Finder search results show MP3s with incomplete or changed filenames in Yosemite

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Finder search results show MP3s with incomplete or changed filenames in Yosemite

Under Yosemite, when performing a search for "mp3" in Finder, certain search results will not display their true filename under the "Name" column:

For example, the "Name" column above should display the entire filename (as shown in the Status Bar), not just what I can only assume is the track title.

This does not apply to all mp3s, only to some. Probably something to do with ID3 tags, or perhaps with certain hyphen usage in the filename.

Anyway, I'd just like the "Name" column to show me the filename as it should, and not metadata. I can't find how to change the results to display the correct filenames.

This causes several problems. First it makes sorting by an album's track number, which is frequently included in the actual filename, in the search results impossible, as now the numbers are not part of the list. Therefore if I want to drag an album into an iTunes Playlist in the correct album order I have to go to the source folder and can't do it straight from the search window. Also I can't see separate versions of the same song, which may have the same track title but different filenames. Also I can't see the filename at a glance, which may include other important information other than the track title. And so on.

I can't find anyone else who has this problem on Yosemite. Mavericks yes... and sadly no help. Hoping it's fixable.

MacBook Pro 15", Mac OS X (10.6.2), 2.53 GHz Intel, 4 GB RAM

Posted on Nov 26, 2014 11:47 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 3, 2014 12:44 AM in response to sammwalk

I have the same problem with AIFF's too...

It's a big problem for me as I'm currently doing some sound design.

I need to see the file name in the finder, not the title/track name.

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Answer 2

Oct 10, 2016 6:12 PM in response to sammwalk

I found a workaround. This may or not be applicable depending on if these ID3 tag fields are already in use in your collection. Remove the title from all of your ID3 tags and move the title information to the label field of your ID3 tags. If finder sees a Title in your ID3 tags it will behave as the original poster stated and will not display the full name of your mp3 files in finder search results. Once you remove the title from an ID3 tag then finder will display mp3 search results as desired with full file name and also Enter/Return key edit functionality restored. By the way if you're a DJ most DJ software will allow you to display the Label as a column in your browser/library. Unfortunately iTunes does not show the label field for whatever genius reason so you may have to find another field to move your titles to if iTunes is your music player of choice and you want to sort your collection by song title.

P.S. I highly recommend a program called Yate to do your ID3 tag editing and updating. It is hands down the most bad a** tag editor I've used and I have tried many. It costs but it's worth it. I hope this helps:-)

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