1. nerdydaddyo's Avatar
    As a lover of music, my secondary use for my BlackBerry 10 device is to play some tunes. There is nothing more frustrating than the songs not lining up in the native music player correctly. It is not your phone, it's not the OS, and it's not your memory card. It's the mp3 tags, and I'm gonna tell you how to fix it.

    First, make sure that all albums are in separate folders, meaning that the songs on one album are separate from the songs of another. You can use the native file explorer on the device for this step. For instance, five folders cannot be titled Smashing Pumpkins, but one folder can be titled Smashing Pumpkins and inside that folder you can place the five folders that represent five of their albums (name each folder after the album or song it represents). Yes, individual songs not part of a full album are also better off in a separate folder. Basically, your SD card should have no loose music songs at root. All songs need to be in a folder for better organization, plus it just looks less sloppy.

    Inside each folder should be nothing but the songs and a Folder.jpg file ( if applicable for cover art). If it's a main folder that houses five folders (albums) by the same artist as described above, only folders should be in the root of that main folder. That means if in any folder, main or sub, you find album art small or. Ptl or desktop.ini, DELETE THEM. Once this is cleaned up, you are ready to start fixing mp3 tags.

    To edit mp3 tags, there is only one program I trust: Mp3tag v2.58. It's free and I have used it for years so I can vouch for it. It works on a Windows PC, but I'm not sure about Mac. Download it, install it, then connect your device via USB cable.

    To check mp3 tags, navigate to your device SD card (best place to store music, but if you're not using one, go to internal storage). Pick a song (or highlight an entire album of songs), then right click them, select Mp3 tag, and left click it. Mp3tag will automatically open and populate with all of the songs (or song) that you selected.

    This is the fun part. You can batch edit songs by highlighting all in the main Window, or you can edit each one by one. Either way, left click on the song (or songs) to highlight it. On the left side of the screen, your mp3 tag info will display. Note that this mainly works for mp3 and m4a files, so if you have wma or flac files, you need to import them first into iTunes on your PC, then find them in your music library (right click song in iTunes, Show in Windows Explorer), and from there, you can copy and paste and replace the flac or wma files on your device with those.

    There are only FIVE tags you need to use. Album, Artist, Title, Year, and Track. For everything else, select BLANK from the respective drop down menu. When you are done, be sure to click the save button (blue floppy disc icon) at the top left. Almost done!

    Next, you have to check Extended Tags as well, because authors love to put extra crap in there too. Remember the ones you need, and for the ones you don't, highlight them and click the red X. Click OK to save. Tags are now edited!

    Occasionally, the tags were so bad the device is confused and can't reorganize them because it can't forget the original tags. Easy fix. Copy and paste the songs from your device to your PC. Delete them off the device, then copy and paste them back on to the device again. Now the device will recognize the newly edited mp3 tags!

    I used my Q10 to create this CrackBerry madness!
    Last edited by nerdydaddyo; 02-19-14 at 02:27 PM.
    02-19-14 01:54 PM
  2. thurask's Avatar
    About the only thing I can add to this is that Mp3tag can also embed album art within music files. I do this in addition to saving album art as folder.jpg, as a contingency.
    02-19-14 02:35 PM
  3. nerdydaddyo's Avatar
    Crap. I totally forgot that. In the left bottom corner of Mp3tag, you may or may not see cover art. As silly as this sounds, there may be a residual invisible picture there (you will see no picture but image info will be displayed next to it). In either case, to delete the artwork, right click it, select remove cover, and click save. To embed artwork as Thurask mentioned, right click the same box, select add cover, and navigate to the jpg image you want to use, then click save once you see it appear. This can also be done in batch editing as mentioned before. Thanks, Thurask!

    I used my Q10 to create this CrackBerry madness!
    02-19-14 02:42 PM
  4. rickkel's Avatar
    To check mp3 tags, navigate to your device SD card (best place to store music, but if you're not using one, go to internal storage). Pick a song (or highlight an entire album of songs), then right click them, select Mp3 tag, and left click it. Mp3tag will automatically open and populate with all of the songs (or song) that you selected.
    Thanks for this helpful post. I have one question though re: the quote above: Can I do this tagging function on the music on my computer then download it to my Z30 or must it be done only while the music is on the device? I am assuming the answer is "yes", but wanted to make sure.
    02-19-14 02:47 PM
  5. tfp's Avatar
    Sounds good, will have to look into this to see how badly out of whack my mp3's are. I think I only have an issue with a couple of "unknown" albums.
    02-19-14 02:47 PM
  6. jc's Avatar
    albums don't have to be in separate folders. Mine aren't, and it works. I also use Mp3tag to edit my song tags.
    02-19-14 02:48 PM
  7. nerdydaddyo's Avatar
    For a really neat view, enable Show Hidden Files and Folders on your PC, then look inside the folders you copied over from your device. Some will still have the desktop.ini and albumartsmall files in there even though you deleted them from the device previously. They won't come back now that the tags are properly edited.

    I used my Q10 to create this CrackBerry madness!
    02-19-14 02:48 PM
  8. nerdydaddyo's Avatar
    Also, remember that when editing music files to organize, extra spaces change the organization. Make sure the cursor ends at the last letter of each description.

    I used my Q10 to create this CrackBerry madness!
    02-19-14 02:53 PM
  9. jc's Avatar
    Thanks for this helpful post. I have one question though re: the quote above: Can I do this tagging function on the music on my computer then download it to my Z30 or must it be done only while the music is on the device? I am assuming the answer is "yes", but wanted to make sure.
    You can tag your songs in your computer then transfer to your device.
    02-19-14 02:54 PM
  10. gg bb's Avatar
    The only issue I see with this:

    However good the software is - the mp3 tags are written through the files in such a way that changing the tag means re-encoding the mp3.

    So if you are very fussy about the quality of your mp3's its not a good idea to do the above too many times, particularly if the files are encoded at a low bit rate.
    02-19-14 02:58 PM
  11. eaton18spd's Avatar
    I'm currently going through this process of editing and organizing my mp3's. I have collected a lot of files over the years and they are a mess on my pc and phone. Mp3tag has made this process so much easier and now most of my mp3's are properly tagged with album art embedded.

    Posted Via CB10 on my STL100-3/10.2.1.1925/1926
    02-19-14 03:02 PM
  12. Giantfriend's Avatar
    Many thanks for this! I am going to try this on some podcasts also.
    02-19-14 03:19 PM
  13. nerdydaddyo's Avatar
    Technically, Metadata or ID3 tags (mp3 tags) are stored at the beginning or end of the audio file. No re encoding occurs.

    I used my Q10 to create this CrackBerry madness!
    02-19-14 03:30 PM
  14. nerdydaddyo's Avatar
    Using these steps in conjunction with Balduca's Album Art Grabber (BlackBerry World) and a 64GB MicroSDXC card (I recommend Sandisk's Extreme Plus), you will have absolutely ZERO use for a separate music device (this means YOU, iWhatever). The storage capacity will be greater than any Apple device due to the fact that you still have around 16GB of internal storage on the device too.

    I used my Q10 to create this CrackBerry madness!
    02-20-14 09:01 AM
  15. SubCamp's Avatar
    Awesome, I'll try this when I get home.. Thanks!

    Posted via CB10
    02-20-14 09:14 AM
  16. DocDRM's Avatar
    Participate.
    02-20-14 09:23 AM
  17. nerdydaddyo's Avatar
    I'm gonna toss in some extra help. Ever notice some of your songs skipping? Chances are it's a very high bitrate or a stubborn m4a. To fix:

    Use iTunes. Import the skipping file into iTunes. Delete the original one from your device. Select Edit, Preferences, and on General Tab, click Import Settings. Change the top drop down to MP3 Encoder and Setting to Higher Quality (192 kbps). Click OK until you exit out. Now with the song checkmarked and highlighted in your library, click File, Create New Version, Create MP3 Version. Right click the new file, select Show In Windows Explorer. Remember to re edit the mp3 tag before copying it back to your device. ITunes will add a few extended tags to it.

    I used my Q10 to create this CrackBerry madness!
    Last edited by nerdydaddyo; 02-24-14 at 02:21 PM.
    nuangel2 and Avenzuno like this.
    02-24-14 01:58 PM
  18. LibertarianFreethinker's Avatar
    Thanks for all the tips and tricks! Now that my music library is organized on my Z10 and desktop, I'm in music heaven!

    Posted via CB10
    02-24-14 03:11 PM
  19. nerdydaddyo's Avatar
    No problem. Remember to make a backup of all of that work too.

    I used my Q10 to create this CrackBerry madness!
    02-24-14 03:29 PM
  20. 93Aero's Avatar
    Also, remember that when editing music files to organize, extra spaces change the organization. Make sure the cursor ends at the last letter of each description.

    I used my Q10 to create this CrackBerry madness!
    Learned that the hard way, I had these eight songs that no matter what I could not keep as part of a album.
    I ended up just creating a Playlist and placing the rogue songs there.
    Ultimately I found these songs to have not only off spacing but the songs that won't go in the main folder are songs with collaborations with other artist on the song.

    Posted via CB10
    02-24-14 04:30 PM
  21. nerdydaddyo's Avatar
    People, people, you are going about this the hard way. If you have a Windows computer, Windows will do all the work for you and automagically.
    1. On your phone open Settings, Storage and Access. Scroll to the bottom and turn on USB Mass Storage
    2. Plug the USB from your Windows computer to your phone
    3. On Windows open Explorer and find the media card drive of your phone
    4. Dig your way to the Music folder
    5. Move all your music files to the music folder on your computer
    6. Open Windows Media Player
    7. Go have a beer or a few
    8. Windows is organizing your songs into artist folders, finding album art and fixing whatever problems you have
    9. When it's finished, make sure your phone's music folder is empty. Copy your Windows Music folder content to the phone
    10. With the copy finished, unplug the USB and turn off USB Mass Storage mode
    You do realize that the potential threat for DRM and WMA conversions are associated with Windows, right?

    I used my Q10 to create this CrackBerry madness!
    02-24-14 05:38 PM
  22. nerdydaddyo's Avatar
    Because Windows uses WMA by default. Don't import ANYTHING into WMP. But that's my opinion.

    I used my Q10 to create this CrackBerry madness!
    02-24-14 05:52 PM
  23. nerdydaddyo's Avatar
    I appreciate the suggestion. My method is a lot of work but in the end will fix all music files for any device really.

    I used my Q10 to create this CrackBerry madness!
    nuangel2 likes this.
    02-24-14 07:00 PM
  24. Anubhav Nagpal's Avatar
    Hey, thanks for the wonderful post. I had been looking for a fix to my music files.

    So, I did as you had mentioned and deleted unnecessary files and shortcuts. I thought I'd copy one album to my phone and see what happens. This album has 5 songs and in the albums tab, shows 4 different albums. Any suggestions to fix this are much appreciated.




    How To Straighten Out Your Music Files-img_20140228_232448.png

    Posted via CB10
    02-28-14 11:59 AM
  25. glamrlama's Avatar
    I cleaned up about 8000 tracks late last year. Meta data can be tricky to clean up and there is some good tips in this thread. I would add; spaces at the end of album names can be troublesome, delete them if you find them; special characters can mess up the media player (at least in previous OS builds), sometimes a clean rename can solve a problem; track and disc numbering can mess things up as well so be consistent.
    02-28-14 03:10 PM
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