MP3 Ext columns no longer available

[squarepegger]

I had some columns showing ID3 tag info such as genre, artist, album, title, bitrate, etc., set up for my MP3 music folders in xplorer2 lite. Not only did they suddenly disappear (possibly after I installed dBpowerAMP Music Converter R12.4 + dBamp R2), but they're no longer available as possible columns to add via ALT-K!

I didn't have MP3-Info Extension installed when I used to be able to see my ID3 tag info columns. I downloaded and installed it, but it doesn't provide much info at all in the 2 choices it makes available: ID3tag and taginfo.

Any ideas?

[fgagnon]

Are those columns available in windoze explorer?
(& it might hep to identify your OS)

[squarepegger]

No, the same columns are now available in Winos Exploiter as are available in xplorer2 lite. Don't ask me if those columns with ID3 tag info used to be available in W.E. because once I started using xplorer2 lite, I never opened W.E. again! I never used the ID3 tag info columns before I installed xplorer2 lite.

OS is Windows 2000 5.00.2195 SP4 totally up-to-date with automatic updates turned on.

[nikos]

clearly whatever you have (un)installed has removed the columns from both windows explorer and x2. Why don't you get the recommended MP3Ext?

[squarepegger]

Great to hear from da man!

On this web page:

http://www.zabkat.com/x2faq.htm

under question C7, there's a link called MP3-Info which takes me to this web site:

http://www.mutschler.de/mp3ext/

from which, as I mentioned in my original post, I downloaded something called MP3-Info Extension. As I said in my original post, "... it doesn't provide much info at all in the 2 choices it makes available: ID3tag and taginfo."

Is what you're suggesting something different than what I have already tried? I don't like it because it associates the MP3 file extension with itself and gives me 2 additional columns that provided no real additional information. I've uninstalled it because I'm picky about what file extension gets associated with what program.

My current thought is to uninstall dBpoweramp and then see if the ID3 tag columns come back. I'll report the results of that experiment after I've completed it.

[squarepegger]

OK, dBpoweramp has been totally removed from my PC and I still don't have the ID3 tag info columns available to me in Windows Explorer when I go to a folder full of MP3 files. So I won't have them available in xplorer2 lite either. (I'm guessing xplorer2 gets its choice of columns from Microsoft's explorer.exe.)

I just want to repeat that I used to have these columns in Detail View without having anything like MP3ext installed. It sounds like a problem with Microsoft Windows to me. I've tried a repair using the recovery procedure and my emergency repair disk, but things are just the same.
________________________________

' "Oh well" said McWatt, "what the hell." ' -- Joseph Heller, Catch-22

[squarepegger]

I've got my missing columns back. They reappeared as soon as I installed an older version of dBpowerAMP. I've still got them with the latest version of dBpowerAMP installed and running. They're there without MP3Ext being installed, which is how things were before the problem appeared. The columns are there in both xplorer2 lite and its wimpy second cousin, Micro$oft Windows Explorer.

I'd say this case is closed.

I've got something else going on with dBpowerAMP that is uniquely a problem inside xplorer2 lite. I consider it a different, separate problem, so I'll be starting a new thread about it in the near future.

Thanks to all who responded to the original post in this thread.

[johngalt]

and thanks for posting back the solution.  It is strange, to say the least, that dbPowerAmp would do something like that upon removal, but hey, stranger things have happened in the world of Windows....