# User defined genres lost on upgrade
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/user-defined-genres-lost-on-upgrade/50574
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [October 25, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/user-defined-genres-lost-on-upgrade/50574 "2020-10-25T19:17:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CliveT](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/CliveT)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/user-defined-genres-lost-on-upgrade/50574/1 "2020-10-25T19:17:27Z")
Hi I've just upgraded to v3.03, and my user defined genres have disappeared. Are they gone forever or can I recover them from somewhere? It will be a big pain if I have to retype them all. Is there still no way to import a list? Cheers, Clive
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/user-defined-genres-lost-on-upgrade/50574/2 "2020-10-25T19:20:39Z")
See here to find places where data for MP3tag can be found:
> [@Installation & Backup](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/installation-backup/964/4):
>
> Cannot write configuration file If you're getting the error message Cannot write configuration file when closing Mp3tag, it's most likely a file permissions issue. This can happen if you recently updated your Windows version or moved data from one computer to another. In this case, the file permissions sometimes reference Windows user accounts that do not exist on the updated computer or are not the one which you're currently using. To resolve this, the file permissions need to be adjusted. Ho…
Look for the file genres.ini.
A normal update does not loose the genres. I suspect that you installed MP3tag as portable version in a new folder.
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### Author:  [@CliveT](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/CliveT)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2020, 7:35pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/user-defined-genres-lost-on-upgrade/50574/3 "2020-10-25T19:35:52Z")
Hi thanks for amazingly quick reply. I believe I've installed to exactly the same place (agreed all the default options). The genres.ini file is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Mp3tag\data, and is dated march 2020 so it would seem to be unchanged by the upgrade. However, the genre list is empty when the user defined tickbox is checked. Assume such data is saved automatically on shutdown? I've never manually backed it up. Clive
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2020, 7:40pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/user-defined-genres-lost-on-upgrade/50574/4 "2020-10-25T19:40:39Z")
The file genres.ini is a plain text file. So you can easily check whether it contains the correct data by loading it into a plain text editor.
Save a copy of that file.
Then you may enter a genre in MP3tag and see if that is saved in the checked file. if not, you have to look for the updated version in the file system.
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### Author:  [@CliveT](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/CliveT)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2020, 8:31pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/user-defined-genres-lost-on-upgrade/50574/5 "2020-10-25T20:31:02Z")
OK great thanks, with your help and a bit of detective work, I've realised that for some unknown reason I had installed the program to a different location last time. Your initial diagnosis was correct, but in reverse! Thanks again. Clive
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### Author:  [@poster](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/poster)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2020, 5:57am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/user-defined-genres-lost-on-upgrade/50574/6 "2020-10-26T05:57:34Z")
> [@CliveT](#):
>
> The genres.ini file is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Mp3tag\data
If you have installed in standard way and not portable your "genres.ini" in this folder has no meaning for your installation of MP3Tag.
You have to look for your essential "genres.ini" at the folder
`%appdata%\mp3tag\data%`.