Invisible tags?

[pqpq]

I have a large library of mainly flac files. They're mostly accurately tagged, but now and again I notice an error when playing a file, so use MP3tag to go in and correct it. Increasingly though when I do that, MP3tag doesn't turn up an error. So right now I'm listening to a compilation album, and the artist is showing both VA and the actual artist. No, problem, I thought, I just need to delete the albumartist/ album artist tag. But neither of those tags are present, nor is there anything else showing VA. It's as though there are "invisible" tags MP3tag can't see. Trawling around on the net, I've come across people saying it can be a corrupt file even though these play fine, but the solutions I've found only work for mp3 files. Does anyone know what's going on here and what I can do about it? Thanks!

[d6jg]

I have a large library of mainly flac files. They're mostly accurately tagged, but now and again I notice an error when playing a file, so use MP3tag to go in and correct it. Increasingly though when I do that, MP3tag doesn't turn up an error. So right now I'm listening to a compilation album, and the artist is showing both VA and the actual artist. No, problem, I thought, I just need to delete the albumartist/ album artist tag. But neither of those tags are present, nor is there anything else showing VA. It's as though there are "invisible" tags MP3tag can't see. Trawling around on the net, I've come across people saying it can be a corrupt file even though these play fine, but the solutions I've found only work for mp3 files. Does anyone know what's going on here and what I can do about it? Thanks!

There is some logic inside LMS scanner that deals with compilations and there have often been (arguments) discussions about the proper use.

First there is the COMPILATION tag. If this is set to 1. Then LMS treats the album as a compilation and will file it under whatever is shown in (1) below. and optionally under each artist (2)

Howver if the compilation tag isn't present but your album tagging contains different track artists but NO album artist LMS will also treat the album as a compilation and obery the same rules.

Some people apply an ALBUMARTIST tag of "Various Artists" but different things occur when you do this - not necessarily desired.

Does this help?

[pqpq]

Thanks, but no. I always use the compilation tag, and it's present on this album. I never use the album artist or albumartist tags on compilations becasue I don't like the issues that creates. I've been doing this a long time and I know that the tags MP3TAG is showing for this album is what I want, and what works on 99% of my other compilation albums. There must be an issue with this album which isn't visible on MP3tag. I also have problems like this on non compilation albums - but I don't have an example to hand. It's always the same issue though, ie the file seems to have tags which MP3tag can't see.

[d6jg]

Thanks, but no. I always use the compilation tag, and it's present on this album. I never use the album artist or albumartist tags on compilations becasue I don't like the issues that creates. I've been doing this a long time and I know that the tags MP3TAG is showing for this album is what I want, and what works on 99% of my other compilation albums. There must be an issue with this album which isn't visible on MP3tag. I also have problems like this on non compilation albums - but I don't have an example to hand. It's always the same issue though, ie the file seems to have tags which MP3tag can't see.

I misunderstood what you meant.

What do you have set under Tools / Options / Tags in MP3Tag ? Is everything reradable ?

[Apesbrain]

If MP3, I've run into issues like this when there is a mismatch between ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags in the same file. With settings as above, load the offending files into Mp3tag and delete tags, then undo. This will remove and rewrite tags according to your settings. You may need to do a "clear library" rescan to get the revised tags into LMS' database, or put a "noscan.txt"* file in the folder, run a "new/changed" rescan to remove those files from the library db, then delete the noscan.txt and run "new/changed" scan again.

If FLAC, check that these files don't also have ID3 tags. Mp3tag will tell you if you show the "Tag" column. The fix is the same as above.

*This must already be defined in "Settings": "My Music" tab > Skip Sentinel Filename.

[RobinpCP]

If the track artists are different even slightly in your compilation album and you do not define "ALBUMARTIST" or "ALBUM ARTIST", LMS shows "Various Artists" for this album.

[spacecase-25]

Try using puddletag. It's the only program I've found that shows every tag, even ones that are completely non-standard.

[pfarrell]

Another tag debugging tool that I've found useful is a go library by dhowden. But, its a shell/cmd program and it requires you build it from source.
Its written in Google's go language, all open source, free and all that.

https://github.com/dhowden/tag

Its handy because it can display the raw tags in the file.

If someone desperately wants an executable binary for Windows or AMD64 linux, I could probably send it if you DM me.

It produces output like this:

Metadata Format: VORBIS
File Type: FLAC
Title: I Let My Mind Wander
Album: Me & Paul
Artist: Willie Nelson
Composer:
Genre:
Year: 2004
Track: 3 of 12
Disc: 1 of 1
Picture: Picture{Ext: jpg, MIMEType: image/jpeg, Type: Cover (front), Description: , Data.Size: 46651}
Lyrics:
Comment:


"albumartist": "Willie Nelson"
"originalyear": "1985"
"originaldate": "1985"
"totaldiscs": "1"
"acoustid_id": "e06f5017-d063-4139-96cc-c9ed0ca0c20e"
"script": "Latn"
"title": "I Let My Mind Wander"
"artistsort": "Nelson, Willie"
"musicbrainz_releasetrackid": "c33f8f03-6b2a-49f3-8c69-ebb11019e592"