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  Sarek
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AutoTagX™ Home Page
The quick description

AutoTagX™ automatically tags and organizes your MP3 files with the simplicity of drag-and-drop and the power of internet music databases.

If that's enough for you to want to try it, here are the links to download it:
Or you can download and purchase it all at once from my Web Store.
If you'd rather pay by check or money order, send $12.95 to the address shown on my Contact Info page.
You can also look at Frequently Asked Questions at the FAQ page.
Recent Updates
Version 3.00 alpha 9, 25 August 2006 - Download
  • Maintenance release.
  • Initial swack at handling single files again. Give it a try.
  • 90-day expiration instead of 30.
Version 3.00 alpha 8, 18 June 2006 - Download
  • Maintenance release.
Version 3.00 alpha 7, 16 May 2006 - Download
  • Fixes a crash problem created in alpha 6 in writing the tag when the 'Compilation' flag is NOT set.
Version 3.00 alpha 6, 16 May 2006 - Download
  • Fixes a crash problem writing the tag when the 'Compilation' flag is set.
  • Turned off AMG searching for now; it will be turned back on in a later release.
Version 3.00 alpha 5, 13 May 2006 - Download
Hopefully fixes a crash bug in creating the new image for putting into the tag.
Version 3.00 alpha 4, 18 Apr 2006 - Download
That's right, I'm finally working on this thing again. Thank you all who have waited patiently for a new release. Here is a laundry list of things about this version:
  • Handles AAC files, both .m4a and .m4p files.
  • Supports an option to back up music files before retagging them. Make sure this option is turned on at least until a formal release.
  • Searches All Music Guide for cover art and album/track information. It was broken, looks like it's working now. Until AMG changes things.
  • Searches Google Music for album/track information and cover art. Google Music does not provide the year or genre, though.
  • Gives you a selection to just use information from current tags (sort of a "revert" function).
  • Gives you a selection to use parsed file/folder names.
  • Individual file tagging has not been tested. It probably will crash. I guess that makes this more of a pre-alpha.
  • AutoTagTools, just a contextual menu to launch AutoTagX on a file or folder, has been crashing for a long time now. I've disabled the "Install" option. Warnings

    I seem to be back in All Music Guide's good graces. I warned before that AMG (understandably) prohibits automated programs from accessing their data, and they will cut you off if you try by logging your IP address and blocking it from accessing their site.

    I have significantly reduced both the amount of hits AutoTagX generates against a website, and added a throttle so it doesn't hit it too often. The effect of this is that it slows the program down, but it's not terribly noticeable. Hopefully it will keep AutoTagX under their radar.

Version 2.80, 20 Dec 2003
  • Added support for cover art. Cover art images are automatically retrieved from internet databases, or can be retrieved from image files in the album forder, or can be dropped on to the document window. Allows you to specify a maximum size for the image, and whether to store it in the tag or a separate file.
  • If you hold down the option key while dropping your album or song on the icon, the internet search is bypassed. This allows you to just look at or clean up tags more quickly.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented FreeDB searches from succeeding if there were special characters such as parens or quotes in the search terms.
  • Removed articles (a, an, the) from search terms. Makes searches go better.
  • This is a FREE upgrade to all users.
Version 2.71, 18 Apr 2003
  • Fixed a bug in file tagging that caused some valid track numbers to be flagged as invalid.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the final edit of any text field to be forgotten before writing the tags.
  • Made modifications to resolve conflicts with some other Finder plugins.
  • This is a FREE upgrade to all users.
Version 2.7, 12 Apr 2003
  • Added full Unicode support! AutoTagX can now accept Unicode characters in templates for file/folder names, and all textual tags (with the exception of Genre). Check the release notes for some caveats regarding FreeDB searching for titles containing Unicode.
  • Fixed a bug in file/folder naming with the Album Title in the template.
Version 2.65, 16 Mar 2003
  • Added alternate formats for file names, folder names, and title tags, depending on if you're tagging a whole album, a compilation, or a single file.
  • Added an editable exclusion list of characters that are invalid in file names.
  • Fixed some hang and crash bugs.
  • Improved canceling - now you shouldn't have to wait as long to cancel a lengthy process.
  • Replaced the lame installer. Also included an uninstaller for older versions affected by the previous lame installer.
  • Automatically notifies you if a new version is available.
  • Other minor enhancements.
Version 2.6, 9 Dec 2002
  • AutoTagX™ can now tag compilations, putting each of the various artists into their respective tracks.
  • Adds flexible formatting of the title tag, just like the file name and folder name.
  • Saves some things about each album so if you go back and re-tag discs, AutoTagX finds the FreeDB entry faster and remembers things about your disc.
  • Increased performance of reading/writing tags.
  • Other things to make things easier and/or more flexible.
Version 2.5, 8 Nov 2002
  • AutoTagX™ can now tag single MP3 files in addition to whole albums!
  • Now reads ID3 v2.4 tags and can write either v2.3 or v2.4 tags.
  • Includes AutoTagTools, a contextual menu plugin that lets you tag files or albums just by control-clicking on them.
  • Lots of other less glamorous but useful changes, including a speedup of reading/writing MP3 files. It's even tolerable tagging networked files now.
  • Bug fixes too.
Version 2.0, 26 Aug 2002
  • Completely updated the user interface. Features step-by-step instructions, so that new users should find it much easier to figure out what to do next. I hope you will find it much easier to use.
  • Changed some behaviors and added some visual cues so it's more obvious what AutoTagX™ is going to do to your files.
  • Configurable smart searching so you can select from as few or as many FreeDB matches as you like, but you will always get the closest matches.
  • Added "Smart Capitalization" option, so AutoTagX™ will correctly capitalize song titles and album names.
  • Various bug fixes.
  • This is a FREE upgrade to all 1.x users.
Version 1.1, 15 Aug 2002
  • AutoTagX™ now works from behind a proxy.
  • Widened the FreeDB search so you have a greater chance of finding your album. Also made more relevant FreeDB matches appear at the top of the menu, so you don't have to look far.
  • Now reorders your tracks for you by comparing song names vs. those returned from FreeDB, so you don't have to do as much dragging. This also fixed a bug that caused lots of missing tracks to be added if you had a track tag that was wacked out.
  • Made the program friendler when you had multiple windows open. Now you don't have to wait for windows you're not working on. Room for improvement, so stay tuned.
  • Added support for special/weird characters in file names and tags.
  • Now handles id3v2.4 tags gracefully. Unfortunately it does this by ignoring them. Stay tuned for id3v2.4 support.
The long description
If you are like me, you have a few opinions organizing your MP3 files. For example, I like all the tracks from a CD put put into their own folder, and the file names must be in track order but still be meaningful, etc. etc. And every file MUST be tagged accurately!
iTunes helps when ripping CDs by creating a folder/file hierarachy and tagging ripped files. But even iTunes' naming is inflexible, and it doesn't go far enough sometimes, especially with file naming.
What's worse, if you downloaded the files from the Internet, who knows what state the tags are in. Usually they're a mishmash - different bitrates, some tagged, some not, different variations of the album or artist name (boy does THAT throw off my Rio Digital Audio Receiver!) -- you name it. Retagging them can be time-consuming, and in the grand scheme of things, it's not important enough to spend much time on. And sometimes you get files that have no tags at all! Now you have to visit allmusic.com or someplace just to get the data to create tags! What a waste of time.
AutoTagX™ solves these problems. It offers a way not only to consistently tag all your files, but it also accesses the FreeDB database so you don't have to type in any titles. If you take 5 minutes to tag files from a disc, this will save about 4 of those minutes.
How to use AutoTagX™
Just drop MP3 files or folders of MP3 albums on to the main window in AutoTagX™ or on the application itself. With AutoTagTools, you can also just control-click on an MP3 file or an MP3 album folder and select "Tag with AutoTagX...". From there, a new window comes up for each file or album that shows you the tag information, starts to search the internet database, and shows you the best matches for that file or album. Just select the closest match, save your work and your files are tagged and organized! 
Purchasing AutoTagX™
Unregistered copies of AutoTagX™ are fully functional, but AutoTagX™ will start to nag you after you tag a few files or folders, and it will eventually expire unless it is purchased. This way you can see what it will do for you, and if you find AutoTagX™ helpful, you can purchase it right away over the internet.
To purchase AutoTagX™, have your credit card ready and click the Purchase... button in the registration dialog or visit my web store.
AutoTagX™ is $12.95. It will save you loads of time by helping you to organize your MP3 collection faster.
Legal thing 
In order to comply with the GNU Lesser License, I must make the modified version of id3lib-3.8.0 available on CD for $5 to cover expenses. If you wish to obtain a copy, please send your request to the snail mail address shown on my Contacts page.