I have a very large collection of MP3's in artist and album folders. Some albums are complete while others are not. I also have "empty" album folders.
I recently used the program to delete tags (as some were incorrect), hoping to start afresh, but I'm not sure how to go about writing a format string(?) to:
Delete all existing artist/album folders (just leave a collection of MP3's)
Sort/tag MP3's correctly into artist-album-year-track title-track number (I have a basic
idea of what to do here... %artist% -%album% etc.?)
Add album covers
I would be very grateful if someone could help please to achieve the above.
MP3tag has no function to detect or delete empty folders.
You can rename all folders in which MP3tag finds files to have the same name.
This would in fact "delete" the current folder and move its contents to the destination folder. If you set the name of the destination folder to be the same for all files, then you have all files in the same folder.
If you have deleted tag data, then it will become tricky to find out what the file actually contains. MP3tag has no function to guess what a file represents and therefore cannot add the correct(ed) tag data.
To get more assistance: which tag fields have you filled?
Can further data be found in the path somewhere?
Do you have already pictures somewhere and how could they be assigned to a file?
This is a job for a commercial file manager (directory opus). You will get a 60 day trial, and I trust, the job will not take that long If you need to help, you just have to ask ...
Thanks both for your help. Appreciate it. I do have a commercial program to tag MP3’s but it can only cope with small batches (3000 files). I was hoping mp3tag could do it in one “hit” as I have about 700GB of music.
Moving the files to new destinations is one of the last steps.
I also do not think that the decisive difference between a solution or not is the commerciality.
I will get back to you later regarding your questions if that’s ok please as I don’t have access to the files at the moment. Thank you for your help and I will give you a more detailed response.
Well, I organized 1.5 TB, around 200.000 files(?) - worked out fine
@ohrenkino: I didn't mean to say you need a commercial tool to solve that problem. but "Direcory Opus" is a commercial tool capable of doing this. I believe in using the best tool for every step in the "workflow"
EAC: gets me the audio files on disk
Mp3tag: I do not know any better tool for tagging audio files or for that matter, any tool that could keep up.
foobar2000: to listen at home
Directory Opus: providing the infra structure and an unmatched renaming capability
and of course, a code editor (also freeware) for the heavy lifting
In that combo only Directory Opus is commercial, but once you've bought it it is something like €20,- per year now and it's worth every penny!
Mp3tag is the shining proof that you do not need a commercial product.
And there are others
ok - as this is the MP3tag forum I think we should focus on the questions tha are related to tagging and the MP3tag functions.
As by now I have not really seen the concrete use cases that appear to be difficult, it is hard to say if the can be handled with MP3tag functions or further programs have to be used. So let us wait until the OP describes with more details what has to be solved.
Ah, I don't say, Mp3tag can't handle it, I say it is in certain cases much easier to use a combination of a code editor, DOpus and Mp3tag. Only think of that one single line where you input your expression ...
But I agree, this is Mp3tag and anyone who is interested in that file manager can find enough info elsewhere ...
A quick search with "what is an OP?" gets this result:
It refers to the initial person who made a post or started a thread, such as on Reddit. Now, "OP" is broadly used to identify whoever made the original post that someone replying to, such as on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter or any other social media platform. "OP" can also be short for "original post."
I'm not trying to be rude but your comments look like you're mainly interested in advertising Directory Opus.
I've organized over 4x that amount of music files and personally never saw the need for anything like Directory Opus. Could you enlighten me what it specifically does that free software like mp3tag, advanced renamer or even a simple batch or python script cannot accomplish?
Agreed. Doing that can create all manners of headaches (files with identical names overwriting each other just to name one example). Deleting the tags is also unwise in my opinion as it can needlessly make it harder to identify what the files are supposed to be.
If you want to do it right, go through the files directory by directory and try to get the tags straight. Once you have accomplished that you can use mp3tag to create a new directory structure based on these tags. I've found that any "magical" automatic tagging usually leads to more suffering in the long run as automatic detection is pretty much hit and miss.
When dealing with lots of files, the last thing you want to introduce is uncertainty.
This includes a clear view of what your collection includes (Pop albums only? Classical music? Complete albums or just singles from various artists? Mostly compilations? One album per artist, never the same album as LP and CD and Digital Media, Remastered...?) and how these tracks should look at the end in which main music players/devices.
Otherwise there is a high risk to repeat this work again (and again).
Perhaps the solution is simpler than I imagine. Interestingly, even though I stripped tag data using MP3tag, iTunes is still able to grab files from different folders to make up an album.
So, I'd like MP3tag to place all relevant files in the right album folder, with artwork and track number. Sometimes I have this...
They're all from the same album but tracks have been put in 4 folders...
Ah I see, you are an experienced music organizer who will surely solve his problems - should such occur "guided by intelligence and experience" (Rex Stout, Nero Wolfe) Everything else will be answered gladly by Auntie Google
As we use MP3tag - could you show us the extended tags dialogue Alt-T of a single file of these 5 files?
And then a screenshot of the files from the 5 folders loaded into MP3tag in which the column for Album is visible?
If you want to get any further data from other sources like e.g. the internet, it is mandatory to have data in as many tag fields as possible.
This would also mean that if you have really deleted the data from the tags, but some of the information is still available in the filenames or foldernames, it is most advisable to harvest these sources first.
There are functions available in MP3tag to do so:
If you need to help, you just have to ask ...
