Changing ID3 tags in iTunes with Automator

I have a huge load of music, which are all named "Artist - Track".
I want to edit out the Artist from the track name, and fill it in in the Artist tag with an Automator script. I have a program that does this in Finder, but can't find anything to do the same thing in iTunes.
Is there already such a script available? Can you give a description on how to build the script?

Yup, found one on the page you posted. Thanks a lot!
EDIT: after browsing around on the site, I found quite a few more handy scripts. Definitely worth a look!

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Change Id3 Tags in itunes match

How can I change ID3 Tags on my songs in the cloud?
I changed them on my ITunes (Windows) but they are not synced in the Cloud.

I just did some tests on my setup: iPhone/iMac (Master iTunes library)/MacBook
the tags will only sync well from MacBook to iMac!
if I change a tag on the iMac (which I did change before on my MacBook) then the change goes back to the MacBook, but not if it's a first time edit!
That process usually takes between 5 and 30 seconds.
on the iPhone I can't really change much (besides the rating) which seems to get synced properly in both ways...
Lyrics I couldn't yet get to work to be synced...
I do have Lyrics on my MacBook (so they seem to be in the cloud) but I cannot get them to be updated/changed on the other device (the other Mac). on my iPhone I don't have lyrics at all

Changing id3 tags from iTunes to original file

Hi! I have been changing a lot of id3 tags to the files through iTunes but it doesn't change it for the original file. Is there anyway to make that work? Thanks!

If by original you mean another copy of the file left outside the iTunes media folder while iTunes is working with a copy made during import then iTunes has no further interest in the originals.
If you mean that changes made to metadata in iTunes don't appear to be reflected when the same file is viewed in Windows Explorer or if the file is imported into a new library then the most likely cause of this is multiple embedded tags. iTunes works best when there is a single id3v2.3 tag. Select a couple of test files, right-click and use Convert ID3 Tags > None, repeat two or three times, then Convert ID3 Tags > ID3v2.3. Now see if updates are properly carried through. You'll have to reapply any embedded artwork. If it works repeat with other problem files.
For the future backup your library regularly with this User Tip.
tt2

Can't change ID3 tags in iTunes 10?

Ever since the update to 9.2, iTunes seems to have lost the ability to convert ID3 tags.
Prior to 9.2 (and obviously, 10.x) I would be able to add mp3s to my library, select all of the newly added tracks, then Control click and change all of my ID3 tags to NONE to strip it of any extraneous info, wait for iTunes to rescan everything, and then I'd re-convert my ID3 tags to 2.3.
Since the update(s), it'll allow you to go through the motions, but the tracks don't actually rescan. I'll try to convert to NONE and nothing happens.
This is an important function for me because I use iTunes in conjunction with Serato for DJing and sometimes Serato has trouble reading a track if the ID3 tag is an older version.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this merely an oversight by Apple's iTunes team or is there a known reason why this function was removed?
p.s. -- I have always been under the impression that you cannot change an ID3 tag from say, 2.1 to 2.3, without first converting the ID3 tag to NONE first. If this is no longer the case, can someone please enlighten me?

A rare but maddening problem, probably limited to older MP3 files,
Mac/Windows MP3 files that do not play in iTunes but play in QuickTime
There is a problem with some mp3 files not playing in iTunes
because of the ID3 tag headers in the files. For Mac OS you
can fix these files by processing them with XLD (X Lossless Decoder),
a free download.
1. Select the Input MP3 files
2. Set the output format to MP3 Lame in the XLD preferences.
3. Unless you select a directory for output different from input,
the output file names will have a number added to the name.
The selected files are processed on my machine at about 30x or
about 2 minutes per hour of play time. I was unable to fix these
files using right click->Get Info in iTunes.
On my MacBook Pro , trying to run on of these problem MP3
files, locked up iTunes. Force Quit on iTunes was not enough
to get iTunes 10.1 to run again. I had to restart the machine.
I think this is the first time I have ever had to restart my
machine for a problem with an App. From my reading on the web,
I can see this problem has existed at least since iTunes 7.x
On Windows, you may be able to fix this problem using
MP3TagValidator.
No need to throw away those bad MP3 files!

How To Permanently Change ID3 Tags With iTunes

Okay, so here's the deal. I've seen this question in several places, but I can't find a working answer, so I decided to give it a shot.
My goal: change ID3 tag info with my song collection in iTunes so that my changes stick permanently.
Now let me explain. I am picky about what info I want for a song. Anytime I add a song to my collection, I am specific about what info I want to keep and what I want to get rid of. What I keep: Song title, Artist info, album info and genre. I get rid of everything else, like track/disc number, year, comments, and etc.
To further my point, I'll explain how I go about what brings me to the problem. After I have an album with all songs I want from it, I add the folder to the iTunes library but I don't make any changes yet (I don't have the option checked for iTunes to add copies of the songs to the iTunes folder). Then I select all songs and convert them to 128kbs mp3s with v2.3 ID3 tags. Then I edit all the song info to what I mentioned before in the Get Info box. After a few plays, the track/disc numbers, years, and comments come back, but song title/artist info/album info don't change and the album artwork I added remains. I tried the opposite, editing all the info after adding the songs to the library THEN converting...same problem. I tried a third-party program, MP3tag, before and after converting, both with the same result. I even tried adding something to all comment boxes in iTunes to sync the libraries...that didn't work either. I also tried with that option of adding copies to the library checked and it still didn't work.
I want a solution to where my changes in iTunes of removing the track/disc numbers, years, and comments from songs will be permanent and not come back.
Also, this problem has remained through every new version of iTunes released up to the current version as of the time I am typing this.

There may be a number of things going on. iTunes has a problem updating files with multiple tags, e.g. both id3v1 and id3v2.x. Sometimes it seems it can update one copy of the tag, but then read back data from the other. It may also have problems if file security settings are incorrect, in which case it will appear to make a change, but then reveal the original data next time it accesses the track in some way. WMP may also be involved in magially restoring data that you've deleted. Getting iTunes & Windows Media Player to play nicely.
As to the issue with comments, are these general things or strings of digits like this? 00000000 00000210 00000770 0000000000103000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000. I've a feeling that patterns of digits such as these are in some way connected to gapless playback and are supposed to be hidden from view, but that may be wild speculation. Again it is even possible that WMP rather than iTunes creates them.
One way that might work is, having edited tracks to the values you want, use the option Convert id3 tags > None a few times, then Convert id3 tags > v2.3.
While I'm all for people having things the way they want them I really can't see how your library could be improved by not having track, disc, or year values. Without disc and track numbers albums will play out of sequence. Why not just turn off the columns that hold no interest for you?
tt2

Problem with ID3 tags in iTunes

I was hoping that I could get some clarification on how iTunes uses ID3 tags with mp3s. The problem I am having is that I have fixed all the ID3 tags on my mp3s using another program (Tag & Rename is the name of the program, it does both v1 and v2 ID3 tags) but iTunes still doesn't recognize the changes I have made. I have tried deleting my entire library, and readding all the songs, but for some reason it still has the wrong information. I tried opening the files with other music players, and they read the ID3 tags fine.
Thanks in advance!
I don't know if this helps, but the most noticable program is with my compilations. I changed all the artists to the actual artist name instead of "Various" that it used to say, but iTunes still reports the artist as "Various".

I routinely change file names, change ID3 tags, and edit existing tracks using external programs. Once done, all I do is to double click the track in iTunes to ensure it reads updated ID3 tag info correctly from the track.
1. iTunes reads track info from the file everytime you play a track and saves any changes that you have made through external software to its internal database at "C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl" and "iTunes Music Library.xml". As an alternative to playing, you could also press Ctrl-I to display track info, at which time it reads updated info from the track and displays it.
2. If the filename has been changed for a track, iTunes prompts you to point to the right filename. When done, it populates ID3 tag info, while retaining the playcount and rating.
Hope this helps.

Which version of ID3 tags does iTunes 9 use?

Hi, which version of ID3 tags does iTunes 9 use?

I'm with you on the multiple tags issue. I'd just assumed if iTunes rips with v2.2 and then you get it to convert to v2.3 the file would have just the one tag. Otherwise why not call the feature *Add v2.3 tag?* Anyway there I go again expecting logic when I should know better.
tt2

ID3 Tags in iTunes 8

The ability to change ID3 tags seems to have disappeared from the Advanced menu. Anyone know where it has gone?
Nathanael

Hi there. I right clicked on tracks and couldn't find the Convert Tags option in the dropdown. It's not in the advanced menu either.Anyone know where it went now?
Really appreciate some help as the tag issue is causing a headache!

ITunes 11 Changing ID3 Tags

Ok, I've been using iTunes for years and like many I've found the new version, 11, to be frustrating.
The main thing is ID3 Tags.
These have always been customiseable. For someone OCD like me, being able to edit and customise ID3 tags is very important in keeping my iTunes "tidy". I don't want one album saying "Florence + The Machine" and another saying "Florence & The Machine". I want them both the same.
But what I really want, more than anything else, is 100% control over what the ID3 tags say. On all the old versions of iTunes, I had this. Now, I don't.
I've just listened to two albums by Dead Prez. They're stylised thus: 'dead prez'. So, it is that version which I've always had on my iTunes. However, after listening to one of the albums, iTunes decided to change the name back to 'Dead Prez'. This was nothing to do with me. Why has it changed?
Worse, I've just listened to a song by David Gray, and I've now found it stored under U - for Unknown. It's not 'Unknown', because I've known for all the years that I've owned that file that the song was by David Gray. I haven't had to edit the information for years.
Is this a bug?
Is this a new feature of iTunes? Can I turn it off? If not, can Apple/ someone provide me with an explanation as to WHY this has changed?
Cheers,
Guy

In iTunes go to Edit > Preferences > Store and turn off
Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases
Share details about your library with Apple
On any iOS device go to Settings > Music and turn off
Show All Music
Close and reopen iTunes and/or reset the device and you should see your version of the metadata for each track rather than the original store data.
tt2

Problems with ID3 Tags in iTunes - Desperate need of assistance!

Hello all...
Desperately need some help. I just spent a very (very) long time going through my entire music collection making sure all album art is present and all tags are corrected to my preferences. Now I want to back up the entire drive (F: drive, I keep my music on a separate drive) to a new hard drive (H: drive). However, in the process I've noticed that not all the changes that I made to the tags have actually saved to the tags themselves, even though they continue to display correctly in iTunes. If I load them into another application or reload them into iTunes from the new drive, not all the tag changes I made in iTunes are showing up. It seems iTunes is perhaps storing this tag info in some kind of internal database? To be specific I am not talking about meta-data like ratings and number of times played. I'm talking about artist, genre, etc.
So my question is this: is there some way to force iTunes to save the data that is currently displayed in iTunes to the ID3 tags?
I've also been disappointed to find out that when adding album artwork, iTunes does not actually save the artwork to the ID3 tags as I assumed. Any way I can force iTunes to do that?
Lastly, if neither of the above are possible, is there an easy way to backup the iTunes database so that all my tags and artwork are present once I remove the current drive and re-load my collection into iTunes from the new drive? Will the change of path prevent me from being able to backup the database?

Hi Ed, thanks for responding so quickly. Yes, they are mp3 files, and yes, I had assumed what you told me, that changes made in iTunes would be made to the mp3 files. I also thought it could have something to do with read only, so I made sure that the files were not read only. But yes, strangely enough, even though the tags show up properly in iTunes, they do not show up properly in other players, and don't show up properly in iTunes if I remove the album, copy the album to the second drive, and load it back into iTunes (only for a portion of the files, but with the size of my collection this would still be time consuming to fix). I don't understand it either, but from research I have done online, it may have something to do with an iTunes glitch relating to the ID3 tag version.
Regardless of how it is supposed to work or what the explanation is, the situation now stands that my tags display perfectly in iTunes but are not all saved to the files perfectly. So I am hoping there is some way I can force iTunes to save the current state of tag info to the files!
About the 2 drives, it's simple. Right now my collection is on F:, and loaded into iTunes, but I want to get rid of that drive as it is IDE and too small, and store my collection on H: instead. I'm just really worried that after moving my collection and reloading into iTunes I will need to re-tag and re-load album artwork all over again. Any tips?

ITunes sometimes changes ID3 Tags/Deletes Art

Hi
I currently keep all my MP3's ID3 tags as 2.2, as that version is what seems to allow the artist/album information to show up in the actual file info in my My Music folder.
Sometimes, when scrolling through on iTunes, an album's art will suddenly turn blank, and all of the songs in that album have turned to 2.3, and occasionally added things like composer and album artist, which I prefer to keep blank. I have to then select them all, change the ID3 tags back to 2.2, then paste the album back.
Why is iTunes doing this? Is 2.2 not the ideal ID3 tag for files?
Oh, and extra details if it helps. I'm running the most current version of iTunes, and all of my music is from CD's (so nothing from the iTunes store)
Message was edited by: Book1245

I agree with polydorus. It's WMP making hte changes. Esp since itunes by default uses ID3 v2.2, not v2.3 tags.
Also, it doesn't matter if you never use WMP - its default settings allow webpages to open WMP in the background without you even knowing.
You need to turn this auto-update "feature" off in WMP in 4 places.
Player tab: everything unchecked so WMP won't touch your files
Library tab: everything unchecked, esp the box to retrieve info from the internet
Privacy tab: everything unchecked, esp the box to update files
Security tab: everything unchecked so web pages can't launch WMP in the background
You also need to check these 4 settings after every windows update that includes a WMP update, because it has reset them back to some of the defaults, I have noticed.

Preventing iTunes from changing ID3 tags

When you highlight a song's name in iTunes and then click it again you can rename it. That's something that bothers me because I often misclick and accidentally rename songs I don't want to from the first place – I suppose I'm kind of careless – and I'm looking for a way to prevent me from further editing a song's ID3 tag even when click again its tag. Now I guess, what could help me is pretty much something like the lock that you can find on System Preferences so I can lock the iTunes interface and then unlock it when I actually want to rename a song's ID3 tag – something generally preventing changes also works with me as long as I can still use "Get Info" (cmd-I).
I don't know if there's a simple setting which gets toggled on and off that simply, but if there isn't I guess someone could recommend a reliable plug-in which can help me in what I'm looking for. I googled it but couldn't find anything related to this subject.
I'm using 10.5.8 and 10.7 iTunes.
Thank you.

I know it's not there in my older iTunes version and I've not heard mention of it in any other version.
If you find you have accidentally edited a field and you haven't left it yet, press the escape key to undo it.
Make sure your file names contain the basics. I format mine to: Artist - Album - TrackNumber TrackName.[extension] If I lose a tag I can at least get the basic information from the file name and the rest off a web site (and some tags cannot be so easily edited).
It sounds like a lot of trouble but I imagine if you did as you mention and actually lock the file in Finder that would stop it from being edited.

Upgraded to iTunes 10 and recently changed ID3 Tags reverted...

Last week I began a process to completely organize my iTunes collection. I was fixing genres, correcting capitalization on song/artist/album titles and deleting unwanted songs and completely wiping them from my hard drive. I had been working on it 3-4 hours a day for at least 6 days. When I did the update, I just now noticed that all that hard work has now just reverted back to the older ID3 tags. Also some of the songs that I know for a fact were completely removed from my iTunes library and hard drive somehow found their way back onto my Mac and into my iTunes library. I'm having to start the process all over again and am extremely annoyed by this. Am I the only one who has experienced this?
*Note: I know the difference between "Keep File" and "Move to Trash" when removing a song from my library.

It looks like iTunes 10 has lost the ability to manage/convert ID3 tags. It's no longer on the Advanced menu, despite what the Help menu suggests.
Message was edited by: pdb206

ID3 tags and itunes refusing to add music to library

As my music collection is growing, I decided to organize it a bit more and fill in the different ID3 tags in windows.
I have emptied my itunes library before I did all this, and after changing the ID3 tags I added the different albums back to itunes.
However, for some reason itunes does not want to import several albums anymore, while they do play in windows media player. Furthermore, itunes refuses in many cases to make use of the new ID3 tags I made. Even after uninstalling and reinstalling itunes, itunes seems to remember my settings and the ID3 tags the different MP3s had before.
Anyone a clue what is happening here? Has it someting to do with the new version of itunes, or is it something else?
ciao, Gregorius

Hey, first of all, thanks for your help, but I'm still in problems.
I have noticed that itunes imports the music files before I alter the ID3 tags (from backup files). However, as soon as I try to add the same file to my itunes library after I have edited the ID3 file (via windows itself), itunes does not add the file to its library anymore. This is happening to a considerable amount of my music. When I try to play the same files in windows mediaplayer, they play without a problem, so I guess the problem is with itunes.
Somebody can please help me out, because I like to be in control of my music, and not itunes,
adios Gregorius

AppleScript for changing ID3 tags

I have around 200 songs in my iTunes library that are marked as Podcasts that I've been trying to get to show up in the Music section with my other songs. From what I've heard, Podcasts are marked with a special extended ID3 tag that can't be easily removed, and the only way to get rid of it is to just strip all of the ID3 tags from the song completely. The thing is, I don't want to write down the song title, artist, and album name of all 200-something songs and then enter them in again manually. Is there a way I can write an AppleScript that will keep the ID3 tags of a song in memory or save them to a text file, strip them from the song, then re-enter just the Title, Artist and Album tags (preferably one that will do that for every song in a specific folder)?

I looked at the apple script dictionary and there is no ID3 tag listed for itunes tracks. There is a podcast property of tracks which is "true" for podcasts and "false" for everything else. However, this property is read only and thus can not be changed by an apple script.

Changing ID3 tags in iTunes with Automator

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