mp3 tags inconsistency between Linux and Sansa Fuze (mp3 tags editing software?)
 

Hi folks,

I recently bought a Sansa Fuze, but I have a problem making it recognize my music collection mp3 tags. Most of my collection tags are properly recognized by Amarok and other audio programs like Rhythmbox and Banshee, but when I copy the files to the Sansa Fuze, it recognizes some tags (and displays them properly), but for other albums it just displays "Unknown artist", which makes it difficult to search the albums I want to play.

I already used EasyTag to edit my music collection tags, but it didn't seem to help, since when I copied the files again, the problem persists.

As a side note, if I boot into Windows, Windows Media Player doesn't recognize most of my tags either, but if I copy my music with it, the tags are properly recognized by the Sansa. It's like WMP/Sansa and Linux-based audio programs use different standards, hence the inconsistency.

What I would like is a program that saves the mp3 tags into the mp3 files using the same standard the Sansa uses, so it can read them properly. It doesn't have to be necessarily a Linux program, may also be Windows-based, if you know of any. And something else: I can't use the software that comes with the Sansa because for some reason it gets blocked when it detects my country (looks like the Sansa is only sold and supported in certain countries and mine is not one of them!).

Thanks in advance for any help!

My first thought is that this could be due to a tag version problem i.e. 2.4 vs 2.3.

From a quick search neither WMP nor the Fuze can handle V2.4 tags. I believe that Easytag uses V2.4 but do not the capabilities of Amarok, Rhythmbox or Banshee. I also do not know if Easytag has an option to use 2.3 vs 2.4 tags.

I do know that eyeD3 can convert tags from 2.4 to 2.3 but there could be other options.

Didn't know there were different versions of tags. Makes sense. I opened EasyTag settings and noticed that, indeed, it was using version 2.4. Changed it to version 2.3 and most of my collection turned to red color (which probably means the tags were not being recognized by tag V2.3 and it needed to make them compatible). Selected my entire collection and clicked on the save button, but with a +10,000 files collection, it's going to take some hours, so I will have to wait.

Thanks for your help michaelk, I'll let you know if it works when it finishes modifying my music collection (if it doesn't, I'll try eyeD3).

Follow up: I copied some albums to the Fuze after saving the tags with version 2.3 and this time it worked fine, as expected. Again, thanks a lot for your help!