Retagging genre in mp3tag

[castalla]

I have a collection of tagged albums (using mp3tag).

I want to retag groups of albums (changing the genre to one category).

Can someone point me to how to do this - rather than retag each album separately?

[bookemdano]

I would be interested to know the most efficient way to do this too. I was hoping the last.fm plus genre plugin for Picard would get me consistent results but it's not great. I'm resigned now to tagging grouping and genre tags manually but before I set out I'd like to simplify the process as much as possible. I usually use a Mac but really good tagging apps are few and far between (was unable to get puddletag to work). So I think mp3tag on windows will be my best bet... if anyone has any tips on streamlining the process that would be great.

[JJZolx]

The only way that I know in Mp3tag is to load up all of the albums and then select the files from each album and change the genre using the Tag Panel, Extended Tags, or perhaps an action group.

That may entail loading up your entire music library if you have your library organized using the common /artist/album/track structure. If the files have something in common (for example, you're renaming a genre like 'Classic Rock' to 'Rock') then you might be able to use a filter (F3) to filter only the desired files into view. If not, then you'll have to go through the files in the list and select them manually.

[enz01]

In Win Explorer or similar (NOT the mp3tag browser), select all the album folders which you wish to update. Then drag them all into mp3tag, in one go. This will load all the album tracks in those folders into mp3tag. Then Ctrl+A to select all the files, enter whatever Genre you want and Ctrl+S to save them all back....simple, huh?

Although the mp3tag browser doesn't seem to allow selection of multiple directories in one go (other than as sub-directories), the fact that you can drag and drop selected directories from Win Explorer or similar makes this really easy (especially as most Win Explorer apps allow you to select contiguous or non-contiguous directories using SHIFT-Click or CTRL-Click, as appropriate).

If you do this, note that all directories must be dragged and dropped in one operation since the drag appears to do an mp3tag "Change directory" rather than an "Add directory"

[castalla]

Thanks! A great tip.

[CharlieG]

Enz01,
That is really a great tip.
I don't know why, but "drag and drop" is not usually my first thought.
Thanks

[usch]

note that all directories must be dragged and dropped in one operation since the drag appears to do an mp3tag "Change directory" rather than an "Add directory"

You can add items to mp3tag if you hold the Ctrl key while dragging.

[JJZolx]

You don't have to use drag-and-drop. You can also select the folders and then use the Windows Explorer context (right-click) menu and select Mp3tag.

But one thing I can't understand: I don't see how to select multiple folders in Windows Explorer unless they have the same parent folder. So if you have your library organized /artist/album/track, you couldn't select /Artist1/Album3 and /Artist2/Album1. You _could_ select multiple albums from a single artist, or multiple artists (loading all albums), but that's it.

[usch]

I don't see how to select multiple folders in Windows Explorer unless they have the same parent folder.

Windows search → File type "Folder" → Include subfolders, then select them from the search results.

[enz01]

You can add items to mp3tag if you hold the Ctrl key while dragging.

Oh brilliant, that's the one thing I never thought of trying. It works really well and defo makes click&drag the most flexible way of adding multiple albums to the mp3tag workspace