VLC is showing a different title than is in the mp3 metadata

I have a bunch of mp3 music files, complete with metadata. Windows Explorer and Mp3Tag both show the title as being the actual name of the song. However, when I play the files in VLC, it shows the title as being the track number ("Track 1", "Track 2", etc.). Obviously, this behavior is undesirable because it makes it impossible to tell which song is playing.

If I edit the metadata through VLC to match the stuff Windows Explorer shows, or to be something different, Windows Explorer shows the edited metadata. How do I fix this?

Solution 1:

VLC player: How to display file name on the title bar.

Menu Tools -> Preferences (Show settings = ALL) -> Input/Codecs? Then at the very bottom of the right panel set the option "Change title according to current media" to "$F" or "$u" (without quotes $f= file name and path ---- $u= file name only}). Save, exit and restart VLC.

Solution 2:

It turned out that the files had two sets of tags. One set, the one I wanted, was written as an ID3 tag. The other set, which VLC was displaying, was written as an APE tag. To fix this, I downloaded MP3tag and used it to remove the APE tags. Steps:

1. Open all the problem files in MP3tag
2. Go to tools -> Options -> Tags -> Mpeg and ensure that it is set to read and write only APE tags (this should leave your ID3 tags untouched.
3. Remove all the tag content (on the right sidebar, make sure none of the fields have text). If you have multiple files, you can select <blank> from the drop down menu.
4. Save the files!