Displaying MP3 ID3 tags

[stahl]

Hello,
I don't know what's going on - I don't seem to get IM to use or simply display the ID3 tags of my MP3 files. I just set up a new database with IM5.4.10 and IM acts as if there were no ID3 tags: The Metadata ID3 tab is empty and so are the columns I set up in the grid of Media & Folders View. The MP3 sample category sorts all my MP3s to "various" and "unknown album".

What am I missing? Any help appreciated. Admittedly, this is the first time I try IM with MP3s.

Thanks, Stef

[thrinn]

The first thing to check would be the Tag Manager configuration. Did you by any chance exclude the ID3 tags from being imported?

[Mario]

Switch the Metadata Panel into Browser mode. This shows you all data IMatch has imported.
MP3 tags are imported by default, unless disabled in the Tag Manager by the user.

[stahl]

I've got news: IM does sometimes import and show the content of the ID3 tags. Irritatingly, e. g. of 24 songs from one CD I ripped this weekend, 20 are presented with ID3 content, but 4 without - however, when I copy the 24 files into another folder outside IM and add this folder to IM, too, IM will then show the ID3 tags of all these 24 files.

According to the Tag Manager, all tags containing data are being imported.

What is going on? Should I file a bug report?

[Mario]

ID tags are imported via ExifTool.
When ExifToo has problems reading metadata from a file, IMatch logs this into the log file and also marks the file with a yellow warning symbol.
If you can reproduce this,

1. Switch IMatch to Debug logging
2. Check the log file for warnings and errors after importing the file
3. Keep the ExifTool output panel often to see if ExifTool reports problems reading data from these files
4. Make sure no other application is accessing these files (including Windows!) when you import them etc.

If you can produce a warning or error message, we will know more about the source of the problem.

I have about 14,000 MP3 files in my music IMatch database and there are very few problems with reading ID3 data . But ID3 exists in so many variants it's not funny anymore. It was never really standardized and different versions have been implemented differently by different applications. It's a bit of a mess, really. And that is also the reason why ExifTool still does not support updating ID3 tags. I would love to have that because it would be so easy to with IMatch 5...

[stahl]

Hi Mario,
alright, here's what I got: I removed the folders from the database and added them again. No other applications were accessing the files. IM imported only some files' id3 tags again, but slightly different files' ones this time.
The Exiftool output panel remained empty, but in the log file I found two types of messaging concerning files the tags of which have not been imported:

For files in one particular folder exclusively:
ETWARN: Warning: [minor] Frame 'TDRC' is not valid for this ID3 version - E:\Eigene\test\Test-Musik\In Your Brain\Monophonics - Thinking Black.mp3  'PTETWrapper.cpp(2010)'

For other files with not imported tags (but not for the files in the folder mentioned above):
05.31 20:58:21+    0 [1A78] 10  I>         EUQH::Load(1.1) failed for E:\Eigene\test\Test-Musik\Taikka\Blinkie Twinkie.mp3 (8/'Nicht implementiert') with 0 x 0
05.31 20:58:21+    0 [1A78] 10  M>          >  9 PTPIMultiMedia::LoadFile  'PTPIMultiMedia.cpp(229)'
05.31 20:58:21+   62 [1A78] 10  M>          <  9 [62ms] PTPIMultiMedia::LoadFile
05.31 20:58:21+    0 [1A78] 10  I>         EUQH::Load(2) failed for E:\Eigene\test\Test-Musik\Taikka\Blinkie Twinkie.mp3 (8/'Nicht implementiert') with 0 x 0

Then, I removed all files from the database, restarted and had them added again. IM again chose some slightly different files to import their ID3 tags, and the warning "Frame 'TDRC' is not valid for this ID3 version" now also showed up an additional file in another folder.
Strangely, the lines "EUQH::Load(1.1) failed ..." and "EUQH::Load(2) failed ..." also showed up for filed the ID3 tags of which have in fact been imported.

Does this give you any clue?

[Mario]

The EUQH warning is normal. Neither IMatch nor Windows is unable to produce a thumbnail from your ID3 files, which means that they don't contain an embedded Album art or it is in an invalid format. This is not related to reading the metadata.

ExifTool issues a warning for the file, but no error. At least some data should be imported.
Check the file in the ExifTool Command Processor using the "List Metadata" preset to see what ET can get out of your file.

[stahl]

Here is what the ExifTool Command Processor reports on Metadata, once for a file that had ID3 tags imported and once for a file where it didn't work (see attachment).
The data seems reported fine in both cases. Weird. What's more, the ID3 tags of the very same file have been imported one time but not another and then again.



[attachment deleted by admin]

[Mario]

When a file fails to import, I understand that no metadata at all is displayed for that file? And ExifTool only reports a single warning? And IMatch reports no errors or other warnings (except for the EUQH warning, which can be ignored (unless your files contain previews).

Judging by experience, I would guess that when you send me a sample MP3 file, it will work here.

Did you try to disable your virus checker while scanning files?

[stahl]

When a file fails to import, I understand that no metadata at all is displayed for that file? And ExifTool only reports a single warning? And IMatch reports no errors or other warnings (except for the EUQH warning, which can be ignored (unless your files contain previews).

Yes, it is just as you say. Disabling my virus checker and my software firewall during scanning did not help either.

There is something else, however, that might be related: IMatch freezes when I drag one of the folders containing only partly imported MP3s to copy it into another folder in the Media & Folders tab. I can reproduce this, it happens every time I do this with these two folders.
I am attaching a log file.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Mario]

IMatch freezing while copying? You mean IMatch becomes unresponsive but does not display a message, no crash dump, no errors written to the log file? Very unusual, sounds almost like a virus checker or other software blocking the process. IMatch uses Windows functions to move files and folders, and when these block, for whatever reason, IMatch is also doomed to fail. And when the problem happens only witch specific folders, it may be one or more of the files in these folders which trigger the problem, the virus checker or whatever.