# replaced by mistake "VA" to "Various Artist"

**URL:** <https://community.mp3tag.de/t/replaced-by-mistake-va-to-various-artist/15319>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [December 21, 2013, 10:21am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/replaced-by-mistake-va-to-various-artist/15319 "2013-12-21T10:21:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![daerias](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c89c15/32.png) [@daerias](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/daerias)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2013, 10:21am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/replaced-by-mistake-va-to-various-artist/15319/1 "2013-12-21T10:21:59Z")

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Hi 🙂

I have made a mistake and replaced ALL the "VA" to "Various Artist".

My Problem is mp3tag has renamed "VA" in the middle from other words too, something like this:

**OLD Albumartist:** blablavablabla  
**NEW Albumartist:** blablaVarious Artistblabla

how can I restore my old Albumartist?

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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:** [December 21, 2013, 10:36am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/replaced-by-mistake-va-to-various-artist/15319/2 "2013-12-21T10:36:09Z")

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Try a Replace with regular expression action  
Search pattern  
(._)Various Artists(._)  
Replace with  
$1va$2

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**Author:** ![DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/detlevd/32/123_2.png) [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2013, 10:47am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/replaced-by-mistake-va-to-various-artist/15319/3 "2013-12-21T10:47:46Z")

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> [@daerias](#):
>
> ... I have made a mistake and replaced ALL the "VA" to "Various Artist" ... how can I restore my old Albumartist?

1. Right after the erroneous action you should have invoke the menu option "Undo Format" [Ctrl+Z].
2. You can use the action "Replace" and replace the string 'Various Artist' with 'va'.
3. You can use the action "Replace using Regular Expression" and replace the string 'Various Artist' with 'va'.
4. You can use the action "Format Value" with function $replace to replace the string 'Various Artist' with 'va'.
5. You can use the action "Format Value" with function $regexp to replace the string 'Various Artist' with 'va'.  
Example: $regexp(%ALBUMARTIST%,'^(.+?)Various Artists(.+?)$','$1va$2')

DD.20131221.1247.CET

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![daerias](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c89c15/32.png) [@daerias](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/daerias)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2013, 11:16am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/replaced-by-mistake-va-to-various-artist/15319/4 "2013-12-21T11:16:45Z")

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oh oh ... I have a lot of "va" now

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**Author:** ![stevehero](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/stevehero/32/337_2.png) [@stevehero](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/stevehero)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/replaced-by-mistake-va-to-various-artist/15319/5 "2013-12-21T19:27:41Z")

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What you need now is use a filter to find 'albumartist blablavablabla' and not just 'va'

F3 and type:

ALBUMARTIST MATCHES "\wVA\w"  

There's no easy fix for you once you closed mp3tag because ctrl-Z would of prevented you from corrupting your files.

 

Next time when you want to replace exact single words tick like attached:  
 ![](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/4/40be27820da3669ba0d6473f6f13d2c9cc147938.jpg)

 

![](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/4/40be27820da3669ba0d6473f6f13d2c9cc147938.jpg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![daerias](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c89c15/32.png) [@daerias](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/daerias)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 6:35pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/replaced-by-mistake-va-to-various-artist/15319/6 "2013-12-22T18:35:35Z")

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Thank you all 🙂 I will try this

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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/replaced-by-mistake-va-to-various-artist/15319/7 "2026-02-09T12:24:49Z")

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