Empty grouping tag for some but not all MP3 files

This change in the Grouping tag has created a different problem for me. My iTunes (12.7 & before) has copied the Grouping tag to the Work tag. The result is that on my iPhone this automatically populated Work tag shows in the Song Name for an Album song list. (The song name is shown in the Now Playing area on the iPhone. It's just the list that's messed up.)I have to go back to my Mac and manually delete what's in the Work tag.

I don't understand why they changed the Grouping tag at all since it has always been one of the few tags you can sort in the Column Browser in iTunes. It should continue to function as it always did (in the MP3 file) since it has been available and has been used so much in the past.

This discussion tells me that Apple has moved the Grouping information to Work. But you can't sort by work, so why didn't they just add the new Work tag and leave Grouping alone?

Now I'm not sure if I should continue to delete the Work tag information so that I can see my song names or not. If I delete it and I reload songs I may loose the information. But if I keep it in the Work tag my iPhone song list doesn't work.

It seems Apple has fixed the problem in the latest release. If I use 12.5.3.17 on my Windows Machine it has been fixed. If I edit the grouping field and watch the fields in mp3tag afterwards I can see my changes in the contentgroup field.

The "work name" field is now not populating the contentgroup anymore.

So this seems solved. Can anyone confirm? (Screenshots from german itunes, mp3tag)

iTunes (Werk = Grouping, second Werk = Work name)

mp3Tag

Regards

I edit all tags of my MP3 files with an external ID3 tag editor (MP3tag) and then import the files into iTunes.

Many MP3 files have two sets of MP3 tags, one in v1 and one in v2. Some programs, such as Winamp, can show both sets of tags. iTunes only looks at the v2 tags. Depending how the editor works, it may be editing stuff that iTunes does not even look at.

Do the edits in iTunes, and the problem will vanish.

I think the problem has something to do with how iTunes 12 handles the the grouping tag. I have the impression that iTunes does not write or read the tag itself anymore, but rather saves the information in its library. With earlier versions iTunes clearly read and wrote to the tag.

Zion Lion,

Interesting question. I did a quick test in iTunes 12.5 and it appears that the grouping tag is in the library, not in the file. The test was to add a grouping value via iTunes, drag the file away, delete the library entry, and then re-add the file to iTunes as a new song. Result: It showed up without the grouping value. I.e., it confirmed your suspicion.

Thanks for clearing this up. This is a huge mess for me since I was miss-using the grouping field to save ratings of my tracks in the files. So that I can import and export the library and not loose ratings.

Does somebody know how I could get the new grouping values out of itunes on windows into a id3 tag field again. With a small applescript or something else. Because I did rate a lot of tracks and did not notice until now, when I tried to update my library on my macbook..... 😮

I am really not happy about this. I have used the Grouping value for many years. It used to map to the Content id3 tag. I edit tags with an external editor (ID3 Editor), and have a huge library of mp3 files now missing this data when used in iTunes. It really *****... If Apple is not going to undo this change, perhaps a menu function or apple script could be provided to map all of the ID3 data over to the table upon import or update. What do you say, a little help here!

I feel your pain. I encountered this coming for the other end , I am adding support for autopopulation of the work and movement fields for classical music from my SongKong audio tagger, but how do I map things. I do not automatically want to write the Work to the TIT1 field since people can use this for other things like yourself, but what makes it doubly awkward is that this is only an issue for ID3 (mp3, aiff) not MP4, MP4 has been given its own WORK field and the GROUPING field left alone !

So for ID3 they have added these new fields

MVNM - Movement

MVIN - MovemntNo/MovementTotal

and now use TIT1 for Work instead of Grouping

But for Mp4 they have added

@mvn Movement

@mvi MovemntNo

@mvc MovemntTotal

@wrk Work

and @grp has been left mapped to Grouping

So for mp4 you can continue to import files and set Work and Grouping independently but not for ID3. And since they added new fields for ID3 hence breaking the specification anyway (as they did with adding TCMP) why not just add a new field for Work such as TWRK ?

Thanks, this helped me understand the problem.

What I don't understand is why they made a change like this the way they did, without taking into account compatibility issues and producing such a mess. Why don't use other new tags for the Work name?

I've been using the Grouping field to store song info that I later use to create smart playlists for a long time. And I liked that it was written to the file so I was safe that I could reimport them without losing any data. But now not only the Grouping refers to another field (when writing that tag from another application or importing older files) that also it's not written into the file when edited from iTunes..

I guess I'll have to move all my Grouping info into another field that is stored to the file (like the Comments).

Good to see I'm not the only one having this problem.

I also use mp3tag to metatag all my files before adding to the iTunes library b/c I find it faster.

This has created an inconsistency in my extensive 1TB iTunes library. All those files I added to the library have the grouping that I want. However, all those files I added after this change from Apple is not showing any grouping at all, and based on everything I've read in the thread below, it looks like the only solution is to edit the metatags within iTunes.

1. Why did Apple make this change?

2. Does Apple have any plans to revert back to the way it was? This feels like a coding oversight to me.

Hi, Ive just tried again on Windows with the same version as you and still I find that editing the Work field is updating the TIT1 frame, and that updates to the Grouping field is not reflected in the file. Since in your German version both fields are called Werk could it be that you have it the wrong way round and the first Werk is actually Work Name not Grouping

I have just tried iTunes 12.5.4.42 (on Windows) and can confirm they have now made a change

Now for ID3 formats Grouping is stored in a new field GRP1. So the good news is you can set the Grouping for files outside of iTunes using this field. The bad news is that of course no other player uses GRP1 for grouping they continue to use TIT1 so if you want to play your files on iTnes and another player and the Grouping field is important to you you have a problem, more details at http://blog.jthink.net/2016/12/itunes-add-new-grouping-field-but.html