Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[billinrio]

Is there any way to access the program's tags memory?   I've sometimes misspelled names (for example "Mozart, Wofgang"), and thereafter, when I type "Mozart" in the composer tag field, the program offers "Mozart, Wofgang") as an option.  I could give scores of other examples. This is bothersome. Can I access the tags memory in order to eliminate such "incorrect' tagging options? 

I note that under Options > General > Importing & Tagging there is "Write to external sidecar files for media types > Audio" .  Is this a way into solving this? I have no idea what a "sidecar file" is, nor where i would locate one.

[blgentry]

You seem to be describing Tags in your files metadata that you want to change in bulk.  I call doing this kind of thing "auditing my library".  This is where you sweep through the library and canonicalize everything to be consistent.

The general approach is to search (or sort) your library for the "bad tags", then highlight the files that contain these tags.  Finally, you change the bad tags to good tags in one operation.  For example, if you highlighted every file that contains "Mozart, Wolfgang" and then changed it to "Mozart"... all you have to do is put Mozart in the (Composer, Artist, etc) tag one time and it changes it for ALL of the files all at once.

Doing this by searching isn't bad if you have a half dozen to do.  If you have more, I like to use a Panes view.  Panes are very powerful and they have the advantage of each PANE showing you every single value in the entire library.  For example, if you make a Panes View and have one pane that shows Composer, you can scroll through that list and see every value.  When you see wrong values, you can select it, select the files, and then change that value in the Tagging Window to the left.  All at once, you will have changed the bad tag value to your good one for those files.

I have made several different kinds of Library Auditing Views using Panes.  This is actually a really cool thing about MC.  It has allowed me to really take control of my library and to make all the metadata "perfect" relatively quickly.

Note that while in a Panes view, the search box at the upper right still works.  So you can do a search for something like "Mozart" and then see all of the values in the Composer Panes area that contain that value.  This is a very powerful way of combining the "show me all values" part of Panes with searching to narrow things down.

Best of luck.

Brian.

[Dawgincontrol]

Find and Replace does this simply if the misspellings are the same.

Tools>Library Tools>Find and Replace (shortcut is CTRL+Alt+F).  Then put in what you want to find and what you want to replace it with.  In the left box, check all the fields you want to change.  Many times there is more than one tag field affected.

I use it often when I find a misspelling and it works like a champ.

[billinrio]

You seem to be describing Tags in your files metadata that you want to change in bulk.  I call doing this kind of thing "auditing my library".  This is where you sweep through the library and canonicalize everything to be consistent.

The general approach is to search (or sort) your library for the "bad tags", then highlight the files that contain these tags.  Finally, you change the bad tags to good tags in one operation.  For example, if you highlighted every file that contains "Mozart, Wolfgang" and then changed it to "Mozart"... all you have to do is put Mozart in the (Composer, Artist, etc) tag one time and it changes it for ALL of the files all at once.

Doing this by searching isn't bad if you have a half dozen to do.  If you have more, I like to use a Panes view.  Panes are very powerful and they have the advantage of each PANE showing you every single value in the entire library.  For example, if you make a Panes View and have one pane that shows Composer, you can scroll through that list and see every value.  When you see wrong values, you can select it, select the files, and then change that value in the Tagging Window to the left.  All at once, you will have changed the bad tag value to your good one for those files.

I have made several different kinds of Library Auditing Views using Panes.  This is actually a really cool thing about MC.  It has allowed me to really take control of my library and to make all the metadata "perfect" relatively quickly.

Note that while in a Panes view, the search box at the upper right still works.  So you can do a search for something like "Mozart" and then see all of the values in the Composer Panes area that contain that value.  This is a very powerful way of combining the "show me all values" part of Panes with searching to narrow things down.

Best of luck.

Brian.

Thanks very much for your very clear explanation.  I had never used the "Panes View".  Your solution worked perfectly.  Many thanks!

[blgentry]

Awesome!

Panes are one of MC's greatest features.  They have more power than is apparent at first.  Especially when you discover that Panes can contain saved searches!

Glad to hear you were able to make your library nicer and cleaner.

Take care,
Brian.

[aliciaviola]

There is a very simple solution to correct misspellings.
If you detect a fault, like in your example "Mozart, Wofgang" in the composer field, make a right click on composer on the left side of the tag field. In the context menu that opens choose: Filter Current View to this Value.
Then you will see all albums, tracks with the misspelled name and only them. Choose all albums and you can correct the fault for all files.
Frank