"Private" Binary Data in ID3 Tag of MP3 Files causing Duplicate Matches to Fail ?
Posted: 17 Jan 2019, 10:36
For roughly the past 10 years, I have successfully used AllDup to accurately de-dup my large MP3 Music file collection.
However, now, when I run AllDup on my recently consolidated collection of all Music Files, from my Android Phone and 3 different Windows Computers, onto the Hard Disk Drives of 1 computer, AllDup 4.2, running on 64-bit Windows 10 Update 1809, is failing to identify many files which are duplicates.
I always use the "Ignore ID3 Tag" option and, in the past, that has always worked to identify duplicate files even if they have different ID3 Tag Values or different sized Album Art stored in the files.
So, I just used the Windows application "File Viewer Plus [Free]", from the Windows Store, to display the File Information from each of 2 files containing the same Music but were not identified as duplicates, and compared the File Properties & Tag Information of the two.
I checked that the "Length" of the music stored in each,as well as the Sample Rate and Audio Bitrate used to create the files, are exactly the same. I also listened to each Song File completely to make sure there are not aberrations in either. The embedded Album Art and ID3 sizes are different, but in the past that has not caused match failures.
HOWEVER, there is 1 difference between the pair of files. One contains the following information that the other does not:
"Private: (Binary data 8192 bytes, use -b option to extract)"
I do not know what the "Private Binary Data" stored in the one file represents. Both files were purchased from Amazon and, as is the case with all files purchased from the Amazon Music Store, do not have Digital Media Copy Protection and both contain, in the "Comment Field" of the ID3, the exact same Amazon Song identifier, for example:
"Comment: Amazon.com Song ID: 202593618"
Can the fact that one file has "Private Binary Data", and another identical Music Song File does not, be what is causing the 2 files to *not* be found as Duplicates by AllDup? If so, does anyone know what the procedure is, in Windows 10, to remove "Private Data" from files containing it, and if doing that would cause problems with playback of the music from the file or any other problem ?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can provide me with some guidance on this issue.
Jim
However, now, when I run AllDup on my recently consolidated collection of all Music Files, from my Android Phone and 3 different Windows Computers, onto the Hard Disk Drives of 1 computer, AllDup 4.2, running on 64-bit Windows 10 Update 1809, is failing to identify many files which are duplicates.
I always use the "Ignore ID3 Tag" option and, in the past, that has always worked to identify duplicate files even if they have different ID3 Tag Values or different sized Album Art stored in the files.
So, I just used the Windows application "File Viewer Plus [Free]", from the Windows Store, to display the File Information from each of 2 files containing the same Music but were not identified as duplicates, and compared the File Properties & Tag Information of the two.
I checked that the "Length" of the music stored in each,as well as the Sample Rate and Audio Bitrate used to create the files, are exactly the same. I also listened to each Song File completely to make sure there are not aberrations in either. The embedded Album Art and ID3 sizes are different, but in the past that has not caused match failures.
HOWEVER, there is 1 difference between the pair of files. One contains the following information that the other does not:
"Private: (Binary data 8192 bytes, use -b option to extract)"
I do not know what the "Private Binary Data" stored in the one file represents. Both files were purchased from Amazon and, as is the case with all files purchased from the Amazon Music Store, do not have Digital Media Copy Protection and both contain, in the "Comment Field" of the ID3, the exact same Amazon Song identifier, for example:
"Comment: Amazon.com Song ID: 202593618"
Can the fact that one file has "Private Binary Data", and another identical Music Song File does not, be what is causing the 2 files to *not* be found as Duplicates by AllDup? If so, does anyone know what the procedure is, in Windows 10, to remove "Private Data" from files containing it, and if doing that would cause problems with playback of the music from the file or any other problem ?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can provide me with some guidance on this issue.
Jim