Author Topic: Want to edit only Artist field, Album Artist changes too  (Read 1348 times)

trewnote

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I'm trying to edit the Artist tag for a group of files. The contents of the Artist tag is currently 'Miles Davis & John Coltrane' and the contents of the Album Artist tag is currently 'Miles Davis & John Coltrane'.

I select a group of files and press shift-enter. Then,  in the Artist field I enter 'Miles Davis' and I check the check box. I leave the Album Artist field empty and unchecked because I don't want that field changed.

However, when I click the little disk icon to save changes, both the Album and Album Artist fields change to Miles Davis, even though Album Artist was unchecked. Anyone know why?

psychoadept

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I select a group of files and press shift-enter. Then,  in the Artist field I enter 'Miles Davis' and I check the check box. I leave the Album Artist field empty and unchecked because I don't want that field changed.

This will always happen if Album Artist is empty, because MusicBee infers Album Artist from the Artist value when Album Artist is blank.  If you actually fill in the Album Artist field, it won't happen anymore.
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trewnote

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I'm trying to edit the Artist tag for a group of files. The contents of the Artist tag is currently 'Miles Davis & John Coltrane' and the contents of the Album Artist tag is currently 'Miles Davis & John Coltrane'.

Neither field is empty. As stated, both fields are tagged with the same information. I'm trying to change one. Both change.

frankz

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Album Artist is empty.  It doesn't look empty because, when Album Artist is empty, MB displays the Artist instead of leaving it blank.  But the actual tag is empty.  

Select all the files, set Artist and Album Artist as you want them to be, and save.

trewnote

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I see. That can be confusing. I'm disabled and mass-tagging with an eye -controlled interface is difficult enough to begin with. Is there any way to change that display method so if a tag is empty it appears empty? If it's showing tags as filled when they're not, how is one to know it needs editing, without looking at every file in the tag editor?

frankz

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I see. That can be confusing. I'm disabled and mass-tagging with an eye -controlled interface is difficult enough to begin with. Is there any way to change that display method so if a tag is empty it appears empty? If it's showing tags as filled when they're not, how is one to know it needs editing, without looking at every file in the tag editor?
Your best bet is to look at your files in something like mp3tag to be able to visualize them field by field and edit them in bulk. Be sure not to rename them outside of MB though, and to rescan your files in MB when you're done so it will pick up the changes you made in the outside program.

trewnote

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Thanks for the recommendation of mp3tag. I've been using it for a few days now and have created a whole series of actions to speed the process. How do I rescan the library in mb?

frankz

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For a group of files, select them, right click->Send To->File Rescan

For all library files, Tools->Advanced->Rescan All Files