Tag window cannot be filled in

After many happy years of using Mp3tag, today I came an unheard problem. I have opened a folder with about 50 songs, all mp3. 45 show the tag fields and I can enter values, but for 5 songs I cannot enter values for Length and Bitrate. I opened "extended Tags", added the field and its value, but it does not show in the large window. Any suggestions?
Wolfe

The length and bitrate of an MP3 file are not user-editable fields. Rather, they are calculated by Mp3Tag or taken from the file header. These fields are information fields in Mp3Tag. The fields in Mp3Tag are _LENGTH and _BITRATE and are not offered in the extended editing dialog.
So if you use the editable field LENGTH (without underscore) it is not the normally used information field _LENGTH.
If you look at the field with the heading Length in the configuration of the column view, you will notice that the field _LENGTH is behind it.

There is also the possibility in Mp3Tag to create an editable field LENGTH. However, this is not equivalent to the _LENGTH field used in the column view and is not displayed there either.

However, your problem with individual files indicates that the corresponding files are corrupt or not real MP3 files. So you should check them with the usual test programs.

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Thank you so much for your answer and support. I installed mp3diags. I tested a folder with about 40 songs and all had something wrong, some of which I didn't understand. I could not follow the instructions and didn't achieve anything.

is there a simpler method to fix the extension?

thanks, Wolfe

Please show us a screenshot from the result of the used tools.
Maybe we can help you to solve the errors within these tools if we can see the occurred errors for your mp3 files.

The only I could think of: Get the files again in a proper state.
And checking the files with those programs only tells you what is wrong and sometimes it can be fixed. But that is not guaranteed. It could very well be that the files are damaged beyond repair.


I hope that helps

The sound files work well. It's only the music length and the bitrate which do not permit to be filled in. I have been told that MP3Tag would do this automatically, but if the tag section is damaged, it can't do that. Nothing earth-shattering, but for consistency sake, it would be nice to have it done.
Wolfe

That it can be still be played makes one optimistic that it still can be played.
But you still have to repair the files.
Unfortunately, your screendump does not show the interesting bottom bit where MP3diags shows all that what is wrong with the file. But still, the fair number of dots you get on the right indicates for me that you get far more errors than just "low quality" and "normalization info is missing" which are no real errors.

As @poster already wrote, you can not enter or change this two fields:

If the information fields _LENGTH and _BITRATE are not filled correctly for your files, the only way is to fix the files first.
Which 5 songs doesn't show the correct values? Maybe #23 - #26 in your screenshot?

Please show us the entire lower part from Mp3diags for a song where these two information fields are displayed wrong.

Some informations about the use of Mp3diags:
If you hover over a dot in the upper right part of Mp3diags, you see what it means
If you hover over a column header, you get more information as well.
If you right click on a dot (like the one in column "ea") you get a list of possible fixes. If you don't get a list, there is nothing you can fix.
If you left click on a dot, you see all the informations for this specific song in the lower part of Mp3diags.

May I add: I noticed when I click on a blue dot that rows in the notes section and below are highlighted. I have no idea what that all means or what to do with that information. Is it time to give up? The music plays, having all the data in the tag section is probably not important for dancers?

This is completely up to you. If your originally reported problem no longer bothers you, you can leave the tracks as they are.

The 5 notes for your example song are saying:
ea You don't have a cover picture embedded -> no error, no problem, just a note

ab The "low quality" indicator depends on your settings in the 6th tab "Quality tresholds" in Mp3diags settings, by default the treshold is 192kbps for a stereo CBR, your song has "only" 160kps -> no error, no problem, just a note

an Your song has no "normalization info", was not processed by Mp3gain or similar software to adjust the loudness level of your song or album -> no error, no problem, just a note

an There is a invalid MPEG stream in your song with fewer then 10 frames -> this is a problem and maybe the source of your originally reported problem, you should fix it

jb There is a broken stream in your song -> this is a problem and maybe the source of your originally reported problem. You should remove this broken stream.


The 5 stream details for your example song are saying:
#1 You have ID3v2.3.0 tags in your songs, containing ALBUM, ARTIST, COMMENT and some more tags. With the exception of PRIV frames, you can see the content in ALT + T extended Tags in Mp3tag.

#2 shows some technical information about your song, these values can't be changed, like the audio duration, the encoder MPEG-1 Layer III (=mp3)

#3 Truncated MPEG: There seems to be a truncated second audio stream in your song, this could be related to your originally reported problem

#4 In addition to your ID3v2.3 tags you also have APE tags in your song. In most cases they are not really necessary

#5 In addition to your ID3v2.3 tags you also have ID3v1 tags in your song. They contain a small subset of the data from ID3v2.3. ID3v1 tags are only necessary for very old devices which can only read this predecessor version of ID3

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In general, I believe that it is useful and important to understand how a program works and exactly what problems the program is tackling.

However, if you have the feeling of being totally overwhelmed, you can still approach the problem in a pragmatic way.

First make a backup of all the files to be treated to limit any damage caused by incorrect handling and still be able to fall back on an unchanged original stock.
Then first install the program MP3Val, which is also referred to in my posting. This is considerably easier to use, simply for the reason that it has just the options

  1. Analyze
  2. Repair

Also, it can do much fewer tasks than MP3Diags.

After repairing, you check whether your problems have been resolved and do a listening test to see whether the files are still playable. However, in all the years I've used the program, I've never encountered a subsequent problem with the application.
A minus point: Mp3Val unfortunately tends to stop at cryptic characters in the file name.

If Mp3Val's repair function didn't solve your problem, use Mp3Diags.
Mark the files to be repaired and select the hammer 1 for repair in the menu. Then check again whether the problem has been eliminated and whether everything is still working. If not, continue with the other hammers.

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Thanks so much for trying to help... it is not my lucky day. I installed MP3val but after opening a mp3 file it didn't show in the window... nothing happened.

I guess, sometimes things just cannot be perfect, and I need to be philosophical about it.
Thanks again Wolfe

I can't really imagine what the problem would be then.
You can also open folders or drag&drop files or folders to the list.

I think right now everthing has been done that can be done from the distance.
The problem has been detected (broken streams), the functions to attempt to repair have been named: either with MP3diags or a fresh copy from the original - so now it is down to the OP to do something.
All this, BTW, has nothing to do with MP3tag - MP3tag is the messenger.

tried that... nope :smiley: :heartbeat:

that can be done from a distance...<
Why don't you pop in. Amongst my friends, I am known to brew an excellent kofi.

The OP? Is that me? :cowboy_hat_face:

OP stands for original poster, the person who started the thread that users comment on. OP is used to refer back to that person as the responses grow.

So yes, you are the OP in this thread :wink:

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Just to add more insight: here is an external discussion:

op 1. (OP) In online forums, short for original poster (who started a thread) or original post (the message that started it).

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That was easy :cowboy_hat_face: now I have to say a bit more so that the post makes up 20 letters
Oioioi

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