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[kosmicken]

This may be an Android issue, and if necessary I will post on the Android Forums, but I thought I'd start here.  When I sync my Evo with MC15, not all albums retain the Artist tag, and in the Android music player, they show up under "Unknown artist."  I double checked in MC, and the Artist tag definitely is there, so why would it randomly drop it during sync, and how do I prevent this from happening?

I just thought of this while looking at my phone: same problem with album art.  Sometimes it transfers, sometimes it doesn't.

Relevant details:
MC 15.0.172
Most of my library consists of WAV files, but the tags are there in the library.  The problem isn't exclusive to one file type.
Phone is HTC EVO 4G, using the Android music player

[wig]

I had this problem in the past. It has to do with tags not getting written to the converted files.

Do the converted files exist as stack members in your library? Try expanding your stacks, then use Tools > Library Tools > Update Tags (from library) to write the tags to the files. Then delete the files from your EVO and resync.

[kosmicken]

Thanks for the tip.  As far as I can tell, the artist tag does exist in the converted file, as the correct artist is displayed on for each converted file in the stack, as well as when I browse my EVO in MC.

Before wasting a whole lot of time, I tried your suggestion with one track.  It did not work.  The track is still shows up in its corresponding album under Unknown Artist

Interesting: When I right click the converted file in Windows Explorer and view its properties, the band name is listed under Contributing artist, and Album artist is blank.  This may be why the tag isn't transferring to the portable, but why would this even happen if the Artist field is populated in the MC library?

[rpalmer68]

This is a known issue, that I am hoping will get fixed soon.

When MC converts the files it creates a cached file, this file is tagged correctly in the cache  but is transferred to your handheld BEFORE the tags are written to the file during the conversion process.

So the file on your handheld is untagged.

Delete the files on yor handheld and resync.

This time they will get copied from the cache and not converted again and should have the Artist tag.
 
Note: You may have to force your handheld to rediscover/scan the new/replaced files as it may have its own DB with the untagged info in it.

Richard

[kosmicken]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the info.  Your explanation certainly sounds plauseable, but as I mentioned in my last track, I already tried deleting and resyncing tracks, and the problem still occurs.  And if the the tracks are transferred before the tags are written to the converted files, then the tracks on my mobile wouldn't contain any tags; instead, only the artist tag is missing.

As I mentioned above, when viewing the converted track's properties in Windows Explorer, the artist is listed under Contributing Artist rather than Album Artist, and I'm guessing that is why the Android is not recognizing the artist.  Does anyone know how to prevent this from happening and correctly tag the converted files?

[rpalmer68]

As I mentioned above, when viewing the converted track's properties in Windows Explorer, the artist is listed under Contributing Artist rather than Album Artist, and I'm guessing that is why the Android is not recognizing the artist.  Does anyone know how to prevent this from happening and correctly tag the converted files?

My cached files have "Contributing Artists" tagged and not "Album Artist" as well. 

My mp3 player seems to pick these up fine.  My understanding was that "Contributing artist" as displayed in windows is the same as Artist on other systems, while Album Artist is used more for when you need to have "Various Artists" as the album artist to show an album is a compilation, but I may well be wrong of course.

Check one of your compilations albums, mine are tagged this way.

[kosmicken]

I'm bringing this back to the top.  I really hope someone can help me solve this.  I realize it is likely an issue with the way my phone is choosing to display the tags, as I never had this issue with my Sansa Fuze.  Still, the more artists I add to the phone, the more annoying it becomes to search for an album I want under Unknown artist.

My understanding was that "Contributing artist" as displayed in windows is the same as Artist on other systems, while Album Artist is used more for when you need to have "Various Artists" as the album artist to show an album is a compilation, but I may well be wrong of course.

Check one of your compilations albums, mine are tagged this way.

I did an experiment with tracks from three different compilation albums.

1. Armageddon soundtrack.  This shows up under (Multiple Artists) in my Library. (Complete with parentheses, so it's near the top.)  Each track has a different artist when the album is viewed in MC.  I transferred track 3, What Kind of Love Are You On by Aerosmith.  When I look at the converted stack file in Windows, the Contributing Artist is Aerosmith, and the Album Artist is blank.  This album appears under Unknown on my Andorid.

2. Saw 3 soundtrack.  Appears under Soundtrack when viewing albums by artist in MC.  When viewing the album, each track lists a different Artist.  Transferred track 15, Killer Inside by Hydrovibe.  No converted file created because the originals were already wma.  When viewing in Windows Explorer, Contributing Artist is Hydrovibe and Album Artist is Soundtrack.  Appears under Soundtrack on the Android.

3. Liquor and Poker Music Presents: Girls Got Rhythm 3. (Compilation of metal covers by female artists.)  Appears under Various in MC.  EVERY track has "Various" as the artist in MC.  Transferred track 1, Thunderstruck/Thunderstruck. (The way the names of the tracks are titled for this album "Artist/Title."  Converted stack file in Windows shows Contributing Artist is Various, Album Artist is blank. Shows up under Unknown on the Android.

The conclusion I can draw from this is that the actual artist for a particular track is displayed under the Artist column in MC, but usually shown as Contributing Artist in Windows.  If the Album Artist is blank in Windows, the artist will be Unknown on the Android.

For a regular album with the same artist for all tracks, I feel like Album Artist and Contributing Artist should be the same.  But Album Artist must be populated for it to show up on the Android, and that isn't always happening.  How do I make this happen without manually editing tags for every album I rip?