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I noticed a new thing my windows 7 is doing to windows explorer. Most of my mp3 files show length and bitrate (when I've set up those columns of course), but a sizeable fraction of them will not show those attributes, even though they show up in Winamp when I play the files.

What's the problem and how can I fix it?

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    Is there a similar property to the ones that don't show that info? Like, are they all from the same album? My first thought is that the ones that don't show up are using old ID2 tags instead of ID3 tags
    – Wutnaut
    Jun 23, 2014 at 18:38
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    Looks like the tags are ID3v2.4, but I don't see what that has to do with displaying bitrate or length. These missing data are all over my collections, many of which are years old. Why NOW would this be happening?
    – user337965
    Jun 23, 2014 at 23:22
  • This looks more like a bug in Explorer than a problem people here can solve. Did you file a bug report with MS?
    – Jakke
    Jun 24, 2014 at 1:23

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Winamp is much more capable of determining the correct info for your MP3 files than windows explorer can.

I bet the problem here is that those MP3's are encoded with a variable bitrate, and that windows explorer just can't calculate the bitrate and as such doesn't give the information.

In order to calculate the variable bitrate for an MP3, the MP3 needs to be opened and processed. Explorer won't do this simply because it takes too much time. (or it does this in the background at such slow paste that this info is blank until properly calculated)

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    Sorry, no, these files are all CBR. And it's also length that won't show, and that has always shown with a VBR mp3.
    – user337965
    Jun 23, 2014 at 23:24
  • what speed are they recorded to? I know many programs have a problem with 96khz encoded files, but will do the main ones (11khz, 22khz, 44.1khz and 48khz) fine.
    – LPChip
    Jun 24, 2014 at 10:41
  • I have a lot of similar files, and this usually happens if i download them from certain sites, or cut them using certain programs (e.g. mp3directcut). since loading them into audacity and saving them, or just processing them with ffmpeg without modifying or reencoding them usually saves the problem, i assume that some programs write different (or no) metadata, and windows explorer is unable to read the metadata of some of those, including bitrate information.
    – Aprillomat
    Jul 5, 2018 at 22:38
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Easy fix, but is still buggy. Right Click the blue section with the missing data and change size to large. This seems to work as long as you leave it that way and as long as the properties are actually there.

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So far I have found no easy fix, but the properties do show all the correct information if you right click and select properties then details.

I think the cure is complicated and may not always work. Open Windows Media Player, "Manage Libraries", choose "Music" or whatever and then "remove location" (don't delete or remove from computer). When it's finished applying, the same route, but now you are "adding location" and browse to add.

I am looking for an easier fix.

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