hi all!

in most of my mp3s i have id3v2.3 and id3v2.4 tags in the same file! this is a problem because some of the tags do not match up between v2.3 and v2.4. and it causes problems between different applications. in the file, the 2.3 tags show up first then the 2.4 tags. i do not have any v1 tags. is there a tag editor out there that can only edit the v2.3 OR the v2.4 tags? every app i encountered only edits the first set of tags, which is always the 2.3 tags.

ideally, i would love to remove ALL of the 2.4 tags and NONE of the 2.3 tags. is there anything out there that can do that? either by scripting or gui?

another thing that could work is to remove ALL of the 2.3 tags and NONE of the 2.4 tags. anything out there?

one more thing i can think of is to program something myself. what is the structure of id3 tags? i can see some of the id3 structure by looking through an mp3 file in a hex editor. but im still pretty confused. i can see that the beginning of an id3 section, it starts out as "ID3". then the next byte is either 03 (in hex) for v2.3 and then 04 (in hex) for v2.4. after that its confusing. i can see all the fields (TIT2, TPE1, etc) and then the values. but the structure is confusing. can anyone help?

thank you so much for your time!

You can use Mp3tag to re-write all of your tags as you want. I've done this occasionally if I have some ID3v2.4 tags as my DAP only likes ID3v2.3.

Here's how I go about doing so:
1. Ensure that the "General > Subdirectories" option is ticked. This will allow you to open your MP3 root folder and all it's subdirectories for editing.
2. Under "Tags > Mpeg > Write" you can specify what tags you want Mp3tag to write. Click OK when done.
3. Select all the files (Ctrl+A), then "Right click > Extented Tags... > OK". This will re-write your tags in the format specified.

Why would you want to remove the latest version and keep an old, outdated and obsolete version?

There are a few reasons one may choose ID3v2.3 tags over v2.4; 1. Many DAPs do not support ID3v2.4, 2. Windows Media Player does not support v2.4, 3. Many other audio/media players only have partial or buggy support of ID3v2.4 tags.

So the only reason is to keep compatibility with software whose developers can't be bothered to update to the latest standards. Seriously, WMP doesn't support 2.4? That's just embarrassing.

Because ID3v2.3 is not 'old, outdated and obsolete' -- it's still the de facto standard, and universally compatible. The ID3 folks even acknowledge ID3v2.4 isn't well accepted: http://www.id3.org

i want to keep the 2.3 tags because those are the ones that are correct. the 2.4 tags have misspellings and some have the wrong info. one app that i have ONLY reads the 2.4 tags. so, my playlist looks weird. i was actually planning to get rid of the 2.4 tags. then turn the 2.3 tags into 2.4.

i will try the mp3tag app when i get home. i've used it before once or twice but i didn't see that option!!! thanks!

does anyone else have any suggestions in case that doesn't work?

Unless you don't plan on using a broad set of devices and software, I wouldn't switch to ID3v2.4 at the end... or you might end up with partially corrupted MP3 tags again if other applications touch you rifles. (ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 should not co-exist in files.) If you use foobar2000, set it's tagging to "ID3v2 write compatibility mode" and it'll also use ID3v2.3. There is a reason tools like Mp3tag default to ID3v2.3. Good luck.