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chikinn

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Registered: 2014-04-09

Posts: 42

[SOLVED] ncmpcpp: tags updated in MPD DB but not written to MP3 file

For <10% of MP3 files in my library, when I edit the COMMENT tag in ncmpcpp, the result is not written to file.  I haven't noticed a pattern in which files are affected.  Other fields can be edited normally, but repeated attempts to change COMMENT to various values all fail.

Within ncmpcpp, editing tags and viewing edited tags seems normal.  It's only when I view the tags directly with another utility (FFmpeg or TagLib) that I notice the issue.

This is troubling because a lot of my metadata changes now exist only in the MPD database, not in the MP3 files themselves.  If I ever have to rebuild the database I'll lose data.

I assume the issue is with ncmpcpp.  Any suggestions for further troubleshooting before I file a ticket?

MPD version 0.21.20-796-gc977d646c+
ncmpcpp version 0.8.2

Last edited by chikinn (2020-08-05 05:18:25)

ondoho

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Registered: 2013-04-30

Posts: 692

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Re: [SOLVED] ncmpcpp: tags updated in MPD DB but not written to MP3 file

For <10% of MP3 files in my library, when I edit the COMMENT tag in ncmpcpp, the result is not written to file.  I haven't noticed a pattern in which files are affected.  Other fields can be edited normally, but repeated attempts to change COMMENT to various values all fail.

Does ncmpcpp log things? Possibly to stderr? Have you tried starting it with

ncmpcpp 2>logfile

or just look at the terminal after you close ncmpcpp?
Similar troubleshooting for mpd?

Does ncmpcpp have alternatives for tag editing in its optional dependencies?

FWIW, mp3 tags are a swamp with decades of cruft, I'm not surprised it doesn't work 100%.

chikinn

Member

Registered: 2014-04-09

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] ncmpcpp: tags updated in MPD DB but not written to MP3 file

Duh, good idea   I checked MPD's main log and ncmpcpp's error log.  The former shows successful database updates when the metadata is modified.  The latter shows no errors.

As far as I know ncmpcpp supports only TagLib for editing, no alternatives.  Good point though -- I'll try modifying the problematic tags directly through TagLib.

ondoho

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Registered: 2013-04-30

Posts: 692

Website

Re: [SOLVED] ncmpcpp: tags updated in MPD DB but not written to MP3 file

As far as I know ncmpcpp supports only TagLib for editing, no alternatives.

"As far as I know"? Why don't you just check with

pacman -Qi ncmpcpp

(edit: it's true, I just checked)

Maybe TagLib itself can be configured to become more robust?

Were you able to find out why certain audio files are affected and others aren't?

chikinn

Member

Registered: 2014-04-09

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] ncmpcpp: tags updated in MPD DB but not written to MP3 file

Sorry for the slow reply!  And good point, I should have checked pacman.

I figured it out.  As you said and as I'm beginning to appreciate, MP3 tagging is a bit of a dumpster fire.  Brilliantly, it supports multiple values for some fields.  And on closer examination, the afflicted files in my library had multiple values for COMMENT (don't ask me how).  A quick TagLib script cleaned that up, and now ncmpcpp happily edits everything.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction and commiserating