# Why doesn't this remove leading spaces?

**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-doesnt-this-remove-leading-spaces/1756
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 6, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-doesnt-this-remove-leading-spaces/1756 "2005-03-06T20:43:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![jaxtom](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@jaxtom](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/jaxtom)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-doesnt-this-remove-leading-spaces/1756/1 "2005-03-06T20:43:30Z")

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I have tried this

Field: \_ALL  
Original: "\s\*"  
Replace With:

Checkboxes left unchecked

And it is not removing leading spaces. What did I miss?

Thanks

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### Author: ![Sebastian\_Mares](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/sebastian_mares/32/9285_2.png) [@Sebastian\_Mares](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Sebastian_Mares)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2005, 9:09pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-doesnt-this-remove-leading-spaces/1756/2 "2005-03-06T21:09:28Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> I have tried this
> 
> Field: \_ALL  
> Original: "\s\*"  
> Replace With:
> 
> Checkboxes left unchecked
> 
> And it is not removing leading spaces. What did I miss?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> \<{POST\_SNAPBACK}\>

Sorry if this sounds stupid, but are you using RegEx replace or normal text replace? The above setting works here (although it replaces ALL spaces). If you want to remove leading spaces only, you would have to use "^\s\*".

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### Author: ![dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/dano/32/6_2.png) [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2005, 9:10pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-doesnt-this-remove-leading-spaces/1756/3 "2005-03-06T21:10:10Z")

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1. You chose the wrong action type. You need "Replace with reg. expression" and not only "Replace"
2. \s\* would kill all spaces, I'm sure you don't want that.  
Look [here](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/521/2)

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### Author: ![jaxtom](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@jaxtom](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/jaxtom)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2005, 9:31pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-doesnt-this-remove-leading-spaces/1756/4 "2005-03-06T21:31:53Z")

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Okay it was switching to "Regular Expression" that did the trick. Sorry. First timer. Thanks for help

Tom

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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, 12:19pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-doesnt-this-remove-leading-spaces/1756/5 "2026-02-09T12:19:20Z")

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