Adding miscellaneous mp3 files to PA Music Library

[Supertech]

In addition to all the music I have added to PA successfully I have various Radio airchecks in mp3 format.  In my Music folder I've created a folder named Radio and below that subfolders named after the air personality and inside those are the mp3 files.  I basically recreated the folder structure for a typical album.  I've done Scan and Full Rescan multiple times but Radio doesn't appear when I search Albums nor do any of the personalities appear when I search Artist.  What am I doing wrong?  Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

[MotleyG]

50 minutes ago, Supertech said:

In my Music folder I've created a folder named Radio and below that subfolders named after the air personality and inside those are the mp3 files.  I basically recreated the folder structure for a typical album.  I've done Scan and Full Rescan multiple times but Radio doesn't appear when I search Albums nor do any of the personalities appear when I search Artist.  What am I doing wrong?

Albums and Artists are metadata tags that need to be embedded in the audio files. These do not come from the folder or file names. If youy wish to browse this way using Poweramp, you will need to enable and use the Library for Folder Hierarchy (use the top-left 3-dot menu in the main library page to access the List Options to turn this on if it isn't already there). 

[andrewilley]

Do the Folders appear, with song files within them? Are the MP3s fully tagged - with Album Artist tags for example?

Andre

[Supertech]

MotleyG and andrewilley, 

Thanks for responding.  Since reading your replies I've delved into the metadata tag issue and determined that was my problem.  I've successfully been able to edit the tags on the actual mp3 files and since doing that the selections do appear when I search under Artists.  It's still unclear what meta tags are actually necessary for visibility in PA and which are just incidental info.  The remaining issue is that the parent folder, Radio, still does not appear under Album search.  I should mention that my PA library was copied from my Windows 10 desktop and I can find no way to edit any metadata tag on a folder in Windows or on my Android phone for that matter.  Is that somehow possible and is that why the Radio folder doesn't appear in an Album search?  My Radio folder hierarchy mimics the other albums in the library: Radio folder\Artist folder\Artist mp3 file with only meta tags on the mp3 file.  It's interesting to me that the Artist folder appears in an Artist search even though there is no known meta tag on that folder but the Radio folder doesn't appear in an Album search.  Clearly, I still have something to resolve.

In a related matter, I discovered that my repeated Full Rescans apparently created multiple entries for everything.  Unable to find any way to resolve this easily I deleted the entire library, restored the library and rescanned successfully.  I'm sure there's an easier way.  Is there a data file that can be deleted to accomplish the same before a scan is performed to avoid creating dupe entries?  Also, can you suggest a free metadata tag editor?

Edited January 23 by Supertech

[MotleyG]

1 hour ago, Supertech said:

It's still unclear what meta tags are actually necessary for visibility in PA and which are just incidental info. 

At a bare minimum I would recommend that the AlbumArtist, Album, Title, and Artist are all present. Additional data like Composer, Genre, Track, Discnumber are not essential but certainly help make library browsing more manageable. There are many other standard and custom tags you can use, but these will make things easier in Poweramp.

1 hour ago, Supertech said:

The remaining issue is that the parent folder, Radio, still does not appear under Album search

It won't unless you make this the name of the Album for those tracks, or if you browse using the Folder library I mentioned earlier.

1 hour ago, Supertech said:

I should mention that my PA library was copied from my Windows 10 desktop and I can find no way to edit any metadata tag on a folder in Windows

Folders do not have metadata, they are simply a placeholder name for browsing folders on your PC.

1 hour ago, Supertech said:

In a related matter, I discovered that my repeated Full Rescans apparently created multiple entries for everything.

This is an unrelated matter, but a Full Rescan should not create multiple ebtries for the same track. Perhaps you have added multiple scan locations though with the same folders? I would clear all of your scanned locations, then start fresh adding only the main folder location for your music files once. Then run a new Full Rescan to have Poweramp discard all previous library info and make a new one after you have made all of these updates.

[andrewilley]

Also worth a look at the Guide I wrote with regard to embedded tags, which goes into the subject in more detail:

As @MotleyG has said, the folder names you create on your storage have nothing to do with Albums or any other Library Category. You can call your folders and subfolders anything like like, and those names will appear in the Folders (and Folders Hierarchy) views, but nowhere else. They are used in the same way a File Explorer app uses folders and subfolders.

Once you've got your files and folders set up - ideally all contained in subfolders within one master folder for neatness - it might be an idea to grant the access permissions again for only that one master folder in order to create the library again from scratch:

Andre

[Supertech]

MotleyG and andrewilley,  Thanks to both again.  I'll be spending a couple days to try to make the magic happen and will get back with results.

[andrewilley]

You don't actually need to have your MP3 files properly tagged to be able to listen to them. Poweramp will still scan any discovered audio files into its database and arrange them by folders, which you can browse through in Folders Hierarchy view, just like using a file explorer app, and select each song by its raw filename.

But that's a really tedious 1990s approach, and embedding tags for Title, Artist, Album Title, Album Artist, Genre, cover artwork, etc has been standard in all types of music file for many years now. To make the task easier and quicker I would suggest using a batch tag editing program on a computer - such as TagScanner or MP3Tag. You may even find a lot of your music already has basic tags included - unless you ripped everything from CDs for yourself and did not provide them. And even then, most decent CD ripping software will try to find details of the album online and create appropriate tags for you.

Andre,

[Supertech]

Andre,  Most of my music was ripped from CDs and does indeed inherit the appropriate tags.  My only problem appears to be on audio that I digitized through Audacity from either a reel-to-reel tape player or ripped off YouTube.  The only tags with those seem to be the time duration.  I can deal with both those now that I understand how to edit tags better thanks to you and MotleyG.  You guys are the best!

 

[MotleyG]

1 hour ago, Supertech said:

Andre,  Most of my music was ripped from CDs and does indeed inherit the appropriate tags.  My only problem appears to be on audio that I digitized through Audacity from either a reel-to-reel tape player or ripped off YouTube.  The only tags with those seem to be the time duration.  I can deal with both those now that I understand how to edit tags better thanks to you and MotleyG.  You guys are the best!

There are tagging programs better suited for this on the PC side of things. Most can easily manage this type of track and album updating. My personal recommendation is mp3tag but there are others that you may prefer.

[Supertech]

Thanks for the tip.  I've been using the free version of Music Tag.  I'll check out mp3tag.