mp3 export fails to save id3 tags

[Brian Murray]

Binary package hint: audacity

This might be related to bug 581113.

Steps to Recreate:
1) Open an existing mp3 file and select a range
2) Choose File -> Export Selection in Audacity
3) Specify a file name - mp3-without-id3-tags.mp3
4) In the id3 editor dialog add in some tags
5) Save the file

Check to see if id3tags are there using id3tag mp3-without-id3-tags.mp3.

Notice the file wasn't really tagged and that you wasted some time.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: audacity 1.3.12-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.37-7.19-generic 2.6.37-rc3
Uname: Linux 2.6.37-7-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
CheckboxSubmission: fee5e196cb921cbd36888f428b38b488
CheckboxSystem: 2a6f54df59af338184485e85cbcf0d32
Date: Thu Dec 16 11:03:09 2010
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
SourcePackage: audacity

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Actually it looks like the tags are there just that most applications don't read them.

[Benjamin Drung (bdrung)]

I tested different tools:
* File property with nautilus: Tags are detected.
* id3 -l example.mp3: No ID3 tag.
* eye3D example.mp3: Invalid frame id for DateFrame: TYER
No ID3 v1.x/v2.x tag found!

[G-benjamin (g-benjamin)]

Debian bug: http://bugs.debian.org/401368
Ubuntu bug: https://launchpad.net/bugs/691233

Steps to Recreate:
1) Open an existing mp3 file and select a range
2) Choose File -> Export Selection in Audacity
3) Specify a file name - mp3-without-id3-tags.mp3
4) In the id3 editor dialog add in some tags
5) Save the file

The file property of nautilus shows the tags (except the year), but most tools (for example id3 and eye3D) fails to detect the tags.

$ id3 -l example.mp3
No ID3 tag.
$ eye3D example.mp3
Invalid frame id for DateFrame: TYER
No ID3 v1.x/v2.x tag found!

The linked Debian bug has more investigation.

[Ashton Kemerling (ashtonkemerling)]

I can confirm this. Using the same MP3 song, I end up with no ID3 headers showing up in Dolphin after exporting, even though Dolphin registered the ID3 information for the original song.

To make it more interesting, this is a Linux specific bug, as I tried it using 1.3.12 on my Windows 7 install (same file), and the ID3 headers worked as expected, and still showed up when I opened a Windows-edited file on my Linux box.

Tested on the latest SVN.

[Ashton Kemerling (ashtonkemerling)]

Oh, and the Linux exported file is exactly 112 bytes larger than the Windows exported file.

[Gale (gale)]

You can fix the year tag problem (at any rate for Nautilus and Eye3D) if someone gives the green light/votes for the patch in Bug 265, so that TDRC is used for Linux. Have you tried that patch?

As one of the bug comments states, the tags are there (try looking in a Hex Editor) but some apps do not see them.

Are all these reports for exporting MP3 with the distro's LAME: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Lame_Installation#GNU.2FLinux.2FUnix_instructions ?

What program does "id3" at the command line call - have you looked at the source of that program? Does it require ID3v2.4? Audacity uses ID3 v2.3. It might well be that most of these problems could be solved by forcing ID3v2.4 for Linux but would people who still insist on using e.g. Ubuntu 6.x approve? If the default file manager for the current OS version sees the tags, then I think apps that don't probably make this a P4.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

This continues to be an issue with what will be Ubuntu 13.10.

[matt (5att)]

The duplicate report goes more in depth about the cause of this.

To repair en masse, I currently use puddletag, which is usually available through your distribution's repository. (=

If anyone has a command line tool that works with the incorrect TYER tag, please let me know.

[Leland-audacityteam (leland-audacityteam)]

Created attachment 1090
ID3 tags in Dolphin

This shows that Dolphin does indeed (at least now it does) recognized the Audacity tags. One note about this is that you HAVE to enable "baloo" which the file indexer that collects this extra information. Without it enabled, you do see metadata from any file. Here's what baloo collected for this one:

[ub20:~]$ balooshow Documents/untitled.mp3
2818632417544197 2053 656264 Documents/untitled.mp3 [/home/yam/Documents/untitled.mp3]
        Mtime: 1613542299 2021-02-17T00:11:39
        Ctime: 1613542299 2021-02-17T00:11:39
        Cached properties:
                Bitrate: 38000
                Channels: 1
                Duration: 30
                Genre: Acid Jazz
                Sample Rate: 44100
                Track Number: 0
                Release Year: 1992
                Comment: comments comments
                Artist: artist
                Album: album title
                Title: track title

[Leland-audacityteam (leland-audacityteam)]

Created attachment 1091
ID3 tags in Nautilus

Nautilus also displays the tags including the year tag.

[Leland-audacityteam (leland-audacityteam)]

As for the "id3" command, that supports ID3v1.1 only and we don't write those tags.

So, I think we either fixed Audacity or the other applications were fixed and I think we can close this bug.

[Petersampsonaudacity (petersampsonaudacity)]

closed on the basis of Leland;s testing

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

I tested this again today with audacity on groovy and confirm that I do now see ID3 v2.4 tags.

 $ eyeD3 serious-shit.mp3
eyed3.plugins:WARNING: Plugin '('lastfm.py', '/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/eyed3/plugins')' requires packages that are not installed: No m
odule named 'pylast'
/home/bdmurray/Music/serious-shit.mp3 [ 67.57 KB ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time: 00:02 MPEG1, Layer III [ 320 kb/s @ 44100 Hz - Joint stereo ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ID3 v2.4:
title:
artist: Doc Brown
album: Back to the Future
recording date: 2021
track:
UserTextFrame: [Description: major_brand]
isom
UserTextFrame: [Description: compatible_brands]
isomiso2avc1mp41
UserTextFrame: [Description: Software]
Lavf58.20.100
UserTextFrame: [Description: minor_version]
512