Use Cases

This page collects real-world recipes for common tasks. Each use case lists the exact steps to follow in the NTag user interface. Shortcuts reference the Keyboard shortcuts from the UI page.

Clean up unwanted tags

Unwanted ID3 frames can be configured (comma separated) under Settings --> MP3 --> Frame Blacklist. These tags are automatically removed when saving files. Keep in mind to enter frame IDs in upper case.

There are also two ways to delete tags manually:

1. You can remove common tags from the Editor Panel with the right aligned X buttons.
2. From the Tags Panel select a tag and hit the DEL key or right click to open the context menu.

Shrink embedded artwork

Some devices are unfortunately limited in terms of support for embedded artwork. Many have limitations in resolution or size, such as old car radios. NTag can help you to adapt the artwork to these restrictions.

Follow these steps:

1. Load the affected files
2. Click the Toolbar Button Adjust Artwork (CTRL + A)
3. Select the limitations of your device (max resolution, max size, image format)
4. (Optional) create a profile for later reuse
5. Click the All Files or Selected Files Button to apply the settings
6. Save the files (CTRL + S)

Add or replace artwork for an entire album

If your album files have no cover yet, or you want to replace the cover on all files at once:

1. Load the album folder
2. Select all files in the file list (multi-select with Shift/Ctrl + click)
3. In the Editor Panel click the artwork preview, then choose Load from file, Paste from clipboard (an image file on the clipboard) or paste a copied image directly
4. NTag applies the artwork to every selected file — each is auto-shrunk to your Artwork settings if needed
5. Press Save (CTRL + S)

Tip: To save an embedded artwork image to disk instead, use the Save to file action in the same control.

Number tracks in the desired order

NTag can write consecutive track numbers (1, 2, 3 …) based on the current file list order. This is handy for

• fixing an album where all track numbers are missing or wrong, and
• numbering the tracks of a shuffled playlist in the new, random order.

1. Sort the file list the way you want the tracks numbered (click a column header).
2. Click Number Tracks (CTRL + N).
3. Choose All Files, Selected Files or Shuffle Tracks:
   • Shuffle Tracks randomizes the list first and then numbers the shuffled order.
4. The track tag is set to 1..N and trackTotal to N for every affected file.
5. Press Save (CTRL + S) to persist the changes.

Rename files based on their tags

Files can be renamed using a pattern built from the tag fields.

1. Load the files you want to rename.
2. Click Rename (CTRL + R).
3. Build your pattern with the buttons or type it directly. Available placeholders:
   • %track — track number, zero-padded to the width of the largest track in the selection
   • %disc — disc number, zero-padded like %track (removed if no disc is set)
   • %title, %artist, %album, %year — the corresponding tag values
   • The file extension is always appended automatically.
4. Choose All Files or Selected Files.
5. The Strip unsafe characters option (in the settings) transliterates accented Latin-1 characters (Ä → Ae, ß → ss, …) and removes characters that are illegal in file names. Enable it if you share files across systems.

Example: with pattern %track - %artist - %title and a selection whose largest track number is 12, a file with track 7 becomes 07 - Artist - Title.mp3 — the padding width follows the largest track number in the selection.

Fill in common tags for a whole album

Often a complete album shares the same Artist, Album, Year and Genre. Instead of editing each file, edit them all at once:

1. Load the album folder.
2. Select all files (multi-select in the table).
3. In the Editor Panel enter the shared values (album artist, album, year, genre…). Fields that differ between the selected files are visually marked — type into them to overwrite all selected files at once.
4. Fix per-file fields (title, track number) for the selected file or a subset.
5. Press Save (CTRL + S).

Add lyrics and search the web

1. Select exactly one file.
2. Open the Lyrics Panel in the sidepanel.
3. Paste the lyrics, or click one of the search provider links to look up lyrics for the current title/artist in your browser.
4. Add or remove search provider URLs in Settings --> Lyrics (one URL per line, input is the placeholder for title artist).
5. Press Save (CTRL + S).

Find and fix files with missing metadata

The quick filter helps you spot incomplete files.

1. In the status bar click the filter label and choose one of: Missing Artwork, Missing Metadata, Missing Rating or Missing Lyrics.
2. Only the affected files are shown — fix them via the editor.
3. Click the filter label again (or press F5) to refresh the view.
4. The status column shows a warning letter for each issue: A (artwork), M (metadata), R (rating), L (lyrics). Hover a file row to see the details.
5. You can disable individual warnings under Settings --> Scanner.

Get rid of stale ID3v1 tags

Old MP3 files often carry a limited ID3v1 tag at the end of the file that can conflict with the modern ID3v2 tag.

1. Open Settings --> MP3.
2. Uncheck Write ID3v1.1.
3. Save your files (CTRL + S) — NTag strips the ID3v1 tag on save.

You can also check which files still have an ID3v1 tag and which ID3v2 version they use in the Header Panel (single-file selection).

Choose the ID3 tag version for your MP3s

Different players and devices expect different ID3v2 versions. MP3s can carry an ID3v1 tag (limited, at the end of the file) and an ID3v2 tag (v2.2, v2.3 or v2.4).

1. Select exactly one MP3 file and open the Header Panel to see which versions the file currently uses.
2. Open Settings --> MP3 and decide how NTag should write new tags:
   • Write ID3v1.1 — write (or strip, if unchecked) the legacy ID3v1 tag.
   • ID3v2.4 — if checked, new tags are written as ID3v2.4; otherwise as ID3v2.3. Use v2.3 for maximum compatibility with older devices.
3. Save your files (CTRL + S) to rewrite them with the chosen version.
4. The release date mapping options (Save Release Date as TDRL/TDOR/TDRC) control which ID3v2.4 frame stores the date.