Thanks so much. This is a very useful post. I was not even aware of an option that disables track # writing. Let me find it now.
Doh! That is why I asked:
So, what is the real issue you are having with MC not writing leading zeros to tags in files? Perhaps the underlying issue you have can be solved.
You say "no other media player that I have ever used makes the changes that MC does", but MC isn't just a media player. It is a Media Manager, 10' Interface, Media Visualisation, etc. Oh, and also a Player. If you have been using MC as just a Player for the last nine years then that means that you are using some other applications for media management. Is the problem with the padded Track # actually an issue in another application?
So my question above stands; What is the real issue you are having, that makes having integer values for the Track # stored in file tags and problem for you?
If you just don't like having the leading zero stripped because of the look, that is just being stubborn. The [Track #] field in MC does what it is supposed to do.
If all you really want is to see a track number with leading zeros in MC, that could be easily done. If stripping leading zeros from the tag causes other software to stop working, tell us about it.You should also note that all tags inside files are saved as strings, because that is all that can be saved to a file. It isn't a database. There isn't a way to mark a tags as an Integer, Floating Point Number, String, etc. All Media Managers and Players make some assumption about what the string content is supposed to be in a tag. That is why a leading zero can be added to the Track # tag inside a file; Because it is a string. MC interprets the Track # tag as an integer, and so correctly strips the leading zero from the string in which it was saved.
As Lepa says, you can turn off writing of individual Track # values to tags via the Manage Library Fields functionality. That works even for standard tags Lepa.
Some other pointers:
You can tell MC to update its Library based on external changes you have made to files in Auto Import Configuration, under Tasks.
You can also tell MC in Auto Import Configuration, under Tasks, to Analyse Audio, get Cover Art, apply optional tags on import, and write those tags to the files,
or not write them.
You can tell MC or store Cover Art inside files, or not.
You can turn on tagging in Theatre View, or not.
You can tell MC to update tags when file information in the Library changes, or not. This is the major setting for tagging files, under "Options > General > Importing & Tagging > Update tags when file info changes".
Basically, you are in complete control over whether MC writes tags to files or not, and you don't need to write protect the media files to exert that control.
Also, if MC wrote values to field tags that you didn't want, that means that MC had different values for those fields in its Library, and you had tag writing turned on, so MC updated the tags. All you probably needed to do was select all files and run the "Update Library (from tags)" function to have MC updated with the data you have in tags in your media files. Sure, the Track # tag is a special case. But if you used MC as your only Media Manager, then that probably wouldn't be an issue for you, unless you just want the aesthetics of a padded [Track #] field. As above, I can explain a workaround for that which may be acceptable. Yes, a workaround. They aren't all bad.
With an open mind, a little bit of questioning, cooperation, and learning, you could be getting much more value out of MC.
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Topic: Bugfix: Stop Removing Leading Zeros From My Track Numbers (Read 1555 times)