iTunes annoyance - cannot combine songs into album

Click the Column Tab

Hello Peeps,

I just finished cleaning 40,000 tracks and kept running into this problem. Selecting all tracks and re-entering all fields ensuring all data is the same is really all you need to do. In fact you shouldnt even need to go into "Get Info" to do this, just change the fields right on the main page. More important and also something I had overlooked countless times was to remember to select the column tab "Album by Artist". If you have "Name" selected then iTunes will sort the all your tracks by "Name" and all your albums will appear scattered no matter what you change.

I realize this reply may sound elementary but it's an easy thing overlook. Hope this helps.

Having trouble sorting by artists

Hi everyone,

I have recently put all my music in the cloud with iTunes match but am having trouble getting iTunes to successfully sort by artist. When I have it set that way some songs sort fine and others show as single artists, I have gone in and made sure that Artist and Album Artist are identical but no luck and I am getting really frustrated tryin to get this to work! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Nata903 said:

I have recently put all my music in the cloud with iTunes match but am having trouble getting iTunes to successfully sort by artist. When I have it set that way some songs sort fine and others show as single artists, I have gone in and made sure that Artist and Album Artist are identical but no luck and I am getting really frustrated tryin to get this to work!

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Did you read my earlier post?:

GGJstudios said:

To make an album sort together, all tracks must have identical information in the following fields:

• Album
• Album Artist
• Sort Album
• Sort Album Artist

If you have matching information in those fields, the album will sort together. If it's not, try deleting the album from the iTunes library (keep the files), and then re-add it.

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Cannot Sort Albums, etc.

GGJstudios -- I have made sure all the four fields have the same artist's name. They still won't sort into the album I already have. Now I have two albums with the same artwork and same artist name in my iTunes. I don't seem to be able to combine them together.

Any suggestions/comments are much appreciated.

Thank you.

silk said:

GGJstudios -- I have made sure all the four fields have the same artist's name. They still won't sort into the album I already have. Now I have two albums with the same artwork and same artist name in my iTunes. I don't seem to be able to combine them together.

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Did you read all of my last post? All 4 fields should NOT have the artist's name.

Okay, so this seems superbly annoying!

I tend to download a lot of Various Artists (VA) albums and they all usually end up making their own Album on my iPad 2 (5.0.1) and its just ridiculous!

I tried using the "Part of Compilation" option but as GGJStudio said its no use.

There is an option in the iPad settings in the Music section to "Group by Album Artist" tried turning it on and off. Didn't make a difference as well.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks

thesnakeeater said:

Okay, so this seems superbly annoying!

I tend to download a lot of Various Artists (VA) albums and they all usually end up making their own Album on my iPad 2 (5.0.1) and its just ridiculous!

I tried using the "Part of Compilation" option but as GGJStudio said its no use.

There is an option in the iPad settings in the Music section to "Group by Album Artist" tried turning it on and off. Didn't make a difference as well.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

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Read post #28.

GGJstudios said:

Read post #28.

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Yeah thanks actually I figured it out and was just coming to post about it.

You have to edit the the properties of the songs before you add them to the iPad or iTunes so in Windows 7 edit the (Album Artist) don't worry the (contributing artist) is the part that matters.

Delete and perform the above to songs already on the iPad and then re-add them.

It amazes me about how unhelpful people are on here. You seem to presume that because something has worked for you it must work for everyone and therefore they are simply stupid. I've been working with compilations and grouping albums for years but occasionally I will find an album that will not group - no matter what fields I change, no matter if I've changed the album and album artist fields (as I have successfully done hundreds of times) - it just won't work. I'm not stupid, I do know what i'm doing - it's just life!!!

For those of you who are still having problems despite the geniuses on here telling you it MUST work try this:

Find the files in iTunes Media - there will be two folders, one with the 'odd' track in and one with the rest of the album. Stick them in the same folder. Now try editing one of the fields for all the tracks (Album/Album Artist/Album name etc.). Done.

welshy151 said:

Find the files in iTunes Media - there will be two folders, one with the 'odd' track in and one with the rest of the album. Stick them in the same folder. Now try editing one of the fields for all the tracks (Album/Album Artist/Album name etc.). Done.

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Where the music files are located is completely irrelevant. What matters is the data in the 4 fields mentioned in post #23 of this thread. Nothing else is required to make albums sort together. If those 4 fields have matching data and it still fails to sort together, remove the album from your library and re-add it.

Sorting solution

This worked for me. Go to each album icon, select get info, and change artist and album artist to "various." Only one icon will remain in the albums view with all selections.

Strummer said:

This worked for me. Go to each album icon, select get info, and change artist and album artist to "various." Only one icon will remain in the albums view with all selections.

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That is not only unnecessary, it removes useful Artist information, so you can't locate music by artist. Read post #23, posted a year ago.