I've been transferring my mp3 collection over to my new iPod, and have
encountered an irritating problem:  you get $15 if you can explain how
to get around it, and there must be several ways of doing this.

See, an mp3 file (I'm using Windows XP) apparently has two names:  the
name you see on the screen, and the name that iPod (and, for that
matter, the name that the Windows Media Player) recognizes:  the "id
tag."

Well, although I have meticulously -- lovingly -- edited the names of
my mp3s, when I transfer them to the iPod it just displays the id
tags, most of which (since I have ripped most of my mp3s from my CD
collection) say stuff like "Track 3."

Now, I know that by slow double-clicking on the track's file name in
iPod, you can change this id tag, but we're talking about thousands of
files here!  It's too tedious, especially considering that the iPod
could be stolen, undoing all my work.

So:  what I would like to know is:

1.  Is there a way of getting the iPod to display the file name that
Windows sees, rather than the id tag, or

2.  better yet:  is there a cheap program available on the internet
that will allow mass-renaming of id tags (not the normal Windows file
names, since I know Windows can do that), or

3.  best yet:  a cheap (or free) program available on the internet
that will take the file and rename its id tag to be the same as the
name visible on Windows?  This would solve all my problems in one
shot.

Note:  I mention iPod, but this phenomenon is also quite the
aggravation when using just Windows Media Player.

Somebody help!

Hello gnossie-ga

Thank-you for your question.

I had a similar problem when I first bought my iPod, I had several
thousand tracks that I had not kept well organised and many had poor
names when displayed on my iPod.  I solved this problem with one FREE
piece of software and a bit of time.  It took some time to rename all
my files how I wanted them but it was well worth it in the end.  When
I now add new music to my collection I ensure that the tags are first
correct before loading it onto my iPod.

As you have indicated in your question MP3 files have ID tags stored
in the file along with the music data.  These tags can hold data such
as the artist, track name, album name and track number.  It is even
possible to store the picture of the CD cover in the ID tags!  As
these tags are usually more descriptive than the filename music
players, such as the iPod or Windows Media Player, display the ID tags
as a default action.  This is not always desired as in your case.

Let me tackle your three questions one by one.

1. Is there a way of getting the iPod to display the file name that
Windows sees, rather than the id tag?

Unfortunately there is not.  The iPod uses the MP3 ID tags to display
the track details in preference to the filename.  As you also pointed
out when you transfer music from your computer onto your iPod the
filename on the iPod changes to the name stored in the iPod music
database on your iPod.

2. Is there a cheap program available on the internet that will allow
mass-renaming of id tags (not the normal Windows file names, since I
know Windows can do that)?

There are a number of freeware utilities that will perform this task
some are much easier to use than others.  matthelliwell-ga has pointed
out a couple of these below.  I will detail my favourite program
below.

3. Is there a cheap (or free) program available on the internet that
will take the file and rename its id tag to be the same as the name
visible on Windows?

The best and easiest solution I have found and used extensively is
Mp3tag.  This software is freeware but the author does ask for
donations if you use it regularly although this is entirely optional.

I find it excellently designed, supremely simple to use and virtually
bug free.  Personally I have never found any bugs when using the
software but the author is a perfectionist and is always updating the
software with new utilities and bug fixes.

You can find the software here:
http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

The main features of Mp3tag are:

* Write ID3v1.1-, ID3v2-, APEv2-Tags and Vorbis Comments to multiple files at once
* Automatically create playlists
* Recursive subfolders support
* Remove parts or the entire tag of multiple files
* Rename files based on the tag information
* Import tags from filenames
* Format tags and filenames
* Replace characters or words from tags and filenames
* Regular Expressions
* Export tag information to user-defined formats (like html, rtf, csv, xml)
* Import tag information from an online database (also by text-search)
* Import tag information from a local database

Most importantly for you the software allows you to convert your
filenames into ID tags with the touch of a few buttons.  This feature
is very powerful and allows a number of different customisation
options.  You may also convert your ID tags to filenames very very
easily!

Hopefully this piece of software will suit your needs.  If you run
into any problems the site runs and active forum that should be able
to sort your problem out.  I can also offer my experience in using the
software if necessary (although you may get more detailed knowledge
from the site forum).

I believe Mp3tag will solve all your iPod name woes if you invest a
little time with it.  After learning the basics of the program I could
rename all the tags from a whole album in less than 30 seconds and if
necessary do multiple albums at once!

If you have any further questions on this subject please ask for
clarification and I will do my best to respond swiftly.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by gnossie-ga on 14 Aug 2005 12:03 PDT

Thanks for your help, palitoy.

I've been messing around with the program you mentioned, the mp3tag,
and I can't quite figure out how to get it to do what I want.

The program seems to mean something a little different by "tag" that I
do.  The thing I mean, this program calls it "Title."

So, in the basic view, you see my folder of music.  The first column
is, say, Aida 01, Aida 02, Aida 03, etc.  But the "title" column
simply reads "Track 1," "Track 2," "Track 3," etc.

So, in this program specifically, how to I get it to mass-convert the
titles to exactly replicate the filenames?

I thought that the "convert filename-tag" command would do it, but it doesn't.

---

Clarification of Answer by palitoy-ga on 14 Aug 2005 12:40 PDT

I will try and talk you through what I think you need to do judging by your answer.

In Mp3tag, you said that your tracks are listed as Aida 01, Aida 02
etc in column 1.  I am assuming that column 1 is the filename column,
select the tracks that you wish to edit and then choose Convert ->
Filename - tag.

A small window should open up with something like this in the text box:

%artist% - %album% - %track% - %title%

This means it will look at the filename you have entered and expect to
find an artist name followed by a space-hyphen-space, then the album
name, then space-hyphen-space, then the track name, space-hyphen-space
and then the title of the track.

In your case, as the track names are like Aida 01, Aida 02 etc it will
not match anything and it will appear not to work.

I would suggest trying the following in the box:

%title%

This will change the title tags for all the selected songs to be
identical to the filename.

You could alternatively change it to:

%title% %track%

This would set the title to Aida and the track number tag to 01, 02, 03 etc.

There is some documentation on this in the help file (go to Help ->
Find topic in help) for further details.

Try pasting these lines into your internet browser if you installed
Mp3tag in its default location (these are the direct links to the
documentation mentioned above):
file:///c:/Program%20Files/Mp3tag/help/options_converter.html#ftt
file:///c:/Program%20Files/Mp3tag/help/main_converter.html

Please let me know how you get on with these additional instructions.

Thank you!  That definitely did the trick.  You certainly earned your money!

1. Media Monkey (http://www.mediamonkey.com/) lets you change the tags
based on file names or by automatically searching on Amazon(and it's a
pretty good program for organising your music anyway).
2. When you rip your CDs in the first place most programs (including
Media Monkey and Easy CD-DA  Extractor, http://www.poikosoft.com/)
will tag the mp3s automatically if you've got an internet connection
so they can look up the tags.

I just wanted to tell you that if you have XP installed with Windows
Media Player 10 (WMP) you're home free on question 2 & 3. WMP has a
feature called the advanced tag editor in which you can rename
multiple files. If you set the title to "" (blank) and press [Ok] or
[Apply] the title will be set to the filename without extension. You
can also get WMP to search the internet for a title. You can access
the advanced tag editor by selecting som files inside WMP's media
library, right-click on one of the selected files and choose "Advanced
Tag Editor"

say, Palitoy-ga:

That program has been working pretty well for me, but I've suddenly
encountered a need to do something (which I'm sure this program can
do) that I can't figure out.

You've explained how to get it to mass-rename all the tagnames to be
identical to the filenames (%title%).  But do you know how to get it
to do the reverse:  get it to mass-rename all the filenames to be
identical to the tagnames?

Thanks.

Why not try Ultra Tag Editor?  http://www.atelio.com/ultra-tag-editor/
 Ultra Tag Editor is an easy-to-use tag editor and music organizer.
The program works with MP3 (ID3v1, ID3v2.2, ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4) and
OGG Vorbis (vorbis comments) files. Ultra Tag Editor supports both
basic ID3v1 tag fields, like title, artist, album, etc. and additional
ID3v2 fields, like lyrics, lyricist, disc#, Internet radio (station
name, owner and URL), composer, etc.

Ultra Tag Editor allows you to... 

rename music files using tag information; 
copy tag from one format to another (ID3v1 to ID3v2 and vice versa); 
generate tags from filenames; 
get tags from freedb - free online source of information about CDs; 
automatically fill in track numbers; 
compare ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags; 
remove tags; 
listen to music using built-in player; 
edit genre list; 
create M3U and PLS playlists; 
export tags to HTML, CSV, XLS and text files; 
view music file information (duration, bitrate, sample rate, version, encoder, etc.)

http://www.musicbrainz.com

It is a user maintained database. It searches the online database in
order to complete the information in the ID3 tags. It also renames the
files according to ID3 information. And it's free.

Sorry bout that, should have been http://musicbrainz.org/