iTunes and separating singles from albums

[dhokes]

I have a bunch of singles and when I view by Albums I have a loads of 'Unknown Albums' for every single artist.

Does anyone have a working method of separating individual singles from albums so they all appear under one?

I tried to place them all in one album called 'singles', with the album artist as 'various artists' and ticked the compilation option. This works to an extent but then I can't search for the artists of the singles.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by dhokes

I have a bunch of singles and when I view by Albums I have a loads of 'Unknown Albums' for every single artist.

Does anyone have a working method of separating individual singles from albums so they all appear under one?

I tried to place them all in one album called 'singles', with the album artist as 'various artists' and ticked the compilation option. This works to an extent but then I can't search for the artists of the singles.

If you have the Album Artist as "Various Artists", you can still search for and sort songs by the Artist field. If you search for an artist by name, you'll find songs by that artist, whether they're singles or part of an album. I use that method, leaving the Album field blank. It works well, as all singles sort together when sorting by the Album field.

[dhokes]

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

If you have the Album Artist as "Various Artists", you can still search for and sort songs by the Artist field. If you search for an artist by name, you'll find songs by that artist, whether they're singles or part of an album. I use that method, leaving the Album field blank. It works well, as all singles sort together when sorting by the Album field.

So I've left the album field blank ... if I use the search box and type in the artist, it doesn't display anything. If I search for the single title, it displays the title.

Ideally, I want to be able to use the search box to search for artist X's songs.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by dhokes

So I've left the album field blank ... if I use the search box and type in the artist, it doesn't display anything. If I search for the single title, it displays the title.

That's bizzarre, as searching will look for your search term in all fields. Can you try a search, then take a screen shot and post it? Also, what version of iTunes and what version of OS X are you running?

[dhokes]

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

That's bizzarre, as searching will look for your search term in all fields. Can you try a search, then take a screen shot and post it? Also, what version of iTunes and what version of OS X are you running?

iTunes - 11.0.1
OS X - 10.8.2

So I've got a single...
Title: Wires
Artist: Athlete
Album Artist: Various Artists
Album: Singles
Part of compilation: check

Searching for 'Athlete'... result: http://i49.tinypic.com/9s4hme.png
Searching for 'Wires' ... results: http://i49.tinypic.com/vexiz4.png

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by dhokes

iTunes - 11.0.1
OS X - 10.8.2

So I've got a single...
Title: Wires
Artist: Athlete
Album Artist: Various Artists
Album: Singles
Part of compilation: check

Searching for 'Athlete'... result: http://i49.tinypic.com/9s4hme.png
Searching for 'Wires' ... results: http://i49.tinypic.com/vexiz4.png

I'm not running iTunes 11. Is it restricting the search to only the field in the selected column (Songs)? That's not the way it used to work. If so, try clicking the Artist column heading and search for Athlete.

[dhokes]

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

I'm not running iTunes 11. Is it restricting the search to only the field in the selected column (Songs)? That's not the way it used to work. If so, try clicking the Artist column heading and search for Athlete.

Nope. I've tried that and I get the same results. It appears as though it only searches through the Album Artists and not the Artists.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by dhokes

Nope. I've tried that and I get the same results. It appears as though it only searches through the Album Artists and not the Artists.

If you click the down arrow next to the magnifying glass at the beginning of the search area, what options do you see? Do you have "All" checked?

[Nermal]

I'd blame iTunes 11 rather than your tags. I've had really weird search behaviour from it, and that's the main reason that I reverted to 10.7. I can't see anything wrong with your tags in your screenshots.

[dhokes]

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

If you click the down arrow next to the magnifying glass at the beginning of the search area, what options do you see? Do you have "All" checked?

All, Song, Album, Artist, Composer

I've tried both 'All' and 'Artist' and they both return no results.

[dhokes]

Just got off the telephone to Tech Support.

Seems to be a bug and it works if I uncheck 'Search Entire Library'.