Unable to read tags from file

[ledman]

Hi

I get the message "ERROR SCANNING <file.flac> Unable to read tags from file" in scanner.log when scanning in flac files on my Squeezebox Classic. All other formats (mp3 and wav) scan ok.

I'm using Ubuntu 9.04 and Squeezebox Server v7.4.1 installed via Synaptic. I imported all music from CD using Sound Juicer.

I suspect that SB can't determine the track length of flac files. When I use a tag program (mainly kid3-qt), it doesn't display the duration for flac files but does for mp3s. In Nautilus, when I 'right click -> properties -> audio' on flac files, the duration appears. The duration also appears in Rhythmbox and Amarak etc.

I reckon this "missing" track length is the key.

Using kid3-qt I filtered for ID3 tags in the flac files and there were none - they are all Vorbis only. Some tags were generated using the file structure and have basic info, and other tags have full data from MusicBrainz.

I tried converting a flac file to mp3 and the track length magically appears in an Info header of the tag. The mp3 files scans in properly to the SB. But when I convert the mp3 back to flac the duration goes missing again and the flac file does not scan in.

The file permissions are "-rw-r--r--" (I also ran "chmod -R a+rX .” from the top level Music folder), and all folders are set to "drwxr-xr-x" The squeezeboxserver directories belong to group "nogroup" with owner "squeezeboxserver - SqueezeBox"

Any thoughts on why flacs won't scan? I'm guessing the problem is with the tags since that's the error message I get, but I can't see anything wrong with them. I've tried deleting all unneccessary fields but same result. Does anyone know if there are certain fields that the scanner doesn't like? Or certain fields that it DOES like to see?

Ledman

[snarlydwarf]

7.4.1 removed (accidentally, though not a totally bad idea) support for ID3 tags in flacs.

7.4.2 returned that feature (or misfeature....)

Vorbis tags are MUCH more flexible than ID3 tags, so it would be best if you used them instead of ID3...

But if you don't have a tagger you like (I use MusicBrainz Picard for a first run, and handtune on the command line with metaflac), upgrade to a 7.4.2 nightly (it's VERY stable, it's due to be officially released any day now) and you'll get support for id3-tagged FLACs.

Vorbis tags on flacs are still better though.

[ledman]

Hi Snarly D

Ta for the tips. Hopefully 7.4.2 is released soon. I need a miracle.

My flac files only have Vorbis tags so I don't know what else to do to get them to scan in. I guess if 7.4.2 fails then I might have to consider generating ID3 tags from the vorbis tags. Not ideal, but I'm very desperate.

I also used Picard for the first run and then hand tweaked using kid3-qt.

When I go to the music location folder, all of the flac files are there. But when I try to play them the SB shuts down. Do you know if this shutdown is logged into a file anywhere that might give me some clues?

Ledman

[Mnyb]

server.log and scanner.log files location is OS dependent look in the information tab in settings in the web-UI of sbs.

Btw try with a commercially aviable flac file with tags untouched by you, to see if it works at all ?

This is very weird as flac playback is native to the players and have been working for ages .

Does it work if you remove the tags completely from a file ? and play via browse music folder ?

[matka]

Hi Snarly D

Ta for the tips. Hopefully 7.4.2 is released soon. I need a miracle.

My flac files only have Vorbis tags so I don't know what else to do to get them to scan in. I guess if 7.4.2 fails then I might have to consider generating ID3 tags from the vorbis tags. Not ideal, but I'm very desperate.

I also used Picard for the first run and then hand tweaked using kid3-qt.

When I go to the music location folder, all of the flac files are there. But when I try to play them the SB shuts down. Do you know if this shutdown is logged into a file anywhere that might give me some clues?

Ledman
Can you display tags/comments using metaflac from command line ?

metaflac --list track01.flac | more

[ledman]

Hi all

* Mnyb, you asked "Does it work if you remove the tags completely from a file ? and play via browse music folder ?"

Nope, no change, I still can't scan in flac files even with all tags removed. It is only the flac format that has this problem. Mp3 and wav scan in ok. I can play all flac files using any other ubuntu music player such as rhythmbox, amarak etc.

The flac files appear in the SB Classic Music Folder directory, but not in the Artist or Album directories. When I try to play from the Music Folder dir most of the time the SB says "Now playing" and then "Nothing." Sometimes it briefly displays a message that is a bit hard to read but is something like "Problem <something> error." I can left-arrow back to the folder (I incorrectly said the SB shutdown earlier on, but it is the screen that goes blank).

I installed 7.4.2 about four nights ago but it didn't make any difference. I then went back to 7.4.1.

* Matka, you asked about viewing metaflac output. I got some interesting results. I should add that there are a handful of flac files that scan in ok, although scanner.log says "Invalid MusicBrainz tag found in <...>: MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMID ->" (same goes for all other MusicBrainz fields). They still seem to work on the SB though.

See the two attached files with metaflac data for flacs that pass (albeit with scanner.log msg "Invalid MusicBrainz tag found in <...>: MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMID ->") and fail (with scanner.log msg "ERROR SCANNING <...>: Unable to read tags from file").

Comparing the pass and fail metaflac data, I can see 4 differences:

METADATA block #0
* "framesize"
all fails have framesizes = 0
all passes have framesizes > 0
* "total samples"
all fails = 0
all passes > 0
* "MD5 signature"
fails = 00000000000000000000000000000000
passes > 0
METADATA block #1
* "vendor string"
fails = reference libFLAC 1.1.2 20050205
passes = reference libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917

Note the different in libFLAC versions for passes and fails. All the flac files that scan in properly use libFLAC 1.2.1 and all the flacs that fail to scan use libFLAC 1.1.2. I have no idea why this happens.

I opened Synaptic Package Manager (I'm using Ubuntu 9.04) and filtered on (installed) "libFLAC" and got the following (also see the screenshot file attached):

Package | Installed ver | Latest ver
flac | 1.2.1-1.2 | 1.2.1-1.2
libflac++6 | 1.2.1-1.2 | 1.2.1-1.2
libflac8 | 1.2.1-1.2 | 1.2.1-1.2
libflac-doc | 1.2.1-1.2 | 1.2.1-1.2

I also filtered in Synaptic on "metaflac" (see screenshot file attached) and got:

Package | Installed ver | Latest ver
flac | 1.2.1-1.2 | 1.2.1-1.2

I have no idea where "libFLAC 1.1.2 20050205" comes from. Why would it use libFLAC 1.2.1 sometimes and 1.1.2 other times?

Hopefully this gives us more information to go on.

Frustrating!

[matka]

Your flac files do not look right, md5sum should always be calculated. I've seen some posts on Ubuntu forums when there were problems with Sound Juicer and one of the recommendations to fix it was to rerun thru flac again. I had some flac files with the "libFLAC 1.1.2 20050205" and after passing thru current version of flac that I have it was changed to "libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917". Then try to scan this file and see if it helps.


flac -o test01.flac badTrack.flac

I'm hoping that md5sum and the other missing stuff will be recovered. Meantime Andy G will authoritatively address the lib support.

[ledman]

Hi Andyg and Matka

* When I run "flac -o test01.flac badTrack.flac" it says that the flac file contains an ID3v2 tag and quits. The flac files do not however contain ID3 tags - I used both kid3-qt and EasyTag to confirm that only vorbis tags exist. I can provide screenshots of this if you would like to see.

I also tried "flac -t test01.flac" and it said that the file contained an ID3 tag. I dont' beleive the file does though.

* I tried the suggestion of re-running my flac files through flac (1.2.1) and they now scan in. Here is what I did:

metaflac "FLACFILE" --export-tags-to=/tmp/flactags.txt
flac -d "FLACFILE" -o /tmp/tmpwav.wav
flac --best /tmp/tmpwav.wav -o "FLACFILE"
metaflac "FLACFILE" --import-tags-from=/tmp/flactags.txt
rm /tmp/tmpwav.wav /tmp/flactags.txt

This gave an error message about the MD5sum failing or not existing because it was removed by/at STREAMINFO ? (sorry, I can't remember exacly. I had the error message saved on my ipod, which decided to make some bad whirring noises this morning and does not work now).

Despite the MD5sum error everything worked ok. I now have flac files that scan into my SB Classic with no problems. The scanner.log file is clean for these convered flac files - it says they scanned in fine. The tags are ok and readable as well.

Not sure if it recovered the MD5sum properly or not, I went to bed when the flac files scanned in properly (it was midnight). I can check later.

My conclusion is that flac 1.2.1 works with SB Classic and 1.1.2 does not work.

I will attempt to later mail you some flac files ripped using the Sound Juicer and flac 1.1.2 package that came with Breezy Badger, so you can have a play with them. They were on my ipod which just died though :(

PS: I'm on holiday for a week now so things will be a bit quiet from me for a bit.

Cheers,
Ledman

[ledman]

My Ipod started working again. Here is the output when I used the "flac" command on a flac music file that won't scan in and was ripped using Sound Juicer with flac v 1.1.2:

led@led-desktop:~/Music/All my music$ flac -t barrytest.flac
________________________________
flac 1.2.1, Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007 Josh Coalson
flac comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you are
welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. Type `flac' for details.

barrytest.flac: WARNING, cannot check MD5 signature since it was unset in the STREAMINFO
barrytest.flac: ok

led@led-desktop:~/Music/All my music$ flac barrytest.flac --output-name=badTest.flac

flac 1.2.1, Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007 Josh Coalson
flac comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you are
welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. Type `flac' for details.

ERROR: input file barrytest.flac has an ID3v2 tag
__________________________

I have also included the screenshots from tag programs to show that the file appears to have no ID3 tags. Note that neither program can determine the track length (Rythmbox, Amarok, Nautilus etc can determine it though).

PS: Andyg/Metka, how can I send a problematic 3MB flac music file to you to play with?

Ledman

[andyg]

Lack of the MD5 data or presence of an ID3v2 tag shouldn't break the scanner. To get to the bottom of this I really need to see one of your files.