Imported MP3s: ID3 tag character encoding recognition issues

My ID3 tags are encoded in Windows Code Page 932, but iTunes have misinterpreted them as MacRoman encoded. How can I correct this? Fortunately, I also have the pre-import original files aside from the copies managed by iTunes, but I believe iTunes is already smart by not modifying the binary upon import.

Hopefully, but I'm not too sure. If one launches Notepad.exe in the Japanese edition of Windows 7, then chooses to save new text in "ANSI" encoding, it still saves the text file in Windows Code Page 932 (which is not ANSI per proper definition of ANSI).
These ID3 tags were from MP3s that were sleeping in my external harddrive for years, which I finally decided to import into my local drive, now that I have terabytes of storage.

Similar Messages

MP3 ID3 tags

I'm looking for some free shareware software to do MP3 ID3 tags to use along with itunes. Can anyone suggest a good one to use?
Thanks.

import java.io.*;
public class ReadID3 {
    public static void main(String[] arguments) {
        try {
            File song = new File(arguments[0]);
            FileInputStream file = new FileInputStream(song);
            int size = (int)song.length();
            file.skip(size - 128);
            byte[] last128 = new byte[128];
            file.read(last128);
            String id3 = new String(last128);
            String tag = id3.substring(0, 3);
            if (tag.equals("TAG")) {
                System.out.println("Title: " + id3.substring(3, 32));
                System.out.println("Artist: " + id3.substring(33, 62));
                System.out.println("Album: " + id3.substring(63, 91));
                System.out.println("Year: " + id3.substring(93, 97));
            } else
                System.out.println(arguments[0] + " does not contain"
                     + " ID3 info.");
            file.close();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Error — " + e.toString());
}source : - http://www.informit.com/library/content.asp?b=STY_Java2_24hours&seqNum=218&rl=1

[SOLVED] Unreadable id3 tags, unknown encoding

I have a some Japanese songs whose id3 tags are unreadable in easytag, id3info and mpd. They all say the tags are a bunch of question marks, but English text (including & and such) is displayed.
Of all the apps I found in the repos, mutagen was the most likely candidate to convert it with mid3iconv, with the -p and -d switches so it reports back and doesn't alter it (many apps will happily overwrite wrong data), and the -e switch with various encodings to try it out.
I tried the following, which will show the tags decoded from all the encodings that exist with iconv. It was the most thorough method I could think of.
for ENCODING in $(iconv --list | sed 's/..$//'); do
echo -----
echo $ENCODING
mid3iconv -p -d -e $ENCODING track\ 03.mp3
read
done
1167 times pressing enter later, none were correct!
~95% was question marks.
Sometimes the tags were blank and text that was English became garbled.
With some UTF-16 encodings a bunch of the same (wrong) Kanji appeared in only 1 field.
Does anyone have a good idea what I can try now?
I have uploaded an example file, so you can try out converting it, but I'm not sure if it's allowed to be posted on the forums.
I'll try foobar2000 in wine tomorrow.
Last resort is finding all the album info online and updating all the tags manually (not really looking forward to that though, since it's 900 mp3s).
Last edited by Procyon (2009-02-23 17:31:21)

Exactly the same problem it seems.
I found out that BIG5 has extensions.
HKSCS (Hong Kong Cantonese) is the wrong extension, because 昞 is the wrong character.
What I need is an extension that includes Japanese-only characters (like 様). So the one Firefox uses.
Well, in the mean time I solved the problem by dumping all the id3tags to one text file, using Firefox to convert it, and making one large id3tag script (went pretty fast in vim).
But for the future it would be great to have easytag use more BIG5 extensions.
EDIT:
It seems we did some similar research in the mean time.
The problem I mentioned above was about the iconv illegal character thing.
EDIT:
I am marking the thread as solved. A workaround seems to be the only way. It is impossible to get easytag to work this way. You can't manually add encodings, and glibc-devs seem to see this as very low priority.
Last edited by Procyon (2009-02-23 17:31:10)

MP3 ID3 tags in non standard character set

Hello,
I'm curious as to how I can rip a cd as mp3 and read the tags that have been encoded in a non western or unicode character set. Right now I'm using the LANG environment variable and setting it to the locale that matches the character set, ripping the songs, and then writing the tags using easytag as unicode before resetting the LANG variable. This is fine, but it gets annoying as once I change the language a lot of my programs also start using that language and I would like them to remain english.
Is there a simpler and more straight-forward way of doing this?
--Nan

nan wrote:
Hello,
I'm curious as to how I can rip a cd as mp3 and read the tags that have been encoded in a non western or unicode character set. Right now I'm using the LANG environment variable and setting it to the locale that matches the character set, ripping the songs, and then writing the tags using easytag as unicode before resetting the LANG variable. This is fine, but it gets annoying as once I change the language a lot of my programs also start using that language and I would like them to remain english.
Is there a simpler and more straight-forward way of doing this?
--Nan
Just guessing, but what if you only set LC_CTYPE to whatever language you need?

Setting MP3 ID3 tag renders mp3 file useless

Hi guys,
I'm using the Java MP3 class Library from www.id3.org and am trying to set the artist and title of my mp3s.
If anyone has used this library, do you know how I might set this information?
I've tried using the TagContent object supplied by getArtist() and getTitle(), furthermore I have tried creating a new TagContent and applying the tag to the file, but it just throws exceptions when I next try to read this information from the file.
e.g I have tried this:
MP3File f = new MP3File(new File("D:/"),"1999_Prince.mp3");
TagContent tc = f.getArtist();
tc.setContent("PRINCE");
f.setArtist(tc);
f.update();and also this:
MP3File f = new MP3File(new File("D:/"),"1999_Prince.mp3");
TagContent tc = new TagContent();
tc.setContent("PRINCE");
f.setArtist(tc);
f.update();This example only changes the artist to capital letters (I'm just experimenting with the code), but it means when I come to read the file again, I can't read the artist.
Thanks in advance for any ideas,
Richard

Hi,
I just tried it out too, I was lookin for some java mp3 classes and these look great. I used your code to rename a couple of files as a test and it worked. Onlt difference was I used the single string constructor rather than the (file, String) one. I think that it might be interpreting your D:\ as being the name of the file and it cant find it. I'd try the String,String constructor instead eg ("D:\","file name"). These classes look really interesting. I might create a decent java mp3 editor with um at some stage if I get time!
Kemal Enver
[email protected]

MP3 ID3 Tags + Lyrics

Just wanted to pose this question to people who have experienced first hand or know for sure whether the lyrics you add to an MP3 file in iTunes will stay and embed itself like the album artwork?

V1.x and v2.x
http://id3.org/?action=fullsearch&context=180&value=lyric&titlesearch=Titles

Viewing MP3 id3 tags in the Finder?

Is there any way at all to view the artist and album info as a view column in the Finder like you can in Windows? I tend to acquire large batches of music at a time, and I like to organize them into folders before dumping them onto an external drive and loading them into iTunes. Not being able to sort by artist of album really, really makes this difficult.
Anyone have any insight on this? I hate having to flip over the Windows to do this one task, and right now, that's really the only thing I need Windows for at all. Would love to banish MS once and for all.
Thanks!

you can't do it from finder. you can open it in VLC player and do it from there (press command+i in VLC).

Is it possible to view ".mp3" files in Mavericks "Tags" windows by file name (rather than the info in the "name" field of it's ID3 tag)?

Short version:
When viewing ".mp3" files in a "Tags" window, the information in the "name" column next to the file defaults to the information in the "song" field in the file's ID3 tag.
Is it possible to change have the "name" column display the actual FILE NAME instead?
I did some research and found nothing.
Long version
Let's say I have a ".mp3" file named "Todd Rundgren - Hello It's Me.mp3"
When I open the folder this ".mp3" is in and find the file, the "name" column will read "Todd Rundgren - Hello It's Me.mp3" (of course)
Now, I tag the file "jams"
Now I go to my "jams" tag view everything tagged "jams", the "name" column in that window DOES NOT say
"Todd Rundgren - Hello It's Me.mp3" , but instead just "Hello It's Me"
The finder seems to be pulling this information from the "name" field of the ".mp3" ID3 tag metadata (aka, the information that would be written in the "name" column when viewing the file in iTunes.)
Ok, that's fine Mavericks, but I want to see the ACTUAL FILE NAME of my ".mp3", (which "tags" windows seems to do for most other things [documents, folders])
Q: Is it possible to display the filename of a ".mp3" file when viewing a "tag window?"
Tags are super useful, but this inconsistency makes it inefficient, distracting, and confusing to move freely between the window for a given "tag", and a normal "finder" window.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

You are not alone…
https://discussions.apple.com/message/24065588
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5762545
I think you have to avoid editing inside the tags list with the 'metadata names'. Instead right click an item, select 'Open enclosing folder'.
In 'real folders' you can enable the 'Title' in column via the 'Veiw Menu > show columns', that way you can see the file name & ID3/ EXIF titles.
'Fake folders' (smart searches & the recent tags list) don't feel finished yet IMO.

ID3 Tags and Music Sort

My mp3 ID3 tags are all messed up here and there. As I fix them in MediaSOurce, the "file" stays where it is and cannot be moved to where it belongs (in the appropriate folder). Any idea on how to move files around that are on the player?

Not sure if this is the same thing the OP is talking about, but I have a similar problem with my Zen Xtra. Mediasource doesn't seem to want to let me edit tag info (except track number) for music that's on the player- which gets annoying if I'm trying to correct the genre for something or combine entries for "Smashing Pumpkins" and "The Smashing Pumpkins." The only workaround I've found is to edit the tags for the files on my hard dri've, then re-transfer them to the player, which I'm usually too lazy to do. Is there some more efficient way to do this?

ITunes Rating vs. ID3 Tag

When I rate a track in iTunes, does it write the info to mp3 ID3 tag? I want to make sure the rating info is not lost when I move around the mp3 file from one to another computer.
Dell Inspiron 6000 Laptop Windows XP Pro

When I rate a track in iTunes, does it write the info
to mp3 ID3 tag?
No.
I want to make sure the rating info
is not lost when I move around the mp3 file from one
to another computer.
The rating will be lost when you do that. Unless you use some other utility to save and restore it, like this one: http://ottodestruct.com/blog/2006/02/03/itunes-saveratings-script/

Trying to edit 'Category" in ID3 tag

I have a podcast by John MacArthur that shows many different category names. I want to edit the mp3 ID3 tag to change the category name. I tried using "Easy change MP3 tags" software and although it said/acted as though it changed the category, when I opened itunes again the category field still had the same old data. Is there a way that I need to refresh the Database somehow, other than opening itunes?

I had previously tried that to no result. Tried it again. Still no result. Several of the freeware ID3 tag editors I've looked at didn't have the feature to edit the category field in the tag. The program I mentioned does but I'm not seeing the result of the category changes.
Does anyone know the name of a program that will update this field?

Preserve ID3 tags in MP3/AIF files when importing to FCS

I've got 7000 music files in a carefully groomed iTunes library, each track donated by a local musician for use in our local television productions. I need to move them out of this lame iTunes storage system and into Final Cut Server for use throughout our facility.
When I import files, the ID3 tags are not preserved. I don't want to hand enter 7000 artist/album/track names all over again. That's madness.
Working with AIFF files mostly, a few MP3s. Final Cut Server 1.5.2.
Anyone got any tips?

There is a solution that involves pruning Spotlight records of the said audio files. The only catch is that it requires Spotlight indexing to be on, which may not be desirable in an Xsan environment. Another approach is to use AtomicParsley (http://atomicparsley.sourceforge.net/) to retrieve the tags. Either way, you will need to generate XML files that Final Cut Server can read. I would recommend using Ruby and Jim Weirich's excellent Builder gem (http://github.com/jimweirich/builder).
So, make a subscription for new audio assets, run a script that retrieves metadata from the original file and then write a setMd XML file to a Final Cut Server watch folder. There are a few things you will need to solve, such as retrieving the path of the original media. If coding is not your thing, you might consider Transmogrifier (http://transmogrifier.sourceforge.net/), which I've never tried, but does seem to solve many of these issues.
Good luck.

My iTunes library and metadata/ID3 tags issue

Since 2010, iTunes is the only media player I use to play music. My library consists of music purchased from the iTunes Store, CD rips and stuff many artists these days release as freebies on the internet to promote a new album. Also, M4A and MP3 are the only formats I use so far.
Since iTunes, I really got into editing my library's metadata tags by hand, in order to create a custom archive which serves my preferences best. I should mention that besides iTunes being the only software I use to play my music library, it's also the only software I use to edit their metadata. Also, before iTunes – when my library was on different media players – I never bothered with editing them.
A few days ago, I found how a lot of people in forums complain about the way iTunes edits and stores metadata. So, I experimented and moved a few of my songs to other media players after editing their tags within iTunes. And indeed the tags and/or artwork were often displayed messed up and/or incorrect, some times partially and some times completely.
Some people were referring to the version of the ID3 tags being the issue, while others suggested using the "convert ID3 tags" feature. I myself am a little bit confused. "Converting the ID3 tags" wasn't available for my M4A files and once I performed it for my MP3's I didn't know which setting I should apply or what version to choose. I chose one version randomly but I'm not sure what happened.
My goal is to make my music library able to play and display my custom metadata on the majority of the popular media players. I hope that firstly this is possible and that secondly it won't be a solution which requires me going through every single song individually.
I really hope that all those years work on my library wasn't for nothing.
I'm using a MacBook running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and my iTunes version is 10.7
While my music library is more important that my iTunes version, I do like iTunes 10 more than 11.
I apologize for any grammar mistakes, since English is not my first language. Thank you all for your time and any suggestion is welcome.

itsjamesd wrote:
Hello turingtest2 and thank you for your reply.
In response to "a possible cause of problems is multiple embedded tags", what exactly does that mean and how can I avoid doing it in the future?
Anything ripped with iTunes should get a single tag. If multiple tags in some of your older mp3 rips are the cause of the problems when you try to access the files elsewhere then you should apply the suggested remedy selectively, not to the whole library indiscriminately. Once fixed you shouldn't have the problem again unless you use different ripping software. If so check the options to ensure you generate a single ID3v2.3 tag. Downloads from elsewhere are pot luck.
If I use Convert ID3 Tags>None before converting to v2.3 as you suggested, how many times is "several times" and why do I have to do it more than once? Also, what are your thoughts on 'v2.3 vs. v2.4'?
Several is at least two, but more could be needed if a file has both v1 and v2 tags in multiple languages. If there are two tags, the first conversion to none should remove the first one, and the second conversion the second. Experiment, And stick to v2.3.
In response to "the process removes any embedded art but otherwise preserves the data that iTunes knows". All fields excluding cover art remain the same? Does that mean that I will have to start from scratch and apply new cover art individually for each album? That would be too time consuming given the fact that I embed custom art.
Yes, everything but artwork is held in the iTunes database and is restored with the final Convert ID3 Tags... v2.3. Use Doug's scripts SaveAlbumArtJpeg before you start and RestoreArtworkFromAlbumFolder afterwards to save and the restore your existing artwork.
Also, what happens with my M4A files' metadata? ID3 tags are only used for MP3's, right?
Yes, m4a/aac files have a different tag mechanism. Multiple ID3 tags is just one possible issue that you might have. You said:
So, I experimented and moved a few of my songs to other media players after editing their tags within iTunes. And indeed the tags and/or artwork were often displayed messed up and/or incorrect, some times partially and some times completely.
It might be worth going into some more detail about exactly what differences you noticed. iTunes can automatically associate (instead of embedding) artwork when it can match the album in the store which could be why some tracks didn't get artwork.
tt2

MP3 song information not retained after iTunes 7.0 - ID3 tags at fault?

I'm having some strange problems with track information in iTunes. I first noticed it when I tried to copy some mp3's from my Mac to my mobile phone: certain tracks did not retain the song information, like artist, album etc., while others did.
A similar problem has been discussed in this post:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3698498
However, my problem seems to be a little bit more specific.
If I look at the music in my library in iTunes, all the track information is there. However, for MP3's encoded after 16th October last year, the "Imported With" field, using Get Info, is shown as "Unknown". Before this date, it is shown as "iTunes v7.0". For all MP3's the ID3 version is v2.2.
I believe that I must have upgraded to iTunes 7.0.1 around this time, since I have a number of Apple Lossless audio files which have also been imported and don't show this problem.
The main problem is with the file ID3 tag information (I think). If I select one of the problem tracks, find the original file, open it up in Quicktime and "Get Info", no track/album/artist/composer information is displayed. This is NOT true for 1) MP3's encoded before 16th October 2006 and 2) Apple Lossless files encoded at any time.
In other words, the track information for songs encoded with iTunes 7.0.1 and later is either encoded in a way that no other application can read, OR is only being stored in the iTunes playlist, NOT the file itself. I can see all the track information for these problem files on my iPod, but NOT my mobile phone (where I have to manually copy them over), even if I drag and drop them directly from iTunes.
I have this problem with Quicktime, my mobile phone music player and RealPlayer, so I'm assuming it's "system wide". It even occurs if I copy a problem file out of my music folder and onto the the Desktop, then manually add the track to iTunes: all the song information has disappeared.
I have all my music stored on an external hard disk - 160GB Freecom ToughDrive formatted as HFS+. Previously it was stored on an external disk formatted as FAT32, but copying the files over to the new disk didn't change the problem.
I considered using the "convert ID3 tags" option to see if it would make a difference, but both the good and bad files are listed as using v2.2. I also don't understand enough about them to feel confident converting them to something different - perhaps to v2.3 or v2.4 - just to see if it makes a difference.
Any information on how to "recover" the missing information (for anything other than iTunes) would be greatly appreciated!
MacBook Pro 17" 2.16 GHz 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.9) iTunes 7.1.1

Okay, some more information as I try and track down the source of the problem.
By using an id3 tag editing program - ID3 Editor - I was able to view the song information for each track, even though all the other music players I had tried would not show it. If I then chose to modify and update the ID3 information, this would somehow modify the tags in such a way that they become readable in all other programs.
I tried using the "Convert ID3" tags option in iTunes, just on a whim, but without any success. Saving the song information in ID3 Editor doesn't change the version of the ID3 tag - it's still listed as v2.2 in iTunes - but it DOES make it readable in other programs. I also tried the various text conversion options, again without any success.
This looks to me like a bug in iTunes. While its possible for me to get around it, in an extremely long winded way, I still can't understand why iTunes would be writing ID3 information that other Apple programs cannot read.
Any suggestions? Should I be posting this question in a different forum perhaps?

[SOLVED] ID3 tags not registering on MP3 Player

I just got a new MP3 player, and some of the ID3 tags that I've set on my music don't register. I have some other songs that were set on a Windows computer; these show up perfectly find. Every tag editor I've ever used has this problem.
What is a way to convert the ID3 tags into a format that my mp3 player (a coby MP826-8G) will be able to understand?
EDIT: Duh, I was using id3v2 instead of id3v1. Apparently most hardware music players don't read id3v2 yet.
Last edited by ProfessorProcrastinator (2014-05-17 23:54:20)

indeed, the tracks do have both v1.x and v2.x tags. Obviously, iTunes only accepts v1.1 tags. v2.x tags or mp3, who have both tags attached, will not be displayed in iTunes.
I have deleted the v2.x from the problem mp3-files using the "mp3tag" - tool. After re-importing the files into iTunes,
everything was fine.
Thanks,
Frankya

Imported MP3s: ID3 tag character encoding recognition issues

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