Id3 Tags Not Working

[ReeceS269]

I've been having this issue, too. Thousands of songs are now showing "unknown artists" and "unknown albums". I've tried just about everything, sometimes it'll fix itself, sometimes it won't. All the info is there when I look, some songs allow me to edit, save and then it'll show everything correct and others just tell me I need to grant access but every time I do that it just asks for it again. 

 

A huge part of my library has been completely screwed up. 

[andrewilley]

@ReeceS269 any other details? Do you have a similar device or ROM to previous posters? SD Card or internal memory? Does a Full Rescan help? Have you tried removing all storage permisssions and re-granting them? Are you using Legacy File Access mode or not?

Andre

[ReeceS269]

21 minutes ago, andrewilley said:

@ReeceS269 any other details? Do you have a similar device or ROM to previous posters? SD Card or internal memory? Does a Full Rescan help? Have you tried removing all storage permisssions and re-granting them? Are you using Legacy File Access mode or not?

Andre

I have an S7 Edge, Micro SD, I've tried a full rescan. I've removed grant access and Legacy mode doesn't appear for me. I can't find it anywhere and when I search for it it takes to the misc tab and it isn't there.

[mmueller]

Genre Tags and Song names don't show up sometimes or disappear.
I use Poweramp v3 build-935-bundle-play full version 64bit on Huawei Mate 20 Android 12 (EMUI 12.0.0)
I have been using PA for several years now without any issue. Either after the last PA update or Android update 11 to 12 the songnames and genre names randomly disappear.

They sometimes reappear after chossing them. I try to show some images that might show the problem:

(one Title is missing, below "Miss Kiss Kiss Bang")
 

One Title is missing, the former missing is playing and shows up

 

Now many titles are not showing up after changing genre back and forth

 

A genre is now not siplayed properly (below "Samba")

Is there anything i can do to avoid these errors? It's quite nagging.

Thanks a lot
Malte

Edited May 11, 2022 by andrewilley
Post merged into existing thread as it seems to be same issue

[andrewilley]

Please could anyone who is experiencing these issues of tag information not being displayed correctly in some recent updates please download and test build 938. Thanks.

Andre

[ReeceS269]

16 minutes ago, andrewilley said:

Please could anyone who is experiencing these issues of tag information not being displayed correctly in some recent updates please download and test build 938. Thanks.

Andre

I just tried it and sadly it hasn't changed for me. Songs are still showing "unknown artist/unknown album" when the tags are all correct and I still have an issue with grant access.

[andrewilley]

On 5/9/2022 at 9:37 PM, ReeceS269 said:

I have an S7 Edge, Micro SD, I've tried a full rescan. I've removed grant access and Legacy mode doesn't appear for me. I can't find it anywhere and when I search for it it takes to the misc tab and it isn't there.

On an S7 you won't see the Legacy option, as its firmware can't be upgraded beyond Android 8 for which that is the default mode anyway.

And to confirm, you still see all the filenames (with extenders, such as .mp3) but no other title/artist/album info or cover art? And when it happens, is this for your whole library or only certain parts of it (could it be a certain subfolder grouping for example)?

It does still sound like an storage access issue though, could be SD Card related. It might be worth backing it up, reformatting it, and then copying everything back onto it again.

You could also try reverting PA to default installation by deleting its app data in Android Settings and start again from scratch. Make a PA Setting Backup first though, so you don't lose any internal playlists/etc.

Andre

[mmueller]

On 5/11/2022 at 1:04 PM, andrewilley said:

Please could anyone who is experiencing these issues of tag information not being displayed correctly in some recent updates please download and test build 938. Thanks.

Andre

I don't have my phone with me right here. But the latest Update seems to have fixed my problem. I gobbled araound in PA this morning and everythings is fine.
Yes, it is build-938.

[Andrew Evenstar]

On 5/6/2022 at 12:58 PM, andrewilley said:

That's been tried a few times, but the phantom song filenames were still present.

Andre

So it happened again this morning. This is what I did. 

• Connected phone to computer via usb 
• Added songs to music folder in root directory of Galaxy S22
• Navigated to "Recently Added" in Poweramp, clicked 3 dot menu, clicked "Rescan" (phone still plugged into pc via usb)
• Now there are hundreds of songs that have the same issue where the song will play, but cannot update tags or album art. 
  • > the name of the song displayed in power amp is exactly the title of the file.
• Tried a normal rescan in Poweramp settings > library, this did not fix it. 
• Tried a full re-scan, made sure screen did not sleep when this process was running, same results

• the tags are still the same, but title not displayed correctly, still displayed as file name, can't edit album art.
• restarted phone, same results
• however if i navigate to the song with a search or through the library, the song displays as it should with correct tags and album art. 
• >> i can add this song back to my original playlist and it will look and behave correctly'

I will once again remove full app permissions and download the latest build and test. I am currently on 933.

I do import playlists from an exported file I create before I revoke permissions, and it works as normally after import, but then breaks after some days. 

 

[maxmp]

@Andrew Evenstar if you don't see tags, those files were never scanned. Allow Poweramp to finish scan (no progress is shown in header or in Settings / Library). 

[Andrew Evenstar]

On 5/15/2022 at 4:12 PM, maxmp said:

@Andrew Evenstar if you don't see tags, those files were never scanned. Allow Poweramp to finish scan (no progress is shown in header or in Settings / Library). 

I just tried a Library > rescan and it didn't restore the tags... this function used to restore the tags a few months ago when i had this issue, maybe even last year sometime. A quick scan wouldn't, but normal re-scan would. 

[andrewilley]

1 hour ago, Andrew Evenstar said:

I just tried a Library > rescan and it didn't restore the tags... this function used to restore the tags a few months ago when i had this issue, maybe even last year sometime. A quick scan wouldn't, but normal re-scan would. 

So after a Full Rescan, are you still seeing just the MP3 filenames instead of titles - and with no Artist/Album/etc information, and no cover artwork? If so the first phase of the rescan has been completed (crawling the folders looking for audio files) but the second stage has failed (getting the tag data from each of those files).

Any embedded cover art is read at list display time, not during the initial scan. Displaying downloaded art relies on the tag data being correct. 

Andre

[Andrew Evenstar]

7 hours ago, andrewilley said:

So after a Full Rescan, are you still seeing just the MP3 filenames instead of titles - and with no Artist/Album/etc information, and no cover artwork? If so the first phase of the rescan has been completed (crawling the folders looking for audio files) but the second stage has failed (getting the tag data from each of those files).

Any embedded cover art is read at list display time, not during the initial scan. Displaying downloaded art relies on the tag data being correct. 

Andre

yes. after a full scan, within many playlists, these mp3 files tags are not correctly being read. 

however, if i search for the same songs within the Poweramp library, but not within these playlists, i can see the correct tags and album art. i can even re-add these files to the playlists and they will show correctly. 

even marking "do not add duplicate files to playlists" option enabled, these same songs will be added to the playlist, as if the ones with broken tags are not being detected within the playlists. 

[andrewilley]

@Andrew Evenstar Right, so in your particular case your problem is specifically about the content of Playlists only, and your regular Library entries are fine. So (for example) the All Songs list, or Folders, Albums, etc, are all showing the expected song Titles along with their with their corresponding Album/Artist details and associated cover art? However when you open a Playlist, it is showing just filenames (which presumably won't play) without any further song details. That was not what this thread that you've joined was originally about, hence the confusion.

So, assuming the above is the case, let's try to tackle this afresh...

There are two kinds of playlist: Internal ones, which only exist within Poweramp's local database (usually created within Poweramp itself, using the '+Playlist' button in a song list) and external file-based ones which are retrieved from (for example) physical .M3U files on your device's storage. You can tell the difference by the way they are displayed in the Playlists Category list: internal ones show as just a name with no extender, while file-based ones display the full scanned filename complete with its .M3U extender. Which type are you using?

Taking files as an example, the way Poweramp resolves the details provided within the M3U file and relates the contained lines of text to actual songs from your Library, is to check for a match with the exact filename given for the song, and also the first level of folder that it is contained within. The rest of the path information quoted in the M3U file is discarded, as it could refer to a completely different storage layout - for example if you copied the file from a PC it might include C:\Users\yourname\Music\... which clearly does not exist on your phone so needs to be ignored.

If you have even slightly changed the audio filename, or if the folder name that it is stored within does not match, Poweramp will not be able to connect it with a song and so will simple display a non-usable 'placeholder' of the whole filename given in the M3U file. This will also happen if the playlist file quotes an incorrect folder or filename - the end result is the same, that PA cannot match the entry with a song. If you later put the song back into the place where the playlist is expecting to find it (or you edit the playlist file in a text editor to correct it from that side) then you can use the List Options=>Rescan/Resolve Playlists feature to re-link the playlist entry to an actual song file.

See also the Playlists section in this FAQ:

So your next step is to view the physical M3U file in any text editor to check that for any given song, the final folder name and filename both match exactly with a song file contained in your music folders (use a file explorer app to confirm).

Andre

[heidl]

To give some positive feedback.... I recently had exactly the same problem with my playlists. Tracks in the library were displayed correctly, but not in playlist files. A full rescan solved the problem completely. I am on PA build 939 and use a Samsung S20 (current Android).

@Andrew Evenstar Maybe this is a Samsung specific One UI issue? Are you using Samsung's default system folders (Music, Playlists, etc...)? Try copying your music and playlists to a folder of your own creation and restrict Poweramp access to that folder only.
 

[andrewilley]

@heidl Playlists can be an issue for some people as the contents are referenced by exact folder name and filename, not by any combination of music tags (Title, Artist, Album, etc). Once initially created or scanned, PA remembers the full Android path to each song file in the playlist. So if you later move or rename a file or change the folder layer (or even if Android renames your SD Card for you, which can happen) PA will no longer be able to find the song.

The Rescan / Resolve Playlists option is designed to help in these sorts of cases, as it parses each Playlist again looking for a new matching folder/filename combination. But if you have actually renamed the folder/file combination, PA will never be able to find a match. For example, if a Playlist says a song is to be found in the file Star Wars/Main Title.mp3 but you have renamed it to Star Wars Soundtrack/Main Title.mp3 or Star Wars/Opening Title.mp3 then it will never be able to correlate the entry in the playlist with a physical audio file.

Andre

[Andrew Evenstar]

@andrewilleythanks so much for explaining what happened. i think you are spot on with your answer. i just did not understand why it was occurring or what the issue was exactly, that's why my comments were in here

do you think it was because i carried these same playlists from my old phone? an s10 with my music and playlists all being on an SD card, to an s22 with internal storage only? or did somehow the mp3 files and folders in these playlists get modified somehow? 

I will just start to build out new playlists. my library is very sloppy these days. i used to create my playlists in itunes then export them to my phone using isyncr, but i no longer manage my music on the computer so nicely. i just drag and drop mp3s into my music folder and go, and build playlists manually., 

Edited June 21, 2022 by Andrew Evenstar

[andrewilley]

@Andrew Evenstar To clarify, are all your songs still appearing correctly in the main Library views (e.g. All Songs, or Artists)? But in some playlists the entries are again showing as filenames only - i.e. with their .mp3 extender visible, and displaying no separate Artist/Album/Title/album art details.

You can indeed carry playlists over from your old device. Were these internal playlists (which would show with just their assigned name in the Playlists list) or file-based (which would have their filename, including the .M3U(8) extender, visible)? If they were carried over automatically by Android/Samsung's restore processes, you may need to do another 'Rescan/Resolve Playlists' from the Playlists List Options menu as the paths to internal storage folders will be different to the old saved ones from your SD Card.

But we are back to your original problem that for PA to be able to resolve playlist entries to specific files on your storage, the filename and the first containing folder must fully match. The rest of the path is ignored (to fix exactly the situation you are describing). If your playlists are file-based, you can load the actual M3U file into any text editor and have a look through the contents. Only the path/filename lines are used, ignore any lines starting with #. For any items that you are having problems with, compare what is in the playlist file (just the last folder and the filename) with the actual names of the folders/files on your device's storage. If they don't match, you can revise and re-save the M3U file with the correct details and it should then work after a Rescan/Resolve.

Andre