Shrinking header size & seemingly lost data after editing in ID3 Editor

Joshua Davis


Posted Apr 29, 2009, 5:25 am
Hi! I was excited to find a well-made and full-featured ID3 tagging app, and I love what ID3 Editor can do. In giving the program a test-drive however, I noticed what I think is a reproducible discrepancy.

I'm using ID3 Editor to add additional data in fields that my usual tagging environment (iTunes) doesn't offer -- things like "Publisher," "Copyright," and "URL." I'm working with mp3 files that have already been tagged in iTunes, where I've populated most of the available & relevant fields (such as "Comments," "Composer," "Sort composer," etc.).

However, I noticed that when committing an update to an mp3 in ID3 Editor, the header size actually appeared to shrink. Subsequently, when I opened the newly-updated mp3 in iTunes, I noticed that several fields that had previously been populated were now blank -- including "Comments" and "Sort composer."

I just did another test in ID3 Editor, taking an mp3, and only adding data -- "Publisher," "URL," and "Copyright" -- and being careful to delete nothing already present.

When I first opened the file, ID3 Editor's Information pane displayed:
header size: 2211 bytes

After hitting "Update," this value changed:
header size: 714 bytes

... and when the mp3 was opened in iTunes (after quitting iTunes and relaunching), its "Comments" and "Sort composer" fields were blank.

Strangely, ID3 Editor still seems to display the contents of the "Comments" field upon quit, re-launch, and re-opening of the modified mp3. So will QuickTime Player. For some reason, iTunes consistently does not.

Is this a bug? Is this a function of using the app during its trial period? Any help is appreciated -- many thanks. Other than this behavior, the app is great and I would happily pay for it.

for reference:
MacBook Pro (Intel)
OS X 10.4.11
ID3 Editor 1.12.8 (2513)
iTunes 8.1.1 (10)
QuickTime Player Pro 7.6 (472)
jamesrae


Posted May 13, 2009, 6:32 pm
The two fields in question "Comments" and "Subtitle" were causing an issue in iTunes when using 1.12.8. This has now been fixed, although we have kept the overall version the same.

As such we recommend you download the latest version on our web site.
Please download the updated version using one of the links below:
Universal binary:
http://www.pa-software.com/release/download.php?file=ID3Editor.ub.1.12.8.dmg
PPC:
http://www.pa-software.com/release/download.php?nm&prod=BC3B2E3A

Note: This issue was fixed on the 8th of May 2009 and did not occur with the Windows version.

Back