how to copy every file attribute in a folder to another file attribute

[young707]

I like to copy every file attribute of every files inside a folder to another file attribute of same files.
For example, I have a large groups of files of mp3 songs in a folder with different artists. I want to copy the "Contributing artists" attribute to the "Album artists" attribute for each file inside this folder. How can I do this without modifying every property of each file entry. Thank you.

 

[clifford_cooley]

Windows Media Player and several others will allow you to edit MP3 tag information. Editing multiply MP3's at one time is possible by first selecting the MP3's you want to edit.

 

[young707]

I am looking at the file attributes in the folder in windows 7. I can edit each file property (in "detail" tab) easily. I have over 2100 mp3 songs in this folder. I want to copy every file "contributing artists" attribute to "Album artists" attribute. To edit one file at a time is way too much. It must be a better and easier method.

 

[clifford_cooley]

Select more than one file (Hold shift key while clicking all the files)
Right click on the selections
Goto properties then details
Edit the details you want to change for all the files that have been selected

If this does not work for you post back

 

[young707]

I just want to copy ALL "contributing artists" attribute to "Album artists" of every files in this folder. There are thousands of different attributes, way too much to edit one file at a time.

Got to have a better and smarter way out there.

 

[Tushman]

I like to copy every file attribute of every files inside a folder to another file attribute of same files.
For example, I have a large groups of files of mp3 songs in a folder with different artists. I want to copy the "Contributing artists" attribute to the "Album artists" attribute for each file inside this folder. How can I do this without modifying every property of each file entry. Thank you.

One method is to use the powershell tool (included in Win7) and use a custom script. I'm just beginning to learn it myself so I can't really help you come up with the exact solution but it can be done. I just "googled" this up and it's one of several links that turned up.

http://huddledmasses.org/editing-media-tags-from-powershell/

More links here:
Google search for powershell mp3 tags

Edit: Come to think of it, there's probably some software out there readily available for making such edits so that you don't have to manually edit 2100 files. Might want to google that up as well & see if any such freeware exists.

 

[young707]

since ipod and other mp3 players use certain strange and uncommon attributes to group and select musics, thus we need to edit large group of music's attributes, so that we can use the mp3 players to select and play our music, such as: albums, artist, genre, contributing artists, album artists, rating. etc.

 

[Tushman]

since ipod and other mp3 players use certain strange and uncommon attributes to group and select musics, thus we need to edit large group of music's attributes, so that we can use the mp3 players to select and play our music, such as: albums, artist, genre, contributing artists, album artists, rating. etc.

In case my last post was not clear, you can use the powershell utility as I stated to edit several MP3 files at once by writing a custom script. In another words, it will do what you are looking for - but you NEED to write a custom script.

One thing that occurred to me since I last posted is that because there is some variation in features (across the Win7 family), the powershell utility *might* not be included in your version. I am running Win7 Pro 64-bit and I can definitely confirm it's included with the professional version.

 

[clifford_cooley]

I just want to copy ALL "contributing artists" attribute to "Album artists" of every files in this folder. There are thousands of different attributes, way too much to edit one file at a time.

I'm trying to tell you, if you select all the files you want to edit, you can change all the attributes by typing in one box. This would be a group edit.

This is what you are asking for, is it not?

 

[Tushman]

I'm trying to tell you, if you select all the files you want to edit, you can change all the attributes by typing in one box. This would be a group edit.

This is what you are asking for, is it not?

Oops - missed that reply. Clifford you're right - that would work for the OP as well.

Only thing to consider with that approach is that depending on how much RAM the OP has installed on his/her computer, it might take a while to complete. I know from my experience with XP days, making en masse changes to file attributes will take a while - especially if there are 2100 MP3 files in question. I've been using Win7 for such a short time that I don't know how much the OS has improved in such regards.

 

[clifford_cooley]

Oops - missed that reply. Clifford you're right - that would work for the OP as well.

Only thing to consider with that approach is that depending on how much RAM the OP has installed on his/her computer, it might take a while to complete. I know from my experience with XP days, making en masse changes to file attributes will take a while - especially if there are 2100 MP3 files in question. I've been using Win7 for such a short time that I don't know how much the OS has improved in such regards.

LOL

Funny thing, I didn't know Windows 7 came with this feature either until this thread was started.

I have been installing a program called Audio Shell which works the same way. I figured if Audio Shell looked the same, it should work the same way. I tested my theory, and found out there is no need for me to install Audio Shell. Now I need to go to our Freeware Database and post my findings.

 

[young707]

no you cannot do group edit, because most every file (song) has different artist and different title and different rating

 

[clifford_cooley]

no you cannot do group edit, because most every file (song) has different artist and different title and different rating

Don't tell me you can't do a group edits, because I changed the year attribute in an entire album by first selecting all the songs in the album and changing one value from the properties>details tab.

Select all your songs and then edit the Contributing Artist field. All the other tags will not be altered. You can not edit all the fields, just the ones that are relevant to your selection of songs.

Trust me this is no more of a headache than any software that edits tag information. I don't care what program you use you will have to select which songs you want edited for each field.

 

[TrainableMan]

Clifford, wouldn't your option put the SAME contributing artist in all of the records selected? Because, as I read it, he wants to copy the value from song #1's "Contributing artists" tag to song #1's "Album artists" tag. Then song #2s "Contributing artists" tag to song #2's "Album artists" tag, etc through 1000s of songs. But song #1s "Contributing artists" value is not necessarily the same as song #2s "Contributing artists" value or song #3s, etc.

I think that is the confusion. And Tushman's idea of a script may be able to do a record per record update that would likely benefit the YoungYoda.

 

[clifford_cooley]

My apologies young707.

You are absolutely correct TM. I completely misread the first post which kept me going the whole thread.

Edit:
I know what is needed to do this if you will give me an hour or so to put it together.

Edit2:
I'm having difficulties getting these Commandline programs to work. I can extract all the tag data and save it to file.

Nothing I try from Commandline seems to change the album artist value shown by the properties>details tab.
This was the last step I needed before coding a Commandline script to change the values in all the files.

If I figure it out I will post back.

 

[young707]

thank you, thank you. now you understand we try to make music easier to select in mp3 players, ipod, ishuttle, etc.