Usage mp3tag with itunes - Windows10 issue

[schorp]

usage mp3tag with itunes - Windows10 issue

Hi there,

I currently have my large, complete physical music collection imported in iTunes in wave format. Within iTunes, on album level (showing albums), all cds are presented the correct way in the correct layout (except for album covers), which is great for having the base collection within iTunes. But on track level I only made rough amendments, knowing that the standard import function of iTunes tracknames etc. are commonly not checked and often incorrect.

As for Rekordbox only the info & tags of the tracks are essential (not the albums), and I am aware that the info within iTunes is not complete/has many failures in writing the titles, artists, etc. Therefore I recently tested the mp3tag program (connecting to discogs) to make amendments within iTunes. As far as I can see, false track info have not been amended within iTunes, although the files themselves have been amended for the filename and all tags as well.

Is it possible to use mp3tag program to amend the metadata within iTunes at all (as this is a very large collection). And if so, how should I do this?

I use the programs stated hereunder:

• iTunes
• mp3tags
• Mixed in key 10
• Rekordox 6

Any advise in this would be very helpful.

Regards,

R

[ohrenkino]

I think it is an iTunes issue, see e.g. here:

Tags not working in iTunes?

Hi. Firstly, apologies as I am a new user and this may be a stupid question. I have used the filename - tag functionality and I can see the properties of my wav files have been updated with the tags. However, when I play the files in iTunes, the tags don't appear to be working. For example, all the artists appear in my library as 'Unknown Artist'. If someone could help that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

[MotleyG]

Regardless of the file format, if you make any changes to the files outside of iTunes, you will need to force it to look for these updates manually. See here for some suggestions.

Force iTunes To Update Track Info After Using MP3TAG

For those with IOS devices or are simply using iTunes as your primary music manager, you will find that mp3tag is far more flexible and powerful than the built-in Get Info editor. However any changes made outside of iTunes will not automatically be reflected into any music files that have already been loaded. There are two ways to get these changes to be reflected into iTunes. Open the Get Info panel for each track. This will force iTunes to grab the latest metadata info and overwrite whatev…

Note that with wav format there is very little common tag support.

[schorp]

Thanks for your reply Motley.

But when I open the info of a track, it does not automatically refresh the artist and title that have been amended by mp3tag.Should I do something else for these wave music files?

[ohrenkino]

@schorp

Should I do something else for these wave music files?

The problem is that iTunes apparently saves any metadata only in its database but does not read any data from the files.
So the only way around it would be to switch to a format that iTunes supports like FLAC.
As I said: it is an iTunes problem that iTunes has to overcome (here: lack of wav support). Tagging usually does not add features to programs.

[schorp]

ok thanx for your reply ohrenkino. Isn't it possible to make changes from mp3tag into its database then (i assume .itl file)?

[ohrenkino]

@schorp

make changes from mp3tag into its database then

MP3tag is, as the name already suggests, a tagging program, no database handler.
No, there is no such function in MP3tag to manipulate ayn third party cache or database.

[MotleyG]

@schorp

ok thanx for your reply ohrenkino. Isn't it possible to make changes from mp3tag into its database then (i assume .itl file)?

There is no way to manual make changes to the iTunes library file externally. Like all things Apple, this is a closed environment.

Honestly there is very little benefit in my opinion staying with wav as a format. Given the list of programs you are using, I would recommend you consider converting to ALAC (Apple lossless) as it may save you some file space, but more importantly has full tag support. As I mentioned previously, there is very little support for the wav format in this regard, especially in iTunes (no FLAC support in iTunes). You may have your reasons, but if you choose to stay with wav you will be limited by what it can do. There are plenty of converters out there, some better than others - be aware of what "free" software my cost you in the end.

Personally I have both iOS and Android portable devices, as well as several AppleTV boxes throughout the house. So I continue to use iTunes on my home server to support these devices. I switched from mp3 to ALAC over 10 years ago and have no issues with compatibility anywhere.

[AreDigg]

I am not sure if this still works, but there are VB scripts that forces re-reads of the metadata from files. Eg http://samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/scripts.asp and look for ‘Update Tag Info’

[ohrenkino]

Don't these scripts assume that iTunes reads the tags?
The problem could be that tags from wav files are never read.

[AreDigg]

Yes, that is the assumption. I just read that he wanted iTunes to read the modified tags. Anyway the best option is as mentioned by other users above, to use ALAC if he wants to have lossless audio and use iTunes.