Windows 7 unable to read\write ID3 on some MP3 files
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Sunday, April 19, 2009 4:23 PMHi all
I have several MP3 files that Windows 7 (x64) seems to have issues with reading the ID3 tags. Windows 2003 seems fine reading and writing to these files. I have compared the files in question with ones that do not have this issue and can see no difference.
I will be installing Windows 7 x32 to see if this is a x64 specific issue.
(I can provide samples of working\non-worknig files.)
Regards,
Alan.
All Replies
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009 8:32 AM
Hi Alan,
Thank you for your feedback. I did a check on our bug database, and confirm it is a known bug and will be fixed in future version.
Thanks.
- Marked As Answer by Jabez GanMVP, Editor Tuesday, April 21, 2009 10:36 AM
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009 9:27 PMHi there,
Do you have any details on the bug? I am concerned this is similar to the last bug that I thought was fixed in recent releases of the beta? (Where the first few seconds of an mp3 file could be damaged if windows 7 edited any metadata (ID3).
Or is this just an issue with reading the ID3 data? I can see no difference between working and non working files.
This also occours on the x32 version FYI.
Regards,
Alan. -
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 8:12 AMIt seems related to ID3 v2.4, I am not sure.
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009 6:35 PMhi Robinson Zhang, do you know if this issue was addresse in the RC?I have the RC installed and WMP 12 does not recognize any of the MP3 files to tag, it shows no album art nothing, well Windows 7 OS doesn't either, if you browse the file, all the WMA files show up with data in the windows explorer but not the MP3s...hopefully this will be addressed?
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Friday, May 22, 2009 1:05 AMHi All,
I just wanted to add that I've seen this as well. WinAmp, iTunes, foobar2000 and MP3Tag all see the tags fine. I'm on 64-bit W7RC. Tags are visible on Vista and WMP11. -
Thursday, May 28, 2009 12:35 PM An update. I found this forum entry on Windows choking on disc number tags like 1/2, 2/2. So I changed some of the folders to have a disc number like "1" or "2" and W7RC and WMP reads the tags fine.
- Proposed As Answer by Carlos Rubalcava Friday, October 23, 2009 3:52 PM
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Friday, June 12, 2009 4:57 PMI have a similar issue, my library is on a Vista machine that is WMA and MP3 files, all files are found and read fine on the Vista/WMP11 machine.I shared this folder with my Windows 7 RC machine and the MP3s tags are not read, it doesn't recognize any of the data, it will play the music, but it doesn't have any of its metadata.Is there a fix coming?
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009 2:35 AM
Did this issue ever get resolved? I just did a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate x64 OEM and I get an error message every time I try to edit a MP3 tag in Winamp. I haven't tried WMP yet, because I'd rather not use WMP. The error I'm getting says "Cannot save metadata: Error opening file". I can play these MP3 files just fine but I am not able to edit any MP3 tags.
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009 5:01 AM
Do you have privileges to edit that file... ? This may be unrelated to the original issue under discussion here, given that you're not using an Microsoft ID3 editor there.
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009 5:13 AM
Yes, the administrator group has full control and is the owner of these MP3 files. I am a member of the administrators group. I did not have this problem with XP, it started happening after I installed Windows 7.
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009 1:10 AMI am having this same issue. Fresh install of Windows 7 Pro.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14540614@N06/4094335686/
These are all from the same download from AmazonMP3. -
Thursday, November 19, 2009 1:04 AMI am having the same issue. I am trying to edit some mp3 files on an external drive. I have Win7 Pro. Error is
--------------------------- Error saving metadata ---------------------------
Cannot save metadata: Error opening file
.--------------------------- OK ---------------------------
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Friday, November 20, 2009 1:15 PMI finally figured out my issue. Even though the administrator's group has full control and I am a member of the admin group, I had to add the "authenticated users" group with write permissions. Then it started working. Hope this helps.
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Monday, December 07, 2009 8:06 PMI have the same issue. I tried everything that's been suggested here and on other threads i searched and still nothing. Is this bug supposedly fixed already?
I also have some issues while updating my albums information through wmp 12: the art displayed doesn't match what is found; and it sometimes splits an album into 2 or more because it can't change some songs' attribute (like genre or year).
Are these problems all due to the same cause?
Thanks -
Wednesday, December 09, 2009 1:19 AM
The question is whether any tool can update the tags on those files. If it's just WMP, that might be a WMP-centric issue. If no tool (such as WinAMP) can update the tags, then it's likely a file or permissions issue.
So: can *anything* update the tags?
This question is important to ask since only you have access to those files, and thus no one else can really validate them. :( -
Thursday, December 10, 2009 8:26 PMThe files all have the default permissions:
-authenticated users can read, write, execute and modify
-system and admin have full permissions
-users have read permissions
And those mp3 files that i can't change through wmp i cant' change in explorer either. I remove all their proprieties and when it the Apply button they re-aper :S
I also tried to remove the system and admin permissions and then remove the file proprieties. I works fine, but when i put the permissions back the files proprieties re-aper as well!
I haven't tried Winamp though -
Thursday, December 10, 2009 9:34 PMThat's the point at which you want to try editing it with another editor or inspect the file. It's hard to know what's in the file since it's only on your box. If there was a sample file to look at, that might be illuminative. You can also use the ASFView tool from microsoft.com to inspect the file, but that's a little more of a developer tool. =)
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009 5:07 AMI was reading in an iTunes forum because these files stopped playing in iTunes. A post about validating your mp3 files gave a link to a program that would fix this problem, and VOILA, it worked. Try this program and let me know if this fixes your problem.
http://www.gromkov.com/faq/repair/mp3_validator.html -
Thursday, December 17, 2009 6:23 AM
I was reading in an iTunes forum because these files stopped playing in iTunes. A post about validating your mp3 files gave a link to a program that would fix this problem, and VOILA, it worked. Try this program and let me know if this fixes your problem.
http://www.gromkov.com/faq/repair/mp3_validator.html
Hi, I also have been having trouble editing my ID3 tags in Windows 7 x64. I have tried running this validator on some files that refuse to update and it said that the files were ok. I used to use the third-party app DBPowerAmp for editing my ID3 tags in Vista but that does not work now either in Windows 7. this makes me think that it is probably a windows issue rather than just WMP 12. This really should be fixed by now!
EDIT: I have found a solution that works for me
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itpromedia/thread/4b362563-88d8-4814-9ae3-f98e21375af2
I copied a section from it...
"1) Installed mp3tag, as suggested, and opened it;
2) Brought up my Music library
3) Chose Arrange by: Song* so that all my songs would be shown in one list (even those contained in folders) in detailed visualization
3) Typed "*.mp3" in the search box right over the arrange by option so that only mp3 files would show up in the list (excluding album covers etc.)
4) Scrolled all the way down till songs with no tags started appearing
5) Selected all these files and carried them over to the mp3tag window
6) Selected all the files in mp3tag and right-clicked them
7) Clicked Cut Tags, chose Yes and waited
8) Repeated step 6 and clicked Paste Tags.
And that worked just fine. Windows 7 started playing nice with all the songs it didn't use to.
In case you're worried about steps 7 and 8, you should know that you're safe if you cut the tags and then paste them over the exact same songs without resorting the list. (Actually, I didn't try resorting before pasting to see what happens, but I'm pretty sure that that's something we should avoid doing. I'm guessing mp3tag pastes the first set of tags in the clipboard to the first song in the list, the second set of tags to the second song in the list and so on.) If you're still unsure, try cutting one song's tags and pasting them over the song itself, then test it with two songs and when you're confident enough select all songs, cut tags and then paste."- Proposed As Answer by wjhmiller Saturday, January 14, 2012 11:27 PM
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Friday, December 18, 2009 11:55 PM
I was reading in an iTunes forum because these files stopped playing in iTunes. A post about validating your mp3 files gave a link to a program that would fix this problem, and VOILA, it worked. Try this program and let me know if this fixes your problem.
http://www.gromkov.com/faq/repair/mp3_validator.html
Hi, I also have been having trouble editing my ID3 tags in Windows 7 x64. I have tried running this validator on some files that refuse to update and it said that the files were ok. I used to use the third-party app DBPowerAmp for editing my ID3 tags in Vista but that does not work now either in Windows 7. this makes me think that it is probably a windows issue rather than just WMP 12. This really should be fixed by now!
EDIT: I have found a solution that works for me
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itpromedia/thread/4b362563-88d8-4814-9ae3-f98e21375af2
I copied a section from it...
"1) Installed mp3tag, as suggested, and opened it;
2) Brought up my Music library
3) Chose Arrange by: Song* so that all my songs would be shown in one list (even those contained in folders) in detailed visualization
3) Typed "*.mp3" in the search box right over the arrange by option so that only mp3 files would show up in the list (excluding album covers etc.)
4) Scrolled all the way down till songs with no tags started appearing
5) Selected all these files and carried them over to the mp3tag window
6) Selected all the files in mp3tag and right-clicked them
7) Clicked Cut Tags, chose Yes and waited
8) Repeated step 6 and clicked Paste Tags.
And that worked just fine. Windows 7 started playing nice with all the songs it didn't use to.
In case you're worried about steps 7 and 8, you should know that you're safe if you cut the tags and then paste them over the exact same songs without resorting the list. (Actually, I didn't try resorting before pasting to see what happens, but I'm pretty sure that that's something we should avoid doing. I'm guessing mp3tag pastes the first set of tags in the clipboard to the first song in the list, the second set of tags to the second song in the list and so on.) If you're still unsure, try cutting one song's tags and pasting them over the song itself, then test it with two songs and when you're confident enough select all songs, cut tags and then paste."
hello again,
I tried the method suggested here and i finally found the problem. Aparently there are some hidden tags that don't appear when you edit the mp3 files in explorer or in wmp, like the "comments" and "cd cover" which, for some reason, seem to prevent the file from being edited normally. I removed these and when i searched the files info again trough wmp, they changed to what they were supposed to:D
I tried the same method with other files that I had some trouble updating and it worked!
I finally have my library perfectly organized.
I hope Microsoft finds a way to fix this in future patches.
My most sincere thanks to everyone who helped solve this problem.- Proposed As Answer by wjhmiller Saturday, January 14, 2012 11:26 PM
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009 10:25 PMI also had a problem by using Musicbrainz.
The thing is that microsoft doesn't support ID v2.4 so what you have to do in Musicbrainz is go to -> options ->options -> tags and now select 2.3 instead of 2.4 (=default). Now, rewrite the tags and tags should be visible now (it did in my case anyway :) )
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Sunday, August 08, 2010 2:25 PM
i had this problem too and I used the mp3tag software (excelent software: please paypal to them!) to remove this "lock" : really the problem is the cover embedded so you can load the folder in the mp3tag, select all mp3 there, and right click on the thumbnail of the cover in the inspector bar on the left and choose remove cover; Then click save icon to save tags. Works fine.
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Thursday, August 12, 2010 5:41 PM
I'm having same issue, but at least I found that if a certain mp3 file has such a ID3 tag that includes "!" or "/", it won't be read from Windows 7.
In WMP12, such mp3 files are displayed as no length. After removing those characters, its ID3 tag turned to be editable.
Besides, there are a bunch of files displaying size 0 at the WMP12 despite what those correct file size are shown in the file property.
Maybe it's different issue...
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Monday, August 30, 2010 8:25 PMWhat specific tags have "!" or "/" and thus become unreadable? I don't know if those are legit according to the ID3 spec: it'd be useful to know the tags in question so that we could check.
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Wednesday, October 13, 2010 8:45 PMThere is a similar issue with Winzip and Winrar not being able to make the archives anywhere but desktop. Microsoft needs to put a retard switch for people that don't know anything about computers. I want my ADMIN control back so I can use my computer the way I want to use it. Don't lock the whole thing down for experienced users.
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Tuesday, February 22, 2011 9:43 AM
Here's another simple solution to the issue. Freeware that converts ID3v2.4 to ID3v2.3, which both vista and 7 handle well.
All the best, Peter
- Proposed As Answer by Andre.ZieglerMicrosoft Community Contributor Tuesday, February 22, 2011 2:06 PM
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Friday, April 22, 2011 11:23 AM
I think this problem may cause by some dll that has been unregisterd using regsvr32, this issue happened on my computer after once upon a time I wrongly unregistered bunches of dlls using the command regsvr32 /u ... , but i really don't know which dll should be registered to fix it.
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Friday, April 22, 2011 2:33 PMCrysisFood: I suggest that you use System Restore to roll back the system to a restore point from before you unregistered the DLLs. If such a restore point isn't available anymore, a Windows reinstall is probably the way to go.
Tim De Baets
http://www.bm-productions.tk -
Sunday, November 13, 2011 4:59 PM
Everyone who is having this problem and still searching, The issue is related to "/" or "!" in the id3 tags. I use Audioshell to access id3 tags from context menu or you can use Mp3Tag and remove these character from tag. It will be readable in explorer.
Also, there is no problem with ID3 version 2.3 or 2.4. Both are displayed perfectly in win 7.
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Saturday, November 19, 2011 5:15 PM
Dushy4: I personally haven't come across any issues with / or ! characters in ID3 tags - Explorer seems to be able to handle them fine. Do you have any steps to reproduce, or would it be possible to upload a sample MP3 file that shows the problem?
I'm also surprised about your ID3v2.4 claim. Are you sure that the file you tested with only contained v2.4 tags? Do you have any evidence to support this?
Tim De Baets
http://www.bm-productions.tk -
Saturday, January 14, 2012 11:26 PM
I tried this too and it worked!! Downloaded mp3tag. After opening up on left side of screen, with music library open on right half, I dragged songs (I did it one by one to avoid confusion & since it's only some songs that are affected) into the mp3tag screen area. Then right-clicked, selected "tag cut" (hit yes then ok), then "tag paste" (hit yes then ok). Then when i toggled back to the music library and right-click on properties again i can now edit and the edits stay.
Thanks to those who posted this help!
Walter
- Proposed As Answer by wjhmiller Saturday, January 14, 2012 11:27 PM
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Sunday, December 30, 2012 8:49 PM
The problem is the forward slash character (/) in the track no field of the id tag (ex. 1/2) Install mp3tag and make sure you enable the show in explorer option. Put all of the mp3 files in which the tags don't show up in explorer in mp3tag, select all, then on the left pane under track no. click the drop-down and choose blank then save (the disk icon in the toolbar up top). That will erase all of the track no's from the tags and the info should show in explorer.
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Thursday, January 03, 2013 9:10 PM
BigDavefromJers: I'm unable to confirm that on my test system. I used Mp3tag to set the track number of an MP3 file to "2/3" and after saving, Explorer still displayed all tags fine. It even recognized the forward slash, stripping the 2nd part and showing "2" as track number.
There most likely was some other ID3 tag corruption going on which was fixed as soon as Mp3tag rewrote the complete ID3 tag during the save.
Tim De Baets
http://www.bm-productions.tk
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