renaming music files using genre

I've been trying to sort music files by the <Genre> in the file properties.

The program does this just fine with mp3 and flac files but it is inconsistent with m4a files - for some of those it seems to pick it up, but not so with others - mostly not, in fact.

Any idea why this is so or how to do this better?

Thanks Richard

Reply to #1:

Hi Richard,

Not enough info. Compare *all* of the tags for both a "good" file and a "bad" one.
You can do this most easily by clicking in the "i" icon (Item Details) in the left-hand vertical menu.

Is the Genre actually stored the same way (or at all?)

~~~
If nothing leaps out, use exiftool.exe to compare all of the tags.

Exiftool is bundled with Advanced Renamer (Aren). You can typically find it in:
C:\Program Files\Advanced Renamer

~~~
Also, what version of Aren are you using?

Regards,
Randy

Reply to #1:

Hi Richard,

Since .m4a files are mpeg4 audio files they in theory at least can contain whatever audio metadata is available in mp4. I don't have any m4a files on my system, so I downloaded some sample files and found I could edit tags and add a Genre to the m4a files using a couple of readily-available media players; after that ARen "saw" it just fine. So *probably* your problem files just don't have genre data and you should be able to add it using available software.

Another possibility: There's some discussion on the interwebs about compound or multiple genre tags. It's possible that m4a files store those in non-standard locations and many programs can't handle that. I don't even know what that means; just passing along some questionable-at-best information. :)

As always, don't take any advice from me too seriously. Kim may be able to clarify...

Best,
DF