iPod / mp3 woes

January 9, 2009 on 3:09 pm | By | In bluefreesky.com | iPod / mp3 woes
  • I've been transferring my mp3 collection over to my new iPod, and have encountered an irritating problem: you get $15 if you can explain how to get around it, and there must be several ways of doing this. See, an mp3 file (I'm using Windows XP) apparently has two names: the name you see on the screen, and the name that iPod (and, for that matter, the name that the Windows Media Player) recognizes: the "id tag." Well, although I have meticulously -- lovingly -- edited the names of my mp3s, when I transfer them to the iPod it just displays the id tags, most of which (since I have ripped most of my mp3s from my CD collection) say stuff like "Track 3." Now, I know that by slow double-clicking on the track's file name in iPod, you can change this id tag, but we're talking about thousands of files here! It's too tedious, especially considering that the iPod could be stolen, undoing all my work. So: what I would like to know is: 1. Is there a way of getting the iPod to display the file name that Windows sees, rather than the id tag, or 2. better yet: is there a cheap program available on the internet that will allow mass-renaming of id tags (not the normal Windows file names, since I know Windows can do that), or 3. best yet: a cheap (or free) program available on the internet that will take the file and rename its id tag to be the same as the name visible on Windows? This would solve all my problems in one shot. Note: I mention iPod, but this phenomenon is also quite the aggravation when using just Windows Media Player. Somebody help!


  • Hello gnossie-ga Thank-you for your question. I had a similar problem when I first bought my iPod, I had several thousand tracks that I had not kept well organised and many had poor names when displayed on my iPod. I solved this problem with one FREE piece of software and a bit of time. It took some time to rename all my files how I wanted them but it was well worth it in the end. When I now add new music to my collection I ensure that the tags are first correct before loading it onto my iPod. As you have indicated in your question MP3 files have ID tags stored in the file along with the music data. These tags can hold data such as the artist, track name, album name and track number. It is even possible to store the picture of the CD cover in the ID tags! As these tags are usually more descriptive than the filename music players, such as the iPod or Windows Media Player, display the ID tags as a default action. This is not always desired as in your case. Let me tackle your three questions one by one. 1. Is there a way of getting the iPod to display the file name that Windows sees, rather than the id tag? Unfortunately there is not. The iPod uses the MP3 ID tags to display the track details in preference to the filename. As you also pointed out when you transfer music from your computer onto your iPod the filename on the iPod changes to the name stored in the iPod music database on your iPod. 2. Is there a cheap program available on the internet that will allow mass-renaming of id tags (not the normal Windows file names, since I know Windows can do that)? There are a number of freeware utilities that will perform this task some are much easier to use than others. matthelliwell-ga has pointed out a couple of these below. I will detail my favourite program below. 3. Is there a cheap (or free) program available on the internet that will take the file and rename its id tag to be the same as the name visible on Windows? The best and easiest solution I have found and used extensively is Mp3tag. This software is freeware but the author does ask for donations if you use it regularly although this is entirely optional. I find it excellently designed, supremely simple to use and virtually bug free. Personally I have never found any bugs when using the software but the author is a perfectionist and is always updating the software with new utilities and bug fixes. You can find the software here: http://www.mp3tag.de/en/ The main features of Mp3tag are: * Write ID3v1.1-, ID3v2-, APEv2-Tags and Vorbis Comments to multiple files at once * Automatically create playlists * Recursive subfolders support * Remove parts or the entire tag of multiple files * Rename files based on the tag information * Import tags from filenames * Format tags and filenames * Replace characters or words from tags and filenames * Regular Expressions * Export tag information to user-defined formats (like html, rtf, csv, xml) * Import tag information from an online database (also by text-search) * Import tag information from a local database Most importantly for you the software allows you to convert your filenames into ID tags with the touch of a few buttons. This feature is very powerful and allows a number of different customisation options. You may also convert your ID tags to filenames very very easily! Hopefully this piece of software will suit your needs. If you run into any problems the site runs and active forum that should be able to sort your problem out. I can also offer my experience in using the software if necessary (although you may get more detailed knowledge from the site forum). I believe Mp3tag will solve all your iPod name woes if you invest a little time with it. After learning the basics of the program I could rename all the tags from a whole album in less than 30 seconds and if necessary do multiple albums at once! If you have any further questions on this subject please ask for clarification and I will do my best to respond swiftly.


  • Thanks for your help, palitoy. I've been messing around with the program you mentioned, the mp3tag, and I can't quite figure out how to get it to do what I want. The program seems to mean something a little different by "tag" that I do. The thing I mean, this program calls it "Title." So, in the basic view, you see my folder of music. The first column is, say, Aida 01, Aida 02, Aida 03, etc. But the "title" column simply reads "Track 1," "Track 2," "Track 3," etc. So, in this program specifically, how to I get it to mass-convert the titles to exactly replicate the filenames? I thought that the "convert filename-tag" command would do it, but it doesn't.


  • I will try and talk you through what I think you need to do judging by your answer. In Mp3tag, you said that your tracks are listed as Aida 01, Aida 02 etc in column 1. I am assuming that column 1 is the filename column, select the tracks that you wish to edit and then choose Convert -> Filename - tag. A small window should open up with something like this in the text box: %artist% - %album% - %track% - %title% This means it will look at the filename you have entered and expect to find an artist name followed by a space-hyphen-space, then the album name, then space-hyphen-space, then the track name, space-hyphen-space and then the title of the track. In your case, as the track names are like Aida 01, Aida 02 etc it will not match anything and it will appear not to work. I would suggest trying the following in the box: %title% This will change the title tags for all the selected songs to be identical to the filename. You could alternatively change it to: %title% %track% This would set the title to Aida and the track number tag to 01, 02, 03 etc. There is some documentation on this in the help file (go to Help -> Find topic in help) for further details. Try pasting these lines into your internet browser if you installed Mp3tag in its default location (these are the direct links to the documentation mentioned above): file:///c:/Program%20Files/Mp3tag/help/options_converter.html#ftt file:///c:/Program%20Files/Mp3tag/help/main_converter.html Please let me know how you get on with these additional instructions.







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