Removing ID3 Tags

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Download Preston Media ID3 Tag Backup. It's only about a 42K download - just seconds even on dial-up. ID3 Tag Backup requires Microsoft .Net Framework Version 2.0 (not just seconds - especially on dial-up) in order to run.

A common problem raised on Microsoft's Windows Media Player news groups is that some MP3 files in a user's media collection will not play in Windows Media Player and cannot be added to their music library.

A common cause of this problem is defective ID3 tags. What's an ID3 tag, you ask? ID3 tags are bits (actually bytes) of information added to the beginning and/or end of a MP3 file to identify the track. The ID3 tag consists of a collection of frames. Frames contain things like artist name, album name, track number, track name, etc. ID3 tag frames even include such things as album art images. You can learn more about ID3 tags at http://www.id3.org.

One problem with ID3 tags is that the standards by which they are defined are not very clear, poorly maintained, and just not very standard. Every program that I know the details of, including Apple iTunes and Microsoft Windows Media Player mis-handle some aspect of ID3 tags. The result is that Windows Media Player may not read a malformed ID3 tag created by Apple iTunes that iTunes reads just fine. This is not just an iTunes problem. It can happen between any two applications that use ID3 tags. This is not the fault of the Windows Media Player product team. How can anyone be expected to identify and handle every possible way of doing ID3 wrong? They can't be.

So, what happens when Windows Media Player can not properly interpret the malformed ID3 tag that is attached to a MP3 file is that Windows Media Player just can not open the file at all. Malformed frames within a tag may also cause the entire tag to be malformed. Note the use of the word "malformed". Those (malformed tags) must, by definition, break the tag. Applications often run into properly formed tags that contain frames that they can't handle but they simply ignore those unknown frames. That's different.

To troubleshoot MP3 files that will not play or will not add to your Windows Media Player library, a common suggestion is to remove the ID3 tags and see if the file will behave properly without the tag. Then the problem is how to remove the tags. That's why I wrote the ID3 Tag Backup program - technically I had already written all the functionality as part of a larger media library program I am developing but I thought it would be useful to package this small piece right now. Preston Media ID3 Tag Backup will backup existing tags and, if you tell it to do so, will remove the tags from the MP3 file leaving you an MP3 file with no ID3 tags. If, after your tests, you want to put the original tags back on the MP3 file, my ID3 Tag Backup program will do that for you, too.

You can also use this simple utility to backup the tag information on all your MP3 files separately from your MP3 files if you want. I'm not quite sure why a person would, but you could.

To use ID3 Tag Backup, browse to the folder containing the media you want to backup the tags for. Check the box to include sub folders if you choose, and whether or not to remove the original tag from the MP3 file in the process. It is not possible to remove the tag without performing a backup first with ID3 Tag Backup so you can always get back to where you started - as long as you don't delete the backup or the MP3 file, that is.

The backup is stored in the same folder as the original file with the same name as the original file. This location and file name must not change unless you move the MP3 file with it before trying to restore. The restore only finds matching names in matching folders. The only difference is the backup tag file has an extension of .id3 while the music file has an extension of .mp3.

ID3 Tag Backup does not modify your tags or try to interpret them, wrong or right, in any way. It simply copies them, restores them, or removes them, according to your wishes. If the tag is so defective that it cannot be identified at all or if the size descriptor in the tag is wrong, ID3 Tag Remover may not be able to handle those situations but then, neither can any other program.

To use the ID3 Tag Backup program, you must have installed on your PC the Microsoft .Net Framework, Version 2.0. If you don't have it, get it from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en

Download Preston Media ID3 Tag Backup at http://www.DalePreston.com/downloads/ID3TagBackup.zip.



- posted by Dale Preston @ 1/16/2007 08:26:00 PM