# Remove set characters from YEAR field
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-set-characters-from-year-field/68853
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [June 13, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-set-characters-from-year-field/68853 "2025-06-13T16:40:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bigdyl69](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Bigdyl69)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-set-characters-from-year-field/68853/1 "2025-06-13T16:40:39Z")
Hi all, I've been struggling to find a way to remove a set number of characters from the YEAR field on a large number of audio files I have.
It is currently formatted like this:
**2024\2024-07-18** (includes 2 of the \ backslash symbol)
I would like to remove the first 6 characters, as in the 2024\ part (which includes the first 4 numbers and 2 of the \ backslash symbol but they don't display on the post) and leave the rest intact. I have had a look through various posts but cannot find a solution that removes the \ part without deleting 10 character and only leaving me with -07-18 in the YEAR field.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-set-characters-from-year-field/68853/2 "2025-06-13T17:09:12Z")
Use an action of the type "Merge duplicate fields" to keep the data in front and behind the `\\` or use "Remove duplicate fields" to remove keep only the first part.
YEAR is a field that should only have 4 digits (according to standard).
If you want to keep the longer date, then I suggest that you move it to RELEASETIME.
For that try 2 actions:
1. "Merge duplicate fields" for YEAR with separator `==`
2. Guess value
Source string: %year%
Guessing pattern: %year%==%releasetime%
---
### Author:  [@Bigdyl69](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Bigdyl69)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 5:19pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-set-characters-from-year-field/68853/3 "2025-06-13T17:19:25Z")
Thanks for the quick reply. I would prefer to keep the full year-month-day format in the YEAR field as my Plex library pulls that information and it helps with sorting the music. I don't know if Plex can pull it from anywhere else in the metadata and I have nearly all my music collection in the format year-month-day.
Is there a way to do that at all?
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 5:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-set-characters-from-year-field/68853/4 "2025-06-13T17:21:45Z")
Of course you can do more or less anything you want. I only wanted to point out that any longer number than 4 digit is not standard compliant.
If you want to remove the first part, modify the 2nd action to
Guess value
Source string: %year%
Guessing pattern: %dummy%==%year%
---
### Author:  [@Bigdyl69](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Bigdyl69)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 5:30pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-set-characters-from-year-field/68853/5 "2025-06-13T17:30:13Z")
I have just tried the solution you offered but it didn't change anything in the YEAR field. Am I missing something? Sorry, I'm a little new to this
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 5:32pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-set-characters-from-year-field/68853/6 "2025-06-13T17:32:04Z")
Have you merged the 2 year fields (indicated by `\\`) to a single field with `==` as a substitute for `\\`?
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 5:38pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-set-characters-from-year-field/68853/7 "2025-06-13T17:38:24Z")
If merging does not really work, let us try this:
Convert\>Tag-Tag for YEAR
Format string: $meta(year,1)
Does the preview show the long date?
If so - click OK.
---
### Author:  [@Bigdyl69](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Bigdyl69)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 5:44pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-set-characters-from-year-field/68853/8 "2025-06-13T17:44:30Z")
Thank you so much, the last suggestion did the trick! Many thanks, your help is most appreciated
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2025, 5:45pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-set-characters-from-year-field/68853/9 "2025-07-13T17:45:29Z")
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.