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Thread: I can't change the track information on some mp3 files in vista

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
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    43

    I can't change the track information on some mp3 files in vista

    I bought a new desktop computer which came with Windows Vista pre-installed. Well everything is going fine except one thing. My Music. I have an External portable hard drive with 1000s of music tracks. I keep updating the drive with new tracks regularly. Whenever I try to change the track information it won't let me do it on all files. No matter if use Windows Media Player or iTunes, same result. For example whenever I try to organize or put track numbers on any music files,. Many times it gives me an error message saying:

    "An error occurred when writing the property '#' to the file 'filename'."

    Any idea what is wrong and how can I fix it? Many thanks.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
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    87

    Re: I can't change the track information on some mp3 files in vista

    When you open that particular file or files on which you are getting the error in windows media player, are you able to edit the tags? There are many ways in which a file could have bad/uneditable metadata. Compressed ID3 tags are notably unsupported. See if this is not the problem.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
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    43
    Thank you for the help Q Jones. Yes i am able to edit tags in windows media player but not for all files. It actually depends on what I use to edit the tag, but the end result is that it allows me to change the info but when I save it, the changes don't take. Now what?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
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    1

    Re: I can't change the track information on some mp3 files in vista

    Turn off User Account Control:

    Control Panel >
    User Accounts and Family Safety >
    User Accounts >
    Turn User Account Control on or off

    After you restart, you should be able to edit ID3 tags again.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    1
    Welcome to Windows Vista! This is one of about two dozen insane issues you'll find. Sometimes I can easily change multiple track attributes, other times, Vista won't let me change ID3 tag fields. Other times, it lets me change them but the changes don't. None of the suggestions here make any sense - it has nothing to do with your external hard drive, read only file attributes (which you can change if you insist but they will never, ever stay how you want them), UAC, or anything else. I've had the problem with multiple reformats, 32 bit and 64 bit, with UAC on and off, and on multiple physical computers. It's just a pure crap shoot.

    I too have struggled with this problem . . . portable drive that I have over 400 GB of music on . . . can edit all track info in XP properties . . . go to Vista and can edit all track properties on some songs from an album, some properties on other songs, and no properties on other songs. I have had better luck right-clicking and going to advanced properties than using the window under the directory, but there are still some tracks (1 out of every 10 albums or so) that I just cannot access OR cannot get the Save to happen! Why 1 or possibly 2 songs from an entire album . . . ripped in the same session as the ones that work??? And why do some properties not even show up on the window underneath the directory, yet are there when you go into properties through the right-click method???
    It is the wonkiest trouble with an O/S' behavior that I have not been able to solve in my 25 years of computing!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    1

    Re: I can't change the track information on some mp3 files in vista

    I had this exact same problem and spent all day yesterday trying to solve it, finding no help on any of the sites I searched. However, today I have SOLVED the problem and so have registered here so I can post the solution:

    THIS IS NOTHING TO DO WITH USER ACCOUNT CONTROL!!!!!

    The problem seems to be with the ID3 tags in the files. I suspect in my case iTunes has caused some conflict with how the ID3 tags are handled but I'm no expert on all that to be honest. I was however able to use iTunes to easily solve the problem.

    All I did was open the problem file in iTunes, right click on it and select 'Convert ID3 Tags' then from the drop-down menu in 'ID3 Tag Version' select 'v2.2' (I didn't try any of the others maybe they also work?)

    You can select multiple tracks at once to convert them all.

    If you go back to windows explorer you will find that the song information is now back and fully editable.

    I'm sure there are other programs you can use to convert the ID3 tags but iTunes worked for me.

    This is a bit of a long and laborious process if you have many tracks to do but worth it in the end.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
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    1

    Re: I can't change the track information on some mp3 files in vista

    doesn't work for me. I have to use winamp, not itunes, due to the heavy number of files and file types I have. Vista is killing me. I can only edit one song file at a time and it takes forever, and gives me an error message. Like the initial poster, when I open the properties box in explorer, it always reads read-only, no matter how many times I change it. My permissions are set to allow everyone to do everything and my user account control is off. My files are stores on a NAS. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
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    1

    Re: I can't change the track information on some mp3 files in vista

    Hi. I was able to solve this problem by creating a new directory, and copying the offending songs into it. It took hours of putzing around to hit on that solution, so I hope it helps. Just make a brand new directory, copy the files that are giving you trouble into it, and try editing them again. It worked for me using ITunes on a Vista machine.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
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    1

    Re: I can't change the track information on some mp3 files in vista

    Copying to a new folder did not work for me.
    I used mp3tag and set the offending track numbers to <blank>, saved the track, then added the number and saved again. Works like a charm!

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
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    1

    Re: I can't change the track information on some mp3 files in vista

    Thanks for your post Geoff. It sent me in the right direction. This morning I tried to change some tags in the details pane (or should I say "PAIN?") in Vista as I've done thousands of times. For the first time ever, it wouldn't let me. My initial impulse was that Microsoft ramped up some DRM BS or something. After reading your post, I remembered that I installed VLC media player since the last time I edited tags. I opened one file in VLC, changed the metadata there and all of a sudden I can edit my tags as before. Makes no sense but if I'm lyin' I'm dyin'!

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Posts
    1

    Re: I can't change the track information on some mp3 files in vista

    had the same problem on flac files in Winamp, of 1320 tracks only 2 wouldn't change >o<. so i unchecked the ''Update file tag(s) info if supported'' tag and managed to accomplish the task. might happen that it doesn't work for you because the editing acts really strange, the error popped for more files but when i edited them individually it worked except those 2, so multiple tries will also work :)

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
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    1

    Re: I can't change the track information on some mp3 files in vista

    I don't know if this helps, I used Freerip and changed the information in the tag.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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    1

    Re: I can't change the track information on some mp3 files in vista

    I may be a little late, but, sometimes it has to do with the encoder that was used to convert to mp3. I've had the same problem, but was able to resolve it by re-converting using dBpoweramp Which uses lame to encode. After doing this, I was able to make changes normally.

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