Hi Everyone,

I have been lurking (dangerously) for the past few weeks and have concluded that this is really the only useful site I have come accross on the internet despite my 10 year addiction. Congratulations to everyone involved.

OK, now of course I've tried fruitlessly to discover the reason for this issue I have come accross, and I am now completely at a loss.

I have recently completed thoroughly "cataloguing" my collection of MP3's, originating from various sources.

Cataloguing means using Tag & Rename 3.1.6 and it's CDDB/Amazon database functionality to meticulously update and complete ID3v2 data for all of my MP3 files, often post-ripping from EAC/LAME to clean-up the data. Some manual tag editing is always required even after database download (Genre for example).

Now, having purchased the obligatory iPod (60GB Video) and conceded to using iTunes (Supplied with iPod) for transfer and library management (until I stumble across something better) I have run across a disappointing problem: my hours and hours of work (play) have only been partially worthwhile as much of the information is different or missing when imported to the iTunes library.

Additionally:

• In Tag & Rename both ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags have been synchronised and information appears correct for both.
• In Winamp's Media Library information is as per Tag & Rename.
• Re-updating the information in iTunes writes the tags and Tag & Rename has no problem seeing these changes.

The only thing that I can think of is that some of these files have the ID3 data prepended to the file, and others have it appended. Is it a possibility that iTunes only reads prepended data? If so, would there be a way to convert all appended data to a prepended format?

Apologies for the length of the post and thanks in advance for any suggestions that might point me in the right direction!

AFAIK ID3v1 tags are always appended and ID3v2 are always prepended.

I never used iTunes, so I can't comment on the rest...

Cheers.

Sergio

Edit: BTW, Welcome to HA!

I know that iTunes wants to use id3v2.4 and most other software (including windows xp itself) uses id3v2.3. Maybe re-saving all the tags in tag&rename as 2.4 tags would fix their display in iTunes? Doesn't hurt to try.

Thanks Sergio - but it doesn't seem to be a ID3v1 vs. ID3v2 problem as I have theoretically synchronised these, and the incorrect information seems to be coming from somewhere else entirely.


Thanks Jebus, I've tried that but it appears Tag & Rename saves in ID3v2.3 and doesn't have any facillity for changing versions - have you been able to find it anywhere?

Cheers!

you can choose 2.3 vs 2.4 in the itunes preferences. maybe tag and rename is writing 2.3 and itunes is set to read 2.4?

I do know that iTunes doesn't read the normal 2.3 comment field... reads something else instead. This is even with 2.3 turned on. Oh well!

iTunes does read id3v2.3 comment tags. However, it is a bit picky about the binary format. It seems to want the 3 language bytes to either be all 0's, or be 'eng' (maybe other valid language strings work, too, but not invalid ones or garbage). Also, the "description" field must be an empty string. At least this is what I've figured out through trial&error. Winamp was sometimes writing the comment field incorrectly, but this has been fixed in the next version (5.13 or 5.2)

I use Tag&Rename and iTunes together with no issues. Never had a problem.

Only suggestion I have is to make sure that you have Tag&Rename set to "Write XP Compatible ID3v2 tags". This forces Tag&Rename to write ID3v2.3 tags, I think.

As for iTunes, iTunes will read and write any ID3 tag versions, but it's a bit picky about the tag being exactly correct. Winamp is well known for writing bad tags, and Windows Media Player has a few eccentrities in that area as well. But Tag&Rename is consistently good and has worked for me every time.

What information, specifically, is iTunes not seeing? If it's just Genre, then your problem is probably that iTunes is not seeing the v2 tag, for whatever reason, and is picking up the v1 tag instead. For non-standard Genres, Tag&Rename leaves the v1 Genre tag blank.

Great, I will try that.


I can't identify any commonality between the fields or the files. Artist, Title, Album, Genre are all affected seemingly randomly and in Tag & Rename these ID3v1 and v2 tags are synchronised (apart from Genre as you said).

Thanks for the suggestions.

I just noticed that you're using T&R 3.1.x.. Might want to upgrade to T&R 3.2. Could help.

Also, iTunes has a couple of known issues about not properly seeing tags when you mass import lots of files into it. Try playing a few of the problem songs and seeing if it self-corrects them. If it does, then you can try forcing iTunes to re-read the entire library with this little javascript: http://ottodestruct.com/itunes/update.txt

I have a somewhat related problem with iTunes. I create MP3's using EAC and Lame using this arguments:



The comment is written is some of my files but not all!

However, when I check the file in Tag&Rename the comment field does show up in all files

Any thoughts?

winamp has an ipod plugin, you could avoid using itunes alltogether
http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=138888

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I will try upgrading Tag & Rename and also give the Winamp Plug-in a try. Still curious as to why this is happening though!