that is a whole lot of work for something is so ridiculously unneccesary in the first place.

Hi Lovelove,

I want to correct something real quick: I think [b]it IS possible to make the script you wanted at the outset[/b]. The only trick is that you need TWO libraries to make it work. Here's what you do:

1) You start a blank library in MM, set your options in Tools-Options-Tags&Playlists to only use v1 tags. Now scan your collection. Result: you have a MM library containing your v1 tags.

2) You now move the library file to a safe location, and start a new blank library file. Set the MM option to only use v2 tags. Now scan your collection again. Result: you have a second MM library containing your v2 tags.

3) Now, all you need is a simply SQL program to compare the current (v2) library with the external (v1) library and to match tracks (based on location/filename) and to perform a comparison of their v1 versus the v2 tags. You can do this within MM actually - look for the fantastic "Restore PlayHistory/DateAdded/Playlists" script for an example how to access a second database file and match track information: [url]http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=42085[/url]
That way, you can get a list of files with matching v1 and v2 tags - once you have that list, you can perform the mentioned advanced tag management-clear tags function on them.

Of course, I think the alternative of simply using the "unsynchronized tags" node is much easier - even if you don't really know for sure what MM is doing there (since tracks show up either because info in the library file has not been sucessfully saved to tags, OR because there is a v1-v2-inconsistency. But if you start with a fresh library file, don't use "infer track properties" when you scan - and turn off "scan folder for album art", then the library file should be in perfect sync with the tags - which means the unsynchronized tags node should contain only tracks where v1 and v2 tags differ. Now you can simply take those tracks, throw them in a playlist, export a m3u and sort through them in your favorite tagging software.
To delete the v1 tags of those tracks that match the v2, simply find a field you don't use (like custom 5), then go to your unsyncronized tracks node and assign all tracks in there a custom5 property (e.g. "unsynchronized"). Now go to the Library - Location node, go to the root of your music collection and select the "All" node - you now get a long list of all tracks you have. Right-click on the column headers, check the custom5 option to display this field, then click on the custom5 header to sort your entire library by the it. Now all your unsynchronized tracks will have "unsynchronized" in custom5, so they are all bunched together. Simply select all tracks NOT containing "unsynchronized" in the custom5 column, then perform Tools- Advanced Tag managent- Clean ID3v1 tags on them --> presto!

Hope this works out for you...

looks good. I'll give it a try and post my results here afterwards.
thank you, everybody!

[quote="lovelove"]If MM can find a list of differing v1 and v2 tags, I would assume that this automatically means that MM can also find a list of NOT differing v1 and v2 tags.[/quote]

No, there is no dedicated function for this purpose.

However, if you create a playlist of the files with differing tags (files to edit > unsyncronized tags, select all > send to new playlist), you can create an auto-playlist (requires MM Gold) to generate the list of files NOT in the other playlist.

[quote]And I would also assume that MM is able to delete v1 tags for all files in this list.[/quote]

again, MM lets YOU do this via tools > advanced tag management > clean id3v1 tags. It will NOT do it for you, you must select the files you want to remove tags from and invoke the proper menu.

[quote]And even if this were not possible, I could still use that list of files with differing tags and subtract this list of files from all the files ... the rest are the files with identical tags. I could then use another program to mass-delete the v1 tags for these files.[/quote]

see above.

[quote]So either way, I think MM can help there.
Am I correct in my assessment?[/quote]

I would think so, as already noted several times.

Good catch, Lowlander, I made a mistake in my last posting. I have corrected it above. Of course I meant deleting identical tags, not differing ones.
The reference to the blue text in posting #6 was correct though.

If MM can find a list of differing v1 and v2 tags, I would assume that this automatically means that MM can also find a list of NOT differing v1 and v2 tags. And I would also assume that MM is able to delete v1 tags for all files in this list.

And even if this were not possible, I could still use that list of files with differing tags and subtract this list of files from all the files ... the rest are the files with identical tags. I could then use another program to mass-delete the v1 tags for these files.

So either way, I think MM can help there.
Am I correct in my assessment?

No and you don't want it to as those tracks have differing values. But save the tracks to a playlist and you now have a list of tracks that might have differing ID3v1 and v2 tags. Now you'd need another program that can show you both ID3v1 and v2 values and allows you to make the necessary edits. After that you could use MediaMonkey to delete all ID3v1 tags on all files.

no it won't as lowlander said.

i had thought you was wanting to clean the tags.

so lowlander and Teknojnky are the ones to follow on this. :D

8)

Thank you Lowlander.

[quote="Lowlander"]The Files to Edit > Unsynchronized Tags can aid in finding tracks with differing ID3v1 & V2 tags, but MediaMonkey can't show you both. [/quote]
Actually I don't need MediaMonkey to [i]show[/i] me anything, it would be enough to [i]delete[/i] (as mentioned above). But teknojnky wrote that this is not possible.

But this:
[quote="Lowlander"]The Files to Edit > Unsynchronized Tags can aid in finding tracks with differing ID3v1 & V2 tags,[/quote]
would still be a LOT of help for me.You say that MM can find tracks with differing ID3v1 and v2 tags. Can I tell MM to delete the id3v1 tags for all other files (with identical tags)? That's actually what I talked about in posting #6 (blue text).

The Files to Edit > Unsynchronized Tags can aid in finding tracks with differing ID3v1 & V2 tags, but MediaMonkey can't show you both. Maybe you could create a playlist of those tracks and then use that in a program that can display both versions. That would reduce the list of tracks you'd have to review.

[b]@Teknojnky:[/b] Thank you for your effort involved in making such a lengthy reply. I have been using Picard for ~2 years and I'm very fond of it. And thank you also for confirming that MediaMonkey cannot help me with the task described in the OP, although that's certainly very sad news for me. (I don't hink I will find any other program now, because mp3 tag editors with scripting abilities are very rare. The only other one I've heard of is MP3tag). The reason why it is infeasible for me to follow your method is that I would have to go through my entire music collection and manually edit/verify the inconsistant tags of ALL files before I can delete ALL v1 tags, and this would take weeks. On the contrary, the task in my OP can be carried out immediately without any manual work beforehand.

[b]@Lowlander:[/b] Actually, I want to get rid of ALL my v1 tags eventually. But due to my somewhat random use of software capable of mp3 tagging in my computer infancy, I am left with a considerable amount of mp3s with conflicting tags. So I cannot blindly delete v1 tags without losing a lot of information. So the deletion of my v1 tags must be a 3-step process:
1) delete identical v1 fields (e.g. if artist_v1 = artist_v2 then delete artist_v1)
2) manually review and edit the remaining tags (little by little, on an occasional basis)
3) every once in a while go back to 1) (which will now find new identical fields ready for deletion due to the manual sync in 2))

I hope I managed to clear this up a little bit?

What would be the point of keeping ID3v1 tags that are different from ID3v2 tags? Wouldn't one of them be incorrect and should thus be deleted?

I read thru the linked threads, I think your being overly pedant. And from the threads, I do not think I am alone in that observation.

MM absolutely will NOT do what you want in the way you want.

MM scripting does not distinct between id3v1 or id3v2 tags. Tag updates from scripts follow the options set @ tools > options > library > tags & playlists, where you can choose to store v1, v1 and v2, or only v2 tags.


I do believe that MM can help you, if you follow what I proposed above.

In doing so, MM will read the tags and add the information to the library.

If you have files with only v1 tags, the will be read and added to the database.
If you have files with both v1 and v2 tags, both will be read and I am pretty sure that v2 tags will take precedence.
If you have files with only v2 tags, then they will of course be read.

Then using the files to edit > unsyncronized tracks should show you all the tracks which have tags that are inconsistent.

From there you can manually edit/verify the tags you want to use are in the library, and then 'sync' them by control s. Afterwards you can then clean the v1 tags.

If you want to clean up your metadata and have consistent tags, you may also want to check out musicbrainz picard.

It also will not do exactly what you are asking, but again what you are asking is irrelevant if you want up to date and consistent tags.

[quote="Lowlander"]Nop it wouldn't, it would just delete all ID3v1 tags. This is why you should consider Teknojnky post if you care about what's in the ID3v1 tags currently.[/quote]
thank you Lowlander. Teknojnky's method consists of editing ALL conflicting tags, then delete ALL v1 tags. But I have a different objective, namely deleting identical fields only.

[b]@Teknojnky:[/b]
thank you for your help. I appreciate that you tried to come up with a different approach, but I really need to accomplish the task as described in the OP. I understand that MediaMonkey may not provide a solution out of the box built-in in the GUI, but what about the scripts. Don't they allow enough flexibility to compare v1 to v2 tags?

In case this is definitely not possible, let me formulate a Scenario B as an alternative to the OP:

[color=#0000FF]compare id3v1 tag to v2 tag and if identical delete the complete v1 tag
go to next file
[/color]

So the difference is that the script would not delete individual fields, but complete tags.
Is this feasible ?

[quote="Teknojnky"]Personally, I think you worry too much about the id3v1 tags, I just remove them without checking because they are worthless and too limited anyway. (select all files > clean id3v1 tags)[/quote]
I have reasons for not blindly discarding them. (In case you are interested in them, they are described in the OP of the mp3tag.de thread posted above.)

Nop it wouldn't, it would just delete all ID3v1 tags. This is why you should consider Teknojnky post if you care about what's in the ID3v1 tags currently.