Problems With MP3 Tags

[jlacroix]

I have a small, but annoying problem I'm trying to figure out. Basically, I have 3090 MP3's on my phone (Droid X), the same files from my computer. I made sure all the tags are perfect in these files, yet 20 of my MP3's show up as "Unknown Artist" on my phone, regardless of what app I use to play them (the stock app, Winamp, Uber Music, it doens't matter). It's just 20 songs, the rest are fine.

When I mount the phone on my computer and browse the files from my PC, the tags on the files show up when I use a music player on my PC. I also used Audio Tagger on my phone, but according to that app, the tags are already correct. The exact same program was used on each of my MP3's, so I cannot find anything different about the 20 files that justify the phone not picking up any tags from the files.

I'm hoping a guru here may know of something for me to try or what may be going on.

 

[NZtechfreak]

The reason none of the other players can pick it up is they use the system media scanner, so if the stock player can't read them correctly then the others can't either. You should try the current PowerAMP build - it has it's own media scanner and can read tags properly compared to the system scanner in my Samsung devices (not to mention it has other options around what kind of tags are default etc).

 

[jlacroix]

The reason none of the other players can pick it up is they use the system media scanner, so if the stock player can't read them correctly then the others can't either. You should try the current PowerAMP build - it has it's own media scanner and can read tags properly compared to the system scanner in my Samsung devices (not to mention it has other options around what kind of tags are default etc).

You're right, Poweramp sees the tags properly of all my songs. Is there any way to make the system scanner scan the files properly? It's awesome that Poweramp can see the files properly, though I prefer Uber Music first and Winamp second.

 

[NZtechfreak]

No idea about fixing the system scanner, never seen a fix for any of the Galaxy models (so that spans nearly a year and a half and suggests nobody will fix it except for the manufacturers, if and when they ever get around to it).

I'm curious, why do you prefer the other players? IMO PowerAMP is seriously miles better than either (play around with the EQ a bit and you'll see!).

 

[jlacroix]

No idea about fixing the system scanner, never seen a fix for any of the Galaxy models (so that spans nearly a year and a half and suggests nobody will fix it except for the manufacturers, if and when they ever get around to it).

I'm curious, why do you prefer the other players? IMO PowerAMP is seriously miles better than either (play around with the EQ a bit and you'll see!).

I really like the simplicity of Uber Music. I don't really care for an over abundance of options. I also think that Uber Music has a pretty awesome look and feel, while Power Amp didn't look that good to me.

In regards to the system scanner, is it possible it's looking at a different version of ID3 than what my files are using? I also noticed that the Genre in almost all of my songs are not what I set them to.

 

[jlacroix]

I did some more experimenting on this today. I found an app in the Market called "Audio Tagger." I fed the 20 or so songs with an issue into that program, and it made some sort of changes to them, and from that point on, those files show up fine. However, it didn't say exactly what it changed. I copied those files back to my computer, and my Easytag program highlighted the files in red (which it does when the files have been changed) so I know that Audio Tagger did something.

This is halfway solved. it's solved in the sense that I doubt those 20 files will give me any further issues. However, I still don't know exactly what the files were missing to create this problem. I agree that it's probably true the scanner has issues, but based on this, I think it shows that there really was something with those files causing this.

 

[NZtechfreak]

Nice find with that tag repair app, seems clear its an ID3 tag version issue of some kind eh?

Completely understand on Ubermusic, great looking player (I recommended it in out Apps of the Week a while back and suggested it was great for people who didn't need features out the wazoo).

 

[jlacroix]

Nice find with that tag repair app, seems clear its an ID3 tag version issue of some kind eh?

It makes me think that it's reading a totally different version of ID3 tags but that seems odd as you would think it would be compatible with the latest version.

 

[jlacroix]

Solution found. There was never a problem with the tags. I discovered this when I put the same files on my wife's phone, and on hers (same model) the files showed up properly. I then figured it out: The music database on the phone never changed from the initial time I loaded the songs, it kept the original ID3 tags. So no amount of adding or readding the songs would fix it, the media scanner would never re-scan the files.

I found the solution here:
Issue 4314 - android - Android is not indexing mp3 files - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting

Specifically, these are the steps to solve it (this is from that topic):
1) Go to Settings, Applications, Manage applications, click on All tab
2) Find the Media Storage app, and Clear Data.
3) This deletes everything (!) - artists, albums, playlists. (the data still on card)
4) Go to Settings, SD card and phone storage, Unmount the SD card. Wait.
5) Mount the card when that button becomes available.
6) Patiently wait for the stock Music player to re-populate the fields. This takes a while.
7) Ta-da!

 

[jlacroix]

Solution found. There was never a problem with the tags. I discovered this when I put the same files on my wife's phone, and on hers (same model) the files showed up properly. I then figured it out: The music database on the phone never changed from the initial time I loaded the songs, it kept the original ID3 tags. So no amount of adding or readding the songs would fix it, the media scanner would never re-scan the files.

I found the solution here:
Issue 4314 - android - Android is not indexing mp3 files - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting

Specifically, these are the steps to solve it (this is from that topic):
1) Go to Settings, Applications, Manage applications, click on All tab
2) Find the Media Storage app, and Clear Data.
3) This deletes everything (!) - artists, albums, playlists. (the data still on card)
4) Go to Settings, SD card and phone storage, Unmount the SD card. Wait.
5) Mount the card when that button becomes available.
6) Patiently wait for the stock Music player to re-populate the fields. This takes a while.
7) Ta-da!

Actually, that didn't solve it. Now the files have OTHER problems, especially the year tag which is set to 2010 on a great deal of my files, and also the album tag which is showing some albums as two different albums, even though they are named exactly the same. Naturally, when I use an ID3 tag editor, it shows correct. Android is definitely getting some invalid data from somewhere, either internally or externally.

I've given up on this. If someone has any insight, that would be great, but until then I have to come to the conclusion that the Droid X is an incapable music player.