MetaTune Help & FAQ

Welcome to MetaTune, the native macOS music tag editor from espirito LLC. This guide walks you through getting started and answers the questions we hear most often. If you don't find what you need here, email us at [email protected].

May 31, 2026

Getting started

MetaTune is free to use for loading your library and editing every tag. Saving your changes back to your files (and renaming files) is unlocked with a single one-time purchase. See the FAQ below for details.

Here's the basic flow:

  1. Add your music. Drag and drop audio files (or whole folders) onto the MetaTune window, or choose File ▸ Open (⌘O) to browse for them. You can also load your Apple Music library to edit tracks you own or imported.
  2. Edit in the grid. Your tracks appear in an editable grid. Click any cell to change a tag — title, artist, album, track number, genre, year, and more. Edit one track at a time, or select several and edit them together.
  3. Review the color-coded diff. Before anything is written, MetaTune shows you exactly what will change. Edited fields are highlighted so you can see your pending changes at a glance. Nothing is written to your files until you choose Apply.
  4. Apply to save. When you're happy, click Apply to write your tags back to the files. MetaTune uses atomic writes and can keep an optional .bak backup for extra safety.

While you work, your entire editing session supports full Undo/Redo — right up until you Apply. After you Apply or rename, those changes are written to your files and can't be undone from within MetaTune, so we recommend keeping backups.

Helpful extras

FAQ

What does the MetaTune Unlock buy me?

MetaTune is free to use: you can load your whole library and edit every tag at no cost. The one-time MetaTune Unlock in-app purchase (¥1,000 / $6.99) enables saving — writing your edited tags back to your files (Apply) and renaming files.

It's a single, non-consumable, one-time purchase. There is no subscription and no account. Purchases, billing, and refunds are handled by Apple through the App Store. If you reinstall MetaTune or set it up on another Mac, just use Restore Purchase with the same Apple ID.

How do I get a free AcoustID key?

AcoustID lookups and the online acoustic duplicate finder use your own AcoustID API key, which is free for personal, non-commercial use. To get one:

  1. Go to acoustid.org/new-application.
  2. Register an application (this gives you an API key).
  3. Copy the key.
  4. In MetaTune, open Settings ▸ AcoustID and paste it in.

Your key is bring-your-own: it is stored only in the macOS Keychain on your device, is never bundled in the app, is never synced to iCloud, and is never sent anywhere except to AcoustID as part of your own lookup requests.

Why can't I edit some Apple Music tracks?

Apple Music catalog, subscription, and cloud tracks are intentionally read-only in MetaTune. Only tracks you own or imported yourself can be edited. Locked rows appear greyed out in the grid so you can tell at a glance which tracks are editable.

When you do edit Apple Music tracks, MetaTune writes through the Music app on your Mac (keyed by each track's persistent ID). If you have iCloud Music Library turned on, those changes sync via Apple's own service — that's Apple's sync, not MetaTune's.

Which audio formats does MetaTune support?

MetaTune reads and writes tags for:

Editing your Apple Music library is a separate path: those tracks are edited through the Music app (keyed by persistent ID) rather than as standalone files.

What are yomigana sort fields / 50-on order?

Japanese titles, artists, and album names are often written with kanji and kana, which don't sort correctly on their own. Yomigana sort fields store the phonetic reading so your music sorts in proper Japanese 50-on (gojūon) order — the standard あ-か-さ-た-な sequence.

MetaTune can auto-fill these sort fields for you, entirely offline — no internet connection required. You can always review and adjust the suggested readings before you Apply.

How does mojibake / Shift-JIS repair work?

"Mojibake" is garbled text that happens when tags saved in a legacy encoding (like Shift-JIS) are read as something else. MetaTune auto-detects likely mojibake, shows you a preview of the corrected text, and lets you fix it with one click. Because everything is previewed first and nothing is written until you Apply, you stay in control.

What is the acoustic duplicate finder?

The acoustic duplicate finder identifies the same recording by how it sounds, rather than by filename or tags — so it can catch duplicates even when their metadata differs. It works two ways:

Is my data private?

Yes. MetaTune has no account and no sign-in, and uses no analytics, no tracking, no advertising, and no third-party data-collection SDKs. The developer does not collect, store, sell, or share your personal data.

Your audio files and all your edits are processed locally on your Mac. Nothing leaves your Mac except the optional metadata lookups you trigger yourself — sending only the search terms or audio fingerprints needed to return a result, with no user identifier attached (there's no account). For full details, see the Privacy Policy.

Does MetaTune work offline?

Yes. You can add files, edit every tag, fix mojibake, auto-fill yomigana sort fields, run the offline Chromaprint duplicate finder, and Apply your changes — all without an internet connection.

Only the online metadata lookups need a connection: MusicBrainz, the Apple iTunes Search API, AcoustID (with your key), and Cover Art Archive cover-image fetching.

I bought the unlock but it's not active on my other Mac

Your MetaTune Unlock is tied to your Apple ID, not to a specific machine. On the other Mac, open MetaTune and choose Restore Purchase, making sure you're signed in to the App Store with the same Apple ID you used to buy the unlock. Your purchase will be restored at no extra charge.

If it still doesn't activate, confirm both Macs use the same Apple ID and that you have an internet connection, then contact us at [email protected].

More help

MetaTune is available on macOS 13 and later and is localized in 10 languages. MetaTune is a product of espirito LLC.