Mp3tag Cannot Be Opened For Writing

JohnT Senior Member Thread Starter

Just noticed that an album I recorded and converted to flac is missing Bitrate & Length (time).
When I go back to Mp3tag to edit those fields they're protected or unavailable for edit.
Is there a way around that - or perhaps another editing tool?
You need to NOT put mp3's ID3 tag on FLAC files. That will cause problems with the OS reading the data inside the FLAC file. A tool compatible with FLAC metadata is required and the id3 tags will have to be stripped off.
Read: Complete EAC perfect rip configuration guide for dummies?
Bitrate and length are not tags.
The player software should usually determine what these are when opening the file.
Average bitrate is simply file size divided by playing time.
Btw @harby mp3tag, despite the name doesn't just tag mp3s/id3. It does do flac aswell.
Yes, and it does a fine job on them.
Those are computed values, they are not ID tags and not editable. If MP3Tag sometimes does not show them, that is just an issue of the software. Another software will likely show them.
See, that's where you're wrong....
How would software know the "average bitrate"?
See, that's where you're wrong.
It's not computed by attributes of the file contained in the file system, such as number of bytes.

When software, such as the Windows Explorer, wants to display the length of the FLAC audio, it can't do that from the file size, because of the variable compression. It can't decompress all the FLACs in a directory one-by-one to see how many seconds long they are for you.

Instead, it opens the metadata of FLAC, which contains this information:

METADATA block #0 type: 0 (STREAMINFO) is last: false length: 34 minimum blocksize: 4096 samples maximum blocksize: 4096 samples minimum framesize: 14 bytes maximum framesize: 13603 bytes sample_rate: 44100 Hz channels: 2 bits-per-sample: 16 total samples: 12469716 MD5 signature: 21358f4a50043e62b22f2654323e1639

Total samples divided by sample rate gives the length answer from the metadata.
If when scanning the files it doesn't find that the first couple of bytes identify it as FLAC, but instead are some mp3tag data inserted at the beginning that doesn't belong there, preventing filetype determination, it moves on without being able to show you the length.

OP was trying to edit the length and bitrate fields that the software can't compute because it can't read the FLAC file damaged by ID3 tag insertion...

..I could insert an id3 tag before the beginning of my Excel file to let people know the artist and title. Can Excel open it still? Can Windows Explorer still show the metadata about Excel files in "properties" of the file?

MP3tag can't fix the file it has potentially damaged: "Remove tag" as an Action
My linked post above has another link discussing how to do this.
Last edited: Feb 11, 2021
It is still computed. I made no claim as to from what because I don't know the structure of FLAC files, if you say it's from the file header so be it.What you're saying is that MP3Tag messes with the FLAC header, botching up information that it's not supposed to touch? So you're saying it's buggy?
These always end up being "today I learned" threads... today, about ID3
MP3 audio is what's called a "streaming" format. It is merely blocks of independent data. If I tune in to a radio show playing live MP3, I don't have to start at the beginning of the stream, because my player will sync up as soon as it gets the next MP3 frame and start from there. I can also stop listening when I want. I can chop my MP3 file into pieces and still play it.

Most other files on your computer are rigidly defined formats. They instead start with bytes and words that say what file type it is, file size, version - whatever the program might want to know before getting into the contents. For example, a WAV file has a header that gives the sample rate, data form, comments, etc. If I chop off the first 10% of the file manually, I've destroyed the file.

Now, we need to look at what ID3 actually is - something that was invented after the release of MP3.

Initially, people that thought "we need more information about the MP3" also thought it would be less damaging to put that extra data at the end of the file. The file would only have to get bigger at the end, and if the MP3 player couldn't understand, it wouldn't choke. ID3v1.

Later, it was thought more convenient to put that data at the beginning of the file, so it could be one of the first things the player reads in sequence instead of needing to jump to the end and back again. To add data at the start, the whole file has to be re-copied to a later start position to put that extra space at the beginning.

Okay, so we know that those taggers will add non-audio data to the beginning and end of an MP3 file without changing the contents of the audio stream. Can we do that to non MP3 files though?

Unfortunately, some tagger software also thinks it's a good idea to write ID3 data to the beginning or end of other non-streaming files. FLAC, like WAV, is one of those, it starts with data about the file format, number of sub-blocks, seek points, checksum of the entire file, etc.

If I put an ID3 tag, or any other non-file garbage at the beginning or end of a FLAC file, I've corrupted the file; it is only the coded-in robustness of the decoder that it doesn't immediately fail when the start of the file is not recognized as FLAC.

Windows Explorer is not one of those robust decoders. It gets the first little bit of a FLAC file, where it expects to find the number of samples in the rigidly-defined FLAC metadata format. It barfs if instead it gets some unexpected MP3 tag.

MP3Tag is also not "robust", in that it won't try to deal with these invalid ID3 tags that don't belong there (probably added by improper EAC use, like in my first answer's link), and can't read past them or correct them. Remove FLAC ID3v2 One of the pieces of information it can't apparently display is the length, which is the "number of samples" contained in FLAC metadata streaminfo block #0. If it can't read that, it also probably can't read and write the correct FLAC artist/title metadata, and just has to go off ID3 that it finds.

A tag stripper, like "ID3Kill", or ID3Remover (and one that doesn't ignore non-MP3 files), is what you need to use on your FLAC library: ID3 Tag Remover - gHacks Tech News

Mike-48 and jkauff like this.
mds Forum Resident

Being a post on a Mp3tag program issue, I have one also that I hope the OP doesn't mind if I ask in his post. A few ripped albums I have seem to have a couple of random song files within the ripped album that cannot be tagged. These lone files are blank in terms of metadata or just have some minimal data but not complete. I do not know why or how this happened. They are files that I did not rip but someone sent to me. Every time I receive a ripped album from a friend I pop the albums song files into Mp3tag to make sure the files have the most important metadata and art work that I require and hang together as a complete album. If I notice missing or mislabeled data I add or modify to my standards, but these troublesome songs with the missing metadata has me stumped in how to add the metadata I want. Prior to Windows 10 I could go into the songs properties by right clicking on the song file and make changes there, in one of the properties sub tabs. This was not fun due to how labor intensive the process was compared to Mp3tag, but it worked. In Windows 10 I don't seem to have a tab when opening the files properties that gives me the ability to make any changes like that. I am stumped on how to add the correct metadata to these random blank types of individual song files. Any suggestions on how to handle this issue and why can't Mp3tag handle them?
It should? Just navigate MP3Tag to the folder containing those files. It then gives you a list of all the files in that folders including the faulty ones. Just highlight each of them individually (it sounds you're missing that bit). You should then get the input fields activated permitting you to edit, and make sure you save before leaving each file.
mds Forum Resident

Typically I drag and drop. Are you suggesting to open files through the program instead and this is a more foolproof approach?
Yes. That's actually the only way I know how to use it Opening a directory from within the program also gives you some options that you might have missed before, such as giving all files in the directory the same artist, album name and graphics, and automatically converting filenames to MP3 tags or vice versa.
It doesn't matter. Additionally, when you navigate to the target folder in Windows Explorer, you should have a right-click option "Mp3tag" which when selected will open all music files within the folder in Mp3tag.
Are the problem files MP3, FLAC, or something else?
It's still faster to use the MP3Tag interface to select a folder. This is because MP3Tag will drill down in to subfolder. So, if you've created Artist folders with their individual albums in subfolders, you can tag Artist and Album Artist quick and easy. From there you can sort by folder location then tag each album file without further menu picks. You just highlight all the files within each subfolder and fill in the data and let MP3tag proliferate the tags. You want to do this to avoid issue like mistagging "Derek and the Dominos" as opposed to "Derek & the Dominos". Either is correct in my mind, but you need to pick one or the other otherwise your player sees them doesn't recognize them as the same artist.
Have you tried converting the FLAC file to another FLAC file? There won't be any transcoding issues and it may fix the issue.
JohnT Senior Member Thread Starter

Got tied up with other issues - just getting back to this.
The bitrate and Length (for me) is a weird problem. I've recorded a thousand albums and haven't seen this before.
My method is as follows: Record vinyl using Audition 3.0 to wav (usually 24/96k).
Convert to flac using either foobar2000 or dbpoweramp.
Use Mp3tag to complete tagging.
Import into Audivana.

I'll probably just go back to the wav files and convert them again. Something must've gone wonky on the conversion.
The flac sounds fine which is why I was looking to simply edit the metadata.

I was simply wondering if anyone knew of a tool to edit the flac.

(Edit: interesting that Audivana sees the bitrate now)
Per the other responses, you should be able to navigate to the relevant folder within MP3tag to edit the files you want. I would also expect you'd be able to do it via the method you state you cannot do it within Windows 10, i.e., via a property sheet associated with the file type. It's not clear if, in your pre-Win10 system, you have been accessing the OS's native tagging property sheet or one associated with 3rd party software. In my system's Win10 install, there is an ID-Tag property sheet accessible when right-clicking an audio file and selecting "Properties". Alternatively, if you had an app installed on your pre-Win10 system supporting tagging (in addition to MP3tag), a tagging command / property sheet may have been accessible to you directly when right-clicking the file. If so, perhaps it's not installed on your Win10 system or the property sheet option is not enabled. As an example, I have dBpoweramp installed, and it provides such access to tagging audio files (on both Win7 and Win10).
Doug

anorak2 and mds like this.
Is this when your player opens your music library, or when you look at the folder structure in Windoze?
If the songs show up in your player, but are not in the Windoze folder when viewed with file explorer, then they've simply been given an Album tag that matches the proper ones, even though they're not in the same folder.

As suggested above, don't drag to mp3tag; open the program, and use the Open Folder icon to open a selected folder on your PC. Finding the rogue tracks should be easy if you know when you got the file set that included them. Just sort folders within windows by date modified, and look for those that came in on a particular date.
For my transfers-Wav., convert to FLAC with dBpoweramp (force 24bit), when using MP3Tag I use the discogs release ID feature. However I have to re-number them 01-,02-, etc.. as they usually go by A1, A2...
Played via SBTouch this way the playback 'time' won't work.
mds Forum Resident

I do not have a current album with this issue at the moment, so I hesitate in being too specific. I believe this has been occurring with MP3 ripped files I am receiving from others so I can't specify how they ripped the files. What I am trying to do is bring these types of poorly tagged albums up to my standard. As I noted I drag and drop the album files into the open programs window and the highlight all the files and then add the tags that would be the same for all songs such as style, year, artist...Then I go back in to the individual tracks and give them the correct number and song name. What is occurring is that a random song will not accept the tag. This could be just the track number and song title but it also could be the album art is missing or the bands name. This means when I highlighted all the songs on the album and dropped in the art work it was only accepted by the majority of the songs not all. When it is the bands name this becomes a much bigger issue than missing art work or the track number.