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[cheadrick]

Hi all,
I have been searching for a solution to this problem but I have not found it so I am asking for advice.

I have several albums where this shows up and I have a feeling they may all be related.

When I view an Album at the bottom of the standard Panes view I have three problems I would like to resolve.
1. the Artist has additional information that I did not add. This is causing many albums to show up as 'Various Artists' in the title instead of the actual value from the Artist field I have in the file.
Is MC automatically getting this information from an online source?
How can I stop the additional information being added to Artist?

2. the Album Artist is not being shown. I have added this field in all my files and would like to use it as it is.

2. the Album Artist (auto) is showing '(Multiple Artist)' even though I have only one artist listed in the file as the album artist. This sounds like it is related to the Album Artist not being displayed, point 2, and the extra information being added to Artist, point 1.

I am still trying to learn this very complex system.
Thanks, Chip

[JimH]

If you have files that have tags, MC won't overwrite them unless you edit the tags.

If Album Artist is empty, the tag may also be empty.

Explore MC's Library Tools with a test file or two.  You can move tags from the library to the file or vice versa.

[blgentry]

Please post screen shots showing what you see.  It might be helpful to post a shot of the Tagging Window with some files selected and the Artist and Album Artist tags visible.

It's a little hard to follow what you're describing, so I hope screen shots will make it all very obvious. 

Brian.

[cheadrick]

Hi,
I have not added images to post before.
I have attached two files to show what I mean.
How can I add an image in from my laptop in the post?

Chip

[blgentry]

Ok, those screen shots show the issue very clearly.  Thanks. 

First, verify that you are looking at exactly the same files in exactly the same directories.  You probably are, but it's good to double check.

Next, it seems like perhaps you've made tagging changes to the files, externally (outside of MC) and MC has not picked up those changes.  So, let's force MC to update it's library from the tags inside the files.  Let's do this for just one album.  The one you posted would be a really good test I think.

(Highlight the files in the album) > right click > Library Tools > Update library (from tags)

Now look at the files in MC again.  You might have to press the refresh button, or just go out of the view and go back into the view.  They should now have the values you showed in the external tag editor.  Let's see if that works, and go from there.

Good luck!

Brian.

[blgentry]

Off topic:  Have you heard Sylva from Snarky Puppy and the Metropole Orkest?  I only mention it because of the album in your screen shot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLJLRN8LOVA

Brian.

[cheadrick]

No but I will take a look at it later, first try your fix, give me a couple of minutes

[cheadrick]

Hi Brian,
I first checked the file path in the JRiver album window and I am looking at the same files.

I then did what you suggested and it worked.
The Artist field now has only Laura Mvula and the same value is in the Album Artist filed in the JRiver album window, just like the file tags.

This is a new library that I added just a couple of days ago and I can see this problem in several imported albums, but not all.
Do you know if the import process updates Library fields with additional values even if values are already in the tag?

I know it sounds strange but I can not understand how else these fields were changed or were they not imported?

This is a very complicated application, at least to me, and I am still learning every day thanks to people like you willing to share.

Thanks again,
Chip

[blgentry]

This is a new library that I added just a couple of days ago and I can see this problem in several imported albums, but not all.
Do you know if the import process updates Library fields with additional values even if values are already in the tag?

I'm 99% certain that MC will not fill in ANY values all on it's own.  There are lookup tools in MC that can be used to look up some fields.  But none of them are on by default as far as I know.  I've never seen this happen with several hundred imported albums that were tagged (initially) by a ripping program.

I know it sounds strange but I can not understand how else these fields were changed or were they not imported?

My best guess is that you have changed the values inside the file tags since you first imported the files.  But I don't know for sure; that's just a guess.

This is a very complicated application, at least to me, and I am still learning every day thanks to people like you willing to share.

Yes it is.  Very, very complex.  It's very deep.  But you don't need to go super duper deep to do the basics.  You are a bit beyond basics because you're a very careful tagger and you (presumably) have been using an external tagging program for many years.  But it sounds like you are "getting it", which is good. 

You may eventually find that you can do everything you want with the tags from right inside of MC.  It's tagger is very powerful, as it can use the full expression language to change or add tags.  It can be used on many files at once (if you want to).

Brian.

[cheadrick]

Hi Brian,
I have been looking through my library and what I thought was some now seems to be all.
All the albums are missing Album Artist and the Artist tag is filled with other data. From my understanding of my collection it appears to be composer or other artist that have performed the same track.
Can this be coming from the YADB?

I need to get them updated to find them in JRiver. I know I can through them one by one but it is almost 2000 albums.

Two questions:
1. can you think of anything I could have done during the import process to cause these problems?
2. what would you suggest is the best way to recover my tags into the Library?
2.a delete the Library and start over?
2.b update Library from tags. Can it be done for the whole library at once?

your pupil,
Chip

[blgentry]

All the albums are missing Album Artist and the Artist tag is filled with other data. From my understanding of my collection it appears to be composer or other artist that have performed the same track.
Can this be coming from the YADB?

Not as far as I know.  That should only happen if you select tracks and do "lookup from online database".  Even then it pops up a box to confirm.  I'm not sure what might have happened.  *Maybe* your files have both ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags?  I'm not sure which ones MC prefers if it sees both.  Probably the ID3v2 tags, but I'm guessing again.

1. can you think of anything I could have done during the import process to cause these problems?

Nothing comes to mind.  Everything I can think of, other than the ID3 thing above, would require action on your part; it wouldn't be automatic.  But I might be missing something.

2. what would you suggest is the best way to recover my tags into the Library?
2.a delete the Library and start over?
2.b update Library from tags. Can it be done for the whole library at once?

Either way will work.  Yes, you can highlight all files in the library and do update library from tags and it will work.  It will take some time, as it has to re-read every file.  But it shouldn't take any longer than a regular import would take.

A fresh import is appealing in this case though.  Because it would be another try at doing it to see what happens, now that you are pretty sure that all of your tags are correct.  If you have playlists set up, or other history in this library (ratings, play counts, and that kind of thing), you'll likely lose all of that when you do a re-import.  You'll also lose any custom fields you might have set up, etc.  But if you don't have much or any of that a re-import should be no problem at all.  If you do a re-import, I'd clear the library first:  File > Library > Clear Library .  Then go back into auto import and set up your directories you want to import.  It should then import everything rather quickly.

Brian.

[cheadrick]

Hi Brian,
I am going to perform the Clear and re-Import tomorrow when I have some more time.
I am not worried about losing anything since this is a new library and I have not made any additions to the standard.
I will post my results here afterwards.

All of my files are in flac format on a QNAP server.

I just checked, using MP3Tag, and the tags are marked as 'FLAC (FLAC)' under the Tag column.

When I right click the same flac file and select Properties then the Audio Properties tab I can see the file contains ID Tag [Vorbis Comments] for the tag type. This information tab is added when I installed dBpoweramp and not part of Windows 10.

I can not change these fields and I have been tagging flac files for many years using MP3Tag.
It seems JRiver can read the tags since when I performed the 'file to library update' the tags are added to JRiver.

Thanks for the advice.
Chip

[blgentry]

I'll be interested to hear how your re-import goes.  I expect smooth sailing.  Here's hoping!

Good luck.

Brian.

[cheadrick]

Hi Brian,
Cleared the library and ran the import process again and now the fields are showing the correct tag properties, at least on the albums I have checked. These are the values I have added to the files.
I do not have any idea how but I must have done something wrong because now it looks as expected.
I am further confused and concerned about my lack of knowledge since this application has so many options and options equals opportunities and they can be both good and bad.
Anyway enough rambling.
I want to thank you again for your patience and advice that helped me resolve my problem.
Best regards,
Chip

[blgentry]

Yay!

Glad to year you got it all working as you were expecting. 

Brian