• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Android won't read artist-tags on mp4-files

N

Natjager

Lurker
Hello.

I transferred music, sorted by iTunes, from my Macbook to my Samsung Galaxy S. Unfortunately, for a lot of the music albums, the standard music player shows <unknown> instead of the artist. It can read the album and title fields though. It seems like the problem is only with mp4-files. I tried a bunch of different music player apps, and some of them read more artists than others - none of them can read them all though.

I tried to convert ID3-tags in iTunes, but that did not change anything. I have tried to download different apps that should make you able to add metadata to your music files, but it does not seem to work.

What do you guys think? Should I convert all my music files to mp3 or another format than mp4 (that, I would really like to avoid) - or is there another solution?

I have searched all of the internet for a solution - so hopefully you can help me out.

Thanks in advance!
 
I wonder if it's something to do with how iTunes handles tags. I've got a load of M4A music files, came from AllOfMP3 and LegalSounds, they show the tag details correctly on my Galaxy S using stock player. Non of my music files have ever been in iTunes.
 
AAC and M4A seem to be a bit weird in regard to ID3 tags. For some reason, they don't seem to show on some applications. I used to encode my music in AAC for my Android, since the files are smaller and sound better than mp3, but recently switched them all to Ogg Vorbis (which sounds even better and have fewer issues).
 
Thanks for your replies - I completely forgot about this post until now.
It looks like I have to shift to another file format to make it work.
Another fantastic example of how Mac and PC just won't play nicely together.
 
I would convert to Ogg, then use drag n' drop to move the files over to the Galaxy. I have them arranged with each artist and album in their own folders.

Only thing is iTunes probably doesn't recognize Ogg (haven't used iTunes in a while, so I don't know if this has changed). Other players like Winamp, Songbird, etc. will recognize the format.
 
I think the consensus is either use MP3 or OGG, seams to have the least issues with tagging. Although my Galaxy S has no problem with AAC M4A tags, a cheap PMP I have doesn't read tags in AAC at all, just gives "unknown" for everything. MP3 or OGG are just fine with it.
 
fightingirish said:
I would convert to Ogg, then use drag n' drop to move the files over to the Galaxy. I have them arranged with each artist and album in their own folders.

Only thing is iTunes probably doesn't recognize Ogg (haven't used iTunes in a while, so I don't know if this has changed). Other players like Winamp, Songbird, etc. will recognize the format.
Click to expand...

According to Apple's "help", no, iTunes doesn't recognize Ogg.
 
fightingirish said:
Apple is arrogant like that. Won't read wma files either. And it converts flac files to their own lossless format.
Click to expand...

It's no problem if you live completely in the Apple world. Buy all your music from the iTunes Store, iTunes is running on your Mac, and you have an iPod, iPhone or iPad of course.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom