NEED HELP Look Here; Library, Tags, Album Art

First, I understand how frustrating problems with new software can be.  I've been around new products and releases for years.  The anticipation for a new product can quickly be diminished by things not working the way they are supposed to.  Hang in there.

I have a collection of 17,000+ songs that is anal-retentively catalogued and updated by me with the help of MP3Tag (best tagging program available).  http://www.mp3tag.de/en/ All tags are filled out (Album Artist, Artist, Title, Track, Album Art, Year etc.) My music is organized in folders A-Z (#, A, B, Y, Z), then Artist folders (AC/DC, Chevelle, Stone Temple Pilots), then album folders incl. a folder.jpg (I also embed the AlbumArt within the tag as well)  All files are named "Artist - Track # - Track Title.mp3".  They are all ripped CD MP3 files, no DRM.

I have installed Zune 2.0 on two machines, one with Zune 1.0 software and another as a clean install.

I'm happy to say, both installs were FLAWLESS.  All (every last track) is perfectly organized and tagged.

If Zune isn't displaying the correct tags/art, check it out.... Right-click on the actual file in My Computer, make sure the tags are correct; use MP3Tag to make sure, check them out in Media Player.  If its correct everywhere else, my opinion is to rebuild your Zune database.

Also, for those worried about Zune or any other software ruining your collection; Lock It Down.  Uncheck "update additional information" and use Windows permissions and security to allow READ ONLY access to your music folder.

Now, with that said, some people are still having problems; post your setup, post details, and help the team figure this out..... DO NOT, however, rant and rave, this does nothing to solve problems.

http://www.sh1ft3r.com

I totally agree. I installed Zune 2.0 on my desktop and my laptop (both had Zune 1.0 previously installed) and the install went without a hitch. The key for me was not to allow Zune to manage my music meta data. This isn't a decision I made only for Zune software, but for any music software I've ever had. They always screw something up and I'm way too particular to have misinformation in my collection. I have manually handled album data fromt the start and Zune just reads that data in.

Give MP3Tag a shot if you want a great tag editing tool. Otherwise, try to be constructive rather than destructive with feedback. Rants will never solve the issue. The community is here to help, not to be the brunt of frustrations.

Veritas - Aequitas

http://www.sh1ft3r.com

Another helpful post:

 CharacterLlama wrote:

OK, so the new software completely dorked up my library too (wrong album art, wrong names of artists and albums, songs in the wrong albums).

The nice thing is, it appears that it's just the Zune database that is messed up, as my original music folders are correct.

I'm sure someone will figure out an easier way to un-screw the mess that the software upgrade did, but I didn't want to wait, so here is what I did.

MAKE SURE TO HAVE A BACKUP OF YOUR MUSIC FOLDER(S) BEFORE YOU DO THIS!!!

1. Search your music folders for ZuneAlbumArt.jpg and delete all of them (most are wrong, anyways).
2. Uninstall the Zune software.
3. Delete the Zune folder in your USERS\username\AppData\LocalMicrosoft folder (or rename it).  This is a Vista location, but for XP, there is a similar folder in Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings.
4. Reinstall the new Zune software (download it from www.zune.net).
5. Relaunch it, and it starts building your library again.  This time, though, everything is correct.  Some settings remain, like your watch folders, etc., so obviously, uninstalling does not get rid of everything.
6. Make sure that the option to update album art is disabled (I haven't tried to enable it, as I assume that is what screwed it up anyways)

Now, my album art is correct, my albums are correct, artists match to songs, etc.  Albums that I couldn't get the software to pick up are now in my library.

I think the people on the Zune software upgrade team should be denied Christmas bonuses!

Your mileage may vary, but it worked for me.  I think just the Zune database is messed up, and have no idea how to fix just that, so starting over from scratch was a quick and easy fix for me.

http://www.sh1ft3r.com

 CaMiLLs wrote:

Remove all your music off of the library (from the library, not your computer), after that, go to Settings, Software, Collection. Scroll all the way down and click "Restore". It worked for me, I hope it works for you.

Just make sure you don't delete your collection from your hard drive, mmmkkkkay?

http://www.sh1ft3r.com

 CoffeePress wrote:

This has been posted elsewhere, but I thought it's worth posting again to make sure you see it. I really like the new player, but of course I would not if it was displaying the wrong album art

There's a file that contains metadata about your tracks. If you delete that while the client is not running then restart the client, it is rebuilt automatically. It does NOT delete your music, just the metadata. Here are the instructions. Please make a copy of the file before deleting it.

In XP Zune2 software stores it's database in the folders

XP        C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Zune\
Vista     C:\Users\<User Name> Application Data\Local\Microsoft\Zune\

• Exit Zune2 software
• Delete files in this folder
• Restart Zune2 software and it will rebuild your collection.

Let me know how it goes.

http://www.sh1ft3r.com

http://www.sh1ft3r.com

 sh1ft3rDtCom wrote:

 CoffeePress wrote:

This has been posted elsewhere, but I thought it's worth posting again to make sure you see it. I really like the new player, but of course I would not if it was displaying the wrong album art

There's a file that contains metadata about your tracks. If you delete that while the client is not running then restart the client, it is rebuilt automatically. It does NOT delete your music, just the metadata. Here are the instructions. Please make a copy of the file before deleting it.

In XP Zune2 software stores it's database in the folders

XP        C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Zune\
Vista     C:\Users\<User Name> Application Data\Local\Microsoft\Zune\

• Exit Zune2 software
• Delete files in this folder
• Restart Zune2 software and it will rebuild your collection.

Let me know how it goes.

I'm running XP Professional and updated this morning.  My experience was, at first, simply that Zune seemed to randomize album/artist/title/track/art for my library, creating duplicates in many cases.  I had hoped that the actual tags (from Properties in Windows Explorer) had been left alone.

However, at this point many of the Properties associated with individual files are, indeed, altered now.  I would estimate that somewhere near 50% of 2000 tracks are now mis-tagged.  So, at this point, the fix I need will be something that goes back and builds those tags from the folder and file names (i.e. The Clash > Essential Clash Disk 2 > Clampdown) then go get correct album art.  Of course, the fix needs to do that at least somewhat automatically because, otherwise, I'm looking at countless hours of tedious data input.

Was I stupid for letting this happen?  I suppose, in hindsight, yes.  But I still cannot fathom how MS released software that would do something so ridiculous!  It never occurred to me I'd need to "lock down" my music folder from the very software that promises to manage it so elegantly!  There, a little rant.  Now that you know at least one person has experienced an actual changing of the tags, please consider finding a solution to that problem. 

My plan for now is to leave this damn thing along for a day or two - during which time, you understand, I basically own no useable music - then come back to see what MS has figured out.  I hope it doesn't involve Ballmer coming to my house to do the data entry, but I promise to buy him a sandwich if he does.

 dballh wrote:

However, at this point many of the Properties associated with individual files are, indeed, altered now.  I would estimate that somewhere near 50% of 2000 tracks are now mis-tagged.  So, at this point, the fix I need will be something that goes back and builds those tags from the folder and file names (i.e. The Clash > Essential Clash Disk 2 > Clampdown) then go get correct album art.  Of course, the fix needs to do that at least somewhat automatically because, otherwise, I'm looking at countless hours of tedious data input.

Sorry to hear. Fortunately, you can use MP3Tag to read your filenames and retag your music fairly quickly.

http://www.sh1ft3r.com

It would probably be helpful if people posted info about their collection.

Filetype: MP3 WMV

DRM or not.

And the organizational structure of files.

http://www.sh1ft3r.com

 ZoonDev wrote:

Did you install over an older version of Zune? If so did you try to delete the db and let Zune reload the DB from scratch. If your track information was actually saved in the files the software should not overwrite existing metadata. It may put it in the DB, but it will not overwrite metadata in the files unless you specifically set the flag to allow it.

Let me repeat, "but it will not overwrite metadata in the files unless you specifically set the flag to allow it".

http://www.sh1ft3r.com