rename filename with charachter padding

Support
1

I have a very large MP3 library which I put on a USB memory stick for use in my car radio's MP3 player. This car will not play the selections (within a folder/album) in the correct order unless the filenames are prefixed with a two digit number. The car radio DOES read the MP3 metadata/ID data, insofar as it displays all the information, but it ignores the 'track number' information and plays the selections in the order of their alphabetic filename (NOT the metadata song TITLE) only. So of course the selections do not play in the proper order. I have started to use MP3Tag to rename all the filenames to start with 01, 02, 03...09, 10, 11, 12, etc. The car radio will disregard numbers that are only one digit (e,g, 1, 2, 3), so they must all be two digit prefixes.

I see that MP3Tag can automatically rename the filenames based on information from the metadata, but I don't completely understand how to do this, and how to specify exactly what I want to happen. More importantly, I don't understand how to get the TWO DIGIT prefixes, since the metadata track numbers are only one digit long when less than 10.

Obviously I can do this manually, but since I am only renaming the filenames and NOT changing any of the metadata, I could do it manually in Windows Explorer just as easily as in MP3Tag. If I can figure out how to make MP3Tag automatically rename the files based on their EXISTING filenames, preceded with a TWO DIGIT number (and a space) based on the ID metadata track number, that would be great. But I need some help to do this!

To clarify, if a filename is "nicesong.mp3" and that file's metadata has a track number of "3", then the file needs to be renamed to "03 nicesong.mp3", and if another filename is "greatsong.mp3" with a metadata track number of "24" then that file needs to be renamed as "24 greatsong.mp3".

I need to be able to do this automatic operation ONLY on the files in a single folder; I don't want MP3Tag to do this operation on any other folders other than the one I have currently selected.

2

To rename the files use the function
Convert > Tag-Filename

Enter a mask for the filename, e.g.
%track% - %title%

To get a 2-digit track number use this mask:
$num(%track%,2) - %title%

I wonder how that car player will sort out the files as there are probably more than just one number 1 track.

If you want to get the tracks in a sequence that you set then proceed as follows:
Sort all files in the sequence you want to have them. Then select them, then use a different mask:
$num(%_counter%,2) - %title%

I now wonder what the player will do if you have more than 99 tracks.

3

The problem that I am having is that despite using the Mp3tag field "title" this mask operates on
the FILENAME. I have been attempting to find a way to obtain TRACK NUMBER (padded for 2 digits)
plus TITLE, not FILENAME. It seems to me that M3tag is interchanging TITLE and FILENAME.

Slardy

4

Based on what I read, Ohrenkino provided you correct instructions as per your first email.
Your last mail looks contradictory to your first one. :slight_smile:
Do you want to amend the title or filename?

5

No.
The quote you gave starts with "To rename the files ..."
Could it be that you mix the tag field TITLE with the filename?
A filename is an amourphous string where you might identify certain parts to have the meaning of a title. But all in all it is just the string in the property "filename" of the file.
If you want to have structured data, you have to fill the fields.
You can use the structured data to manipulate the data in other fields. This is what the function "Convert" offers.
If you want to extract data from the filename an fill the title field, use
Convert>Filename-Tag
if you want to create a new filename which is a composition of tag data use
Convert>Tag-Filename.