# tag %year% (First and Last album)

**URL:** <https://community.mp3tag.de/t/tag-year-first-and-last-album/16500>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [January 11, 2015, 2:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/tag-year-first-and-last-album/16500 "2015-01-11T14:21:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tolyak26](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Tolyak26](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Tolyak26)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 2:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/tag-year-first-and-last-album/16500/1 "2015-01-11T14:21:14Z")

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Hello!

I'm having problems with the tag %year%.

By default the tag %year% shows year of the last album in folder. I need to show the date in this format:

%year\_of\_the\_first\_album% - %year\_of\_the\_last\_album%

Example:  
2011.08.09 - 2013.11.24

Can you help me please?

Sorry for my bad english ☹

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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:** [January 11, 2015, 3:10pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/tag-year-first-and-last-album/16500/2 "2015-01-11T15:10:29Z")

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> [@Tolyak26](#):
>
> Hello!
> 
> I'm having problems with the tag %year%.
> 
> By default the tag %year% shows year of the last album in folder.

I doubt that. The field YEAR shows the number for the current file. If you select more than one file and the data in the field YEAR is different for at least two files then MP3tag shows in the input box for YEAR in the tag panel.

So: where do you see this default?

> [@](#):
>
> I need to show the date in this format:
> 
> %year\_of\_the\_first\_album% - %year\_of\_the\_last\_album%
> 
> Example:  
> 2011.08.09 - 2013.11.24
> 
> Can you help me please?
> 
> Sorry for my bad english ☹

Mp3tag does not know anything about albums.  
The field YEAR is a 4-digit-number according to the standard and usually does not allow hyphens or dots.  
So it is advisable to store that special data of a time period in a user-defined field.

I still do not know any faster way than to look at the files and enter the data manually. Any effort to get the data exported to a text file and then imported back in looks to me much more cumbersome than just the manual approach.

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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, 12:25pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/tag-year-first-and-last-album/16500/3 "2026-02-09T12:25:28Z")

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Closed on February 9, 2026, 12:25pm UTC