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TeslaTags (MP3/FLAC Retagger for Windows)

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Hello everyone,

I have a large-ish MP3 collection I have on a USB stick that I have in my Model X that has plenty of multi-artist compilation albums and assorted random music files that the on-board MCU media library doesn't display correctly, mostly attributable to how it ignores the "Album Artist" tag and only respects the "Artist" tag.

So I wrote a GUI program for Windows that re-tags your MP3 and FLAC files so that multi-artist compilations aren't broken and you can listen to all the tracks in the correct order - and without excessive (single-track) artists listed in the Artists page. It also makes it easy to add missing album-art and warns you about files that potentially might not play at all on the Tesla MCU because they have APE tags (and has a button to remove them in one click).

This functionality already exists for Mac users by way of TeslaTunes, but for the rest of us on Windows (and Linux!, the command-line version included should work under Mono and DNX/.NET Core) we've been left to re-tag our files manually.

The code's up on GitHub at Jehoel/TeslaTags - and I've made binaries available for download at https://github.com/Jehoel/TeslaTags/releases/tag/release-2-flac-gui

Feedback appreciated! Thanks :D
 
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This is AMAZING. Thanks for making the tool available to everybody.

I did run afoul of the car's overzealous caching until I read someone's clever suggestion to use a common root directory on the drive that includes the date or a version number. Forcing a cache reset with this setup is as simple as updating the root directory... this effectively changes the path name of every file on the USB drive, which makes the car re-read all of the data. It might be kind to include this somewhere in the README to save somebody else the confusion. :)

I do have a handful of albums that fail with errors that look like this in the logs...
Could not save file: Unable to cast object of type 'TagLib.NonContainer.Tag' to type 'TagLib.Id3v2.Tag'.
I can't work out how these files might be different than the ones that work. They validate correctly. They start out with ID3V2 tags that certainly look normal and healthy, just like the rest of my files. Any suggestions as to where things might be going wrong?
 
I do have a handful of albums that fail with errors that look like this in the logs...
Could not save file: Unable to cast object of type 'TagLib.NonContainer.Tag' to type 'TagLib.Id3v2.Tag'.
I can't work out how these files might be different than the ones that work. They validate correctly. They start out with ID3V2 tags that certainly look normal and healthy, just like the rest of my files. Any suggestions as to where things might be going wrong?

Those would be non-MP3 files.

Those crashes will be logged in your Windows Application event log, you'll see entries with Event ID 101 (not 1001) with a full stack trace, can you report them as Issues on GitHub? Thank you!
 
What is the secret metadata field that will force an MP3 compilation album (or any album with multiple artists that the Tesla music interface annoyingly splits into one album listing per artist)? How about for FLAC, which has the same problem (that the "Album Artist" field isn't prioritized over the "Artist" field)? Thanks!
 
What is the secret metadata field that will force an MP3 compilation album (or any album with multiple artists that the Tesla music interface annoyingly splits into one album listing per artist)? How about for FLAC, which has the same problem (that the "Album Artist" field isn't prioritized over the "Artist" field)?
Basically you have to create a single artist tag for all the tracks in that album. Really stupid but if all the tracks don't have the same artist, the car is going to put them into different albums.:(
 
So if I have a movie soundtrack where every artist is different, I'd have to set all artists to "Various Artists" (or whatever I choose), and there'd be no way to see the actual artists unless I put them in the song title field? So this example...

1. "Footloose" / Kenny Loggins
2. "Let's Hear It for the Boy" / Deniece Williams
3. "Almost Paradise (Love Theme from Footloose)" / Mike Reno and Ann Wilson
4. "Holding Out for a Hero" / Bonnie Tyler
5. "Dancing in the Sheets" / Shalamar
6. "I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man)" / Kenny Loggins
7. "Somebody's Eyes" / Karla Bonoff
8. "The Girl Gets Around" / Sammy Hagar
9. "Never" / Moving Pictures
10. "Bang Your Head (Metal Health)" / Quiet Riot
11. "Hurts So Good" / John Cougar Mellencamp
12. "Waiting for a Girl Like You" / Foreigner
13. "Dancing in the Sheets (12-inch version)" / Shalamar

...has to become this...

1. "Footloose" / Various Artists
2. "Let's Hear It for the Boy" / Various Artists
3. "Almost Paradise (Love Theme from Footloose)" / Various Artists
4. "Holding Out for a Hero" / Various Artists
5. "Dancing in the Sheets" / Various Artists
6. "I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man)" / Various Artists
7. "Somebody's Eyes" / Various Artists
8. "The Girl Gets Around" / Various Artists
9. "Never" / Various Artists
10. "Bang Your Head (Metal Health)" / Various Artists
11. "Hurts So Good" / Various Artists
12. "Waiting for a Girl Like You" / Various Artists
13. "Dancing in the Sheets (12-inch version)" / Various Artists

...or this...

1. "Footloose - Kenny Loggins" / Various Artists
2. "Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams" / Various Artists
3. "Almost Paradise (Love Theme from Footloose) - Mike Reno and Ann Wilson" / Various Artists
4. "Holding Out for a Hero - Bonnie Tyler" / Various Artists
5. "Dancing in the Sheets - Shalamar" / Various Artists
6. "I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man) - Kenny Loggins" / Various Artists
7. "Somebody's Eyes - Karla Bonoff" / Various Artists
8. "The Girl Gets Around - Sammy Hagar" / Various Artists
9. "Never - Moving Pictures" / Various Artists
10. "Bang Your Head (Metal Health) - Quiet Riot" / Various Artists
11. "Hurts So Good - John Cougar Mellencamp" / Various Artists
12. "Waiting for a Girl Like You - Foreigner" / Various Artists
13. "Dancing in the Sheets (12-inch version) - Shalamar" / Various Artists
 
So if I have a movie soundtrack where every artist is different, I'd have to set all artists to "Various Artists" (or whatever I choose), and there'd be no way to see the actual artists unless I put them in the song title field? So this example...

Yes, that's the current state of the player and its limited handling of Artists, Albums, and Track Titles.
 
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and there'd be no way to see the actual artists unless I put them in the song title field?
I like your solution but that is a lot of work because you have to change each title by hand. With the "various artists" change you can use any of the bulk tools on an album or folder basis.

I might try a few of my tracks with this addition to see if I like it and how the display handles the extended titles.
 
After transferring my FLAC files to a USB SSD, I was disappointed how poorly the folder structure and tags were parsed by my Model 3. Your software was fantastic and resolving the "various artists" issue and for applying the album art to each track. Thanks so much!

The latest version executable that I can find is release 6 from July 1, 2018. The code commits on GitHub are newer, but I don't have easy access to Visual Studio. Is there a more recent release available?
 
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Does this program plan on supporting exFAT, now that Tesla requires SSD's to be exFAT formatted to work in Model 3's?
Running the program, it will not recognize the SSD in exFAT format.

If you're talking about running a program in Windows, the ability for it to access an external drive is dependent on Windows being able to acces the drive, not the specific program. MP3/FLAC tagging software will be able to open files on any drive that Windows can "see", and exFAT devices should be accessible in Windows.

Do you have any problems accessing the drive from Windows Explorer for general file access?