Hi,
I’d like to save the metadata of a number of songs and reapply them after editing in software. The editing software I use applies the metadata of the first song to everyone of them and I want to save the pre-editing metadata and re - apply bulk after edit.
Is it possible to do so ?
I’ve used the export function but I can’t seem to ?load/re-apply? to the songs.
See the documentation:
As thi sprocess is rather complicated: which function are you missing in MP3tag that is worth the effort?
Ahh shit , it feels like rocket science.
I added my previous songs to the menu and choose the Convert/ Text file - Tag but when I press ok it says
“Cannot parse line 1.
Cannot parse line 2.
Cannot parse line 3.
Cannot parse line 4.
”
I don’t think that the function is missing , I can’t make it work.
You would have to show us at least 1 line from the text file and also the format string that you use in the Convert function.
I have 4 files which sit in C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata\. I have exported the original metadata on “TrackList.csv“ as below.
Guitar Rag;Sylvester Weaver;Rough GuideTo Bottleneck Blues: (Slide Guitar: Original Legends & Modern Masters);01;2005;Blues;182;10.31 MB;1/27/2026 2:30:58 AM;C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata;01 - Sylvester Weaver - Guitar Rag.flac
Traveling Back Home;Johnny Shines;Too Wet To Plow;02;2005;Blues;236;5.47 MB;1/27/2026 6:16:09 PM;C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata;1.Johnny Shines - Too Wet To Plow - Traveling Back Home.mp3
Old Dollar Mamie;22;Negro Prison Blues and Songs;08;1994;Work Songs;204;15.32 MB;1/27/2026 7:26:15 PM;C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata;02- Old Dollar Mamie.flac
Lonesome;Memphis Slim;4.00 Blues;11;;Blues;150;11.00 MB;1/27/2026 6:25:36 PM;C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata;03- Memphis Slim - Lonesome.flac
My edited files sit on C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata\Edited . When I open the edited files and apply “Convert/ Text file - Tag” I get in preview as below
"C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata\Edited\01 - Sylvester Weaver - Guitar Rag.flac" ->
"C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata\Edited\1.Johnny Shines - Too Wet To Plow - Traveling Back Home.flac" ->
"C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata\Edited\02- Old Dollar Mamie.flac" ->
"C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata\Edited\03- Memphis Slim - Lonesome.flac" ->
Cannot parse line 1.
Cannot parse line 2.
Cannot parse line 3.
Cannot parse line 4.
Thank you for the contents of the text file.
Now you would have to show us the format string that you use for the import
I tried with this one
%artist%, %album% ,%comment%
I can send you the files if you want to try it yourself.
You use the comma as separator between the fields but
Traveling Back Home;Johnny Shines;Too Wet To Plow;02;2005;Blues;236;5.47 MB;1/27/2026 6:16:09 PM;C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata;1.Johnny Shines - Too Wet To Plow - Traveling Back Home.mp3
has the semicolon ; as separator.
Also, you have match the pattern of the text file with the format string. Every space and other character counts.
So, to get
Traveling Back Home;Johnny Shines;Too Wet To Plow
into fields, you could use:
%title%;%artist%;%album%
Using your Format string %title%;%artist%;%album% I get the same on preview
"C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata\Edited\01 - Sylvester Weaver - Guitar Rag.flac" ->
"C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata\Edited\1.Johnny Shines - Too Wet To Plow - Traveling Back Home.flac" ->
"C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata\Edited\02- Old Dollar Mamie.flac" ->
"C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata\Edited\03- Memphis Slim - Lonesome.flac" ->
Cannot parse line 1.
Cannot parse line 2.
Cannot parse line 3.
Cannot parse line 4.
It worked over here:
The text file with which I tested looked like this:
Traveling Back Home;Johnny Shines;Too Wet To Plow;02;2005;Blues;236;5.47 MB;1/27/2026 6:16:09 PM;C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata;1.Johnny Shines - Too Wet To Plow - Traveling Back Home.mp3
Leading to:
Artist: Johnny Shines
Title: Traveling Back Home
Album: Too Wet To Plow;02;2005;Blues;236;5.47 MB;1/27/2026 6:16:09 PM;C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata;1.Johnny Shines - Too Wet To Plow - Traveling Back Home.mp3
The album does not make sense, of course. but I was too lazy to create a full list of fields, so all the data following the second field ends up in the third, which is ALBUM.
I can’t make it work. I exported the original metadata as txt_taglist which gave me
Sylvester Weaver - Rough GuideTo Bottleneck Blues: (Slide Guitar: Original Legends & Modern Masters) - Guitar Rag - 01 - 2005 - Blues - Collection Of LITBe
Johnny Shines - Too Wet To Plow - Traveling Back Home - 02 - 2005 - Blues -
22 - Negro Prison Blues and Songs - Old Dollar Mamie - 08 - 1994 - Work Songs -
Memphis Slim - 4.00 Blues - Lonesome - 11 - - Blues - fre:ac - free audio converter <https://www.freac.org/>
Then I replaced all the text on the exported .txt file with text from an exported csv , which is formated like what is posted in other posts above :
Title;Artist;Album;Track;Year;Length;Size;Last Modified;Path;Filename;
Guitar Rag;Sylvester Weaver;Rough GuideTo Bottleneck Blues: (Slide Guitar: Original Legends & Modern Masters);01;2005;182;10.31 MB;1/27/2026;C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata;01 - Sylvester Weaver - Guitar Rag.flac;
Traveling Back Home;Johnny Shines;Too Wet To Plow;02;2005;237;5.47 MB;1/27/2026;C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata;1.Johnny Shines - Too Wet To Plow - Traveling Back Home.mp3;
Old Dollar Mamie;22;Negro Prison Blues and Songs;08;1994;205;15.32 MB;1/27/2026;C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata;02- Old Dollar Mamie.flac;
Lonesome;Memphis Slim;4.00 Blues;11;;150;11.00 MB;1/27/2026;C:\Users\Pol\Music\Metadata;03- Memphis Slim - Lonesome.flac;
build on 1/27/2026 with Mp3tag v3.33 - the universal Tag editor - Mp3tag - the universal Tag Editor (ID3v2, MP4, OGG, FLAC, ...)
Even with the first line removed Title;Artist;Album;Track;Year;Length;Size;Last Modified;Path;Filename;
But I still get cannot parse error
At this point I wouldn’t waste any more of your time but if you feel like it might help others feel free to reply. At the beginning I even thought of replacing the ,/comma with a ;/semicolonin the command string , but beyond that it would take me some time as a beginner to think something out .
Again: which format string are you using for the import?
%title%;%artist%;%album%
This is how I got the files . Do I need to change them to something relevant ?
MP3tag needs files that have valid data and need no guessing.
The pattern in the data has to match the format string.
That is the case if position, number of the fields and the separators are the same in the text file and the format string.
Ok . Thank you very much!
It would also be interesting to know which function you are missing in MP3tag that is worth the effort to export data from tags and attempt to import the modified data.
