WinAmp information not displaying

[Quessir]

I've noticed that all of a sudden, and apparently without any obvious reason, Rainmeter is not showing any information on what's playing in WinAmp. I tested with one of the skins I'm using (Qatella > Song info) and the pause/play buttons are working, but no song or artist information is displaying. I tried adding a few other skins and it's the exact same thing.

Nothing has changed as far as I know, so I'm fairly puzzled that it's happened. Does anyone know why and what I should look at to sort it?

[Yincognito]

I've noticed that all of a sudden, and apparently without any obvious reason, Rainmeter is not showing any information on what's playing in WinAmp. I tested with one of the skins I'm using (Qatella > Song info) and the pause/play buttons are working, but no song or artist information is displaying. I tried adding a few other skins and it's the exact same thing.

Nothing has changed as far as I know, so I'm fairly puzzled that it's happened. Does anyone know why and what I should look at to sort it?

The said skin is using NowPlaying to get its data, so it should work without issues with Winamp. Are you sure that the code of the Qatella > Song info is the original one? Also, out of curiosity, are you on Win 11? There has been another similar report lately, but the situations were different (WebNowPlaying and another partially supported player in that plugin), so I don't think there is a connection...

[balala]

I've noticed that all of a sudden, and apparently without any obvious reason, Rainmeter is not showing any information on what's playing in WinAmp. I tested with one of the skins I'm using (Qatella > Song info) and the pause/play buttons are working, but no song or artist information is displaying. I tried adding a few other skins and it's the exact same thing.

Beyond Yincognito's question, did you try on different songs, from different locations (not clear for me)? I'm thinking maybe if you tried only one single source, maybe those files don't have sat the metadata into the files (hope I'm using the correct term).

[Quessir]

Sorry I didn't get back to you both before now.

Oddly, it started working again. I have no explanation for it. I noticed it not working yesterday and again this morning which is what prompted me to write up the post. I'd first noticed that the Boxwello > Music Info skin hadn't appeared on the third monitor, which I only have on at night. I was out all day after I posted but it absolutely wasn't working on the Qatella skin.

I only got back a little while ago and I noticed while browsing that the information was now showing up in Qatella. Curious, I powered up the third monitor and the Boxwello skin was now showing.

False alarm, I guess? Nothing had changed on my system and it not showing this morning after it hadn't yesterday is what got me to write the post. Nothing changed in between this morning and just now, either. It just decided on it's own, it appears. Very sorry to have wasted your time, I appreciate you trying to help.

[balala]

False alarm, I guess? Nothing had changed on my system and it not showing this morning after it hadn't yesterday is what got me to write the post. Nothing changed in between this morning and just now, either. It just decided on it's own, it appears. Very sorry to have wasted your time, I appreciate you trying to help.

Good you got it working in an end. Did you try those skins with the same files?

[Yincognito]

I have no explanation for it.

The most likely explanation, if indeed you didn't change anything in the meantime, is the one provided by balala (and which I curiously missed): some of your audio files might lack an ID3 tag with the artist and track names. For such files, and without a fallback alternative like getting them from the file name, NowPlaying will indeed not provide those fields (or, to be precise, will provide them as empty strings).

[balala]

some of your audio files might lack an ID3 tag with the artist and track names.

Yep, this is the right term I missed:

the metadata into the files (hope I'm using the correct term).

It's clear I didn't use the correct term (as usually).

For such files, and without a fallback alternative like getting them from the file name, NowPlaying will indeed not provide those fields (or, to be precise, will provide them as empty strings).

Is there such an alternative?

[Yincognito]

Yep, this is the right term I missed:

It's clear I didn't use the correct term (as usually).

Is there such an alternative?

Metadata is fine as well, I think people usually understand what that means in this context. Yes, you can use Substitute to "extract" the artist and track names from an audio file's name, IF the naming is consistent across files. Then, you can "choose" which of the ID3 tag info or the file name one are displayed to the user in an IfMatch on the latter's (concatenation of artist and track names) measure. Personally, I used such an approach as a limited alternative for either partially supported players or cases (like mine was, before) when the ID3 tags were not present in all files. I have, however, the audio files named in a consistent "Artist - Track.extension" pattern, which might not be the case for other users and such.

[balala]

Metadata is fine as well, I think people usually understand what that means in this context. Yes, you can use Substitute to "extract" the artist and track names from an audio file's name, IF the naming is consistent across files. Then, you can "choose" which of the ID3 tag info or the file name one are displayed to the user in an IfMatch on the latter's (concatenation of artist and track names) measure. Personally, I used such an approach as a limited alternative for either partially supported players or cases (like mine was, before) when the ID3 tags were not present in all files. I have, however, the audio files named in a consistent "Artist - Track.extension" pattern, which might not be the case for other users and such.

Yep, the "Artist - Track.extension" pattern is quite widely used, however is not a rule. This thing might complicate things. Unfortunately...