Stiletto 2 microSD card loses ID3 tags?

[joec188]

When adding songs to my 8gb SanDisk microSD card on my SL2 with MSS, after the file writes, the song title, artist, album etc display correctly in MSS. After closing MSS and re-opening, the files I just wrote show up as '01 - songtitle' or '02 - songtitle2' and all the artist, album etc. info is lost.

When I browse my library on my SL2 the songs(artists) I just added do not show up on the list of artists. If I hit 'shuffle all songs' the songs WILL show up and play, but no artist info is displayed - only the '01 - songtitle'.

The files I'm trying to write are all mp3 files with proper ID3 tags. If I add the same songs through MSS to my internal memory, all the info stays intact with no issues.

Anyone have experience with this or ideas on what's happening for these files to lose all their ID3 info after being written? Thanks!

 

[joec188]

Update...so I figured out that if I make any kind of edit manually to the id3 info, the songs will transfer over correctly. E.g. if I go into the mp3 file, click properties > summary and then make an edit to any field - like add a space to the lyrics field, or add/delete a character to the genre, etc - the song info shows up fine on the SL2.

I've tried to use an mp3 tagger to do this change in a batch, but that doesn't seem to work. Looks like I'll have to manually edit 8gb of songs...fun.

 

[DAB]

You are experiencing the poor mp3/microSD card implementation on the SL2. IT doesn't support playlist either. Drove me right back to my iPod when I was planning to just use one device.

I wish I had an answer for you. I know many folks load their cards using microSD card reader and then insert it and it seems the SL2 does better, but even that isn't guaranteed.

 

[Vargas]

Don't use MSS.

I use the Yahoo Music Software to add files to the Sl2. I know that Yahoo music is now defunct but the software for managing music works better than the MSS. MSS is the worst.

Also, just today I downloaded an ID3 editing software. I foget the name as I did it on my home computer but there is a link on anything but ipod.com. I used it today to clean some things up and it works perfectly. Now all of my music is tagged properly.

Here it is:

Mp3tag - the universal Tag Editor (ID3v1, ID3v2, APEv2)

and here is the link to the anything but ipod story on the software:

ID3 Tag Basics

Hope this helps.

 

[Subrio45]

Possible fix for missing tag information on the Stiletto 2 (SL2)

I think I've solved this issue for users who followed the advice in previous posts but were still experiencing tag trouble. True, you do need accurate ID3 tags but the problem "can" still exist even with accurate ID3 tags.

Apparently there is more than 1 kind of ID3. There's ID3v2.4 UTF-8, ID3v2.3 UTF-16, & ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1. Here's what Mp3tag had to say about it:


Mp3tag v2.33 - Support for Unicode
Probably the most import change and new feature in this version is the support for Unicode through the whole program. Mp3tag writes ID3v2 tags in Unicode format (UTF-16) by default now, but there are still some programs, portables or car radios which have problems with ID3v2 tags stored in Unicode format (though this is specified within the ID3v2 standard). To use Mp3tag with this programs or devices, simply enable the option Always write ISO-8859-1 tags instead of UTF-16 at Options > Tags > Mpeg. After that, just save the tags again by clicking File > Save tag or by using the Ctrl + S hotkey.

If you have problems displaying tags with characters from other charsets (like cyrillic) in Mp3tag, the tags are probably stored in a system codepage instead of Unicode or ISO-8859-1. To convert these tags from a specific codepage to Unicode, simply create a new action Convert codepage, select the appropriate tag field(s) and choose the codepage from the drop-down list.



I know nothing about Unicode, ISO-8859-1 or the rest of what Mp3tag had to say BUT I do know that all my problems were solved when I changed all my songs to ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1.

I used Mp3tag and simply clicked "tools", "options", & switched from ID3v2.3 UTF-16 to ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1. All my music is now showing up correctly on my Stiletto 2. I can view by artist, album, & title.

I hope this helps. Let me know if it does.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I have had no issues since I load the card externally. I use WMP11. If there is a problem, it also shows up in WMP11 and can be corrected with an edit and re-sync.

Since playlist support is non-existant on the microSD card anyway, there is absolutly no reason to load the card while it is in the SL2.

 

[joec188]

Thanks for everyone's help! By using Mp3tag and and converting my files into ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1 tags - all's well! All the tag info transfers across now. I'm using Rhapsody to 'manage' the expansion card because it supports creating/editing playlists. Thanks for the info Subrio45.

 

[Subrio45]

joec188,

No problem, glad I could help. So Rhapsody will actually allow you to format the expansion card with playlists? I'm very interested in this since the lack of playlist capability (at least when using the expansion card) is one of the major drawbacks of the Stiletto 2. Fill me in if you don't mind.

 

[dxintel]

MP3 tag worked wounders for me. Been fighting with this all night. Now I can rest. Lol Thanks Again