MediaMonkey forum

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UPDATE 2020-05-21 :
It turns out that the album tag turning empty is NOT because of the "infer file properties" checkbox but rather because of MM not succeeding to read the Album and Genre tags of some m4a files.
@Lowlander Just opened a new bug about it in on the developers list of bugs.
https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=16634
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Hello everyone,

Steps to reproduce :

1. Make sure you have an empty library (with no monitored folders and Music is empty. You can do it by closing MediaMonkey and temporarily renaming your MM database in ...\AppData\Roaming\MediaMonkey directory).
2. In Windows Explorer prepare a temporary folder with a small number of tracks.
Make sure some of the tracks have the same Artist tag.
Set a different Album tag FOR EACH TRACK.
Make sure every track has Artist,Title,Album tags
3. Launch MM.
4. Tools > Options > Library > disable "infer file properties"
5. Tools > Options > Library > Tags & Playlists > enable "update tags when editing properties"
6. File > Add/Rescan files to the Library....and choose the the folder you prepared.

Expected result : Tags are not changed.

Actual result : The Album tag of tracks which had the same Artist is erased !!

Screenshot of the Actual Result - https://i.imgur.com/xpyYdu3.jpg

BTW 1 - Until this bug is fixed I'm having "update tags when editing properties" (in the "tags & playlists" settings window) being disabled but this is for me only a temporary workaround - I hope this bug is fixed so I can enable "update tags when editing properties" again.

BTW 2 - It seems that for most of my folders there's no difference when they are scanned with "infer file properties" enabled or disabled. I get the same "intervention" with my tags. With or without my consent.

As a final note, I acknowledge that for most users this issue is not important because files under a specific folder are all from the same album but I think many users have on their drive some folders with "mixed" files.
As a result of this bug I can't use MM.

Thanks in advance.

Win 7 x64
MediaMonkey 4.1.28.1905

What did you use to modify the Album value? Or is the problem the last file which has Artist MF DOOM?

Hi,
Can you send me DL link to those 4 files after step 2 and those same 4 files after step 6?

My you can write me at pavle mediamonkey.com

Lowlander wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 6:27 pm What did you use to modify the Album value? Or is the problem the last file which has Artist MF DOOM?

1. As I reported I used Windows Explorer to set the tags (but you can use mp3Tag or another tool).
2. I did MANY tests - with small number of tracks and with many files and folders. Same wrong results on every test I did.

I'm adding an optional step [7] to the STR :
MediaMonkey has an option to write the tags to the actual files by selecting the tracks and using CTRL-S . So If you ctrl-s and "confirm" those wrong tags will actually overwrite the original (before step 3) tags of those files.

Peke wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 6:31 pm Hi,
Can you send me DL link to those 4 files after step 2 and those same 4 files after step 6?

My you can write me at pavle mediamonkey.com

Done.

Hi,
Thank you, analyzing. Please do not delete DL links for now.

Peke wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:30 pm Hi,
Thank you, analyzing. Please do not delete DL links for now.

OK

Lowlander wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2020 10:37 am Disable Infer File Properties under Tools > Options > Library as it infers tags from folder/filenames.

@Lowlander ,
This could have been a good advice for the users above if MediaMonkey really stopped inferring file properties when the checkbox is disabled....but sadly it doesn't really stop.

I've searched this forum and found some posts over the years complaining about this issue (including here by @Hpoonis2010) but there was no a bug report with STR (steps to reproduce) in the Bug Reports forum.
So yesterday I decided to post there a simple STR on a "clean" library - viewtopic.php?f=7&t=96586

Inspite of it, thank you @Lowlander for posting this info :

Lowlander wrote: ↑Tue Jan 21, 2020 11:10 am MediaMonkey can auto-fill empty tags, but won't save them to the files until you edit the files or use Ctrl+S on selected files to save the tags to the file. Try Ctrl+S on selected files and then check in other software.

My last post in this forum (post number 468392) was posted to this thread - viewtopic.php?f=7&t=95811 - So why does it appear here in this thread (above this post)?

Is this because of a technical problem in the forum or was it moved intentionally ?

It is true that the post deals with the bug I reported here in this thread but the post relates to posts/participants of the other thread.

So can you please put it where it was intended to be posted ?

I'm unable to reproduce. Does this only happen with M4A files or with other File Type(s) as well?

Lowlander wrote: ↑Wed May 20, 2020 2:37 pm I'm unable to reproduce. Does this only happen with M4A files or with other File Type(s) as well?

1.I'll check with mp3 files.
2.I'll pm you the download link I sent @Peke so you can try again to reproduce.

Lowlander wrote: ↑Wed May 20, 2020 2:37 pm I'm unable to reproduce. Does this only happen with M4A files or with other File Type(s) as well?

@Lowlander, a good suggestion !!
I scanned a folder of about 200 mp3 tracks and there was no problem !!

BTW - I forgot to test mp3 files because in the last few years all my files are m4a.

The originals presented by you exhibit the problem. However if I use Explorer to change the Album tag on one of the files that has an empty Album value on import in MediaMonkey, it imports correctly with the new value on a clean database.

So it seems that something on your system might be writing the tags differently. It likely comes down on tags in the files and how they're written. I also tested with MM5 and it has the same problem.

When in File Explorer I add a . at the end of the Album and OK Properties, then remove it and OK Properties and then import it into MediaMonkey it shows the correct Album info.

https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=16634

1. @Lowlander, I don't understand this sentence of yours : ".... on one of the files that has empty Album on import...."
What do you mean by "on import" ? "before import" or "after import" ? As I wrote on the STR - NO files had empty Album before import.


2. @Lowlander, sorry, but I don't understand the rest of your post either.
You wrote: "So it seems that something on your system might be writing the tags differently..."
What do you mean "something on your system" - I used Windows Foobar2000's built in Masstagger to set all my files Album tag.
Do Foobar2000 (or Windows Explorer) write the Album tag different than MM ?