# Possible Bug with Semi-Colon?
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988
**Category:** Mac
**Created:** [March 27, 2025, 11:20pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988 "2025-03-27T23:20:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Klangfarben](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Klangfarben)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2025, 11:20pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988/1 "2025-03-27T23:20:19Z")
So Musicbrainz and some other databases use a semi-colon to separate multiple composers - name1; name2; name3 etc. When tracks with that metadata are brought into mp3tag, it is displaying it as "\" (two backslashes) instead of ";"
What makes it worse is if I do a search/replace for either ";" or "\" it finds neither of those characters and I cannot replace them other than manually.
Is this a bug?
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### Author:  [@MotleyG](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MotleyG)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2025, 2:37am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988/2 "2025-03-28T02:37:00Z")
What you are seeing with the `\\` display in mp3tag is a placeholder to indicate a multi value field. Other programs may indicate this in different ways, such as the semicolon in Musicbrainz you have found.
> [@Should I use ";" or "\\\\" or "-" as a separator?](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/should-i-use-or-or-as-a-separator/45708):
>
> To date I have been using a ";" as a separator for the Artist, Composer and Genre fields. I would then do an action of merge duplicate fields for these fields after ripping a CD (or after a bunch of CD's). This displays well with the music players that I use currently but whether if or I may want to use another player in the future I am wondering if there is a better solution that is more universal?. Been thinking about whether it would of been best to use the "\" as a separator or even a …
This can occur in the Composer, Artist, and Genre fields most commonly.
> [@Klangfarben](#):
>
> What makes it worse is if I do a search/replace for either ";" or "`\\`" it finds neither of those characters and I cannot replace them other than manually.
If you are trying to manipulate the line, you may first want to use the `MERGE` action where you can assign a new separator. This will combine all of the values of the same field name and allow you to make the edits you wish. There is also actions to `SPLIT` them in a similar fashion.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2025, 6:43am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988/3 "2025-03-28T06:43:25Z")
Just to add some other details to @MotleyG's explanations:
As already mentioned here:
> [@No Orchestra or Ensemble tags?](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/no-orchestra-or-ensemble-tags/67968/2):
>
> Are you sure that these real tag fields and not simply labels? ID3V2.3 tags allow user-defined tag fields - perhaps you find your data there. In MP3tag you see the field names in the extended tags dialogue - press ⌘ T. If you want to re-use that name, type it in whereever you are asked for a field name.
use the extended tags dialogue if you see something peculiar or something is missing that you see in other applications.
In this case you will see several list items with the field name COMPOSER in the extended tags dialogue.
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### Author:  [@Klangfarben](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Klangfarben)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2025, 5:25pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988/4 "2025-03-28T17:25:13Z")
Well here is the problem. And you can feel free to try this. Just tag any track with a semi-colon anywhere in the text. Not anything imported from musicbrainz. Just put in a semi-colon yourself. When opened in mp3tag, it converts that semi-colon to a double backslash. There is no reason it should do that. Because at that point, you can't then search for a semi-colon - or double backslash - and replace it with another character and you should be able to do that.
I will try the MERGE action and report back. I'm not familiar with that so thank you for letting me know about that. In case I'm not being clear, I want to take a metadata field like COMPOSER for instance in the format of name1; name 2; name 3 and replace the semi-colons with commas instead so it reads name1, name 2, name 3. I don't care what characters are technically a separator or not. I want it to read correctly when displayed in a media player app.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2025, 5:27pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988/5 "2025-03-28T17:27:25Z")
> [@Klangfarben](#):
>
> Just tag any track with a semi-colon anywhere in the text. Not anything imported from musicbrainz. Just put in a semi-colon yourself.
Which program do you use to enter the semi-colon?
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### Author:  [@Klangfarben](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Klangfarben)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2025, 5:48pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988/6 "2025-03-28T17:48:30Z")
In my case I'm using dbpoweramp. Any field with a semi-colon gets converted to double backslash by mp3tag.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2025, 5:52pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988/7 "2025-03-28T17:52:42Z")
That would mean that
> [@Klangfarben](#):
>
> dbpoweramp
creates a multi-value field that MP3tag displays with `\\` as already described by @MotleyG.
As you actually have separate fields there is no field that has a semi-colon or `\\` in it which is why you cannot replace them.
If you want to get a single field with semi-colons, you have to merge the fields first with a separator unequal to `\\`.
What did the check with the extended tags dialogue reveal?
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### Author:  [@Klangfarben](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Klangfarben)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2025, 6:14pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988/8 "2025-03-28T18:14:21Z")
Ok, thank you for the clarification. That makes total sense now. I didn't realize that it was indicating a duplicate field of the same name. I thought it was one field.
So to report back @MotleyG 's suggestion was exactly what I was looking for. If I merge the fields and then choose the separator of my choice, everything is merged into one field displayed in a manner that is more readable in media library players.
And yes, you are correct. Extended tags shows duplicate fields of the same type.
Thanks everyone for your help and apologies for not understanding multi-value fields. Clearly not a bug.
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### Author:  [@MotleyG](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MotleyG)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2025, 6:31pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988/9 "2025-03-28T18:31:36Z")
> [@Klangfarben](#):
>
> If I merge the fields and then choose the separator of my choice, everything is merged into one field displayed in a manner that is more readable in media library players.
When using the MERGE action, you can just use the desired ", " and this will take care of what you are aiming to do in a single step.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2025, 6:33pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988/10 "2025-03-28T18:33:51Z")
It would be interesting to see what dbpoweramp makes of fields with a semicolon.
It could well be that any edit in that program creates multi-value fields again.
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### Author:  [@Klangfarben](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Klangfarben)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2025, 6:48pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988/11 "2025-03-28T18:48:40Z")
That does seem to be the case. If I enter semi-colon in any field in dbpoweramp it is creating a multi-value field.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988/12 "2025-03-28T18:54:36Z")
It maybe worthwhile to find a separator that leaves merged fields as single fields. What about the slash `/`?
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### Author:  [@Klangfarben](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Klangfarben)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2025, 7:09pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988/13 "2025-03-28T19:09:34Z")
I just found this in the dbpoweramp settings. Think this should solve most of the issue.
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2025, 7:10pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/possible-bug-with-semi-colon/67988/14 "2025-04-27T19:10:06Z")
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