I am encountering a random issue when working with the Metadata Pane. I will often use it to make changes to several MP3 files at the same time. Most of the time it works just fine. I select multiple files, make a change to a field (Genre, for example), and then apply it... and it saves the change to all of the selected files. Every so often though, it will delete information from several other fields when I try to save a change. Just now, when I tried to save some changes, it deleted the info in the Genre, Title, and Year fields. It's especially annoying when it deletes the Title info from a bunch of files and I have to reenter them all.
I haven't been able to identify any kind of pattern to this behavior yet, although it seems to do it more when I'm making several changes at once before applying them. Has anyone else encountered this issue? I am currently using Directory Opus v10.0.5.0.4497.x64 on Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. Is there any other info I can offer that might help in resolving this issue?
The Medadata Pane should say "multiple values" or similar for fields which are different between the various selected files. If those fields are then edited, even if left as a blank string afterwards, then Opus would set them in all files to the edited value. Otherwise it should leave them as different in each file.
With the files where it went wrong, was it showing "multiple values" for the fields before they were saved/blanked?
Does it only happen with particular files, maybe ones that were tagged in a particular way or by a particular program (or sequence of different programs)?
MP3 tagging is quite a messy situation, with lots of software doing things slightly (or at times very ) differently, sometimes with weird results. e.g. Tags written in multiple formats, where updating one set of tags can reveal or hide the others all of a sudden.
If you can get some before & after copies of files where it went wrong for us to look at to try and work out what happened, that would be ideal. Of course, that might be difficult if it's hard to predict when the problem will occur, unless you've got backups of all the files in advance.
A file that has some missing tags may also be useful on its own, even without a copy of the original to compare it against.
Woops! The upload attachment feature deleted my reply and didn't upload my file. Let me try this again...
Thank you for the quick reply, Leo. I did a little more testing and it looks like Opus is deleting the info in the Album, Genre, Title, and Year fields on these particular files. It may also be affecting the Track Number fields as well, but these files don't have anything in those fields, so I can't say for sure. Also, this behavior is occurring consistently with these files and even when I edit only one of the files at a time. I'm wondering if the problem is due to these particular files? That would explain the seeming randomness if this is only happening with poorly tagged files.
The Title field is the only one that has "multiple values" listed when I select multiple files. All of the other fields have the same information in them, except for the Track Number fields, which are empty.
Right now, it seems to be these particular files only. I don't know how they were originally created, so I have no idea how they were tagged.
I will attach a couple of these files for you to play with.
One thing that I also noticed that might be helpful for you (and seems to indicate that it's the tags that's the problem) is that if I right-click one of the files, go to Properties, and make a change to one of the fields that keeps getting deleted, and then go back to the Metadata Pane to make a change, that particular field no longer gets deleted. The other fields still do get deleted though. For example, I go to the properties of a file, change the Year field, save the change, open the Metadata Pane, change the Comment field, and apply the change. The Album, Genre, and Title fields are all deleted, but the Year field is now left untouched.
Another interesting behavior I've noticed in the Metadata Pane (unrelated to the issue we're discussing, and doesn't happen all the time) is that when you change a field, Opus puts a red arrow next to it to indicate the change. After applying the changes though, sometimes those red arrows don't go away. I have to close the Metadata Pane and then reopen it to make them go away. It seems like the Metadata Pane isn't refreshing properly or something.
Thank you for your help. Is there anything else I can do to help troubleshoot this issue? bad_mp3_2.zip (4.33 MB) bad_mp3_1.zip (3.36 MB)
) differently, sometimes with weird results. e.g. Tags written in multiple formats, where updating one set of tags can reveal or hide the others all of a sudden.