Solved Cannot view nor edit mp3 files in explorer.

[41023]

I ran the delete and rebuild process then I went to sleep. The next morning it was completed, I restarted and check on the mp3 files, nothing changed.

So far I have not try system restore yet, hoping that I could find a solution without having to do so.

Ok, thanks - that's different... I thought the rebuild didn't work. The index was successfully rebuilt, but it did not change the issue.

AdwCleaner picked up and cleaned up some malware.
TFC cleaned out the temp files just in case something was lurking.
System protection Restore Points, not run.
Issue still exists.

I'm not sure if you uninstalled Advanced Care as I recommended - please advise.

---

The naming MS chose for some options throws a lot of people off. System Protection Restore Points only affect system stuff (registry and files). User data is not affected if you choose to do a Restore Point.

It is the fastest and safest way to resole issues. The only caveats are that if you installed something between then (RP chosen) and now, Windows doesn't know it was installed and you have to reinstall that app. Windows updates also need to be reinstalled (only the ones between then and now). The pgm files are still on the disk, windows just doesn't' know it.

Say that you know the problem started on April 5th and you have Restore Points from March 15th, March 28th, April 5th, and April 14th.

You should determine what pgms were installed between the set of possible RP dates (March 15, 28, and April 5th) and now by looking in control Panel Preograms and Features, sorted by install date. Make a note of any install between the RP you're going to try and when you actually try it. There shouldn't be too many, people normally don't do a whole bunch of installs at one time, more of an as needed basis. You can ignore any installs I asked you to do as part of this exercise.

As an example, on March 29th, Dinosours (a game) was installed and on April 6th you installed Muxik (a media player)

You could try the April 5th RP, if that solves the issue, great! In this case, only Muxik would have to be reinstalled.

If that RP doesn't solve the issue, go back one to March 28th, if that solves the issue, great! In this case, both Muxik and Dinosours would have to be reinstalled.

You would have to run Windows Update to pick up what is needed.

---

Your choice, but.... the other route is longer and might eventually end up back at system Protection Restore points. Keep in mind, this is NOT the same as restoring from backup, it's built in system protection that makes recovery much easier.

If you want to continue without running RP (it's your machine), the next step is another scanner

Follwo the instructions to run the ESET online scanner on this page:
Help: Free ESET Antivirus Online Scanner

ESET FAQ page: FAQ: Free ESET Antivirus Online Scanner

Please attach the ESET log to a new post
C:\Program Files\EsetOnlineScanner\log.txt

ESET online scanner takes a long time, it's very thorough.

After I see the ESET logs, there might be more scanners. There will be a system utility to check the system files and then either the issue is resolved or your back to trying a restore point.

Bill
.

I just uninstalled Advanced Systemcare. I also checked system restore, the earliest restore point I could go back to is April the 15th, but the problem occured before that so I guess is not an option any more.
I'm running the ESET scan and will upload the logs when I'm done.

 

[41023]

Here is the ESET log:
View attachment log.txt

 

[lehnerus2000]

Automatically Update Media Info?

Do you have WMP 12 set to automatically update media info?
It's possible that WMP 12 updated your mp3 information to a tag version it doesn't understand.

WMP 12 will update mp3 file info from ID3v2.3 to ID3v2.4, but it can't understand them, so it won't let you edit them.
I have seen it do this on my PC (several years ago).

I had to use ID3Kill to remove all of the tag info and then manually re-enter it again.

 

[41023]

Do you have WMP 12 set to automatically update media info?
It's possible that WMP 12 updated your mp3 information to a tag version it doesn't understand.

WMP 12 will update mp3 file info from ID3v2.3 to ID3v2.4, but it can't understand them, so it won't let you edit them.
I have seen it do this on my PC (several years ago).

I had to use ID3Kill to remove all of the tag info and then manually re-enter it again.

How do I check that? I can't find the right setting.

 

[lehnerus2000]

WMP Media Information Update Setting

Do you have WMP 12 set to automatically update media info?
It's possible that WMP 12 updated your mp3 information to a tag version it doesn't understand.

WMP 12 will update mp3 file info from ID3v2.3 to ID3v2.4, but it can't understand them, so it won't let you edit them.
I have seen it do this on my PC (several years ago).

I had to use ID3Kill to remove all of the tag info and then manually re-enter it again.

How do I check that? I can't find the right setting.

I'm not sure how to check the tag version of an mp3.
A program like Mp3tag should show you that information.

You can check the media information settings in WMP 12 by:

• Clicking on Organize
• Choosing Options
• Clicking on the Library tab

Click on the picture for the animation.

​

 

[Slartybart]

Do you have WMP 12 set to automatically update media info?
It's possible that WMP 12 updated your mp3 information to a tag version it doesn't understand.

WMP 12 will update mp3 file info from ID3v2.3 to ID3v2.4, but it can't understand them, so it won't let you edit them.
I have seen it do this on my PC (several years ago).

I had to use ID3Kill to remove all of the tag info and then manually re-enter it again.

Yes, I remember that!

mp3tag is the best tool to use to determine the ID3 version. When I started using Win7, I decided that two libraries for music was one too many. I uninstalled WMP, installed VLC and rebuilt my music lib using the native Win7 library for music.

If the ID3 version is the cause, mp3tag can rewrite the information in v2.3 format.

I would experiment on a copy of an mp3 file
How do I transfer tag information from one tag format to the other?

If that works, great, then you can do the same thing for the other mp3 files. I suggest small batches until you get used to mp3tag, even after you get used to mp3tag.

There were two things I saw in the files you posted (dds, ESET)
ddsAttach.txt: 4/13/2014 6:31:52 PM, Error: volmgr [46] - Crash dump initialization failed!
> I suggest that you run Chkdsk on the system drive

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html
Steps 1 -> 4 & 11
The default options (automatically fix file system errors) should be the same as the Step 4 image
That's all you want to check this time.
Since it's your C:\ drive, it will be in use and you'll have to restart windows for it to run.
The log is written to the event viewer
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/96938-check-disk-chkdsk-read-event-viewer-log.html​

ESET: Found and cleaned Yontoo adware

# found=1
# cleaned=1
# scan_time=3957
sh=9B7AFC05F48AE3F56DBE1A2114F8FDF50067A187
ft=0
fh=0000000000000000
vn="JS/Adware.Yontoo.C application (cleaned by deleting - quarantined)"
ac=C
fn="C:\Users\Roronoa\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox1\Profiles\kk9ip6h6.default-1368248395344\extensions\[email protected]\content\overlay.js"​

Unfortunately I forgot to ask you to change the scan options. I thought they were on the page I directed you to install and run ESET, but...

Please run ESET again but change the scan options to match the image below. Thanks and please accept my apologies for the oversight.

​

Remember, ESET takes a while and the time is increased by adding scan options. Please post the log as you previously did.

Bill
.

 

[41023]

Here is the new log:
View attachment log.txt

 

[Slartybart]

All clear, just wanted to make sure that ESET didn't miss something because of the settings. Thanks for re-running it and posting the log.

Have you tried using mp3tag to identify the ID3 tag version? If it does turn out that the version ID3 v2.4 is causing the problem, I posted information that describes how to rewrite it in ID3 v2.3 format. It's really easy and beats having to fix all of the files by hand.

I'll wait to post anything else until I hear back on what you find re: if the tag is v2.4 or not.

Bill
.

 

[41023]

All clear, just wanted to make sure that ESET didn't miss something because of the settings. Thanks for re-running it and posting the log.

Have you tried using mp3tag to identify the ID3 tag version? If it does turn out that the version ID3 v2.4 is causing the problem, I posted information that describes how to rewrite it in ID3 v2.3 format. It's really easy and beats having to fix all of the files by hand.

I'll wait to post anything else until I hear back on what you find re: if the tag is v2.4 or not.

Bill
.

I've checked, all my mp3 files are v2.3.

 

[41023]

And here is the chkdsk log:
View attachment chkdsk.txt

 

[Slartybart]

Tags are v2.3 - so that's not the issue.

Chkdsk - normal FS fixes, nothing critical there.

Let's try this.... pick a small mp3 that you cannot modify in WinExplorer, put it in a compressed folder (.zip) and attach it to a post. I'll see if I can edit the meta data for that file on my machine. Since I don't have WMP, the only thing that will tell me is if the file itself is good or bad with regards to ID3 (I'm sure the mp3 plays or you would have posted something completely different

I still suspect WMP. It's been so long since I had WMP on my system, I'll need your help on the next test.
Change WMP to exclude a folder when searching for music - this could be a new folder just for this test. In other words, I don't want files in the test folder to be added to the WMP library. There might be two settings that affect this, I just can't recall.

Then copy a few mp3 files to the new test folder
Can you edit the meta data in WinExplorer? I don't expect so, but now is a good time to ask.
Add the test folder to Windows Music Library
Select / higlight the test folder and either
click Include in Library

on the Action bar
--OR--
Right clcik on the folder and select Include in Library from the contect menu
You want to include the folder in the Music Library.

Navigate to the Windows Music Library and see what is presented and if you can modify the meta data there.

Thanks, it's really a big help when members feed back the results - you're doing great!

Bill
.

 

[41023]

View attachment 314899
View attachment 314900
View attachment 314901

 

[HelpGiver]

Hi ,41023

- Do you get any error message while trying to edit mp3 tags on details pane?

Let us follow these methods:
Method 1.
You may temporarily disable the security software and check if this helps.
Disclaimer: If you have to temporarily disable the antivirus to install other software; you should enable the antivirus as soon as you're done. If you're connected to the Internet or a network while your antivirus software is disabled, your computer is vulnerable to virus attacks.

Method 2.
Boot the computer in safe mode and check if this helps to edit the mp3 tags.

OR
You can right click the MP3 file and click Properties. Switch to "Detail" tab and then you can edit the MP3 information, such as Title, Artists and Composers. Can you modify the information successfully?

Thanks,
Help Giver

 

[Slartybart]

thanks 41023 - the file is fine on my machine.

It looks like kanji in the artist and album fields, but not quite kanji. Some of the characters don't appear to be in the character set - but I don't know kanji that well.

I've seen similar kanji-like characters when a file is corrupted, but can't say if this is the case with your file (scanned with avast - no threat found).

I modified all of the fields and added an album cover using mp3tag - the modified file is attached in a zip file. See if you can edit the meta data on this mp3 using WinExplorer.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I'm not paying a lot of attention to the details in this thread, but I just downloaded the U2 mp3 "Ordinary Love" and looked at it in MP3Tag.

It looks completely normal here. Tags shown for filename, artist, album, path, bitrate, codec, tag type, frequency, length, mode, size, and modified date.

Blank fields for title, album artist, track, disknumber, year, genre, comment, composer, BPM, and cover.

All in English, no sign of any problems or issue.

I didn't have any problems when I told MP3Tag to fill in the title field. It popped right up as expected.

I then was able to delete the artist and title tags using MP3Tag, without any issue. Looks editable to me.

 

[Arc]

A random suggestion .... you may try to edit the file attribute for MP3.

You have to turn off the file attribute A, that means archive.

DOS Command: ATTRIB
Attrib - Edit file attributes | SS64.com

 

[41023]

hi ,41023

- do you get any error message while trying to edit mp3 tags on details pane?

Let us follow these methods:
Method 1.
You may temporarily disable the security software and check if this helps.
Disclaimer: If you have to temporarily disable the antivirus to install other software; you should enable the antivirus as soon as you're done. If you're connected to the internet or a network while your antivirus software is disabled, your computer is vulnerable to virus attacks.

Method 2.
Boot the computer in safe mode and check if this helps to edit the mp3 tags.

Or
you can right click the mp3 file and click properties. Switch to "detail" tab and then you can edit the mp3 information, such as title, artists and composers. Can you modify the information successfully?

Thanks,
help giver

 

[41023]

thanks 41023 - the file is fine on my machine.

It looks like kanji in the artist and album fields, but not quite kanji. Some of the characters don't appear to be in the character set - but I don't know kanji that well.

I've seen similar kanji-like characters when a file is corrupted, but can't say if this is the case with your file (scanned with avast - no threat found).

I modified all of the fields and added an album cover using mp3tag - the modified file is attached in a zip file. See if you can edit the meta data on this mp3 using WinExplorer.

I can see the cover and the new tags but still unable to edit them.

 

[Callender]

AudioShell

Hi,

I've been following this thread with interest but must confess that I don't have a clue as to how to fix the cause of the problem. Personally I don't use WMP and prefer alternatives.

However I have a suggestion that could be tried to see if it helps.

If you install ID3 tag editor - AudioShell freeware music files tag editor - direct tag editing from Windows Vista/7/8 Explorer

What happens after a reboot? Do you see the tag editor in your context menu if you right click an mp3 file?

If not - simply uninstall AudioShell as it will be of no use!

 

[41023]

Hi,

I've been following this thread with interest but must confess that I don't have a clue as to how to fix the cause of the problem. Personally I don't use WMP and prefer alternatives.

However I have a suggestion that could be tried to see if it helps.

If you install ID3 tag editor - AudioShell freeware music files tag editor - direct tag editing from Windows Vista/7/8 Explorer

What happens after a reboot? Do you see the tag editor in your context menu if you right click an mp3 file?

If not - simply uninstall AudioShell as it will be of no use!

WOW, IT WORKED!!!





Thank you so much.

And I also want to thank everyone who made a suggestion especially Bill who stayed with me for so long, thank you.