These tags are what music players decode when processing your music files so that songs in your collection can be grouped by album, genre or artist. In some cases, if your files are not properly tagged, you may see “Unknown Artist” or tracks with missing album covers show up in your music player which makes things aesthetically unpleasant. The ID3 tags have nothing to do with the name of your files, so modifying that will make little difference. You need a robust music player or special software to identify the songs in question and correct the tags so that all track information shows up correctly. By default, there is no built-in mechanism for editing music tags on the Android platform, but you can choose from a number of dedicated third-party apps from the Play Store to complete missing track info in your files. I recommend Automatic Tag Editor because it analyses your music library and finds close matches for your individual files so that you can apply the best one without manually filling up all the fields by yourself. The best part is that the files are updated with the new information so that if you move them elsewhere, everything will remain intact. Let’s see how we can use this piece of software to achieve a cleaner, better-organised music collection.
Installation
You can download the app for free from the Google Play Store by following this link or by searching for “Automatic Tag Editor.”
Basic Usage
Once installed, launch the app and click on the songs tab to find the song you want to edit. For example, I will select the song “How Can It Be” which has missing album cover and artist information.
The app will try to find the best match for your song based on the tags that are already present. It will highlight the best match so that you can apply it, but you also have the option of scrolling through to check other matches in case the software got it wrong. (It rarely does in my experience.)
In my case, the best match is the correct one so I’ll go ahead and apply the new tags simply by tapping on them. A “tag edited successfully” message should appear on your screen. Once you are satisfied with the changes, click the checkmark at the top to confirm your modifications.
Now, open your preferred music player to view the changes.
Other Options
The app also features an “automatic mode” that scans your library to locate songs with missing tags, finds the best match and applies the new tags automatically without any further input from you. You have to upgrade to its premium version to use this feature.
Wrap Up
Let us know if this article was useful in your quest to tidy up your music library by leaving a comment below.
