[Flac] Duplicate Tag

[Dave B]

Thank for the replay Brian.

My intent is to remove a “custom” tag that inadvertently ended up with a with the space in it’s name (Song Rating) and replace it with a tag with no space (SongRating).
My working file is WorkingMan.flac

If I run the metaflac command:
metaflac --show-tag="Song Rating" --show-tag=SongRating WorkingMan.flac
I see the following:
Note there is a duplicate tag (one with a value and one with no value). Case explained to me that a duplicate tag is not necessarily unwanted.
[cid:fc74d701-df5b-496d-b73b-ce2db2ce3ba6]
 From within dBpoweramp I deleted the SONG RATING tag (2nd from the bottom)
 [cid:424e371a-639e-4044-9fc7-b8fc7db2c69a]

Then re-run the same metaflac command
metaflac --show-tag="Song Rating" --show-tag=SongRating WorkingMan.flac
I now see:
[cid:32e3247e-e942-4359-9e8c-0756866324dc]

That not only removed the tag that I actually wanted to delete, it also removed the duplicated tag that had no value.
…I must say I am confused.
So now the question begs to be asked.  If there are 2 tags, or more,  with the same name.  One with a value and one without, or for that matter they both have values and you want to remove a specific one. How would I do that.  If I use the metaflac command:
metaflac --remove-tag=SongRating WorkingMan_Copy.flac
it removes both.
[cid:c8bed3b0-23ca-4576-87c3-2e6c6d96d839]

It seems the deep I go the more confused I am getting.
Thanks
Dave

________________________________
From: brianw <brianw at audiobanshee.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2025 2:44 PM
To: Dave B <daveb30 at hotmail.com>
Cc: flac at xiph.org <flac at xiph.org>
Subject: Re: [Flac] Duplicate Tag

Hi Dave,

I haven't reviewed metaflac to see whether its algorithm might incorrectly show a tag twice. It's possible that dBpoweramp appended a tag that already existed. I imagine that if metaflac says there's an occurrence of the tag with no value, and another with a value, then that's probably accurate. Can you show the output of metaflac? That might help verify.

You could use other tools, like "hexdump -C path/filename" although it seems that you're on Windows, so you might not have that. Anyway, hexdump would show the raw file data, and then you could search for the 4-character tag to see whether it actually appears once or twice in the file.

I'd be tempted to write a simple tool that only shows FLAC chunks as tag and size, but it's probably quicker to review metaflac to see whether it is correct.

Brian


On Jan 19, 2025, at 11:30 AM, Dave B. wrote:
> If I run the metaflac command, "metaflac --show-all-tags path\filename".  There is a tag that is listed twice.  Only one of the tags has a value.  This seems to be the case for all of my flac files.  I ripped these with dBpoweramp and this tag was added/defined as a "custom" tag.
>
> I can run the same command using exiftool, "exiftool --tag-all path\filename" and I only see the single tag, the one that has a value is the one listed.  If I look that this same file with MP3Tag "Extended Tags" I also only see it listed once, the one with the value.
>
> Does anyone know why it might be listed twice using metaflac.  I thought metaflac would be the better tool since it is the "official" tool, at least I assume it is.  Exiftool will read flac files but will not write to them, so I wonder if I am getting a complete list from it.  And MP3Tag has me wondering, because of the name.  I dont care — OR WANT — mp3 tags.  I only want FLAC tags.
>
> Can anyone shed some light on me.
>
> Thanks
> Dave

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