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[andy88488]

I am using dbPowerAmp to rip AIFF's. I use Media Center to play the AIFF's, but iTunes to manage them on my phone.

Recently, I have found that the song information on my phone has been corrupted. For example, all of the songs on "Tommy" are called "Psychedelic Rock", even though in iTunes on my PC, the song information is correct.

After some investigation, I discovered that the AIFF's have a tag called "Style" that is filled in, in this case with "Psychedelic Rock". iTunes converts that info into it's "Work" tag, so it thinks that these are all movements in a classical music piece called "Psychedelic Rock".

I went back to the AIFF files, and deleted the tags in dbPowerAmp's tag manager. I deleted the music from iTunes and reimported it. The "work" tags were gone. Then I opened up Media Center, in order to copy my star ratings, and it looks like Media Center filled the Style tag back in, because soon iTunes was just as screwed up as before, and the tags were back in the AIFF's.

Is Media Center tagging my files for me, and how do I get it to stop?

Media Center version 23.0.102 on Windows 10 1709 Pro.

[RoderickGI]

There was thread about a similar problem not so long ago. I can't find it now. Ah, here it is: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,113755.msg786327.html#msg786327

Multiple tagging applications were being used, but not dbpoweramp. Although thinking again it may have been used to try to fix the problem.

Anyway, one particular tag kept showing up, and the user was convinced that MC was adding it in, and the offending tag wasn't in the original file. In the end it was found in the original file, with the users prefered tagging application (Yate), using a more detailed view or something. MC was correctly finding the tag, and mapping it to one of its standard tags, as it was supposed to do.

I think you have a similar situation. You are making changes to the file outside MC, and no doubt have Auto Import set up to "Update for external changes". [Style] is a standard MC tag, but as you say, it maps to a different iTunes tag, and may indeed map from a different tag into MC. There is no documentation of all the possible tag mapping variations, that I'm aware of. So this unnoticed tag is the in the file, which is edited. MC Auto Import updates the tags in the file when it detects the file has changed, writing the [Style] tag. iTunes then detects the change, reads the [Style] tag and writes it to its "Work" tag. Note that I suspect with AIFF files, iTunes only stores the tags in its database, rather than in the file. But that may have changed.

What you need to do is find the third tag inside the file. Searching for any tag that contains "Psychedelic Rock". You could look in the Tag Dump area in MC's tag window, but it may not be visible. I don't know if dbpoweramp has a detailed view for tags that aren't normally shown, but it may. You may need to find another tool to find and delete the unusual tag.

[RoderickGI]

The free Kid3 might be a good tool to look inside the file for extra tags: https://kid3.sourceforge.io/

Or there are others: http://aifftagging.blogspot.com.au/

[RoderickGI]

Or here is an idea.

Delete the tags in iTunes (removes it from the iTunes database) and in dBpoweramp. This may not be required, but MC can't control if iTunes puts that tag back, so probably worth doing. Close dBpoweramp and iTunes.

In MC, make sure that all the tags you want to keep are correctly filled out in the Library.

Delete the [Style] tag, if it is still there.

Right-click on the offending file > Cover Art > Save Cover Art To External Location Specified In Options. You will need to have a valid Cover Art directory set up in Options > File Location.
(Or, Right-click on the offending file > Cover Art > Copy To Clipboard (first file).)

Right-click on the offending file > Library Tools > Remove Tags. Select "All tags". The tags are now only stored in MC's Library, not in the file.

Right-click on the offending file > Library Tools > Update tags (from library). Now those tags in the Library are in the file again... except for your Cover Art.

Right-click on the offending file > Cover Art > Quick Find In File / Cover Art Directory. Then get rid of the new Cover Art file if you wish.
(Or, Right-click on the offending file > Cover Art > Paste From Clipboard (Image or URL).)



I copied a file and followed the above procedure, which removed a whole heap of additional tags from MusicBrainz and other sources. So it seems to do a good cleanup job.