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Remove a numbered prefix from titles

Uses Replace with Regular Expression; optional Tag → Tag preview

Works on Reviewed TITLE values in copied local files

Time About 5 minutes

Undo Recorded action changes in the current desktop session

The problem

A filename import left 03 - Paper Boats in TITLE, although TRACK already holds its track number. Remove a recognized prefix, not every number in the title. Meaningful numbers elsewhere must survive.

In the table, · means one space, ⇥ a tab and ↵ a newline. These symbols make invisible characters readable; do not type them into a title.

TITLE before After this action
03 - Paper Boats Paper Boats
8. Low Tide Low Tide
2) North Pier North Pier
·003⇥-⇥Quiet Harbour Quiet Harbour
Room 101 - Window Room 101 - Window
12 Lanterns 12 Lanterns
03-Paper Boats 03-Paper Boats
03 - Paper Boats↵04 - Low Tide Paper Boats↵04 - Low Tide
03 -· (empty text)
(empty text) (empty text)

A title containing only a numbered prefix can become empty. Exclude it from the write and supply the real title first. An intentionally numbered title can also match this shape; no regex can decide its musical meaning.

The solution

  1. Save or discard pending edits. Select one copied practice file with an understood title. Check all its Title values in Extended tags if there are several.

  2. To preview the first Title value, use Convert → Tag → Tag…, Field TITLE, and this expression:

    $regexp(%title%,'(?-m)^[ \t]*\d{1,3}[ \t]*[-.)][ \t]+',)

    Leave the third scripting argument empty after the final comma. Two apostrophes '' represent a literal apostrophe, not an empty argument. Read the result, then Cancel this preview. Applying it would format from the first value; it is not the multi-value action below. 3. Choose Actions → Actions (Quick)…, select Replace with Regular Expression, and enter TITLE in Field. Use this Regular expression:

    (?-m)^[ \t]*\d{1,3}[ \t]*[-.)][ \t]+

  3. Leave Replace matches with empty and Case-sensitive comparison off. An empty replacement removes the matched prefix; a space would leave a space behind.

  4. Choose Apply action for the practice file. The action writes immediately and processes each Title value independently. Inspect its saved values, the untouched TRACK, and any file warning.
  5. Select only other reviewed files with the intended shape. Keep hidden selections out of the batch. Run the action, then inspect each failure before considering a retry.

How it works

Pattern part Purpose
(?-m) Make ^ refer to the start of the whole value, not each line
^ Require the prefix at the beginning
[ \t]* Allow leading spaces/tabs, without consuming line breaks
\d{1,3} Read one to three digits
[ \t]* Allow spaces/tabs between number and punctuation
[-.)] Require one hyphen, dot or closing parenthesis
[ \t]+ Require at least one space/tab after that punctuation

The action replaces the matching prefix with nothing. It does not change TRACK, derive totals or rename the audio file. Without a match, the original text remains. An empty string remains empty; the core action can retain an empty Title value, while native storage may normalize it on write.

Each existing Title value is transformed separately. The first-value preview is useful for a practice input, but does not prove a whole multi-value field will be safe. The newline example changes only the first line's prefix. Using \s for every separator would also admit line breaks and is broader than the spacing policy taught here.

Variations

Another delimiter or more digits

Change the punctuation class or digit bound only after writing matching and nonmatching examples for your own files. The main pattern deliberately leaves 03-Paper Boats unchanged because there is no separating whitespace after the punctuation. Do not replace it with an unanchored \d+, which can remove meaningful numbers anywhere in a title.

Start from filenames instead

If the real problem is that TRACK and TITLE have not been separated at all, Filename → Tag can capture the number into its own field. Preserve a copied source before re-importing names.

Undo a mistaken cleanup

Use the recorded action's Edit → Undo … in the current desktop session, read its count and inspect any refusal. Completed files in a partially failed batch remain changed until recovered. Do not repeat the group merely because one file warned; later actions may already have run. Keep originals for recovery after restarting.