iPod Songs Import Out Of Order -- Can I Edit / Fix / Trick / ...?

[jamesmcnee]

A friend sent me a zip file containing a music CD.

I unzipped the file to a folder on my desktop and the various tracks show in order 1,2,3,...

When I drag the folder into iTunes the tracks end up in a different order. The correct track numbers show but the order is track 3, track1, ...

The CD would have been ripped at the same time so the MP3s were produced in proper order but somewhere between the unzipping and the dragging to iTunes my Mac or my iTunes decided to put the tracks in funny order.

I know how to play the songs in order -- making a folder, clicking on the album icon, sorting on track number, ... -- but I wonder if there is a way to "fix" it so my library is in the proper order. I know I'm just being compulsive here but it really bugs me. I tend to leave my library sorted by the "date added" field and play albums from that view.

I vaguely recall a similar challenge in iPhoto where I wanted to combine photos in an event and put in a special order and I did something like making a folder then clicking something that edited all the info but I'm damned if I can figure it out in iTunes.

Any ideas?

I'm running iTunes 8.0.1 on a G5 iMac running OSX 10.4.11

 

[Tomorrow]

I actually have a similar problem - CD's that I ripped myself and once had all the tracks in order in the iTunes library, in some cases now have a few songs out of order - most appear as the first song on the album, when they are not on the CD in that order.

Has anyone else seen this yet?

 

[mangobeti]

So, I had the same problem for a while, and I did everything, retitled everything and put the songs through a music tagger to check and change the metadata. Then! I went into itunes to check the tags in itunes itself (I did this at first, but decided to try again)... and the songs that were out of order had a disc listing: Disc 1 of 1, whereas the others had nothing in that space. Once I changed that, the songs automatically realigned. So, I would basically try going through the itunes tags, changing all of the data, fixing the sorting columns and just making sure the tags are as uniform as possible.

Hope it helps.

 

[jamesmcnee]

No Solution But I'm Not The Only One!

Thanks for the posts.

I just bought an album from iTunes and sure enough it downloaded in some strange order -- track 2, 1, 14, 10, ... At first it looked like it was reverse alpha order but even then a few tracks don't fit that pattern.

I tried looking at the track info and can't figure out any settings to change.

Once again I'll drag the songs out of iTunes to my desktop, delete them from iTunes then bring them back one-by-one in the right order. Nuts!

At least I'm glad to hear that others have the same issue -- for a while I thought I was going crazy.

 

[atoothelex]

yeah, this happens a lot when you get albums the, ahem, less than legal way, online. Here's what I do: Make sure all of the songs are labeled correctly, as in "Track Number x of x. It is very important that both of those numbers are correct. After you've checked that, make sure the Disc numbers are also correct. Then try viewing it by albums and see if they line up. Good Luck

 

[jamesmcnee]

I Hear You On The "Dubious Sourced" Music But I Have Troubles with iTunes Music Too

Thanks for the reply.

I never worried too much with "dubious sourced" music -- even files I created ripping my old LPs -- I just assumed there were hiccups. But I have the issue with music I purchase from the iTunes store too.

At least CDs I import to my library come in correct order (always) with appropriate info (most of the time).

If only Apple would let me edit the "date added" field I would be happy. There is a function like that in iPhoto -- too bad they don't talk to the iTunes people.