Tag Editing Software - Can Export But Can I Import??

Maybe I'm just still too new at using tag editing software (tried at least a couple, so far) but is there a way to import tags back to your audio files? 'Mp3tag' and 'My ID3 Editor' are two I've tried.

It's the old story of Windows Media Player (WMP) suddenly deciding your song files are something other than what they are or getting details wrong (more later). I like using the Rip feature; I like having a library; I like being able to search on key words; I like WMP looking up the details from a database and filling in the tags, if that's needed. I'd like to be able to back up my tags and restore them, in case of disaster. I don't like the disaster...

So I'm looking for ways to avoid future disasters and be ready to handle them if they occur. I have no problem with quickly renaming the files, if I have to do that. I can make back-up text files that I can use with 'Ant Renamer' to name files back to what they were. Although I rarely use the option, files can be sorted by size, in Ant Renamer, so all I'd need to do to deal with that part of the project is use the Command Prompt to create file lists of each album by size order and store those file listings. In the event of disaster, I give Ant Renamer a list of files and the text from the saved file listing and in moments, I have correctly named files. But then comes getting the tag info back again...

What I don't get, is whether tag information might be on store bought CDs already, and WMP is just reading that, or whether there's a code burned onto the CD that tells WMP where to look in the online database but song, artist, etc. info isn't on the CD itself. Part of my confusion stems from having seen what I now assume are 'el cheapy' CDs that have things on them that I want, I buy the CD, add it via WMP and find it gives me completely wrong track/album information or all the track information but attached to the wrong tracks! I was listening to a new CD and couldn't recall the name of the piece of music, looked at what WMP had for it, and it claimed it was something which I knew for certain it wasn't. But, all the tracks WMP claimed were on the disk were, just not in that order. And the album title matched. And yes, I can find the version of the album WMP knows about for sale on the internet, so WMP isn't totally off base, just partly, and I don't know why. And some CDs that I have, such as some by a local artist, don't get found in the database at all and don't get any tag information unless I add it manually.

I've tried finding this information on the internet to understand but either I'm still too ignorant of the whole deal for it to make sense or a layman's explanation of what's going on isn't easy to find. So please, someone! explain what information is on CDs, how does the information get into these online databases, can the general public change them, and anything else you think might be worth knowing.

Also, is there music software that will handle ripping and inserting tag info from a database, like WMP does? I'm on XP Pro SP3. I'm happy enough using WMP, except for its 'mind of its own' aspects. I don't mind putting tag info in myself, _IF_ I can do it by dragging the info out of a text file instead of laboriously doing it track by track. I'm a trained typist so typing screeds of information to import is no drama, but click here, type a few characters, click there, type a few more characters, et. al. is a pain in the backside and I REALLY want to avoid doing.

Thanks, all.

 

https://picard.musicbrainz.org/