Albums show "Unknown Artist"

[andyross]

I have a music database that was originally copied from iTunes on my PC. I am using MMW for that. I recently put MMA on my phone and did a sync with the Windows copy (first with USB for the main transfer, then WiFi for fine details.) For some reason, in Albums screen, most of them are showing "Unknown Artist". Any clues on how to fix it? Can't post a picture here to show what I mean, but I get the album art, the album title under that, then "Unknown Artist" in yellow below that.

[Lowlander]

Check the Album Artist values for those files in MMW. It likely is lacking values, thus Unknown.

Note that Artist may be known, but Artist is used for the Track, Album Artist is used for the Album.

[andyross]

That seems to work. Do I have to set it in every song to make it recognize it? That would mean having to resync the whole thing, which is about 52GB. And is there a way to automate it given the huge number of files and albums to update?

[Lowlander]

Yes, you need to fix this for all: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... erties/4.0

A re-sync should just update the tags in MMA for the files already on the MMA device.

[andyross]

But again, is there a way to have MMW run a script or something to fill in any blank Album Artist tags with the Artist tag?

[Lowlander]

RegExp can do this: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=28510&hilit=regexp

[andyross]

This is a bit confusing. In MMW, I turned on the column for Album Artist, and it does show a name for all them. So why is MMA not seeing it even after a WiFi sync? This is before running any changes other than the one album I did a manual test on. Is MMW getting the Album Artist different than MMA?

[Lowlander]

Go to Music > Files to Edit > Unsynchronized Tags. Select any files listed there and use Tools > Advanced Tag Management > Synchronize Tags in the Main Menu.

If your files were listed there, you will need to Sync again to update MMA too.

[andyross]

I had to run Unsynchronized Tags a few times to clear everything up and did the Synchronize Tags. I then did a Sync Now with MMA via WiFi, and it did show a bunch of synchronization, but it still has "Unknown Artist" on most albums.

[Lowlander]

Copy some of the problem files (with Unknown Artist in MMA) on your PC (using files on your PC) to a new location (outside of your Library, like Desktop).

View these files using the My Computer node in MMW. Does that show Album Artist?

[andyross]

A little confusing. In MMW, it seems to say it has Album Artist. But when I use the regular Windows File explorer properties, it is blank.

[Peke]

Hi,
It is very possible that Explorer do not read Album Artist tag. What are the file formats (mp3, FLAC, WAV, ...)?

Can you attach Screenshot of MM and explorer, possibly Attach one sample file to Support ticket?

[andyross]

Most of the files are m4a as they came from iTunes back when I had an iPod. Win10 shows Album Artist as a field, it's just blank. So far, it seems as if MMA only gets that info from the music files and not from any MMW database.

I'm not sure how to post a screenshot here as there seems to be no attachment option.

[Snofru]

For screenshots just check the link from Peke, directly above your last posting.

[andyross]

OK. Here are 3 pics. One is from Windows Explorer, one from MMA, and one from MMW.