Can't read ID3 tags in files
 

I have a library that I have tagged using WinAmp 5.52 on my XP machine. I've shared the folders containing the music files on my home network, and am accessing them from WinAmp 5.56 on my wife's Vista machine.

When I try to import onto my wife's machine, it can't read the tags on some of the files, and so it falls back on the "Metadata Reading Settings". If I use Smart settings, it tries to read the files as Track-Artist-Title. Unfortunately, my naming scheme is Track-Title-Artist, so the files get tagged incorrectly.

First of all, I don't understand why the tags aren't read properly. If I look at the files in Explorer on my XP machine (go to the folder, select a file, hit File->Properties and look at the Details tab), the tags are filled in correctly. If I look at the files in Explorer on the Vista machine, the tags are empty. So that certainly explains why WinAmp on the Vista machine can't see them. So my first question is why? Vista can see the tags in *some* of my files, but not all. It seems to be on an album-by-album basis, so it's possible that the ones it's missing were ripped and tagged more recently (or less) than those that are reading OK.

Second question - is there any way I can force WinAmp on my XP machine to re-write the tags on all files in my library? Maybe that will let Vista read the tags ...

Finally, is there any way I can configure the "Smart" option on Metadata Reading Settings? If I could just tell it the format of the filenames, this'd work OK. But it seems to be hard-coded to Track-Artist-Title, and I'm loathe to change all of my filenames just to support sharing my music library with my wife.

full uninstall and reinstall
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All information here is for the XP machine (the one writing the tags).

-A List of Plugins: see attached
-PC or Motherboard make/model: MPC Millenium 923
-CPU & RAM: Intel P4 3GHz, 2.5G RAM
-Sound card or chip: SoundMAX integrated digital audio
-Videocard: ATI Radeon X1050
-Windows OS (including Service Pack, eg. WinXP sp2): Windows XP Home, Service Pack 2
-DirectX version (start > run > dxdiag): 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
-Winamp version (eg. 5.56): 5.552
-Confirmation of the Winamp installation type (Pro, Full, Bundle, Lite): Lite

Are you suggesting a full un/reinstall on the source machine (the one writing the files and tags) or the target machine (the one trying to read them)?

Not quite sure how I missed that the first time around, but I've just posted that in another reply. If I'm missing anything else, let me know and I'll grab it as well. (note - I only have access to the source machine while I'm at work, but I can get info about the target machine this evening).

the first thing i would do is DL and install mp3tag and check all your tags with that. in my usage, i always make sure to delete all tags except id3v2.3 you can then go into the winamp prefs and config the in_mp3 plugin to only write id3v2.3 tags from now on.

in winamp prefs, go to "Local Media" under "Media Library" and in the options tab make sure "Use Artist as Album Artist" is UNchecked. then click the watch folders tab. make sure rescan at startup and remove dead files are checked. (beware, remove is broken in 5.56, but will be fixed going forward).

make sure you added the folders in watch folders. highlight and edit each one. make sure "no guessing" is picked.

after that you have to do the same thing down where it says "Configure" on the bottom of the watch folders tab.

this is how you get winamp to show you the reality of what your tags say in winamp. and don't forget to manually remove dead files in 5.56