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Author Topic: MC28 is filling in metadata in my music files [Solved]  (Read 976 times)

ferrarabrainpan

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MC28 is filling in metadata in my music files [Solved]
« on: January 18, 2022, 08:47:34 am »

EDIT: I've searched the JRiver wiki pages and cannot find the info I am looking for, which is how to disable any setting that changes metadata in the files themselves. I want JRiver to update the info displayed in the library files when I have made changes to the metadata, I just don't want JRiver autofilling any metadata fields under any circumstances.

I am extremely careful and scrupulous in tagging the music files I rip or download and I have my own protocols for how I fill in various data fields. One of these is that in the field for YEAR I give the year only, not the month and date. So for a release that came out in 2004 according to the cover info and/or Discogs page, I enter 2004 in the data box, not 2004-06-07 even if that is the exact date the album was released. This is the way I want to do it and they are my files in a local library I've spent many thousands of dollars acquiring and many hundreds of hours meticulously tagging, checking spellings and punctuation to conform with the most accurate and grammatically correct info I have available. So I do not want any of the programs I use to play or manage my music files (JRiver for playback, and dBpoweramp for ripping and tagging) filling in empty metadata fields or or editing the metadata I've assigned to every music file in my library.

Yesterday when I went to make a small edit in a Todd Rundgren album of dsf files, I noticed that the year showed the month and date in the 0000-00-00 format. I thought it might have been an oversight when I ripped and tagged the album, but just now I went back and checked all the files I've played in the past two weeks since installing MC28 and there were at least a couple dozen albums where the metadata for Year had been altered in the same way as the Todd Rundgren album. Took me about an hour to check every folder and then edit the ones that had apparently been auto-edited, presumably by JRiver.

How do I disable this function in MC28? I am almost certain it is MC28 that is making these changes in the metadata, though it is possible it could be something in dBpoweramp since I also recently updated that program. I know that dBpoweramp autofills empty metadata fields when ripping a disc, but that is when I make the changes to fit my data criteria and protocols. That program now supports metadata editing for dsf files and I did go in there to make some corrections on some of my dsf albums, and at the time I did not notice any changes in the year info, and that was just before I installed MC28 and imported all my DSD files to a separate library that I've been playing for the past two weeks.
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BryanC

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Re: MC28 is filling in metadata in my music files! how do I make it stop?
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2022, 11:41:37 am »

Edit>Uncheck "Update tags when file info changes".  [Year] is autocalculated from the [Date] field AFAIK so maybe you had something in the [Date] field that you did not want? I don't think MC's [Year] and external [Year] tags like you are using are interchangeable? Stick to a proper [Date] entry and let [Year] or [Date (year)]  do the heavy lifting for you.

See: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=54384.0
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ferrarabrainpan

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Re: MC28 is filling in metadata in my music files! how do I make it stop?
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2022, 12:18:39 pm »

Edit>Uncheck "Update tags when file info changes".  [Year] is autocalculated from the [Date] field AFAIK so maybe you had something in the [Date] field that you did not want? I don't think MC's [Year] and external [Year] tags like you are using are interchangeable? Stick to a proper [Date] entry and let [Year] or [Date (year)]  do the heavy lifting for you.

See: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=54384.0

I've been poking around in the Library & Folders tools options and "Configure auto-import" and "manage library fileds" and reading the relevant wiki pages and as far as I can see I don't have any settings in place that would auto-tag anything. The field you named "Update tags when file info changes" was already unchecked. In "manage library fields" I have checked the box "Save in file tags (when possible)" which I was advised to do so that custom keywords and field descriptors such as Album Artist Sort are retained if files are moved. Should I uncheck that box?

I've been scratching my head over this and I've ruled out that these year/date changes were not autofilled by dBpoweramp. It's possible that something got messed up when I checked and edited the tags in that program, I'm not above making some stupid mistakes without realizing it, certainly. The thing is that every file that I have is manually tagged at the time of download or ripping with the Year field only (it's a default data field in dBpoweramp) but never with the date, that is a metadata field I have never used.

I'm still puzzled over this matter but I hope it doesn't happen again. In the future I will be able to see if any changes have been made to the metadata when I sync my files and folders using FreeFileSync as part of my regular file backup procedure, without having to go in to every folder and look. I moved some folders a couple weeks ago when I created a new library for DSD files and I'm guessing these year/date edits happened at that time.
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ferrarabrainpan

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Re: MC28 is filling in metadata in my music files! how do I make it stop?
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2022, 12:24:17 pm »

Further, when I open the tag window at the lower left corner and view the tags, that Date (released) tag is empty for those files that had the date entered in the Year field. I don't get it but if this doesn't happen again then I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
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blgentry

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Re: MC28 is filling in metadata in my music files! how do I make it stop?
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2022, 01:02:38 pm »

As far as I know, BryanC is correct:  Update Tags When File Info Changes

That's the master switch for whether or not MC will write metadata to your files.  MC is a big beast, so I may be missing something.  But I think that's the answer.

Brian.
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ferrarabrainpan

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Re: MC28 is filling in metadata in my music files! how do I make it stop?
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2022, 10:54:12 pm »

As far as I know, BryanC is correct:  Update Tags When File Info Changes

That's the master switch for whether or not MC will write metadata to your files.  MC is a big beast, so I may be missing something.  But I think that's the answer.

Brian.

Thank you for that. I trust you are correct in the information you have offered. But what is meant by "when file info changes"? Doesn't a change to the file info imply that the metadata tags were changed? If so, then updating tags seems redundant. And we are talking about the metadata tags that are embedded in the files, right (as opposed to keywords which are linked to the library files but not embedded in the files)?
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EnglishTiger

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Re: MC28 is filling in metadata in my music files! how do I make it stop?
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2022, 01:01:53 am »

Every time you play, move, analyse, etc. a Track MC updates certain Fields in the Library, which can also be Tags(metadata) held in the Tracks actual file on disk; that setting is used to Instruct MC if it is, or not, to write that updated information to the Tags.

N.B Date (release) is an MC Specific Tag and will only ever contain Data if the user enters it - That's why it is showing as Empty in the Tag Window. The Date Tag/Field, and by implication the Year Tag/Field, are the Fields/Tags used by whatever software you used to get the "Correct Metadata" in your tracks.
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ferrarabrainpan

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Re: MC28 is filling in metadata in my music files
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2022, 08:30:36 am »

Every time you play, move, analyse, etc. a Track MC updates certain Fields in the Library, which can also be Tags(metadata) held in the Tracks actual file on disk; that setting is used to Instruct MC if it is, or not, to write that updated information to the Tags.

N.B Date (release) is an MC Specific Tag and will only ever contain Data if the user enters it - That's why it is showing as Empty in the Tag Window. The Date Tag/Field, and by implication the Year Tag/Field, are the Fields/Tags used by whatever software you used to get the "Correct Metadata" in your tracks.

Thank you for making this clear to me, I understand. I will keep that box unchecked and I trust all my tags will remain as I input them. Problem solved, thanks to all who took the time to reply.
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