An issue that's been around for a while
 

Hey all, I know this issue has been discussed to death but I still can't figure this out. It's about the Album field in the playlist not being displayed correctly when it is not present in the ID3 tag. I have Winamp 5.01, and I've used both the Smart Tag and the No Guessing thing for the library. The problem is that it still displays the Directory name when there is no Album in the ID3 Tags. Here is the code I used for the title:

[%artist% - ][%album% - ][%title%]

It's pretty short and I think i'm missing somethings in order to make it work. Did anyone else manage to get this thing working the way it's supposed to? Thanks ya'll!

Definitely fixed in Winamp 5.01

From the 5.01 whatsnew.txt
* made media library guess from filename only when NO metadata found


If the file contains artist/title/etc tags, but no album tag
then the library will no longer assume the containing dir to be the album name.

It will only assume the containing dir to be album name if there are NO tags in the file whatsoever (unless "no guessing" is selected in Prefs).

To prove this...

Right click any entry in Library -> Local Media
and select "view file info"
Remove the album tag so that it is blank
(naturally, leave the artist & title tags in tact)
Click "update"

Notice that the album field in the ml for this entry is now blank.

Now right click the same entry again
and select "remove from library".
Click "yes" in the confirmation box.

Now click "Library" button
and select "rescan media folders (in background)"

Wait a few minutes, or go to:
Prefs -> Media Library -> Media Importing
and watch the progress of the scan until it is complete.

(naturally, you should first also make sure that the containing dir for the entry you removed is already listed here.)


When the scan is complete, relocate the entry you removed.
It should now be listed again, and the "album" field should still be blank...
which it ALWAYS is for me.


Basically, if the affected entries were already listed in the ml prior to 5.01 release, then you will either need to remove them all and rescan folders, or edit them all in the ml.

An easier way to edit them all at once would be to select them all using Ctrl + left click (or Shift + left click if they are all grouped together),
then right click -> edit selected item(s)
checkmark "album"
make sure it is blank
make sure "update file tags if supported" is checkmarked
click "update"

All those entries will now have blank album fields.