a critical number) it works: I can use mp3tag several times on multiple batches (twice in this case) and by doing so I can get tracks 001 to 121 in mp3tag and also in Explorer. However if I try to do them all in a single batch, then the track numbers in Explorer are wrong.
If I can't do this then I accept it, but I should be interested to know the limit on how many tracks can be renumbered in a single batch: is there a known limit?
I stress again that this is nothing to do with sorting - it's the actual track numbers which simply do not match in mp3tag and Explorer, and it's not the sort order.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2024, 7:41pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148/10 "2024-06-27T19:41:48Z")
Leave ot the leading zeros and you should be fine.
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### Author:  [@HarrisMan](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/HarrisMan)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2024, 8:04pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148/11 "2024-06-27T20:04:00Z")
Thanks, I'll try that but I'm definitely baffled as to why there is a problem. I always use leading zeros in my track numbers and have never had a problem before, but in fairness I've never had more than 100 tracks before. And it does work fine with 99 tracks, so I'm baffled!
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2024, 8:07pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148/12 "2024-06-27T20:07:41Z")
Please address your astonishment at Microsoft. What you see is a Microsoft problem, no MP3tag problem.
You do not need leading zeros in a decent player - if you want to create filenames with leading zeros, you can use $num(%track%,3) instead of the plain %track%. The Windows Explorer has not problems with leading zeros in filenames.
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2024, 8:08pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-in-track-renumbering/65148/13 "2024-07-27T20:08:19Z")
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