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Release Notes Archive

Archive of selected release notes prior to Mp3tag v3.26. See Release Notes for latest versions.

Mp3tag v3.25

2024-03-28

This version is a spring-cleaning release and fixes a few issues that were reported over the past weeks.

Mp3tag v3.24

2024-01-26

Playlist Generator

It’s available via File → Generate Playlists... or Ctrl+Shift+P and enables the creation of several playlists at once based on a format string that is used to partition the set of selected files. This way, you can create, e.g., one playlist for each album or one for each directory. It’s quite powerful! And it’s also available as an action for Mp3tag’s action groups.

Improvements for action Remove Duplicate Fields

I’ve extended the Remove Duplicate Fields action to allow for selecting the duplicate field to remove (before it removed all duplicate fields) and to allow for removing only duplicate fields that have the same content.

Optimization of Padding for FLAC Files

For people who are using FLAC, I’ve added Utils → Optimize FLAC to the right-click context menu which ensures that 4KB of padding exists in the file. It’s especially helpful if metadata isn’t displayed in Windows Explorer, because either the embedded cover or the embedded padding is too big to handle.

Mp3tag v3.23

2023-11-03

Modernized Dialogs and Larger Default Font

I’ve modernized various dialogs and increased the default font size in all dialogs and windows. Some users had difficulty seeing the texts and labels and it was one of the more common feedback. There is always the option to increase the text and layout scaling in Windows, but I think having a slightly larger default font plays very well with this setting.

Improvements in Web Sources Framework

I’ve also added various improvements to the Web Sources Framework, something you will most likely notice only indirectly, by using one of the Tag Sources that makes use of the new features and fixes.

Mp3tag v3.22a

2023-09-19

Updated to libwebp 1.3.2

I’ve updated the external library libwebp used by Mp3tag to version 1.3.2, which includes a security fix for lossless decoder (CVE-2023-4863).

Mp3tag v3.22

2023-08-24

Configuration Settings for Tag Sources

This feature was a huge undertaking. It allows Tag Sources Developers to define configuration settings for their Tag Sources, which, in turn, are used by Mp3tag to both generate a configuration dialog and in the Tag Source itself. This means no more manual editing of Tag Sources, which was both tedious to keep updated and prone to errors. I’ve added lots of documentation to get you started.

Checkbox fields on Tag Panel

It’s now possible to define checkbox fields to the Tag Panel. This can be useful for certain fields where the only valid input is 1, e.g., for COMPILATION and PODCAST. I’ve also added a new Type-selector, which now lists the different supported field types Text, Check, and Multiline.

The focus was clearly on Tag Sources with this release. The Web Sources Framework got many new JSON-related functions, which should make developing JSON-based Tag Sources a breeze (or at least more like that).

Mp3tag v3.21

2023-05-26

Redo

The new Redo menu and toolbar item allows for redoing the last undone operation. It can prove helpful if you need to inspect and compare the effects of specific operations or when you simply realize that the thing you’ve just undid was actually exactly what you wanted.

Repeat

Repeat allows for, well, repeating the last action or action group. If you have a lot of action groups and don’t want to navigate through the menus or simply want to apply the last used action to a new set of files, this new feature becomes handy.

Please note that this new features shares the same menu item, toolbar item, and keyboard shortcut with the Redo feature.

Detecting installed versions with different architecture 32-bit/64-bit

This new version detects if you’re updating using a different architecture (32-bit or 64-bit) than the version currently installed. If so, the installer prompts you to either uninstall the current version and install or update using the matching installer.

Mp3tag v3.20

2023-03-31

Tag Panel Field Sizes

The Tag Panel now has new field sizes, allowing you to choose from Full, Larger, Large, Medium, Small, Smaller, and Tiny. This makes it possible to pack a lot of information in the available space and to make this area of Mp3tag even more personal and fitting to your needs.

Import and Export of Custom List Values

Configuring Custom List Values on the Tag Panel can become tedious if the list of values to be added is quite long. It’s now possible to import lists of composers, genres, or countries from text files. Exporting is also possible, so you can create a backup or share your lists.

Consolidated User-defined Genres into Custom List Values

The option to add user-defined genres is now also part of the Custom List Values for the Tag Panel. While it was convenient to have it as a separate section in the configuration options, it makes more sense to have it treated the same as the rest of the fields.

Mp3tag v3.19

2023-01-27

Extended Auto-Numbering Wizard

The Auto-Numbering Wizard now supports moving on to the next disc and, thus, resetting the track counter when a field changes its value. It also adds the option to reset the disc counter so that this wizard can now run over sets of discs that are not related to each other. All by preserving the functionality that was already there.

Cleanup in Menus and Configuration Settings

The configuration settings can now be found at File → Options… and the auto-numbering wizard at Convert → Auto-numbering wizard…. The Tools main menu has been retired.

The configuration setting to preserve timestamps of modified files has been moved to the General section, the setting to display grid lines in the file view now resides under Appearance.

Improved handling of Configuration Data when uninstalling

The uninstaller now uses a checkbox to explicitly enable removing of configuration data. Previously, a confirmation dialog popped up which was sometimes confirmed by mistake.

Mp3tag v3.18

2022-09-29

Custom List Values on Tag Panel

You can now configure custom list values per field on the Tag Panel. It allows, e.g., for defining a list of composer names to ensure consistent naming. Or a list of country names or languages if you’re storing those. It’s still possible to see the values of the selected files if you prefer that, but an empty field on the Tag Panel now always offers the custom values (if set) from the drop-down list.

Technical information field %_id3v2_unknown_frames%

This new information field is set to 1 if the ID3v2 tag of the file contains any of the ID3v2 frames not supported by Mp3tag, e.g., PRIV or SYLT. You can remove those frames by cutting the tag via Ctrl+X and pasting it back via Ctrl+V.

Please note, if you’re using the Library feature, you’d either need to force-reload the tags of the files via File → Read Tag or Ctrl+T or start with a fresh library to see the newly added field.

This field can also be used with the Filter or as a dedicated column in Mp3tag’s File List.

Mp3tag v3.17

2022-07-29

Configuration option to set startup folder to empty, previous, or favorite

You can now specify the startup behavior of Mp3tag. Empty starts with an empty File List. Previous starts with the folder which was loaded the last time you’ve used Mp3tag. Favorite lets you choose a explicit folder that is loaded on startup.

Contextual cover operations available via Edit → Cover

The various operations that handle cover art were always available via the context menu on the cover window — but only to those who know and can see the cover. This new menu entry on the main menu makes cover handling more accessible and possible to use via keyboard only.

Configuration option to prefer genres from tags in the list at Tag Panel

The genre field was always special among the default fields and always listed the standard genres also when selecting multiple files. This new option now enables listing genres from tags — and shows the standard genres only if the files don’t have a genre set.

Selection and rearranging of multiple actions in action group edit dialog

A relief for everyone working with large action groups — Mp3tag’s way of allowing for repeatable workflows. The edit dialog now offers rearranging of multiple actions via keyboard and even via drag&drop.

Mp3tag v3.16

2022-05-30

This version is a maintenance release that fixes some issues that were reported after the previous release.

Mp3tag v3.15

2022-05-24

Support for 64-bit

Mp3tag now comes in two versions, the existing 32-bit and a new 64-bit version. To make it short, there should not be any noticeable differences except for one thing:

Mp3tag 64-bit can only be installed on 64-bit versions of Windows. The recommended path is to uninstall the 32-bit version before upgrading — the uninstaller has an option to keep your configuration settings, but please backup your configuration settings via File → Save configuration anyway.

Management of Filter Expressions

I’ve added an option to manage the list of filter expressions via the Manage history… item of the Filter Helper menu. This also allows for named filters, favorite filters for quick access, and the possibility to add descriptions for filters.

Management of Format Strings

Similar to the filter expressions, I’ve added an option to manage the list of format strings at converters Tag - Filename, Filename - Tag, Text file - Tag, and Tag - Tag via the Manage history… item of the Format String Helper menu. It also allows for named format strings, favorite format strings for quick access, and the possibility to add descriptions for format strings.

Mp3tag v3.14

2022-03-29

This version is a maintenance release that fixes regressions from the previous release.

Mp3tag v3.13

2022-03-24

Revised Tag Sources Confirmation Dialog

I’ve completely (almost!) revised the confirmation dialog that shows the metadata result when importing via any of the Tag Sources (e.g., Discogs or MusicBrainz). It now allows for selecting which fields to import via checkboxes, also for the cover, and provides a better overview of track-specific and album-specific metadata.

Revised Documentation

This is the thing you’re currently looking at! I’ve rewritten and updated most of the existing help files and published them here.

Revised Tag Sources

I’ve also revised the Tag Sources for Discogs and MusicBrainz, which now use CATALOGNUMBER for the catalog number. The MusicBrainz Tag Source now also imports BARCODE and ISRC — all of which can be easily disabled by the new methods I’ve outlined above.

Improved Sorting Performance

Sorting the File List is now significantly faster. It’s most notably for large libraries, but also much snappier when you’re sorting smaller sets of files.

Mp3tag v3.12

2022-01-21

Microsoft Store version with context menu

The Microsoft Store version now also comes with a Explorer context-menu extension so that there should be no real differences between the Store version and the standalone version anymore.

MusicBrainz Cover Size

Album covers imported from MusicBrainz can be quite large in their original size (up to several MB). I’ve now added an configuration option at Options → Tag Sources to choose the size from 250px, 500px, 1200px, and Original.

Open in Windows File Explorer

It’s now possible to open files in Explorer from within Mp3tag. This was previously only possible via a user-defined tool at File → Options... → Tools and is now officially built-in — including file selection in Explorer.

Mp3tag v3.11

2021-10-29

Cover preview on the Tag Panel

It can be difficult to inspect the quality and details of the embedded cover directly from the cover window of the Tag Panel. To alleviate this, I’ve added a larger cover preview available via double click on the cover on the Tag Panel.

Icon in Windows Explorer context menu

A long-standing feature wish for many: Mp3tag’s Explorer context-menu entry now has an icon and is easier to recognize.

Windows 11 context menu

The new Windows 11 Explorer context menu caught many by surprise. Existing context menu extensions were only available via a Show more options… entry, which meant an extra indirection to something that’s supposed to speed up interaction.
I’ve now implemented all the extra steps that are necessary to appear in the top-level context menu and things should be back to comfortable again.

Mp3tag v3.10

2021-09-25

Option to choose Color Mode

Mp3tag now offers the option to choose the color mode independent from the system setting. At Options → Appearance → Color Mode you can choose between Dark, Light, and Default.

Mp3tag v3.09

2021-09-17

Dark Mode

Mp3tag is now using a dark theme if the Windows 10 color setting at Settings → Personalization → Colors is set to Dark.

Windows 11

The next version of Windows is about to be released and I’ve used several of the insider previews to make Mp3tag work nicely with Windows 11 and make a possible update a smooth ride. However, if you find any quirk or think you’ve found a bug please let me know.

Updated Code-Signing Certificate

I’ve updated the code-signing certificate that is used to digitally sign and verify the origin and integrity of Mp3tag’s installer and executable.

Mp3tag v3.08

2021-07-23

Usability improvements for Tag Panel

Maybe it also happened to you: you started filling the fields on the Tag Panel and only later noticed that no file was selected yet. Selecting one file then replaced what was entered with what was read from the selected file — not ideal and sometimes a reason for frustration. This is a thing of the past, because the fields on the Tag Panel are now only enabled if at least one file is selected.

Usability improvements regarding unsaved changes

Mp3tag provides means to automatically save any changes when the selection changes (it can be enabled in the options at Options → Tags. But not everybody wants that and if the option is disabled, any unsaved changes were discarded on selection change. This is also not happening anymore: I’ve added a confirmation question if the Tag Panel contains unsaved changes and auto-saving is not enabled.

Mp3tag v3.07

2021-05-21

Support for editing cover art for Matroska MKA/MKV

This took some time and Mp3tag is finally able to also edit (and not only display) cover art for Matroska MKA/MKV files. Matroska is one of the most complex tagging specs I’ve worked with, so I’m especially happy that editing image attachments to the container is now possible.

Support for WebP image format

The WebP image format is by no means standard at this point. The recommended formats for embedded cover art are still JPG and PNG. However, many online sources and people are using this modern image format and I wanted to at least give the option with Mp3tag. You can even use Mp3tag to convert from WebP to JPG or PNG. A modern and recommended player with WebP support is foobar2000.

I’ve extended the list of supported MP4 metadata fields that are related to iTunes and Apple Music:

Mp3tag v3.06

2021-03-26

Retry for Tag Sources

If no results are returned for a certain search at Tag Sources, it’s now possible to retry and having the previous query already filled in. No more entering the same information twice (or trice!).
I’ve also added the option to retry for error case, e.g., when the internet connection of the servers are flaky.

Option to disable auto-sizing of columns in Tag Source results

So far, the column width for Tag Sources results has been decided based on the content that was returned from the query. While it always displays the full content, it also means that some columns are outside the dialog width and scrolling is needed. You can now disable the auto-sizing of column via the context menu of the column header.

Undo via Ctrl+Z in Tag Panel fields

This was quite some time in the making (I’ve received the first bug report on that back in Jan 2014). You can now undo text entry in Tag Panel fields without undoing the last tag-write or rename operation.

Actions and Tag Sources available via context menu

The file list context menu now also has the Actions and Tag Sources available via submenus. Sometimes it’s just faster to trigger them from the context menu.

Mp3tag v3.05

2021-01-28

Action to set cover properties

This version adds a new action type Set cover properties which allows for editing the cover description and the cover type (front, back, …) via Quick Actions or from within action groups.

Adjust cover for varying covers

So far, adjusting covers in size and image type directly from the cover window was only possible if all selected files had the same embedded cover art. This version adds support for directly adjusting covers for files with different covers.

Mp3tag v3.04

2020-11-27

Performance improvements

This version adds various improvements to make reading MP3 and MP4 files (especially MP4s with chapters) even more performant. Also, the process of selecting large amounts of files (all file formats) is more snappy with this new version.

Album artists from MusicBrainz

This version adds support for importing album artist information from MusicBrainz. MusicBrainz also has become my favorite tag source in Mp3tag over time. It has all the information I need, usually with great accuracy and excellent data quality.

Randomize sorting

If you ever wanted to create a playlist with tracks in randomized order, you’ve either used Mp3tag’s hidden feature to randomize the file list or resorted to manual ordering. This feature is not hidden anymore but available now via View → Sort By → Randomize.

Mp3tag v3.03

2020-10-02

Improvements for Action Groups

This version adds various improvements for the action groups dialog. You can now select, enable, and move multiple action groups at once and have quick means for working with action groups via various newly added keyboard shortcuts. Furthermore, I’ve added a new indicator that shows how many action groups are currently enabled and added support for sorting of action groups.

Mp3tag v3.02

2020-07-11

Support for alternative freedb servers

The current operator of the public freedb servers announced to stop its services as of March 31, 2020. I’ve now added alternative freedb servers to Mp3tag, so that the freedb feature should be working again. Furthermore, I’ve added support for the web-based search of gnudb.org.

If you’re unsure about data quality from freedb or can’t find newest using one of the alternative servers, I can only recommend to use MusicBrainz. It’s a high-quality alternative to freedb and is officially supported by Mp3tag.

Mp3tag v3.01

2020-03-27

Support for the WebM file format

This new version adds support for the WebM file format (file extension .webm), a container format that is mainly used for video in the context of the web.

Feature “Adjust cover” to resize cover art

I’ve added the feature “Adjust cover”, which I’ve introduced as action with the previous release, to the right-click context-menu of the cover art window.

Availability of freedb servers

The current operator of the public freedb servers announced to stop its services as of March 31, 2020. I’ve decided to not remove the freedb feature from Mp3tag for now, because it could be that alternative servers emerge from this situation.
If not, I can only recommend to use MusicBrainz. It’s a high-quality alternative to freedb and is officially supported by Mp3tag.

Mp3tag v3.00

2020-01-23

Action “Adjust cover” to resize cover art

Many hardware players have certain limitations on the size of cover art and then it’s sometimes just nice to scale down this 10000x10000 cover to a reasonable size. You can also use this action type to convert from JPEG to PNG or vice versa. It’s quite handy and I hope it improves your workflow.

MusicBrainz tag sources with multiple search criteria

The MusicBrainz tag source now also offers two distinct search fields for album and artist and adds support for MUSICBRAINZ_RELEASEGROUPID along the way.

I’ve reworked most of the menu-drawing code in high-contrast modes so that it is now more in line with the native menus that the various supported versions of Windows are providing. Also, some buttons and menus were not accessible to screen readers ‐ if you’re noticing something like that, please let me know.

Mp3tag v2.99

2019-10-18

Updated MusicBrainz tag sources

MusicBrainz updated their server to a new search infrastructure and with that, some minor changes to the MusicBrainz tag sources were necessary.

Autumn Maintenance

This version also fixes a variety of issues which were reported during the past weeks.

Mp3tag v2.98

2019-09-20

Discogs tag sources with multiple search criteria

The existing album-only search for Discogs often produced too many results or results that were not totally relevant for the current search. This is why many users wished for multiple search criteria for metadata-lookup from Discogs. The current version adds new tag sources for Discogs and Discogs Cover Art, namely:

Improvements for Web Sources Framework

The Web Sources Framework now supports up to three different search criteria and has support for reusing tag sources to reduce code duplication.

Mp3tag v2.97

2019-07-12

Fixes regarding pasting cover art from clipboard

The previous version had an issue where pasting cover art was not possible anymore and I got many emails regarding this regression. I’ve decided to pull a hotfix release to make sure that as many people as possible are using the fixed version.

Mp3tag v2.96

2019-06-28

Support for Opus with .ogg file extension

So far, tagging Opus files required a .opus file extension in Mp3tag. However, many applications are simply using Opus with the .ogg file extension, which is perfectly valid. With this release, Mp3tag detects Opus for files with the .ogg file extension — so no more renaming for you.

Improvements when copying cover art via clipboard

Mp3tag now also copies the original data next to an independent DIB format when copying cover art via the Windows clipboard. Previously, the independent DIB was re-encoded to a maximum quality JPEG, which was not the best option when the image was stored as, e.g., a PNG. Now, if you paste the cover to another file, the original format and data is used.

Mp3tag v2.95

2019-04-18

Toggling of File List columns

You can now toggle File List columns via the context menu on the column header. This way it’s easy to enable and disable columns you only need in certain conditions. It’s a long-requested feature and I’m already using it quite often.

Nested action menus

If you’re one of the aficionados of Mp3tag’s action feature, you can now create nested action menus by using the # character in the action group name.

Support for subtracks at Discogs

The Discogs tag source now supports subtracks. I think it’s great and it’s probably most welcomed by people who have lots of classical music to tag.

Mp3tag v2.94

2019-02-28

Support for discnumbers at auto-numbering wizard.

The auto-numbering wizard can now, optionally, also assign discnumbers to the selected files. New discs start when the directory changes.

History for Replace and Regexp actions

The actions Replace and Replace with regular expression now have a history drop-down that remember the previous inputs.

Remember inputs for last used Replace or Regexp quick actions

The quick actions Replace and Replace with regular expression now remember the last used inputs.

UI improvements at Tag Sources dialog

The tag sources dialog now has a splitter between the lists for results and files, which allows for resizing the lists individually without resizing the whole dialog. Also, the selection from the files list to results list is now synchronized.

Option to disable showing release notes on update

If you prefer to not have these notes shown when you update to a new version, you can disable displaying release notes for new versions at Options → Updates.

Mp3tag v2.93

2019-01-26

Hotfixes regarding MP4 tagging

That was quick! v2.92 had some issues wrt. MP4 tagging and I’ve decided to pull a hotfix release to make sure that as many people as possible are using the fixed version.

Mp3tag v2.92

2019-01-24

Tag-Panel field size Smaller

The Tag Panel continues to get love and it now has a new field size Smaller — which is smaller than Small. It’s perfect for track- and disc numbers and can be nicely combined with another Smaller and one Medium-sized field to fill up one row and use the available space in the most efficient way.

Configurable height of multiline fields on Tag-Panel

Many users who are using multiline fields on the Tag Panel (e.g., for displaying UNSYNCEDLYRICS) were asking for a way to configure the height of those fields. It’s now possible to decide on the number of rows that are occupied by a multiline field (one row is the combination of label and input of a normal-sized field).

Advanced configuration option to toggle listing chapters as separate files

This new option gives the ability to decide of chapters are listed as separate files or are simply not listed. It’s especially helpful if you’re into editing video files (MP4 or Matroska) and always wanted to edit the global tags of a file instead of the titles of the individual chapters. The option is located at Options → Tags → Advanced and is disabled by default.

Information fields for subsongs

Especially if the option to list chapter as separate files is disabled, it can be difficult to identify which files actually have chapters. I’ve added two new information fields to identify those files, %_subsong_count% provides the number of subsongs in a file and %_subsong% contains the subsong index.

Information fields for video dimensions

I have the impression that more and more users are also handling their video library with Mp3tag. This new version also has two new information fields for video dimensions, namely %_video_width% and %_video_height% for Matroska and MP4 video files.

Mp3tag v2.91

2018-11-30

Copying of individual tag fields

A long-awaited feature I’ve implemented is the ability to copy individual fields via the extended tag dialog. Just select the relevant fields you want to copy, right-click and choose the appropriate entry from the popup menu.

Default values for Tag Panel fields

Tag Panel fields have their default values back. Just better :) You can now configure a default value that is set whenever you select multiple files directly via the field configuration at Options → Tag Panel. Double-click on the desired field and choose the default value.

Mp3tag v2.90a

2018-09-23

Updated Code-Signing Certificate

I’ve updated the code-signing certificate that is used to digitally sign and verify the origin and integrity of Mp3tag’s installer and executable.

Microsoft Store version

I’ve released Mp3tag to the Microsoft Store. It’s still available for free and if you prefer getting your software from there you can give it a go.

Mp3tag v2.89

2018-07-12

Improved Tag Panel

I’ve made the following improvements to the Tag Panel:

Support for long file paths

Mp3tag now supports file paths longer than 260 characters, so also very wordy titles can be renamed properly.

Updated Discogs and MusicBrainz tag sources

Discogs changed their servers to require connections via TLS 1.2 (something very secure, if this sounds cryptic to you). I’ve added support for TLS 1.2 for Windows 7 and 8 (it’s used by default starting from Windows 8.1). Unfortunately, TLS 1.2 is not available on Windows XP and Vista, so Discogs stops working on these systems.

MusicBrainz updated their server to a new search infrastructure and with that, some minor changes to the MusicBrainz tag sources were necessary.

Updated MusicBrainz identifier mapping

I’ve added various internal mappings so that fields for MusicBrainz identifiers are now mapped to the correct fields (e.g., MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMID is mapped to MusicBrainz Album Id). See Tag Field Mappings for a complete list.

Option to keep moved files in file list

With Mp3tag v2.87, I’ve implemented the unpopular change that moved files are always kept in the file list and can be manually removed. I’ve now made this behavior optional so that you can decide depending on your preferences.

Mp3tag v2.88

2018-05-31

Going Deep

I’ve taken a deep dive in the bug reports section of the forums and fixed many, many long-lasting and not so old issues with this release.

Layout and other UI changes

I’ve reworked the layout of the Tag Panel in horizontal mode and changed Mp3tag to use a modern, default font in the main window. This one makes Mp3tag look more beautiful on modern Windows systems. This also implies, that any system-wide font changes are also visible in Mp3tag now.

Addressing memory above 2GB on 64 bit systems

This one is huge for people with huge libraries. Mp3tag can now allocate up to 4GB of your RAM. That’s impressively much.

Displaying cover art dimensions in Mp3tag’s file view

You can now use %_cover_width% and %_cover_height% for width and height of the first embedded cover art. It’s also available in the filter, in the converters and everywhere else in Mp3tag.

Mp3tag v2.87

2018-03-29

Spring Maintenance

I’ve spent the last two months hunting bugs and issues and fixed many of them with the current release. Given the list of fixed issues, it feels like this is the most stable release of Mp3tag ever :)

MusicBrainz v2

The MusicBrainz v1 web service will be closed in a few months, so I’ve added a new official MusicBrainz Tag Source based on v2 of the MusicBrainz web service with this release.

Option to disable auto-filtering

The filter helper menu now has an option to enable/disable auto-applying the filter. This can be helpful if you’re working with large libraries and find the auto-filtering to disturb your workflow.

LAME MP3 encoder version

I’ve rewritten the code to analyze MP3s with this version (it was sooooo old) and added detection of LAME encoder versions while I was at it. You can access it via the %_tool% information field, if this is something of interest to you.

Mapping of Matroska tag fields

I’ve reworked the tag fields mapping for Matroska and documented the process at the overview page for Tag Field Mappings. If you’re tagging Matroska files, this is for you.

Mp3tag v2.86

2018-01-24

Library to permanently store metadata

Normally, Mp3tag reads metadata from files when loading files, directories or playlists and stores the data in memory. Then, when you close Mp3tag, the data once read from the files is discarded and must be read again the next time you’re working with those files in Mp3tag.

This can become both time consuming and memory intensive, especially when dealing with large amounts of files. If you enable the Library in Mp3tag (see Options → Library), metadata is first read from the files and then stored in a database that resides in Mp3tag’s configuration folder. On subsequent reads of the file, the metadata is read directly from the database and updated iff the file’s modification timestamp has been changed. In addition to that, cover art or other binary data is not kept in memory but is stored in the database, which can reduce the amount of memory that is consumed by Mp3tag significantly.

This is a quite extensive change and required to rewrite huge parts of Mp3tag base layers. It’s my hope that it improves performance and serves as a basis for interesting future improvements.

Mp3tag v2.85

2017-10-25

Support for Matroska (MKA/MKV)

With the recent support for multi-track files, it was about time to add support for the Matroska container format. Similar to MP4, Matroska can contain both audio and video tracks. This means, that you now have another option to tag your video collection with Mp3tag. Mp3tag currently displays the default (or forced) audio track and all included chapters. I’m curious about your experience, so if you’re going to use Matroska with Mp3tag please let me know what you think.

Extended list of default genres

I’ve extended the list of default genres to include all extensions made by Winamp (ID3v1 genres 148 to 191) which were included by several other programs. It now includes genres like Audiobook and IDM which I find quite nice.

Mp3tag v2.84

2017-08-26

Support for Nero-style MP4 chapters

MP4 is a container format — which basically means that you can put loads of stuff into it. With Nero-style tags, it’s even possible to have one file consisting of multiple sub-tracks. The Nero chapter tags describe the position and the sub-track specific tags. With this new version, Mp3tag displays individual sub-tracks of such files and also allows for editing of those individual chapter tags. Tags fields with the same contents across all sub-tracks are used as global file tags when writing changes.

Cover-only Tag Sources to import album-art from Discogs

Many of you wrote me and wished for a cover-only alternative to the now discontinued Amazon Tag Sources. Here you go :) With this new version, Mp3tag comes with two cover-only Tag Sources to import cover art from Discogs.

Mp3tag v2.83

2017-06-23

Support for querying Discogs via Release ID

Sometimes, searching by album or artist name simply doesn’t give the correct results. This version adds a new tag source to directly search by Discogs Release ID. This means, that you can directly jump to the correct result when importing tags from Discogs.com.

Import from Amazon no longer available

Unfortunately, Amazon has closed my associate account so that importing tags via Amazon is no longer possible. A highly recommended alternative tag source is Discogs, which offers high-quality metadata and cover art.

Support for removing Nero-style tags from MP4 files

Nero-style tags are one possible reason why tags cannot be saved to MP4 files. This version adds basic detection of those tags and reporting via %_tag% if present. Furthermore, you can now remove Nero-style chapter information from MP4 files via context-menu in the file list.

Support for restricting cover export to certain cover types

The Mp3tag action to export cover-art to files now has a option to restrict the covers to be exported to a certain cover type. This means, that you can now export, e.g., all the front covers of your files in one go.

Improvements at reading and writing cue sheets

It’s now possible to read cue sheets that don’t start with Track 1 and many other things. If you’re into working with cue sheets, you’ll probably like the changes in this release.

Mp3tag v2.81

2017-02-17

Support for Portable Installation and Admin-Elevation

A long-requested feature of many users was a portable installation of Mp3tag, i.e., a installation that installs in one directory and also stores its configuration settings in this directory. This is now possible. And if you choose the standard installation, Mp3tag automatically elevates the process to the necessary user rights (after asking you, of course).

Support for iTunes Grouping Field

As mentioned in the release notes of Mp3tag v2.80, iTunes was writing the grouping information to its internal database only. With an updated version of iTunes, this information is now written to a new iTunes-specific ID3v2 field which is available in Mp3tag via the field name GROUPING.

Mp3tag v2.80

2016-11-25

Support for iTunes tag fields for classical music

In October, iTunes introduced new tag fields for better tagging of classical music. Those fields include work name, movement name, number and total count and are mapped in Mp3tag to these new field names:

While the implementation of these fields in iTunes is not yet realized completely consistent, Mp3tag supports all fields for MP4 tags. For MP3 files, iTunes currently writes the work name to the CONTENTGROUP field (while what’s added at “Grouping” is only stored in iTunes’ internal database).

The same applies to the flag SHOWMOVEMENT which is also stored in iTunes’ internal database and not in the file itself. There are already several bug reports for that reported to Apple and I expect a consistent implementation with the next release of iTunes.

Mp3tag v2.78

2016-06-25

Support for AIF / AIFF audio format .aif, .aifc, .aiff

The main feature of v2.78 is full support for the AIF / AIFF audio format. This includes support for ID3v2 tags (including user-defined fields and cover art) as dedicated RIFF chunks. The new version reads, writes and removes those tags and – as usual – also reports meaningful technical information about the file.

Support for iTunes MP4 owner information

This version adds support for the ITUNESOWNER field, which shows the owner of an MP4 file which has been bought via the iTunes Store. Besides ITUNESACCOUNT, this enables you to make sure that all files are from your own music library. Please note that removing those fields doesn’t remove the (hidden) buyer information from the file.

Mp3tag v2.76

2016-04-16

Support for WAV audio format .wav

The main feature of v2.76 is full support for the WAV audio format. This includes support for RIFF INFO tags (which are surprisingly limited) and writing ID3v2 tags (including user-defined fields and cover art) as dedicated RIFF chunks.

The new version reads, writes and removes those tags and – as usual – also reports meaningful technical information about the file.

Mp3tag v2.74

2016-02-13

Support for HTTPS in Web Sources Framework

Since more an more APIs are changing their access methods to require authentication or to be HTTPS-only, this version adds support for secure connections to web sources via HTTPS. This is a rather huge change since the complete HTTP connection part has been replaced in the course of this update.

Discogs access via HTTPS

As a prominent example of the changes described above, Discogs announced to be available via HTTPS only starting from March 14. The official Discogs web source of Mp3tag has been updated to use HTTPS with this update. In the background, I’ve already changed the Mp3tag Discogs image cache that is used to provide Discogs images to Mp3tag users to use HTTPS as well.

Support for Podcast Keywords

Mp3tag becomes more and more popular in the podcast community and already supports a variety of podcast-related tag fields (e.g., podcast category, podcast description, podcast ID and podcast URL). This version adds support for podcast keywords via the PODCASTKEYWORDS field for ID3v2 and MP4 tags.

Compatibility Improvements for ID3v2 Comments

When it comes to ID3v2 comments, iTunes and Windows Media Player seem not to like each other very much. While iTunes requires the ID3v2 comment language to be set to eng (English), Windows Media Player and Windows Explorer need the comment language set to the language of the Windows version that is running. Otherwise, the comments are simply not shown in these applications. In the past Mp3tag offered a quite tedious via editing the language file to circumvent these compatibility issue. With this version, the ID3v2 comment language can be set via a configuration dialog which is available via Options → Tags → Advanced and is also preserved when installing new versions of Mp3tag. So no more fiddling in the language files for you.

Mp3tag v2.73

2015-12-19

Automatically Select Files

In the past, many users have wished for an option to automatically select files that have been added to Mp3tag’s file list. With this version, I’ve added a new configuration option to Options → General that allows for automatically selecting files. When this option is enabled, files that are loaded when Mp3tag started or are added via drag and drop or are added via the right-click option in Windows Explorer are selected automatically.

Selecting All Files via Toolbar

Some users prefer working via keyboard shortcuts, others are effectively using the mouse. To select all files, the most efficient way was to use the Ctrl+A keyboard shortcut. This might change now, especially for the mouse users among you, because the current version now features a new toolbar button for selecting all files in Mp3tag’s file list.

File Selection when Filtering Files

Till now, the file selection was not preserved when switching from a filter result to the complete file list via F3 or View → Filter.... This had the significant drawback, that files which were identified using the filter and selected in the filtered file list, were not seen in context of the complete file list anymore once the filter has been reset. With this version, the file selection is preserved when disabling the filter.

New Bit-Depth Information Field

Some audio formats offer encoding in different bit depths. This information is now available using the %_bitspersample% information field for audio formats that support different bit depths.

Mp3tag v2.72

2015-10-10

Support for Windows 10

Mp3tag now officially supports Windows 10. It worked quite smoothly already when Windows 10 was released, but I adjusted minor things here and there. If you find any quirk or think you’ve found a bug please let me know.

Updated Code-Signing Certificate

To verify the integrity and the origin of the Mp3tag setup and Mp3tag program file, I’ve updated the code-signing certificate.

Mp3tag v2.70

2015-05-01

DPI Awareness and High DPI Support

To be honest, when I first saw a screenshot of Mp3tag on a high-resolution 4K screen I had to laugh: the toolbar icons were ridiculously small and also other screen elements were drawn too small — while the app was still usable in itself. At that point I didn’t knew yet, what it takes to make an app fully DPI aware.

Over the last month I worked on making Mp3tag more DPI aware and touched all the different code parts of drawing and moving user-interface elements. It was quite a ride and it took me to places in Mp3tag’s code base which I hadn’t visited for a long time.

Furthermore, I’ve redrawn the toolbar icons in 32x32 and 24x24 sizes. I’m not an icon designer so it took me some time to get it done. I did a lot of experiments (even with flat black and white icons) but ended up with a set which sticks very much to the original icons which you — and I — are already familiar with. But some icons changed their face or got a new finishing and I hope you like it.

Mp3tag v2.68

2015-03-06

Discogs Image Caching — Reloaded

Discogs made a breaking API change on 2015-02-20 so that I had to update my Discogs image caching server and the way Mp3tag signs the image requests.

Mp3tag v2.65

2014-10-26

Discogs Image Caching

Since Discogs implemented rate-limiting on images requests through their API, users of the Discogs Web Source experienced quite often, that no images were provided by the web source — 1000 request per day for all users of Mp3tag is simply not enough.

Over the last weeks, we’ve implemented a Discogs image cache on the Mp3tag servers which is now asked for images before the actual Discogs servers. This first reduces load on the Discogs servers, but also increases the chance that more and more images are served to you.

Mp3tag v2.64

2014-09-20

Discogs API changed to JSON

Yet another Discogs-related change, you might be thinking — at least we did, when we read the corresponding announcement on their API development forums :-)

This change removed the XML format from the API and changed the API format to JSON, which resulted in the official Discogs Tag Source not working anymore for you.

With this release, we have developed a new official Discogs Tag Source based on the new JSON format. This new format also is more robust w.r.t. changes in the API. If you notice any quirks, releases that cannot be tagged or other things, please let us know.

We’ve extended the Web Sources Framework by JSON-related functions that enable the development of faster, more reliable, and easier to maintain Tag Sources. We’re looking forward to any community-based development in this area!

Mp3tag v2.62

2014-08-10

Discogs API access changed to OAuth

Starting at August 15, 2014 Discogs restricts access to their API to authentication using OAuth. As a user of the Discogs Tag Source you need to have an account on the Discogs web site as outlined at Discogs Authorization.

Mp3tag v2.60

2014-06-21

Update of Discogs Tag Source

Discogs updated their API which resulted in release information not being retrieved while using the Discogs tag source. The access to the Discogs API has been fixed with this release.

Internal Restructuring

While this is not a feature that is visible to the user, it’s worth mentioning that over the last weeks we did some major refactoring of Mp3tag’s code base by changing to use standard container libraries and algorithms.

Mp3tag v2.59

2014-04-20

Support for Direct Stream Digital (DSF)

With this version Mp3tag supports Direct Stream Digital (DSF) files with ID3v2 tags.

Furthermore, this version fixes some issues which were reported during the last months, improves some internal parts and makes use of the taskbar progress feature which was introduced with Windows 7.

Mp3tag v2.58

2013-10-06

Improved performance when reading MP4 files

Mp3tag now reads MP4 files faster than before which should be significant on large collections (many files) or collections including MP4 video (large files).

Improved compatibility of YEAR in ID3v2.3

With Mp3tag v2.53 released almost one year ago we decided to combine the release year (ID3v2.3 frame TYER, displayed as YEAR) and release date (ID3v2.3 frame TDAT, displayed as DATE) in YEAR and display it as YYYY-MM-DD. The intention was to improve compatibility with other applications and the ID3v2 standard.

Since then we’ve received numerous support requests both on the Mp3tag Community Forums and via email from users who are unsatisfied with that change. Either because they use a different formatting of date values, use some value denoting a specific time frame (e.g., the 80s) or simply wanted to preserve values that were not fitting in the new date formatting scheme.

With Mp3tag v2.58 we revert this change to the previous behavior.

Mp3tag v2.55

2013-04-20

Support for IETF Opus

Mp3tag now supports the IETF Opus codec.

Mp3tag v2.54

2012-12-22

Support for Windows 8

Mp3tag now officially supports Windows 8 operating system.

Mp3tag v2.53

2012-10-24

Improved support for Drag and Drop of cover art

Mp3tag now uses a different method for drag and drop of cover art which does not require re-encoding the cover image again but instead uses the original image whenever possible. In addition, support for drag and drop of cover art from Google Chrome has been added.

Improved compatibility of YEAR in ID3v2.3

The release year (ID3v2.3 frame TYER, displayed as YEAR) and release date (ID3v2.3 frame TDAT, displayed as DATE) are now combined in YEAR and displayed as YYYY-MM-DD. This improves compatibility with other applications (e.g., foobar2000) and provides a consistent view with all revisions of the ID3v2 specification.

Mp3tag v2.52

2012-07-19

Option to specify cover art directory

With this option located at Options → Directories you can specify a default directory that is displayed when adding cover art. Besides fully-qualified path names, you can provide relative path names and use placeholders. If no default directory is specified or the directory cannot be opened, Mp3tag opens the directory of the first selected file if it contains cover art or the current working directory in all other cases.

Mp3tag v2.50

2012-03-11

Converter Tag — Tag

This converter formats tag fields by other fields content, which means that you can use it to copy tags from one field to another or to combine contents of multiple different tag fields in one tag field. As already known from the other converters, you can use placeholders for any tag field and scripting functions within the format string to format the content of the specified tag field. Furthermore, the format string is evaluated while typing and you can verify the results using the built-in preview.

Unicode Playlists in UTF-8 format

You can now save playlists in Unicode format encoded as UTF-8 if you use .m3u8 as file extension. This can be useful if file names contain special characters. Applications which support UTF-8 encoded playlists are, e.g., Apple iTunes and foobar2000.

Discogs API 2.0

Discogs.com released a completely redesigned API for accessing data from their website based on the popular JSON format. Mp3tag’s web source framework and the corresponding Discogs web source have been updated to this new format.

Mp3tag v2.49

2011-06-01

Support for unknown MP4 tags

Previous to this version, MP4 tags that were unknown to Mp3tag were deleted from the files, which was an issue for some users. With this version, Mp3tag keeps those unknown MP4 tags (also called atoms).

Support for wildcards at cover import from file

The actions Import cover from file and Import text file now support wildcards * (matches zero to many characters) and ? (matches exactly one character). This should ease cover import from randomly named files significantly.

Updated Web Sources

The MusicBrainz and Discogs Web Sources are now both based on the corresponding web service API which makes them more robust to changes on the respective web sites.

Mp3tag v2.48

2011-01-23

This version is mainly a maintenance release which updates the Amazon Web Sources and improves Amazon query handling to decrease the amount of needed requests per query. As soon as enough users updated to this new release, the request limit enforced by Amazon should not be an issue anymore.

Mp3tag v2.47

2010-11-19

Renamed Tag fields

With this release some of the tag fields that are used for format strings, actions, columns, exports, and filters are renamed to have more accessible and intuitive names. This also means that all parts of Mp3tag where you have used the old names have to be updated. We know that this is an invasive change but think that it was a step necessary to keep it everything maintainable and understandable for new users of the program.

Please see the list below for details on the renamed tag fields:

Some of them might be familiar to you, others might be new. If you are wondering which other fields are available, please see Tag Field Mappings for a complete list.

Actions menu

The actions feature which was well hidden under the converter menu now has a dedicated top-level menu where all action groups are accessible via menu items. If you are not familiar with the actions in Mp3tag please have a look at actions. It is a powerful feature and worth looking at.

Amazon

Amazon has limited access to their web service to 2000 requests per hour. That means that you might get an occasional error 503 when using the Amazon tag source. However, the limit is reset each hour so you can try again later if it is not working for you.

Mp3tag v2.46

2010-03-13

Explorer Shell Extension

The right-click menu extension is now realized by a dedicated Shell extension which improves opening files and directories via the context menu also for large amounts of files.

Improved user-defined field mappings

The user-defined mappings for field names introduced in Mp3tag v2.45 now have a dedicated documentation page and were further improved with regard to mapping multiple field names to one user-defined field name.

Improved Tag Sources dialog

The Tag Sources dialog now also supports reordering of files via drag and drop allowing to quickly rearrange files according to the titles. Yes, we made it work with multiple files too :-)

The sorting and selection state of the Tag Sources search results are now also remembered if you decide to go back and pick another result.

Portable settings

Previous versions of Mp3tag stored toolbar and panel positions in the Windows Registry. This changed with this release so that Mp3tag now stores all configuration data in its own configuration files.

Mp3tag v2.45

2009-11-21

Improved Filter

The filter now supports filter expressions where it is now possible to combine filter criteria and use format strings for filtering. The filter now also comes with a history, providing easy access to your often-used filter expressions.

User-defined field mappings

Mp3tag now supports user-defined mappings for field names. This is particularly useful in case you need to make field names consistent across different types of tags. The feature is available via Options → Tags → Mapping where you can create mappings for a specific tag type (APEv2, ID3v2, MP4, VorbisComment or WMA), provide a Source name (Mp3tag’s internal name) and a target name (your preferred field name).

Multiline fields for Tag Panel

Are you adding lyrics, artist biographies or other text-intensive information to your songs? If so, you can now add multiline custom fields to the Tag Panel via Options → Tag Panel.

Mp3tag v2.43

2009-03-28

Automatic Updates

This version comes with support for automatic checking for updates on program startup. You can decide whether you want to get notified on stable final releases only, or whether you also want to be notified on development build beta versions. If you don’t want Mp3tag to check for updates you can disable it completely at Options → Updates.

Horizontal Tag Panel

While it was always possible to drag the Tag Panel and dock it above or below Mp3tag’s file list, the input fields are now arranged more effectively. It’s also possible to disable the directory switcher from the Tag Panel.

New Translations

Mp3tag is now also translated to Danish, Hebrew, Vietnamese, and Ukrainian language.

Mp3tag v2.34

2005-11-26

Support for cover art

With the new release Mp3tag supports embedded cover art for files with ID3v2 tags, TTA- and WMA files. You can add cover art via the extended tag dialog.

Import from Amazon.com

Besides the freedb support, Mp3tag now has the ability to get album information from Amazon.com.

Mp3tag v2.33

2005-10-14

Support for Unicode

Probably the most import change and new feature in this version is the support for Unicode throughout the whole program. Mp3tag writes ID3v2 tags in Unicode format (UTF-16) by default now, but there are still some programs, portables or car radios which have problems with ID3v2 tags stored in Unicode format (though this is specified within the ID3v2 standard). To use Mp3tag with this programs or devices, simply enable writing ISO-8859-1 ID3v2 tags at Options → Tags → Mpeg. After that, just re-save the tags.

If you have problems displaying tags with characters from other charsets (like Cyrillic) in Mp3tag, the tags are probably stored in a system codepage instead of Unicode or ISO-8859-1. To convert these tags from a specific codepage to Unicode, simply create a new action Convert Codepage, select the appropriate tag field(s) and choose the codepage from the drop-down list.

Mp3tag v2.27

2004-12-05

New syntax for scripting functions

The last versions had major problems with the backslash and the double quotes characters within scripting functions so we had to re-implement the part which is responsible for evaluating the built in functions.

The names of the functions did not change - you don’t have to learn new function names or placeholder names. See format strings and placeholders for details.