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Hello, I am running into a consistent issue with MP3s that have custom lyrics. Whenever I get info on an MP3, click on Lyrics, and uncheck the custom lyrics box, I click accept to remove the lyrics and then ok to close the info window. When I then get info on the same MP3 and navigate to the Lyrics tab, the prior lyrics are still there, as though the change was ignored.
How can I remove custom lyrics from MP3s?
MacBook Pro 13”, macOS 10.14
Hi Vraxtus,
That checkbox for "Custom Lyrics" is a new thing, and it is possible it just doesn't work right. But before we give up:
That procedure doesn't work in any form. Deleting the lyrics or unchecking the box neither results in the removed / changed lyrics being saved at all. As soon as I perform that operation, and Get Info again, the change has been reverted / hasn't saved, and the old custom lyrics remain. This is a consistent behavior across a number of MP3s where I have tried to remove the lyrics.
I'm also doing this in Catalina, using the Apple Music app that replaced iTunes. I also tried changing permissions on the file itself in Finder, resetting my user to "read and write" and the lyrics removal change still won't stick.
Correct, this is only applicable with MP3s on disk. Only way I've been able to strip out the lyrics is doing a file convert from MP3 -> AIFF / WAV -> MP3 in something like Audacity, which is really terrible for bulk removals of the lyrics metadata.
The reason I'm doing this is that I copy my library to an external drive that another machine then reads from. That machine (Linux based) seems to interpret the lyrics values rather than the Artist values, so sorting / finding the specific song is completely screwed up for these files with custom lyrics.
Yep, all other info changes stick, including name or artist changes, and artwork changes also. Haven’t been trying to add new lyrics since I can’t seem to get rid of them - so haven’t tried that (nor do I want to at this point!)
That procedure works OK here on Catalina. If for some reason it doesn't, highlight the lyrics, backspace to delete, and click ok.
Hi Vraxtus,
Sorry, I can't reproduce the problem here. Looks like you verified write permission. I assume you also verified that it is a local MP3 file, not a WAV and not a cloud copy?
Yup, understood.
The other mystery is why custom lyrics applied in iTunes cause the program on the Linux machine to misinterpret the Artist info. Strange.
Cannot remove custom lyrics from MP3 on MacOS
