Help Music Tags: Unknown Artist

[heezdad]

I've got an HTC Desire. Just noticed that loads of my songs are tagged as 'Unknown Artist'. Seems to be just the wma files.

I'm a bit anti I-Tunes so have been using Windows Media Player to rip CDs, but this obviously creates wma files. Does Android not like wma? I cant see anyway of converting the files from within Media Player.

I guess I could upgrade my Mixzing app to get the tag editor, but there's over 250 unknown artist songs which will get laborious.

Any thoughts on best solution

thanks

 

[Chew]

I use mp3tag to fix this type of thing. It's easy to do multiple files by the same artist. Doing a bunch of different artists may take quite a while.

But, either way: it's easier to do it on a PC/laptop than on the phone. Plus, it's free.

Mp3tag - the universal Tag Editor (ID3v2, MP4, OGG, FLAC, ...)

 

[heezdad]

Thanks Chew

Excuse my dimness, but the tags are all correct on the PC just not on the phone. Will mp3 tag sort this? And do I download it from the web or the market?

PS Would it be easier for me to use something other than Windows Media Player in future? Preferably not I-Tunes!

 

[Chew]

If they are correct on the PC, that may not be your problem. Fire up mp3tag and add all your files, click on the artist column to rearrange and see where or if you're missing anything. If you aren't missing anything then maybe you should convert those files to mp3? I had a similar problem with m4a files. After I converted them to mp3, everything was fine.

mp3tag is for your PC, it's not an app. You should be able to mount your phone on your PC and then just point mp3tag to your music directory on your phone to correct these tags....if needed.

 

[Chew]

Just checked Windows Media Player. There is an option in the Settings to change the file format you can rip to. I would change that to "mp3".

 

[Fisz]

I tried all sorts of softwares to tag my music files with, but a great deal of them had issues with all the obscure music I had, especially if they were foreign. Eventually I used Zune to assign tags, as it's the quickest and smoothest method I found. If your music library is made of mostly popular stuff then you should be OK with any other tagging software.

 

[sitlet]

Android doesnt support wma files, so it probably cant read the tags correctly. FYI, do youself a favor and stop ripping with wma's, they are horribly outdated and give you music horrible quality.

 

[heezdad]

thanks alot guys

I've changed the Windows Media Player Rip settings from wma to mp3. Should I up the bit rate from the default 128kbs?

Tried mp3 tag but doesnt seem to have worked. Is there an easy way to convert wma files to mp3?

 

[Chew]

128 is way too low, imo. 192 at the minimum.

When you say mp3tag didn't work, what do you mean? Changing the tags or were you expecting a wma-mp3 conversion?

 

[Fisz]

For converting files eRightsoft Super is easy and reliable.

 

[heezdad]

128 is way too low, imo. 192 at the minimum.

When you say mp3tag didn't work, what do you mean? Changing the tags or were you expecting a wma-mp3 conversion?

Changing the tags didnt work. I presume I did it right? I uploaded the files from my phone, clicked on them one at a time to get the tags to show in the left hand column - all seemed correct. Then clicked 'Save'. But nothing changed on my phone

PS Why was this post moved? Surely its an android issue, not HTC desire specific??

 

[Fishyweb]

Hey guys, you should know that this problem with WMA tags was only introduced with Android 2.2. I have a huge collection of WMA files, and they used to work fine with the stock (and other) music player when I first got my Desire, when it was running 2.1. However, when the Android 2.2 update was pushed out, it was immediately clear that the WMA tags were no longer being recognised. I tried a few other players as well as stock, and the problem was the same. I gather that others have noticed this to be the case on other manufacturers phones with 2.2, so I don't think it is an HTC problem.

However, someone pointed me in the direction of Mortplayer, available free from the market. This somehow works fine with WMA files, and is the only player that I know of which does so on Android 2.2. So, for the time being, I'm happy to use that as a workaround. However, Google need to resolve this problem at source.

See Issue 4620 - android - Music Player ignores WMA metadata track number - Project Hosting on Google Code for more info. I'm hoping that since this is a thread on a Google group, that Google may be taking notice of the issues discussed. I also raised the issue with HTC support after the 2.2 upgrade.

 

[heezdad]

Hmm interesting, thanks Fishy

looks like file conversion is the way ahead for me

 

[Fatwaz]

I put thus on the bugs and fixes thread about 2.2 as I had same trouble.I had to change all the wma files to mp3 took fecking ages

 

[CarsnGadgets]

by the way, if you have any problems with mp3 tags on the desire, the app 'itag' is great for editing the tags and adding missing album art, its free, small, installs to sd and seems to work well.

 

[Dan Fielding]

Android doesnt support wma files, so it probably cant read the tags correctly. FYI, do youself a favor and stop ripping with wma's, they are horribly outdated and give you music horrible quality.

And MP3s are top quality? That must be the only way you listen to music. WMAs in a lossless format are perfectly fine and excellent quality.

 

[MSmittyy]

For those that don't want to have to reformat all of their Mp4's to Mp3's simply for tagging issues.

I tried everything and after much trial and error, this is what worked for me.

Download Mp3tag, connect your phone via USB to your computer. Inside Mp3tag open your phone's Music folder in the directory to directly edit the songs on the phone. Select ALL of the mp4 files on your phone on Mp3tag's interface. Right click and choose 'Extended Tags'

Remove these fields:
-Compilation
-Discnumber
-BPM
-Anything else that has iTunes in the title

Save. Viola, your phone will now read the tags. Now getting it to read the cover art, that's another problem all together.

 

[DrDriller]

i had a problem on my galaxy S2 running ICS 4.03, my mp3 tags were right on the computer, but a few of them showed as unknown artists on the phone, no matter the music players used.

i've tried to delete the database then rebuild, a few mp3 tag

 

[DrDriller]

(sorry for spamming the forum but i've been looking for a solution for 2 days all overs the internet and found many people with the issue, so i wan't to share the info)

 

[Gadikrocavmak]

Hey, try it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.gorgonloop.MediaFix&hl=hu

It was good for me and easy to use!

Good luck!