Can't write metadata to files

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1

Hi there, I just noticed that beets is not writing metadata to my music file tags (i.e. id3). The documentation states that the import: write parameter is yes by default. I even tried issuing beet write but nothing seems to change. Am I missing something?

Here is my config:

directory: /bigtank/audio/music
library: /bigtank/audio/beets_music.db

import:
    incremental_skip_later: yes

paths:
    comp: Various Artists/$album%aunique{}/$track - $artist - $title
    singleton: Non-Album/$artist_sort/$title
    default: $albumartist_sort/$album%aunique{}/$track - $title

plugins: chroma copyartifacts discogs fromfilename the
chroma:
    auto: no
acoustid:
    apikey: REDACTED
copyartifacts:
    extensions: .*
    print_ignored: yes
discogs:
    user_token: REDACTED
    apikey: REDACTED
    apisecret: REDACTED
    tokenfile: discogs_token.json
    source_weight: 0.5
the:
    the: yes
    a: yes
    format: '{0}, {1}'
    strip: no
    patterns: []
2

Can you explain a little more about how you checked for changing metadata, and what you observed using what tool?

3

Sure! So I recently imported an album, as follows:

$ beet import /bigtank/incoming/Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra

the import operation successfully found the appropriate metadata and stored it in the beets database, as verified by the following:

$ beet ls album:"Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra"
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Woodsong
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Sugar Tongue
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Able To Sing
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Compromise
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Virginia Woolf
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Happy In The Sorrow Key
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Power Of Two
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Yoke
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Love Of Our Lives
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - World Falls
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Galileo
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Chickenman
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Fugitive
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Come A Long Way
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - War Rugs
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Mystery
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Damo
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Come On Home
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Kid Fears
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Ghost
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Go
Indigo Girls - Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Closer To Fine

but if I then inspect the id3 tags of the files themselves, no tags are found:

$ id3info /bigtank/audio/music/Indigo\ Girls/Live\ With\ The\ University\ Of\ Colorado\ Symphony\ Orchestra/*mp3

*** Tag information for /bigtank/audio/music/Indigo Girls/Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra/01 - Woodsong.mp3
*** mp3 info
MPEG1/layer III
Bitrate: 320KBps
Frequency: 44KHz

*** Tag information for /bigtank/audio/music/Indigo Girls/Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra/02 - Sugar Tongue.mp3
*** mp3 info
MPEG1/layer III
Bitrate: 320KBps
Frequency: 44KHz

*** Tag information for /bigtank/audio/music/Indigo Girls/Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra/03 - Able To Sing.mp3
*** mp3 info
MPEG1/layer III
Bitrate: 320KBps
Frequency: 44KHz

*** Tag information for /bigtank/audio/music/Indigo Girls/Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra/04 - Compromise.mp3
*** mp3 info
MPEG1/layer III
Bitrate: 320KBps
Frequency: 44KHz

*** Tag information for /bigtank/audio/music/Indigo Girls/Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra/05 - Virginia Woolf.mp3
*** mp3 info
MPEG1/layer III
Bitrate: 320KBps
Frequency: 44KHz

etc....

I know that id3info works because for some other files it correctly displays the id3 tags.

When I try to write the tags using beet write, nothing happens:

$ beet write album:"Live With The University Of Colorado Symphony Orchestra"
$
4

Hmm… I know some of those older CLI tools sometimes only support some versions of ID3. Can you try with at least one other tool, such as VLC or perhaps beets’ own info plugin?