Pa-software community - Viewing Topic: Best File Name Format?

Riverside
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I've noticed that when opening some MP3 Files, that presumably don't have any ID3 info yet, some of the information is already filled into the tag. It seems that some of the ID3 info is coming from the file name?

I'm wondering what information ID3 tags can grab from an MP3 file name, and whether there is a specific order to put the info into the file names so the tags can get as much info from the name as possible, without having to edit the tag manually.

If so, in what order should the info appear in the file name, and how should each piece of information be separated? (i.e. with a space, a dash, or what?)

I'm asking because I plan to use A Better Finder Rename to rename almost all my MP3 files temporarily, with track number, artist name, album, and song name so I can sort through them more efficiently with "Open Group." It'll make changing a massive number of ID3 tags far more efficient if the files sort in the finder in a way that makes sense.

AND, if I can get the tags to grab as much of the information as possible from the names, that will save a ton of time as well.

So, anyone know the best naming format for the tags to get that info most efficiently?

Thanks.


Posted Mar 21, 2011, 7:33 pm

jamesrae
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Is this in ID3 Editor or iTunes? As iTunes will fill in the title with the file name if the tag does not exist, but ID3 Editor will not unless you click on the green plus button next to the title.

If your intention is to use ID3 Editor to pick up as much detail as possible then use the structure below:
Track-Artist-Album-Title.mp3
Track-Artist-Title.mp3
Track-Title.mp3
Artist-Title.mp3
Title.mp3
(where track is a number)

......................... James Rae Pa-software support
Posted Mar 24, 2011, 10:55 am

Riverside
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jamesrae said:

Yes, my intention is to use ID3 to pick up as much info as possible from the file name. I'm going on the presumption that much of the information is already in a lot of these files, just not in ID3 format. I know this is so, because iTunes is picking up some info, whereas ID3 is also picking some of it up, however it appears iTunes is getting more of it from whatever other formats they use aside from ID3.

Because that info is there somewhere, in some format other than ID3, A Better Finder Rename can also see it. What I plan to do is use ABFR to rename all of my files, using the best format possible for ID3 to pick up as much from the file names as possible.

The reason I'm doing this is because I plan to pull all my MP3'S OUT of the iTunes file structure into one folder, allow ABFR to rename them all, thus forcing them all into at least some reliable order.

What I should then be able to do, is open groups of the files, more easily finding them since they are in at least SOME logical order in Finder, in ID3 Editor. From there, I can fix and fill in incorrect and missing information of all the files in groups and subgroups, then individually where necessary, wipe the iTunes library, then re-import them all back into iTunes with fixed ID3 tags. In theory, iTunes should then pick up the corrected ID3 tag info, correct whatever other tag formats are also embedded (I'm pretty sure iTunes will do this) and organize them the way they really ought to be, within iTunes as well as the finder, as I have iTunes set to keep the files organized.

I'm doing all of this because I use some players like iTunes, and some players that are ID3 dependent Flash players embedded in HTML pages. Some of the HTML flash players will display album art, scrolling lyrics, and any other ID3 information, but can't show any formats other than ID3.

The way I'm doing this seems to be the best logical order to make all the files compatible with all the players I use.

The file naming structure you've given me should work wonders. I just needed to know the best order and format. With A Better Finder Rename, I can fix almost all of them very quickly. Some may need to be adjusted manually, because there is not enough accurate information embedded in any tags in some files, but this will make the task go a heck of a lot faster, and more accurately.

Thanks a bunch!


Posted Mar 24, 2011, 5:34 pm

Riverside
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Okay, so my understanding of how this works is a little better now. I guess the tags don't (?) necessarily pick up file name information, but that doesn't matter for what I'm doing anyway.

Using ABFR renaming will pick up whatever's already in the tags, including AAC tags, so if the AAC tags contain more information than the ID3, it'll still help a lot.

I''ll be able to sort and group them all more easily in the finder, rename any that didn't have good tags, then be able to grab them all as groups more easily, and fix the tags.

Good deal.


Posted Mar 25, 2011, 3:36 pm