I’m 76, and all this stuff is wayyyy above me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty handy with computer stuff.
I’ve been using MusicBee for at least 10 years. I decided to clean up my database and it’s been a horror show. My d/b is ~ 96 k tracks sourced from ~20 k vinyl albums. All this was done MANUALLY. There were ZERO utility apps available when I started.
I never explored MB’s capabilities. Just out of box, it was multiples better than other apps I have tried. One exception, iTunes. I used that sporadically.
I was aware of Picard, but never used it. It took me about 20-30 hrs to figure out how it works. The documents were unintelligible to me.
My current problem is that I need a token to prove to Picard that I have full access to the MusicBrainz d/b.
My suggestion is to first log into your account at MusicBrainz in your web browser. Then from the General section of Picard’s Options, select the Login button. This should open a page on your browser asking you to confirm that you want Picard to access your account. There is a token shown below the permissions settings, which you then copy and paste into Picard. Then you should be good to go. You shouldn’t have to repeat this unless you choose the Logout option in Picard.
rdswift,
Thank you for responding.
At no point have I seen even a suggestion of a login area.in the Picard software.
I have spent several hours reading Picard’s web content to no avail.
My understanding is that I need a token (just a number) that proves I have full access to the MusicBrainz d/b. I’ve thoroughly searched my account page on MB, with no reference to a token.
Where do you see the need for such a token in MB Picard?
What step or function do you try to use?
The only thing where you need something like a token is the possibility to SUBMIT* data to AcoustID.
As long as you only request data from MusicBrainz, I’m not aware, that you need a token for full access.
* From the AcoustID-Webpage:
The one [key/token] you see immediately after logging in is an user API key that is meant to be entered into an application like MusicBrainz Picard for the purpose of identifying yourself or. This is the API key that needs to be sent to the “submit” endpoint as the “user” parameter.
In Picard, Go to Options, then check the General section.
Look on the right for MusicBrainz account, and login there with the same username and password as this place.
BIG tip. Back up your collection before you start. It is easy to get confused in Picard and mess up tags in files. So it is a good idea to have something you can roll back to on an external drive. And only work on a few albums at a time, don’t try and load in hundreds of tracks as that make it impossible to check the results.
The manual is large, and covers many areas, but nothing is perfect. Manual writing is a tough job. So just ask questions and someone will try and help.
Welcome. I have the slight suspicion that this is about the AcoustID token, which is only required to submit acoustic fingerprints that then can be used for identifying files. Which is great if you do it, but not strictly necessary for you to tag your files.
But if that’s what you are missing there is a “Get API Key” button in Options > Fingerprinting, which leads you to AcoustID . There you could log in using your MusicBrainz account and then get a token that you have to enter on Options > Fingerprinting in Picard.
Overall I would recommend you to only bothering with the fingerprint submission once you are familiar with Picard and have successfully tagged some files with it to your satisfaction.
But I’d need to see what kind of message you got and what exactly you tried to do to say for sure if the above is the issue your are facing. Others above explained the login to MusicBrainz itself. Again, this is only necessary if you have configured Picard to fetch your own data from MusicBrainz. That for example happens if you enable the option “Only use my genres” in the genre options or if you enable the track ratings in the ratings options.
Otherwise for just fetching the public, non-personalized data you don’t need a login.
IM78,
Thank you for the reply. I am completely swamped by all the pages I’ve viewed and so on. The most relevant page that I’ve found so far discusses “OAuth”.
Initially, I was able to use Picard…amazing s/w. I’m a bit vague on the timeline because so much stuff is happening. I think Picard stopped functioning, when I opened an account on MusicBrianz.
Ok, let’s go back a step. How and when exactly does Picard prompt you to give it a token or what error message are you receiving? What exactly did you do, when this happened?
Once we know what exactly is happening I’m sure we can walk you through this
In general as I wrote above Picard can be used by default without any login, but that depends on settings. So that would explain why it worked for you before and you just now started to get this issue.
I opened Picard,went to options/general…and for the 1st time, I see MusicBrainz Account with a Log in button… When I click the button, a small dialog box also titled MusicBrainz Account is asking for “Authorization code”
Ok, I don’t want to write a bloody book.
I finally ended up on MB/acount/applications. There are 2 types: developer & authorized
There is a developer ID, but none for authorized “You have not authorized any applications.”
Hey Out, I really appreciate your taking the time to provide 2 posts with great detail.
If you look at my most recent response to Ivan, I have to provide authorization for Picard to MB.
Allright, thanks a lot for the details. So I think what your are maybe missing is that when you click on the “Log in” button, there should also open the MusicBrainz login page in your browser.
One possibility is that maybe this page opens in your browser in the background, so you can’t notice this. First thing after you clicked the login button, please check your browser window if it opened the MB login page, it should be something like this:
Where I redacted the content there is the token you will need to add to Picard. This should allow you to login.
The need to login was caused by some setting. If you disable “Only use my genres”
and also disable the ratings
then Picard should also not need a log in. At least I hope I did not forget some other option But if you don’t need those settings, then you could also avoid the need of logging in.
Out, Incredible detail…all for naught.
Whenever I go to a new site and login, my 2 browsers ask if they should make a record of that. I NEVER need to login again. In case you ask, the browsers that I use are Opera & Brave. These are next generation browsers…nothing else comes even close.
I was aware of Picard & MusicBee. I’ve been using MB for at least 10 years. but Music Brainz was new to me. I don’t remember using Picard.
When I realized the power of Music Brainz & Picard combined. (Picard for short) I immediately jumped on Picard. I ran some tests, the results were almost beyond belief.
Now here’s the wierdest thing of all. In all those years of using MB, I never opened an account. Next I tested Picard, per above.
Then, I opened a Music Brainz account, and everything went haywire since.
Any ideas?
If your browser remembered your login, you should still see the second screen from my screenshots above, where you need to “Allow access”. This is the prompt that triggers the generation of the authentication token for Picard.
Has something opened in your browser or not? If not maybe there is some issue with opening your default browser from within Picard. You could check if for example opening the Help from inside Picard works and opens your browser.
Out,
At the exact moment that you posted, I finally authorized Picard/MusicBrainz.
After all this crap, I still don’t believe it.
Let me verify, and I’ll reply shortly.
But if you don’t need those settings, then you could also avoid the need of logging in.