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[artphotodude]

I've used ExifTool over the years with great success in photography  , but now have a different task and have no idea how to get started.  Not asking for anyone to give me the answer, but would really appreciate directions to a good guide with examples to setup my conversion string to run into Windows CMD. 

I have a HUGE folder of MP3 music files and many have been converted from videos and don't have good metadata.  Am wanting a way to batch-process them to change the Title in metadata to the File Name in the directory.  Now in Windows does this require a file-overwrite to avoid fragmentation?? If so no problem, but not sure where to start. 

Any help much appreciated!!!

[StarGeek]

Unfortunately, exiftool cannot edit MP3 files. I believe mp3tag can do this, but I'm not completely sure. Other programs to look into in regard to MP3s are Beets and MusicBrainz Picard, though I think they're more about identifying and tagging MP3s and I don't know if they can copy from the filename. But they should be able to write any data you want when they ID a file.

Now in Windows does this require a file-overwrite to avoid fragmentation?? If so no problem, but not sure where to start.

For files that exiftool can edit, the way it works is that it creates a new file with the edits, renames the original by adding _original to then end of the filename, and then renames the new file with the original name.  You can use the -overwrite_original_in_place option and exiftool will directly overwrite the original file, but this will take much longer, as exiftool is writing the file twice.

But you shouldn't be worrying about fragmentation unless you're still using Windows XP.  Since, I think, Windows 7, it will automatically defrag hard drives in the background and SSD do not need defragging and should not be defragged.

Typing defrag into the menu and selecting "Defrag and Optimize drives"


You should see something like this


Check to see that "Scheduled optimization" is on for each drive and it will be done in the background.  Notice how my drives have little to no fragmentation.  I haven't manually defragged in over a decade.

[artphotodude]

Unfortunately, exiftool cannot edit MP3 files. I believe mp3tag can do this, but I'm not completely sure. Other programs to look into in regard to MP3s are Beets and MusicBrainz Picard, though I think they're more about identifying and tagging MP3s and I don't know if they can copy from the filename. But they should be able to write any data you want when they ID a file.

Now in Windows does this require a file-overwrite to avoid fragmentation?? If so no problem, but not sure where to start.

For files that exiftool can edit, the way it works is that it creates a new file with the edits, renames the original by adding _original to then end of the filename, and then renames the new file with the original name.  You can use the -overwrite_original_in_place option and exiftool will directly overwrite the original file, but this will take much longer, as exiftool is writing the file twice.

But you shouldn't be worrying about fragmentation unless you're still using Windows XP.  Since, I think, Windows 7, it will automatically defrag hard drives in the background and SSD do not need defragging and should not be defragged.

Typing defrag into the menu and selecting "Defrag and Optimize drives"


You should see something like this


Check to see that "Scheduled optimization" is on for each drive and it will be done in the background.  Notice how my drives have little to no fragmentation.  I haven't manually defragged in over a decade.

Thanks for the info.  I just HATE how hard it is to capture things like 'FileName' in Windows cmd batches - have really been spoiled by Bash and how easy it is to do such things.  Will likely just do it all in Linux.  Windows is crap - just happened to be using it and noticed your app had a convenient title='filename' trick. 

Thanks Again.

[StarGeek]

I just came across kid3 which should be able to parse a filename into tags. It comes with a GUI or can be used on the command line.

[Alan Clifford]

I just came across kid3 which should be able to parse a filename into tags. It comes with a GUI or can be used on the command line.

I've used kid3.  Was ripping our old vinyl during covid and put titles and stuff in using it.