# regular expression kills my synced lyrics

**URL:** <https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regular-expression-kills-my-synced-lyrics/14852>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [June 28, 2013, 12:33pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regular-expression-kills-my-synced-lyrics/14852 "2013-06-28T12:33:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mp3tag](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@mp3tag](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mp3tag)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 12:33pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regular-expression-kills-my-synced-lyrics/14852/1 "2013-06-28T12:33:14Z")

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hello hello

please, can anyone help?

1. removing leading/trailling white spaces with regular expressions kills my synced lyrics!  
synced lyrics are in unicode-format and made with the lyrics show panel 3 (foo\_uie\_lyrics3)  
in foobar2000.

2. when i try to use more then one field in "quick action" (Replace with regular expression),  
nothing happens. ex: field=ARTIST;ALBUM;TITLE etc..  
i must use \_ALL or \_TAG. but this kills always my synced lyrics.

what do i wrong?

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**Author:** ![LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/c6cbf5/32.png) [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 12:55pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regular-expression-kills-my-synced-lyrics/14852/2 "2013-06-28T12:55:41Z")

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You could try to export the lyrics first, then apply your regex to \_ALL and then re-import the lyrics back. In 1 action group 😉

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**Author:** ![dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/dano/32/6_2.png) [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 1:03pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regular-expression-kills-my-synced-lyrics/14852/3 "2013-06-28T13:03:01Z")

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What regexp are you using?

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**Author:** ![mp3tag](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@mp3tag](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mp3tag)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 2:15pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regular-expression-kills-my-synced-lyrics/14852/4 "2013-06-28T14:15:24Z")

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> [@LyricsLover](#):
>
> You could try to export the lyrics first, then apply your regex to \_ALL and then re-import the lyrics back. In 1 action group 😉

puh! thats not the deal i want to go with 1000 of tracks. ![:unsure:](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/1X/cfaeba84fe6704387c5b34dfdd8172bd51b6f533.gif ":unsure:")

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**Author:** ![mp3tag](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@mp3tag](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mp3tag)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 2:23pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regular-expression-kills-my-synced-lyrics/14852/5 "2013-06-28T14:23:26Z")

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> [@dano](#):
>
> What regexp are you using?

^\s+ for heading spaces  
\s{2,} for those in the middle  
\s+$ for trailing spaces

![:music:](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/1X/2ba05d1ade5eb0d15fc173be6f717dbe63890a70.gif ":music:") currently listing 'the healer - john lee hooker'

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**Author:** ![ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/ohrenkino/32/4843_2.png) [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 3:42pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regular-expression-kills-my-synced-lyrics/14852/6 "2013-06-28T15:42:30Z")

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> [@mp3tag](#):
>
> ^\s+ for heading spaces  
> \s{2,} for those in the middle  
> \s+$ for trailing spaces
> 
> ![:music:](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/1X/2ba05d1ade5eb0d15fc173be6f717dbe63890a70.gif ":music:") currently listing 'the healer - john lee hooker'

You could use the $trim() function to get rid of leading and trailing blanks.  
The action would be of the type format value instead of replace.

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**Author:** ![dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/dano/32/6_2.png) [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 3:59pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regular-expression-kills-my-synced-lyrics/14852/7 "2013-06-28T15:59:12Z")

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$trim() does not work with \_TAG

Change the regex to:  
^[\t]+  
[\t]{2,}  
[\t]+$

If it is still a problem then post an example of the lyrics.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mp3tag](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@mp3tag](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mp3tag)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regular-expression-kills-my-synced-lyrics/14852/8 "2013-06-28T16:31:28Z")

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YEP! i works! ![:w00t:](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/1X/cb01eca72fe9339ff6f3ec9f1e3c5fe002be0f0a.gif ":w00t:") thank you very much indeed for your help, Dano! ![:rolleyes:](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/1X/3a79e8b0b7d169b30216785521d7c6f4f895c421.gif ":rolleyes:")

![:music:](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/1X/2ba05d1ade5eb0d15fc173be6f717dbe63890a70.gif ":music:") currently listen to " Edgar Froese - Blue Panther (Kamikaze 1989)"

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**Author:** ![system](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/c/ce7035d426cb755a7916793326d23b465222a407.png) [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2026, 12:24pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regular-expression-kills-my-synced-lyrics/14852/9 "2026-02-09T12:24:33Z")

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Closed on February 9, 2026, 12:24pm UTC