missing mp3 tags

Hello,
im hoping someone can help me with a problem ive got with mp3 files (windows xp)

All of a sudden the tag information has gone missing off all mp3 files, there’s no summary tab on the file and when I go to view the folder where the file is in "˜detail’ view there’s no information under artist, album name ect.

Interestingly when I go to view the summary tab on an mp3 file on a back up hard drive it is there a summary tab but no information and only a few categories in advance view (track number, title, comments) and nothing in "˜detail’ view in the folder.

Im really puzzled why this has happened all of a sudden. Its effected all mp3’s, newly downloaded as well. The tags are still there as WMP picks them up as does id3 tagger Zortam. I don’t believe it’s a virus as AVG, spybot and Ad-ware have given me a clean bill of health. Ive searched the internet for a fix but with no luck.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Thanks in advance

albi

 

Hi and welcome to the BBS,

I don't know how it will help you, but if you right-click on the MP3s in Windows Media Player, it has the options "Get Album Information" and "Update Album Information. If you try updating one or two, it might reset the rest.

Matt
Edit: I just had another thought. If you have them all in one folder, there might be getting too many for Windows to load all the information when you have the folder open. Try putting some into a different folder and see if the information works for those.

 

thanks for the reply but i dont think thats the problem, even single files on my desktop are affected

albi

 

With a bit of experimenting in the registry I was able to duplicate here what you are seeing on yours. I really don't know if this is the answer or not but if you are familiar with regedit, it can't hurt to take a look at this key.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.mp3\shellex\PropertyHandler

In the right pane, the data value for default should be {875CB1A1-0F29-45de-A1AE-CFB4950D0B78}. If yours is different, try changing it to that.

If that's not it, have a look at this one.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mp3

In the right pane the data value for PercievedType should be audio.
Also, the data value for Content Type should be audio/mpeg.

Be sure to back up the keys first. Just in case.

 

thanks for the reply Zander, im not too familiar with regedit but i gave it ago however nothing has seems to have happened. (also restarted my pc)

for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.mp3\shellex\PropertyHandler i had '(no value set)' and for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mp3 it was just 'audio'.

Ive changed them back now. this is really anoying me now! ...... I cant think as to what things i could have done to make the summary tab to vanish ive only just noticed it but it must have been recent.

Im tempted to slap in my vista upgrade cd and solve the problem altogether!

any more sugestions would be most appreciated

cheers,
albi

 

When you changed this one......

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.mp3\shellex\PropertyHandler

Did you include the brackets?

{875CB1A1-0F29-45de-A1AE-CFB4950D0B78}

The brackets need to be included. If you have no data value there, that would cause the problem you are having. At least it does on mine.

Perhaps somebody else who reads this could check that key and see what they have there. Anybody?

 

yeah i did use the brackets, just tried it again and still nothing.

Ive noticed that only the WindowsPlusAudioConverterConvertFile folder has a data value (and the one i just changed now) in the .mp3 folder. all of the rest of the directories in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.mp3 have '(no value set)'

thanks,
albi

 

Zander ... It agrees / a clone to view on my computer.

 

Thank you sir.

 

THANKS guys!

ive fixed it!

i changed like Zander said - HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.mp3\shellex\PropertyHandler to.....

{875CB1A1-0F29-45de-A1AE-CFB4950D0B78}

and after searching google found out that i needed to run - regsvr32 shmedia.dll

and hey presto! all works!

not sure why it went wrong in the first place but thank you all for your help

cheers albi

 

Great! Glad to hear you got it fixed. I had to leave for a while today but had planned to find out which dlls were involved thinking that might be the answer. Thanks for letting us know. Saved me some search time.