Preserving playlists, ID3 Tags?... Is it possible outside of iTunes?

Let's say i need to empty my hard drive...i have my songs backed up, but obviously the playlists are not going to be saved when i re-sync my library. does this also go for the ID3 tags, I'd hate to have to re-edit over 1000 songs. any idea what can be done?
just in case i also made a backup copy of the itunes folder in case there is relevant info in there regarding my playlist order/ id3 tags.

hi Shola!
this Buegie post could have been written just for you:
http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=2231034
this one might be helpful too:
http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=1948165
love, b

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Missing ID3 Tags on MP3 CD burned with iTunes

I have a Sony CD Player in my car. This Player supports mp3 CD's. To Burn such CD's with iTunes is not the Problem.
iTunes seems not to set the ID3-Tag in it's Libary. Is it possible to set the iTunes-Libary-Informations (as they are displayed on my Screen) as ID3 Tags to the Files ? Are there Risks within ?

Ooops. You just created a lot of work by erasing the tag info.
I think there are some scripts out there that can fill in ID3 tags based on file names.
This page is from an apple discussions regular poster:
http://samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/scripts.asp
You could try the "TagFromFilename" script.
For future, itunes does not have the ability to update tag info like Windows Media Player does. I suppose you could see what WMP will do, before trying that script.
Since I haven't used either one to do this, I can't say how well either works.

Editing ID3 tags in the finder (not in itunes/quicktime)

Hi. New mac user. Just wondering if there was any way to edit the ID3 tags of an mp3 file within the finder's 'get info' section (as compared to windows' 'properties' section). If not (which I'm pretty sure there isn't), what would be the best way to go about doing so? Keeping in mind that I want to be able to do it before I import the file into iTunes.

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

Adding/Editing ID3 Tags

I've been assigned the task of helping faculty with iTunes U and have a question concerning ID3 Tags. Is there a way of adding/editing the ID3 tags of QT files outside of iTunes and before uploading the .mp4 files?
Thanks
Jerry

Unfortunately Quicktime and iTunes store and access the metadata differently.
You will need to ultimately edit your metadata via iTunes for use via iTunes U.
Applescript or automator actions can save you a lot of effort.
Check out Doug's applescripts for iTunes to learn more.

ID3 tags - I can't be the only one

iTunes 7.7.0.43, fully patched XP Pro SP3. "M:" drive on file server contains 4500 songs. Full read/write access.
ID3 tags simply do not work in iTunes. I have "Convert ID3 Tags..."'d to "None" dozens of times for the whole library and have attempted to "Convert ID3 Tags..." to ID3vanything without them actually being written to the file itself.
iTunes reports "None" on the info screen for ID3 tags after several hours of it supposedly converting tags.
I have invested a large amount of time in ensuring the iTunes library itself is accurate and would like to carry over the information in the library to the MP3s themselves via ID3.
After many searches I've found split results. Some people never have an issue with iTunes writing ID3 tags, others like myself have never gotten this to work. I will whip up a script to read the XML library and batch a program to update the tags outside of iTunes, but "Convert ID3 Tags..." is not a new choice and it is supposed to do what I'm looking for.
What gives?

Welcome to the discussions!
Has Apple repaired your MB this last time so that it does work properly? I ask this not to be flippant, but out of curiosity. If it is repaired and working properly, then Apple has no reason to replace it.
It is likely that if your MB needs a fourth repair that it would be replaced. An optical drive and case replacements are fairly striaghtforward repairs and not indicative of a completely faulty unit like a bad logic board or LCD would be.
If your MB does require another repair, I would call AppleCare and escalate it to a second tier representative. They have more authority to make exceptions and issue replacements than a first tier rep would have.

How do i get all the tags i see in the iTunes library to be the ID3 tags?

I have a huge collection of mp3 in iTunes (the latest version), and they are all perfectly organized, but when i open those mp3 files in any other player i see old tags or no tags, because the id3 tags on the mp3 files are not the same as the ones i see on itunes. I've tried the "convert id3 tags" tool but it does not seem to help. How do i get the id3 tags to be the same as iTunes tags?

+HEy any reason why you pick version 2.3,+
itunes didn't work well with 3rd-party plugins and v2.4, and former forum regular Otto told me to use v2.3
+what is the difference between the different id3 tag versions..+
read up on it using google

ID3 Tags Questions

What are id3 tags and which versions should I use? In iTunes, I have versions: 1.0,1.1,2.2,2.3 and 2.4. Which is the best for burning MP3 cd's to play in my car? Also, even though my car has an MP3 player, it sometimes has trouble reading the songs and it doesn't work but when I use AAC audio cd's it works all the time, but I can only put 10 songs on a cd. ThankS!

What are id3 tags
They are fields in the song file with all the info about the song. The artist, the title, the date, etc. The info in the ID3 tags is what you see in iTunes.
and which versions should I use?
V2.3 seems to be the most compatible.
but when I use AAC audio cd's it
No such thing. Either it is an AAC CD or it is an AudioCD. Audio CDs can be made from all file types in iTunes.

Can iTunes write corrected ID3 tags to the main files?

I'm sure this has been posted somewhere already, but I can't find it, so here goes.
I have changed several hundred ID3 tags by editing the files in iTunes. Titles, artists, album, etc. The problem is, the main files aren't updating. SO if I change an entire album's ID3 info in iTunes, then delete it from iTunbes, then import it again, it's not updated. Is there a way iTunes can transfer whatever information I have changed within the application to the main files? I tried using the "Convert ID3 Tags" inside of iTunes and it didn't work.

villenuv27 wrote:
It does for most fields, but it won't change the song title.
I still don't understand what you mean by "main files" or why you are deleting and re-importing. Sorry, but without more information, I don't have any suggestions. iTunes writes tags just fine for me but I allow iTunes to organize all my music. My iTunes files are my only music files.

ITunes won't read ID3 tags

So long story short, I lost my iTunes library and had to re-import all of my songs. Problem is, iTunes isn't reading the ID3 tags correctly, and most of my music has "unknown" under artist, album, etc. Normally, it wouldn't be a big deal to just go through my library and update the information for the tracks manually. But I have a LOT of music, and it would take forever to do so for my entire library. I use iTunes whenever I import CDs or purchase music, so the ID3 tags were all originally created by iTunes itself, which doesn't make any sense. All of the ID3 information (track names, artist, album, etc.) is showing up fine in Explorer and Windows Media Player, so I'm not sure why iTunes isn't recognizing it. Any ideas?

I suspect the tracks have multiple tags which iTunes doesn't cope with. Each mp3 file should have a single ID3v2.3 tag for best results with iTunes. Some software creates both ID3v1 and ID3v2.x tags when creating mp3s. If these are edited with iTunes it may update one tag, but then later read back unchanged data from the other. MediaMonkey has some useful tools for cleaning tags, assuming that is the problem, and you can determine which version needs clearing out. Test with small samples to make sure.
tt2

ITunes sporadically adds/removes odd info into ID3 tags ....

Every now and then I notice iTunes adds "Album Artist" & "Track Number" information. I've also noticed that it sometimes adds a string of odd numbers in the comments section.
How can I stop this? I do not want iTunes managing my music library at all. I don't want it even touching it. I'd rather do it myself.
Sometimes I've also found myself adding album artwork that I've added before. Can I stop this from happening? If not, is there a way to backup all my music with it's info intact? So if and when iTunes decides to mess with my library I can just restore it from the backup.
I'm a perfectionist and all my music has to have the ID3 tags filled out a certain way. iTunes has created countless hours of unneeded work for me.
Thanks for your help in advance.

Windows Media Player is the thing getting Album Artist and Composer info.
WMP defaults are set to retrieve info from the internet. iTunes does NOT have this capability - all itunes can do is get info from CDDB/Gracenotes just before importing a CD.
You need to turn the internet stuff off in WMP - depending on your version, it's on the privacy tab and also the library tab.

ITunes Match always reverts my ID3 Tags after i fixed them

I am Running 11.1.3 iTunes on 10.9 OSX. I'm to trying to fix my ID3 Tags and every time i do, iTunes Match change them back to the old ones after sometimes 5 minutes, 10 minutes and sometimes 20 minutes. I can even sometime see how single tracks are reverting my changes. Also i'm not able to delete some tracks from the cloud, they always reappear again. I try to find a solution, but i only found one thread which sounded like the same problem i have. But i can confirm it does not have anything to do with the Store > Update iTunes Match Option. The Changes also reverted when i just restart iTunes or over time. The odd thing is when i do my changes, i can find the tracks on my iPhone / iPad till they automatically revert. It's quite frustrating that they is no option to 'override' the tags in the cloud or is there ?

It's starting to look like the problem was the music actually stored on the iPad. Edits made in iTunes would propagate via iCloud to the iPad and affect e.g. Album cover, even album name or artist name. But not grouping. Syncing the iPad would break things in iTunes again, often by duplicating tracks.
I deleted everything off the iPad, and the cloud, and iTunes, re-imported, fixed the problems again, restarted iTunes Match -and the cloud based collection on the iPad is pretty much fixed.
I needed to re-acquire my iPad purchases with the iPad. iTunes can't see them in the store even though it is the same appleId (!).
My classical music collection is trickier. Suppliers of MP3 downloads appear to use the 'artist' tag inconsistently for composer,conductor,orchestra, soloist etc. lots of CDs have two separate performances to make up space (e.g Christmas music by Vaughn Williams & Hodie). iTunes seems to be designed for nothing but pop music! Although if you use 'composer' tags a 'composer' sort appears on the iPad.

Where's The Convert ID3 Tag option in iTunes 11?

What happened to the convert ID3 tag option in iTunes 11? It no longer appears when I right-click on a song.
Because iTunes still saves the ID3 tags in imported MP3's as v2.2, I have to convert the tags to v2.3 so that the MP3 information is recognized by my car radio.

Just to clarify for anyone else still having troubles.
Convert ID3 Tags... is still in iTunes 11, but it only shows up when you right-click on audio tracks while in Song or List View.
To recap:
You MUST be in List or Song View.
You can NOT be in Grid, Artist List, or Album View.
Also, please remember that ID3 Tags are only for MP3/MPEG audio files, and NOT MP4/AAC/Apple Lossless audio files.
Hope this helps.
Original Thread: Where's The Convert ID3 Tag option in iTunes 11?

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.

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

Preserving playlists, ID3 Tags?... Is it possible outside of iTunes?

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