# Fred - How do I convert from MP3 to M4B and retain Album title and MP3 ID info?



## Semper Fidelis (Aug 25, 2007)

Fred,

I decided to convert some RTS MP3's to the M4B format so I wouldn't always have to write down and remember where I was in a long series of MP3's. The MP3's have all the album and artist information but when I use dbPowerAmp to convert them to M4B all the album information is lost and they are on my iPod as individual "songs" and not grouped under an album.


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## dalecosby (Aug 25, 2007)

I can help you but I AM IN A HURRY.... you will need iTUNES.


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## Semper Fidelis (Aug 25, 2007)

I have iTunes.


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## fredtgreco (Aug 25, 2007)

Rich,

Super easy. Convert the MP3 to m4a. Then go to the folder and rename extension m4b. Yes, that is it. In typical Apple Big Brother fashion, they want you to use their program for everything. You don't need iTunes. Really.

Alternatively, you could use iTunes to convert the files to m4a and set the tags, but you still need to rename the extension to m4b.

You should also get a great little freeware program called MP3Tag.
http://www.mp3tag.de/en/
It actually supports tag editing of m4b files. Oh no, Apple loses yet another control! How dare we not use the Procrustean one piece of Apple software!

One final point - if you are using iTunes to listen to the MP3 files (or an iPod), you can simply go into the info for the file in iTunes and check "remember playback position" (or something like that) and it treats MP3s like m4b files.


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## dalecosby (Aug 26, 2007)

Ok, sorry for the hurried post. I use iTunes and a little script. I have done the renaming method but that takes a long time if you have a lot of files.
I found an apple script plug in for iTunes that does it automatically.
I think you need a Mac for that though.


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## Semper Fidelis (Aug 26, 2007)

Thanks Dale. I already had MP3Tag but didn't realize it worked for m4b files. I just needed to go in and change all the album information on them. It works great now. I actually converted them to m4a first, optimized them, renamed them as Fred suggested and then modified the tag information with mp3tag and it works great.

It's good to have other geeks present on the board.


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## fredtgreco (Aug 26, 2007)

There are good batch file renaming programs, some freeware, some shareware. I use a program called "Better File Rename" that is incredibly flexible and works well with audio files, pictures, etc.
http://publicspace.net/windows/BetterFileRename/


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## Semper Fidelis (Aug 26, 2007)

Fred,

You are my favorite geek Pastor!

Blessings!

Rich


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## Semper Fidelis (Aug 26, 2007)

fredtgreco said:


> There are good batch file renaming programs, some freeware, some shareware. I use a program called "Better File Rename" that is incredibly flexible and works well with audio files, pictures, etc.
> http://publicspace.net/windows/BetterFileRename/



The only thing I'd really need something like that for is batch extension rename. The only file names I really worry about batch processing are image files and I use Lightroom and Qimage for that.


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## fredtgreco (Aug 26, 2007)

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/bfrenamer.html


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