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Bought a single off iTunes, then completed album. now I have two albums?

K

Kendo

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 4, 2011
2,362
912
I bought a stand-alone single from iTunes a few months back. The single was released as its own album since the rest of the album wasn't released yet. Then I bought the whole album a few months later when it debuted. The only problem is that the album has 20 songs, but I only have 19 of them on the album and I have the remaining single as its own album.

I selected the "Complete My Album" option but now the main album has songs 1 through 15, skips 16 (which is the single I bought), and goes from 17 through 20. If I want to listen to the single, I have to get out of the current album and go to the single (which has its own album).

How do I fix this? Unless I have to manually buy the song again from the album and make two purchases?
 
Delete the single (keep a backup, of course), then go back to the album in the Store. It should let you redownload the missing track for free, and this time it'll be tagged to match the rest of the album.
 
Nermal said:
Delete the single (keep a backup, of course), then go back to the album in the Store. It should let you redownload the missing track for free, and this time it'll be tagged to match the rest of the album.
Click to expand...

I tried that just now and it still won't let me. Now that I purchased the album, the rest of the songs now say 'Play' but that one single says 'Purchased.' It won't let me download the song with the new tags.
 
Hmm, then I don't know what to say! I'm sure that somebody else will have a suggestion though so just wait it out a little longer :)

You could redownload the "single version" and then manually adjust the tags so that it fits in with the album, but there must be a more elegant way.
 
Since you bought the whole album, you should be able to delete both the single and the album, then re-download the album that should come complete.
 
Kendo said:
I bought a stand-alone single from iTunes a few months back. The single was released as its own album since the rest of the album wasn't released yet. Then I bought the whole album a few months later when it debuted. The only problem is that the album has 20 songs, but I only have 19 of them on the album and I have the remaining single as its own album.

I selected the "Complete My Album" option but now the main album has songs 1 through 15, skips 16 (which is the single I bought), and goes from 17 through 20. If I want to listen to the single, I have to get out of the current album and go to the single (which has its own album).

How do I fix this? Unless I have to manually buy the song again from the album and make two purchases?
Click to expand...

Just go to the offending single songs and right click and choose Get Info, then click on the info tab. Change the Album entry to the exact name of what the Album should be. ;) This should fix them in the Album view of Itunes.
 
Imac Sam said:
Just go to the offending single songs and right click and choose Get Info, then click on the info tab. Change the Album entry to the exact name of what the Album should be. ;) This should fix them in the Album view of Itunes.
Click to expand...

I was afraid that was what I would have to do. The OCD in me wanted everything complete. :(
 
It's because the album for the single is most likely 'song title - single' where the album is 'album'.

Delete both & re-download.
 
abshole765 said:
It's because the album for the single is most likely 'song title - single' where the album is 'album'.

Delete both & re-download.
Click to expand...

Exactly my problem. But the issue is that the one song I am missing from the album, it hasn't registered that I purchased this song from the album. When I bought the single a few months back and "completed my album" purchase, it won't allow me to redownload it. If I go into the album, it gives me a $1.29 link. I find it odd that the Apple Store will register the single as a song of the album (enough to even allow it to complete an album), but it won't let it overwrite the album song as a purchase.
 
Kendo said:
Exactly my problem. But the issue is that the one song I am missing from the album, it hasn't registered that I purchased this song from the album. When I bought the single a few months back and "completed my album" purchase, it won't allow me to redownload it. If I go into the album, it gives me a $1.29 link. I find it odd that the Apple Store will register the single as a song of the album (enough to even allow it to complete an album), but it won't let it overwrite the album song as a purchase.
Click to expand...

Since you downloaded the song as the Single version - it's technically not part of the full album. It's categorized as a different song than the same song but from the actual album - which is why it doesn't register it as the same thing. Similar to how if you buy a song from a band's Greatest Hits album, you would still have to pay for the same song if you tried to download it from the album it was originally on.

The only solution is: if you have a computer with your iTunes account registered and your music downloaded, you can go to the song in question, right click, hit Get Info, and change the data in there to match the album (the data must match exactly, so you'll probably want to go in to the Get Info section for the album, and copy down the data exactly as it shows there). Then, when you hit ok, it should merge the two.

If you don't have a computer from which you can edit this, I'm afraid there's no solution.
 
Tyler23 said:
Since you downloaded the song as the Single version - it's technically not part of the full album. It's categorized as a different song than the same song but from the actual album - which is why it doesn't register it as the same thing. Similar to how if you buy a song from a band's Greatest Hits album, you would still have to pay for the same song if you tried to download it from the album it was originally on.
Click to expand...

But if the album costs $11.99, why does it allow me to complete the album for $10.70? It does categorize it as the "same song" in the sense that it recognizes the single as a song of the album (hence the discount).

----------
Carlanga said:
delete the album and the song THEN re-download the album
Click to expand...

Download from where? If I go to the purchased section in iCloud, it only lets me re-download 19 songs (out of the 20). The missing 20th doesn't show up for me to re-download. I can however re-download it from the stand-alone single album.

Also, if I go to the main iTunes Store, it only says 'Purchased' in place of the price. I can't just re-download the entire album all over again. I have to do all songs one by one in iCloud.
 
This has happened to me a couple of times. Stupid really. Now I have two Ellie Goulding albums, with 'Burn' in its own album, for example.

The other thing that irritates me is when I buy an album from an artist, and one of the songs features another artist as well. Now I can't select the whole album by finding the artist then the album, I have to remember the album name and find that. Look at Slash's album - every single song features a different artist!
 
I've got two complete albums of one artist, and a scattering of 'orphaned' tracks from a few artists that I have completed the album on. PLUS I have tried to delete either of the two complete duplicate albums, and they don't go away, they stay with an iCloud icon.

I was about to ask too, how can someone 'permanently' delete something from either iTunes, or the iBooks app without it showing up with the iCloud icon? I guess what I'm asking is: Is there a way to delete things from iCloud and from your local caches on your idevices? It's crazy bizarre but I can't seem to be able to delete some things... Thanks!
 
Kendo said:
But if the album costs $11.99, why does it allow me to complete the album for $10.70? It does categorize it as the "same song" in the sense that it recognizes the single as a song of the album (hence the discount).

----------



Download from where? If I go to the purchased section in iCloud, it only lets me re-download 19 songs (out of the 20). The missing 20th doesn't show up for me to re-download. I can however re-download it from the stand-alone single album.

Also, if I go to the main iTunes Store, it only says 'Purchased' in place of the price. I can't just re-download the entire album all over again. I have to do all songs one by one in iCloud.
Click to expand...

I had the same thing happen to me. They really need to improve how they do it. I ended up buying the culprit song and then contacting apple for a refund. Even if I changed all the info in iTunes, the album artwork would still be wrong on my phone.
 
I've actually found a solution to the problem posted by Kendo and I'm so happy that I created this account just to post it.

The short version:

  • Delete both the album and the single. (Not 100% sure this step is necessary.)
  • Hide the single from your previous purchases.
  • Go back to the iTunes Store and use Complete My Album to buy the missing track in the album.

The longer version:

Firstly, I deleted both the album and the single from my library. I'm not 100% sure this was necessary, but I'm recounting what I did exactly.

Now go to the iTunes Store, go to Music, and in the right-hand menu column, click on Purchased. You should see your recent purchases. Toggle the "All/Not in My Library" switch on the top right as necessary.

Hover the mouse pointer over the single. A little black 'X' appears in its top left corner. Click it. The single is now hidden from your purchases.

Go back to the Music section of the iTunes store. Search for the artist in question.

Now here's where it got weird:

In the list of albums for the artist I could see the album I'm interested in, and it's available for the price of just one track. (I.e., I immediately assumed that if I click the purchase button there I'd get the missing track in my album, even though I'd now have to pay for it again.)

However, if I click through and go to the actual album page, the missing track is still listed as "Purchased". This is very odd.

Anyway, ignore the last paragraph, since you can just purchase the album from the album listing page, which will allow you to purchase the single track that is missing.

Optional: If you want both the album and the single to show up in your library, you can unhide the purchased single. Click on your iTunes account name top left in the iTunes Store and select Account. In the "iTunes in the Cloud" section, look for "Unhide any hidden, redownloadable Purchases"; click the Manage button next to it. This brings up a management screen, where you can click the Unhide button under the single.

And there you go. Problem solved. Voilà.
 
Mr-V said:
I've actually found a solution to the problem posted by Kendo and I'm so happy that I created this account just to post it.

The short version:

  • Delete both the album and the single. (Not 100% sure this step is necessary.)
  • Hide the single from your previous purchases.
  • Go back to the iTunes Store and use Complete My Album to buy the missing track in the album.

The longer version:

Firstly, I deleted both the album and the single from my library. I'm not 100% sure this was necessary, but I'm recounting what I did exactly.

Now go to the iTunes Store, go to Music, and in the right-hand menu column, click on Purchased. You should see your recent purchases. Toggle the "All/Not in My Library" switch on the top right as necessary.

Hover the mouse pointer over the single. A little black 'X' appears in its top left corner. Click it. The single is now hidden from your purchases.

Go back to the Music section of the iTunes store. Search for the artist in question.

Now here's where it got weird:

In the list of albums for the artist I could see the album I'm interested in, and it's available for the price of just one track. (I.e., I immediately assumed that if I click the purchase button there I'd get the missing track in my album, even though I'd now have to pay for it again.)

However, if I click through and go to the actual album page, the missing track is still listed as "Purchased". This is very odd.

Anyway, ignore the last paragraph, since you can just purchase the album from the album listing page, which will allow you to purchase the single track that is missing.

Optional: If you want both the album and the single to show up in your library, you can unhide the purchased single. Click on your iTunes account name top left in the iTunes Store and select Account. In the "iTunes in the Cloud" section, look for "Unhide any hidden, redownloadable Purchases"; click the Manage button next to it. This brings up a management screen, where you can click the Unhide button under the single.

And there you go. Problem solved. Voilà.
Click to expand...

Hey buddy! I am the original thread creator. I will try this tonight when I get home from work. Just wanted to give you a shoutout that your account wasn't created in vain. Appreciate it!
 
Hey Kendo!

I hope my solution works for you as well.

Regarding posting it — no problem; I find that when one discovers a solution to some bugbear it's often a good idea to post it somewhere public where Google can index it. And your thread was the first thing I found when I started searching for a solution to this issue.

Heck, sometimes I find myself forgetting how I'd fixed things before, and have to Google to find my own solutions! :)

Let me know if it works for you. I'd be very interested to hear…
 
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I had exactly the same problem and resolved it using Mr-V's method. Only difference was I purchased three 2 tracks singles which were released ahead of the album.

The method below worked when redownloading the original singles, I suspect it would've worked if I'd tried to download the original songs from the album, but I was too nervous to try (it would've been easier to raise a dispute if iTunes charged me for the exact product twice, which is why I wasn't too worried about it when trying it to redownloading the singles):

To redownload the singles I didn't bother unhiding them. I simply searched for the artist in the iPhone iTunes Store app and repurchased them from the Songs section of the results. I noticed originally I was able to repurchase the album versions of these songs (before trying Mr-V's process) but I was too nervous to try (it was only on the Album page I the store they were showing up as purchased, In the search results they had the price beside them).

To verified this worked I just checked my iPad and logged into the iTunes store from my work PC. All tracks from this artist are now available for download.

Massive thanks to Mr-V for the solution!
 
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Well this completely sucks, two days later and I get an invoice for those redownloads. I've used the Report a Problem and requested a refund for each of them.
 
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