Text Search Strangeness

**valve90210** · 03-22-2007, 03:35 PM

HI there, I'm currently experiencing a bit of a strange problem.

I have made sure all my mp3's have got an mp3v1 tag with artist, album etc etc. However, when I try to do searchs by artist etc from the text search page, I don't get all the results I should.

For example I have one artist, The Wildhearts, that I have about 20 CD's of, however when I do a search for artist The WILDHEARTS I only get 11 songs. I have had a look at the info tags to see if there is any difference but I can't see one.

What info does ME search for the text searches???

ANy help much appreciated.

Valve

**phat_bastard** · 03-23-2007, 09:56 AM

I'm going to take a leap of faith here and guess that your tags have a mixture of "Wildhearts" and "THE Wildhearts" in the artist field. Looking for two different entries in Browse Database>Browse by Artist should tell you whether or not I'm correct.

Another thing to keep in mind is that M/E preferences id3v2 tags if present, and a file can contain both V1 and V2 tags and they won't necessarily contain the same data.

**valve90210** · 03-26-2007, 10:05 AM

I had a look using the browse by artists, and noticed I only have one entry for The Wildhearts...and in that entry.... the 11 songs which come up on the text search.

I then used some mp3 tagging software to copy the 1d3v1.1 tags to the ID3v2 tags. I wondered it it might be something to do with the database, so I deleted that and did a manual refresh, performed the search and still only 11 results, and only one artist The Wildhearts.

I've manually had a look at the file info using winamp, and the only difference I can see between those which are appearing and those which aren't is that the ones which are appearing having some other info like year, track number etc. Would this make any difference???

Also just had a thought, I am using a slightly older version of ME (2.1 I think...will check when I get home) as I don't need the Sat nav facility etc and until I have time to create a skin without buttons for that, I am sticking to the older version. Would this make any difference, ie have there been any alterations to the text search???

Valve

**phat_bastard** · 03-26-2007, 10:41 AM

There have been no major changes to most of the database functionality since 2.1, but there have been some changes to the ID3 reader modules along the way. My memory isn't very sharp going that far back, so I'm not sure if the fixes happened before or after GPS was added. You should probably check the specific version you're using and post back, also what tagging software you used. Also, here are a few more things to look at.

1) are the missing songs of a different container type (WMA, FLAC, etc.)??? if so you may need to add the necessary codec and file extension association. you said your stuff is mp3, but confirm to be sure.

2) try installing a current version of M/E and see if the issue remains. also, another resolution to your skin issue would be to try using the 2.1.x skin with the current build. i'm not 100% sure it will work, but it's worth a try.

3) note any differences between filenames and parent folders - special characters, extremely long filenames, pretty much anything that jumps out at you.

4) open your tags.mdb file in access and look for the missing songs by their filenames - if you don't have a copy of access you can zip it up and PM it to me. if you do, see if you can spot a difference between the songs that show up and those that don't.

**valve90210** · 03-26-2007, 10:58 AM

I'll have a look at what version I'm using at home and let you know.

I'll also check what tagging software I've used cos I can't remember the names now.

1) The missing songs are definitely in mp3 format, and they work perfectly when using the browse media options and navigating to the albums.

2) I'll give this a go when I get home, can I have two instances of ME installed at once so I can play with the new version but still leave the old version working for the moment?

3) Will do

4) I'l' give this a go when I get in, hopefully it'll highlight something obvious.

Ta muchly for your help. This is a great bit of software so please, keep up the good work with it.

)

Valve

**phat_bastard** · 03-26-2007, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by valve90210

...can I have two instances of ME installed at once so I can play with the new version but still leave the old version working for the moment?

You should, by picking a different installation folder when you install the newest build, such as /program files/media engine 2.3.5/ or whatever... Just be sure that if you have ME set as the user shell make sure to turn that off before messing with any of this. Also, you'll need to manually update your shortcuts if you're launching from the registry or the startup menu.

One other thing I probably should have mentioned - if you have access and are able to look at the database records, there will be two tables. One table contains all your media and the other will have a list of artists. The artist table maps the ID number in the media table to the artist name. You'll want to note the artist ID that's stored in the media table, and reference that back to the artists table. I wouldn't be suprised if it points to 'Unknown'.

Originally Posted by valve90210

Ta muchly for your help. This is a great bit of software so please, keep up the good work with it.

)

NP - glad to be able to help.

**valve90210** · 03-27-2007, 04:59 AM

I had a bit of play last night. Installed the latest version of ME, and had exactly the same problems.

Opened the tags database in Access and I can see why I was having problems, most of my wildhearts collection has nothing in the artists column.

I wondered if this was due to the files not having had the ID3 info when they were first added to the database. So I deleted the database and got ME to rebuild the database. I then opened it up and guess what.... same problem.

I checked all my Wildhearts songs in my MP3 Tagging software and found that in that they all have both ID3v1.1 and ID3v2 tags with the artist and song name. I don't understand why the info is not being picked up....

Can't remember the name of my mp3 tagging software though think it's something like mp3tag. It's a freeware one.

When I opened the database, there were two tables, one was Media, the other was Genre, there wasn't one for artists....Is something wrong there?

Valve

**phat_bastard** · 03-27-2007, 10:12 AM

Nothing wrong there, sorry confused genre and artist.

The issue you're having is related to the tags in your media. Without picking them apart with a hex editor it's hard to tell what exactly the issue is. If you can I would suggest re-encoding them with something that generates 'plain vanilla' tags like freerip. If not you might try removing the tags with whatever editor software you're using, and then adding them back. If that doesn't work, try another tag editing piece.

**valve90210** · 03-27-2007, 11:20 AM

Ok, Thanks for your help I'll have a play and see if I can get it working.

Valve

**valve90210** · 03-28-2007, 06:18 AM

I finally found the problem!!!

I tried what you said, and removed the tags from some of my files and used a different tagger to add some more. Went into ME and they weren't recognised still. I then deleted the Database and ME rebuilt it. Once rebuilt, the file's tags were recognised.

Thought it must have been something to do with the settings of the first tagger I had been using, (mainly used this one cos it had a lovely ability to gather tags from freeDB and automatically add them). I had a good look through all the settings and noticed that in the Tags section there was a box labeled "Always write ISO#### for tags" This was unticked, so I put a tick in it, and tried tagging some more files.

Went back into ME, again it needed me to delete the database, but once done, all the artists appeared correctly in the Browse by artist section and the text search!!!

Guess the tagger must have been writing non standard tags, which while Winamp could read them, ME couldn't.

Now all I have to do is go through my 6000 or so files and make sure the tags are ok on them all .....might take a while, but it's worth it!!!

Thanks for all the help.

Now onto the Skinning....

Valve