Update only one field

MusicBrainz Picard
1

Hi, would it be possible to update only one or selected fields ?

Thanks
MM

2

Try here: Only set a single tag in Picard (complete $unset tag list)

It points to how to not update tags\fields so you can only change a single one. You set a list up of “do not change these tags” to then freeze the values.

Or use MP3TAG to manipulate just specific tags.

1 Like
3

There is not enough information to really understand what it is that you are trying to achieve i.e. why you want to update a single field with Musicbrainz data… but if you are thinking about updating the field manually then (because changing a single field is not really what Picard is designed for) IMO you would be better off using e.g. MP3TAG to do this.

4

Hi,
thank you for the reply.
I have thousands of files and I just would like to update isrc field and leave all the others fields as they are.
Regards
MM

5

Backup first - in case something goes not as expected.

Work with a few albums as a test and use that blocklist to block the tags you don’t want changed. You may need to expand your blocklist to cover any other tags you have.

Only once you are confident your solution works do you throw thousands of files at it.

6

Thank you I’ll try and I’ll come back if the case.
MM

1 Like
7

The ISRC may depend on the specific release, and (since you have not already added and don’t plan to add now the Release MBID) Picard will have to guess which release to load. IMO you should also allow Picard to save the Release MBID and Track MBID fields so that if you ever need to reload them into Picard to e.g. get newly added ISRCs, then Picard will automatically load the correct release.

I would personally also recommend that you think about allowing Picard to retag everything else and add extra metadata - this is what it is excellent at doing (perhaps better than the manual tagging you have already done). Why not take a copy of some of your files and allow Picard to do its thing and see whether (perhaps with a few tweaks) it can improve on your existing metadata?

1 Like
8

To reiterate what Sophist has said, the pro tip is to Leave the MBID tags!

It’s tempting to think it’s cleaner to tag without, but if you’re going through tagging a big collection you are going to thank little baby jesus that you left them in (they will be auto-matched in Picard in future, when you decide to add another tag/change something/update and add new ISRC’s)

1 Like