I’d say it’s probably a pretty good option and nice step up from your Uniti.
The only thing I would comment is that so far as I can see, you can’t currently get a music metadata editor that will run on iPad OS.
Best
David
Hi David,
MP3Tag: Audio Tag Editor by Artem Melesko is the one I referred to earlier: not sure if it’s a port from the macOS version or a new app… but it is available in the App Store, runs on iPad and iPhone, requires iOS 9.0 or later, has access via File Manager to local, NAS, and cloud storage. Looks cool, with good reviews, but I’ve not tried it…
Regards alan
Oh I missed that yesterday Alan! I searched on metadata and it didn’t occur to me to try tag! Thanks for the heads up.
Best
David
Would be interested to share views if you try it… I’ve been re-tagging some mp3 audiobooks (I’ve added a Plex server on my NAS and the Prologue audiobook player app on my iPhone) lately, but hadn’t thought to look for an iPad app; might be a project for today, come to think of it!
(I’m still hoping for a macOS (or even macOS lite, without the Rosetta piece?) port now that the Apple Silicon version is out… that would be super cool, since the iPad Pro is even lighter than the Air… but will obviously have to wait for autumn at least)
Regards alan
Not sure I’m going to be able to get to it today, but I will certainly post here and flag to you when I do.
Best
David
Sorry for confusion … I meant to imply a project for me, not trying to order you about haha! If I try, I will also flag you to let you know. Take care, enjoy the upcoming weekend David.
Regards alan
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Hi @alan33
So I have made some progress.
I bought a download hires flac album from Presto Music using my iPad Pro. Then I downloaded it as a zip to the iPad and uncompressed it into the constituent files. Then I saved them to my Samsung SSD 1 TB USB that is plugged into the iPad Pro. I used iFiles to do that. That was mainly to prove I could, but it’s a backup as well.
Next I connected to my Core and the SSD using the FileBrowser app and transferred the files into the Core’s download folder. All of that worked ok, except that I had to reduce the size of the cover art image file before the Core would recognise it and display it.
The music plays from the Core fine.
Then I installed the MP3 TAG app on my iPad and upgraded it to Pro. But it seems to do nothing after that. It doesn’t seem to look at any of the available file locations and I just get “no files found”. I don’t see how to insert it into the workflow meaningfully at all. I would have deleted it by now except that this is all an experiment. Presumably people can make this programme work for them, but I’m not sure how!
Anyway that’s enough for now. I am out of patience with MP3TAG.
Best
David
Wow, great progress but a disappointing finish with the MP3 Tag aspect David. I’m inspired to download here so you have a buddy that might restore morale and we can compare notes…
Regards alan
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I wasn’t aware of the MP3 Tag app so have just downloaded it. Thanks for highlighting.
It’s not bad. I connected first time to my NAS and could browse my music share which is very quick.
It’s a bit slow when you select a file to edit as it downloads it to the device first but it’s very adequate to make small changes if you notice an error during a listening session and want to immediately correct the file.
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But how do you tell it to apply the correction back to the source?
Also I can get it to look at stuff on my Core downloads but what I want to do is to edit the metadata on the files on my iPad before copying them to the Core.
I’m editing files on my NAS so slightly different.
It appears that it downloads the file to the iPad and when you have edited and saved it uploads it back by dropping the file into an upload queue.
Unfortunately the uploads seem to be stuck and I’m getting a circle of death. Maybe my optimism was premature!
I got a never ending red rotating symbol after I edited a file on the Core so perhaps that is what that is! It may need me to tell MP3TAG that there is no username and password for accessing my Core, although the absence of that knowledge didn’t stop it downloading a file from the Core.
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Alas, this is my experience also! I was able to connect via SMB2 to my Synology NAS, navigate to a temporary directory with a copy of Adele - 21, download the contents, edit the album and artist tags to include TEST at the end, and save them. BUT as per your experience, the re-upload seems to be stuck. That said, when I play the local file on the iPad, it does show the edited tag values … so that is at least something.
Hmm, more to do, I think… I could not navigate to the local folder being used by MP3 Tag to see about using a File Browser or File app to effect the re-upload, so there is more to be tried.
Regards, alan
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Update: I waited a while, and the upload from the iPad back to the NAS seems to be more or less completed… One unfortunate aspect is the speed; the other is that the uploaded files are put into a sub folder (named “downloads”) in the NAS destination folder selected. So a bit of a workflow issue to be resolved… However, as a proof of concept, and a test of the edit capability, this app does seem to work as advertised.
For this, I expect you will need to make your (network) connection to the original download directory (on your NAS or PC) for download and edit in MP3 Tag, but then you may just be able to select the Core downloads directory as your target for the upload after editing and saving on the iPad.
All very interesting. I will have another play tomorrow.
I think half the problem is that Apple divide every programme one from another (sandbox) and they don’t like anything that they haven’t designed themselves to breach that rule. It’s the strength and the weakness of Apple products. Things work the way they decide and not the way customers want or need.
This is why iPad will never replace PC, although maybe iPad will replace Mac.
Yes, agreed David!
Although my FileBrowser app was sandboxed from the MP3Tag app directory, it turns out that the native Apple Files app can see both…
The tag edits seem basic but function, although the need to first download and then save locally and then upload is an iPadOS sandbox issue I suppose.
Good you have tried this and prompted a couple of us to join in! Let us know how you get on with further experiments.
Regards alan
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Oh dear, MP3 Tag seems to create as many problems as it solves!
An alternative to MP3 Tag is to use a server based package like Songkong or Bliss.
You can run these on a QNAP and then edit using a browser. This is what Songkong looks like. You don’t need the full package to manually edit, a licence is required for the automated fixing.
and Bliss
Thanks for that. But the exam question is about just using an iPad, so I will persist with that for the time being. A NAS is just a Linux-based PC by another name after all!
Best
David
2 Likes
Just keeping this one going for this small community of people interested, having had a further play, I think the trick with MP3TAG on an iPad is going to be to do the metadata editing before uploading to the Core. But I’m slightly reluctant to experiment too much with my music on my Core in case I mess something up. So I may have to fire up my unused Synology NAS and let it pretend that it’s a Core for the purposes of me learning the work flow.
What it really needs is someone who uses MP3TAG on a PC to put it on an iPad and interpret into normal for us!
Best
David