# Splitting Album Title From Year In Filename

**URL:** <https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-album-title-from-year-in-filename/14975>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [August 17, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-album-title-from-year-in-filename/14975 "2013-08-17T20:34:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![prsimps](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/838e76/32.png) [@prsimps](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/prsimps)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-album-title-from-year-in-filename/14975/1 "2013-08-17T20:34:27Z")

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Hi Guys

I'm new to MP3Tag and have looked through the posts trying to find a simple response to what feels like a straightforward query. I have multiple files with the following file name format:

Track Artist - Title - Album Year

I want to create the following fields:

Track - Artist - Title - Album - Year

Using MP3Tag's file name to tag converter I can't seem to separate the album title from the year - is there an action I can create that will place a 'dash' between the 'Album' and 'Year' fields in the file name that will then allow me to convert to tag this way?

Like most things in life I'm sure the answers are there but when you're unsure what you're looking for it's not always a help.

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

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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:** [August 18, 2013, 7:21am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-album-title-from-year-in-filename/14975/2 "2013-08-18T07:21:03Z")

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> [@prsimps](#):
>
> ...is there an action I can create that will place a 'dash' between the 'Album' and 'Year' fields in the file name that will then allow me to convert to tag this way?  
> ...

There is no ready-made action - but with little adaption, you should get it:  
Create an action of the type "Replace with regular expression" for \_FILENAME  
Use this as search string:  
(.\*) (\d\d\d\d)$  
Use the following replace string:  
$1 - $2  
if you then create new filenames I would suggest that you do not use the hyphen as field separator but a character that is seldomly used in ordinary phrases. I prefer the underscore \_.  
This yould then make it much easier to regain the information from the filenames, even if the title or album already have hyphens as part of the data.

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**Author:** ![prsimps](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/838e76/32.png) [@prsimps](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/prsimps)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-album-title-from-year-in-filename/14975/3 "2013-08-19T20:24:15Z")

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> [@ohrenkino](#):
>
> There is no ready-made action - but with little adaption, you should get it:  
> Create an action of the type "Replace with regular expression" for \_FILENAME  
> Use this as search string:  
> (.\*) (\d\d\d\d)$  
> Use the following replace string:  
> $1 - $2  
> if you then create new filenames I would suggest that you do not use the hyphen as field separator but a character that is seldomly used in ordinary phrases. I prefer the underscore \_.  
> This yould then make it much easier to regain the information from the filenames, even if the title or album already have hyphens as part of the data.

Thanks for your reply ohrenkino. I've tried the search and replace strings kindly suggested and played around quite a bit too but nothing so far has actually changed the file name itself?

An oversight on my part may be the file name as it appears in MP3tag - namely:

Track Artist - Title - Album Year.mp3

instead of:

Track Artist - Title - Album Year

as stated in my original post. If this is a factor then I apologise wholeheartedly. Searching for clues online has given me a helpful 'beginners guide to regex' but I still feel out of my depth!

Thanks again in advance for any input.

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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:** [August 20, 2013, 3:36am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-album-title-from-year-in-filename/14975/4 "2013-08-20T03:36:52Z")

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Please try  
(._) (\d\d\d\d)  
instead of  
(._) (\d\d\d\d)$

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**Author:** ![prsimps](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/838e76/32.png) [@prsimps](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/prsimps)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 6:56am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-album-title-from-year-in-filename/14975/5 "2013-08-20T06:56:46Z")

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Great ohrenkino - that works perfectly! Thanks again for your time and patience. I intend to spend some time getting more familiar with creating strings but your initial help has saved me a great deal of time and frustration.

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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/splitting-album-title-from-year-in-filename/14975/6 "2026-02-09T12:24:37Z")

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