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Topic: External Tags (Read 81242 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: External Tags

Reply #325
@moonra it should. Do a test to make sure: make a copy of one of the files, create the external tags file for it, edit some tags and do a replaygain scan maybe, then check with a hashing tool if the copy and original still have the same hash. More info on the wiki: https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Foobar2000:Components/External_Tags_(foo_external_tags)#Usage

 You could also just set the files to be readonly through your file browser, then you can experiment all you want with peace of mind instead of a hashing tool.

Re: External Tags

Reply #326
Yes, you can, make sure to config the external tags (writer) to be in the first list of priority in Playback>decoding preferences.
Or, in the context menu >tagging>edit (or) create external tags.



Re: External Tags

Reply #327
I tried to use the subj, creates a file in the target folder that does not run foobar2000, also creates it in ansi encoding, which makes it impossible to save Unicode characters, what are the advantages over m-tags???

 

Re: External Tags

Reply #328
I tried to use the subj, creates a file in the target folder that does not run foobar2000, also creates it in ansi encoding, which makes it impossible to save Unicode characters, what are the advantages over m-tags???
I can put unicode characters like 😀 into my ext tags just fine, and they even show correctly when I open the .tag file in my text editor (which you normally never need to do, mind you) with utf8 decoding.

Re: External Tags

Reply #329
I tried to use the subj, creates a file in the target folder that does not run foobar2000, also creates it in ansi encoding, which makes it impossible to save Unicode characters, what are the advantages over m-tags???
The tags are in UTF-8 format and very much support unicode. The advantage over m-tags is that tagging is handled transparently - the tags are usable in the player automatically without doing any extra work. You don't need to modify files manually or replace files in playlists with custom tag versions.

Re: External Tags

Reply #330
Can the plugin emit external tags into files copied with "File Operations \ Copy to"? To clarify, I use External Tags to preserve original file integrity - mostly MP3 - intact and this works great on a PC. When I copy albums to a phone, file integrity becomes irrelevant but I still want to have proper tags because some files originally have none or very low quality metadata, so I'd like to re-use metadata kept in the SQLite instance. Version "1.0.20" release notes mention "external tag copying from the source file to the copy when using File Operations (only used for folder and APE tags)", does foobar2000 Android support "folder tags"? There also was some talk about it on page 9. Did I miss a setting somewhere?

On a side note, the SQLite instance seems to use file paths as keys. Given my files never change, is there a way to change the indexing to be more portable, like file checksum? Path indexes mean the tags are not preserved after the file was moved to a different dir, which is annoying.

Re: External Tags

Reply #331
Hello to the developer.

1. For some reason, I don't have a reader.



2. I really want to be able to edit the TAGS file using an external editor, for example, a text editor, how can this be implemented? How do I open a file to manually correct the tags? Including redcasting the cover

3. I can't set the file name using the usual syntax, for example %album artist%

4. Causes confusion identical windows with native ones



In the end, I would like a substitute for CUE with advanced features

5. I also want to understand that the topic header says "experimental" - hence the question - it makes sense to reformat your entire discography using your add-on, and what if you stop supporting it and the new version of the player is not compatible?

6. Also interested in the question of writing back to the tags of files CUT INTO SEPARATE tracks

Re: External Tags

Reply #332
1. For some reason, I don't have a reader.
2. I really want to be able to edit the TAGS file using an external editor, for example, a text editor, how can this be implemented? How do I open a file to manually correct the tags? Including redcasting the cover
3. I can't set the file name using the usual syntax, for example %album artist%
4. Causes confusion identical windows with native ones
In the end, I would like a substitute for CUE with advanced features

Not the developer, but...

1) as mentioned in the wiki this is normal on newer foobar versions.

2) the tags files are binary APE tags. You can edit them with text editors geared towards developers, but it's just not recommended to do so because it's easy to get some required binary characters wrong. You should edit tags through foobar. Once a file has exttags, the tags shown by foobar in the standard tags dialog you're familiar with (and all other tagging components) will be the exttags.

3) File Operations -> rename/move works perfectly for me, moving/renaming the files along with any tag files they may have, and foobar interprets filename variables in them. The operation preview won't list the tag files though, you just have to trust the component. What are you doing exactly that doesn't seem to work?

4) the point of exttags is that it stores tags differently but otherwise has identical behavior/handling to standard tags. It's totally transparent. Why do you want to have a visible difference between standard and ext tags?

If you want something that's more like cue files, perhaps m-tags is closer to what you want. Its metadata files are recognized as separate files from the audio they reference, basically a playlist with metadata.

Re: External Tags

Reply #333
1. What does absence affect?
2. A binary editor .... hmmmm .. this is understandable, they can edit whatever you want, but))) I wanted to edit in a visual editor
3.

4. For example, I want to double-click a cue file in the player, how to do it and quickly edit it as it does. Double-clicking from the explorer folder does not start playback, writes a syntax error (((

5. You understood me correctly, m-tags is suitable for these purposes, but it is not supported by the developer and messages hang for 2 years ... for example, I am maddened by the impossibility of saving to a folder with files, I have to constantly go through the whole path in the explorer - this is very inconvenient and other minor difficulties

Re: External Tags

Reply #334
Can the plugin emit external tags into files copied with "File Operations \ Copy to"?
External tag data gets copied to the copy automatically.

does foobar2000 Android support "folder tags"? There also was some talk about it on page 9. Did I miss a setting somewhere?
External Tags only work in the Windows version with the component installed. Apply the tag data to the files for portable use.

On a side note, the SQLite instance seems to use file paths as keys. Given my files never change, is there a way to change the indexing to be more portable, like file checksum? Path indexes mean the tags are not preserved after the file was moved to a different dir, which is annoying.
SQLite is not meant to be portable, the other two options write the tags data to the file location and they are portable by nature. Using path is the only 100% exact method to identify correct file and it's also the fastest identification method. If you use foobar2000 to copy or move the files the database is automatically updated.

Re: External Tags

Reply #335
3. I can't set the file name using the usual syntax, for example %album artist%
Titleformatting is not interpreted here. You should stick to the default name unless you have very good reason to use something else.
The whole point of folder tags is to contain all the tags of a directory in a single, easy to manage file.

The rest of your questions were nicely answered by Marnes. Frankly I don't really understand your Cue related questions. My suggestion would be to avoid anything cue sheet related unless you are actually burning an audio CD and need cues.

Re: External Tags

Reply #336
External tag data gets copied to the copy automatically.
I went and checked again, the files are copied with original tags. There are new entries in the SQLite for copy target paths, was this what you meant? If yes, then that does not help with my use case at all, I'd like for copied files to have tags from the DB, to bake the tags in for portability.

If you use foobar2000 to copy or move the files the database is automatically updated.
This works indeed, thank you 👍

Re: External Tags

Reply #337
@Case The external tag file in my opinion should have a unique name for example

Metallica - 1999 - S&M (Live).tags

What does the absence of a reader affect?

And of course you want to be able to make adjustments to the tags file using an external editor...

Re: External Tags

Reply #338
also, in my opinion, the automatic creation of a tag file should be disabled, if the folder contains a track album, I am more satisfied when the tags are written to the flac file, but in the image, when there is a cue, the creation of a tag file is justified

A very big request, work with the context menu-combine all the items in one drop-down subordinate list, otherwise everything is scattered and you can not distinguish the commands of the player from the commands of the application, it is also inconvenient to work with shift, that is, with hidden items

Re: External Tags

Reply #339
For a bit of clarification, I would like to apply replaygain to my entire music library. The near total majority of it is in FLAC or MP3. The issue is I cannot afford to modify a single bit of any of those files. Having the replay gain tags stored externally is absolutely perfect, is this component something that can enable that? I've tested this  a tiny bit by setting my files to read only, then scanning with replaygain, which appears to work and apply the tags, then verifying the files and they haven't been altered. But I'd just like to know before I pull the trigger on the many hours needed to scan the whole lot :)

Re: External Tags

Reply #340
That should work perfectly with this component, @coldblood.

Re: External Tags

Reply #341
Awesome thanks Case.

Re: External Tags

Reply #342
Hi, quick question, does anybody have any tips for cleaning up stray/orphaned .tag files, which have been left behind after audio files have been moved/deleted via processes outside of foobar2000 (e.g. Windows Explorer or duplicate file removal software)?

Re: External Tags

Reply #343
Is it possible to add an option to disable the automatic creation of the External Tag file if the audio file is marked read-only?

Re: External Tags

Reply #344
Is it possible to add an option to disable the automatic creation of the External Tag file if the audio file is marked read-only?
It is. New version with this option added is out.

Re: External Tags

Reply #345
What are the scenarios in which external tags will automatically be created?

Just switched to this, from m-TAGS, to tag my radio stream URLs. It seems as soon as I opened the properties dialog for a stream, the external tags were created. Brilliant, but since that is all I need it for, I'd just like to be sure that I won't inadvertently create external tags for any other files. My search for documentation led me to the wiki but I'm still confused as to how it works and when the tags will be auto-created.

Re: External Tags

Reply #346
When I look at Properties of a stream that I have not chosen to create an external tag for, one is NOT automatically created.  My External Tags settings look like this:

 

The fact that I have set it to only use APE tags may or may not be a factor, but be sure "Take over all tagging" is not checked.  Foobar 1.6.8, External Tags 1.5.12

Re: External Tags

Reply #347
Well, I've tried to reproduce it, by first removing the external tags from one of the streams. It seems that merely opening the Properties indeed doesn't create them, it's when I make any changes to the metadata and apply them that External tags are created. So I don't know if I misremembered or what.

I'm on the same foobar2000 (1.6.8) and component (1.5.12) versions, and my settings are the same as yours except I've also checked the second to last option 'Disable automatic external tag creation when target file is read-only'.

The question is still more or less the same, I'd like to understand when my metadata changes will result in the creation of external tags. I assume that internal tags will still be the default for local files, I just don't see it explicitly documented.

Re: External Tags

Reply #348
All regular tagging will continue to work normally, be it a local file on your hard drive or a remote file on a network share.

Unless you enable the "Take over all tagging" option External Tags will only be created automatically when the track in question can't be tagged. Typically this would be a stream or an exotic audio format that doesn't support tagging. Or a regular audio file that is write-protected.

Re: External Tags

Reply #349
Alright, sounds like there's nothing to worry about and I can just let the component do its thing!

Thanks for the reassurance, and for your work on this of course.