Yost
Level 1 (20 points)
iTunes

Q: iTunes 12.4.2.4 messes up Album and Artists views

Since I installed version12.4.2.4, iTunes seems to mess up the metadata of my music files and/or display albums incorrectly in Album and Artist views. In the last 24 hours I ripped/imported 2 albums.

 

The first album I ripped keeps splitting up in 2 artists, both with exactly the same artist name as the other. Some tracks of the album are on one artist, and the rest of the tracks are on the other artist. In Track view I can see that the tracks belong to one album, but in Album view I see 2 albums and in Artist view I see 2 artists.

 

The second album I ripped gets combined with another – already existing – album in Album an Artists views. Again, in the Track view I can see the newly imported album clearly as a separate album, but both in Album and Artist view I see it combined with another album as one album.

 

I have checked and double checked all the metadata of these tracks and that all seems okay. How can I stop this erroneous behaviour?

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Jul 25, 2016 2:23 PM

Close
Yost

Q: iTunes 12.4.2.4 messes up Album and Artists views

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Rysz,Helpful

    Rysz Rysz Jul 26, 2016 3:14 AM in response to Yost
    Level 6 (19,660 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 26, 2016 3:14 AM in response to Yost

    You need to "force" iTunes to re-write the metadata.

    Follow these instructions. Method #2 is probably the one you need.

    Fix split Album or Artist listings in iTunes

  • by Yost,

    Yost Yost Jul 26, 2016 3:14 AM in response to Rysz
    Level 1 (20 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 26, 2016 3:14 AM in response to Rysz

    Thanks for your tip, it partly resolved my problems. It worked for the album that was combined with another album. Changing the album name of the recently imported album to "BlaBla" and then changing it back its original name separated it from the other album.

     

    But it didn't work for the album that is split up into 2 artists with exactly the same name. If I change the artist name to "BlaBla" the album will be listed as one album. But if I retype the original name, the 2 artist names problems returns. I also checked the sort fields. And I quit iTunes after every action to make sure that the metadata is actually saved to disk.

  • by Rysz,

    Rysz Rysz Jul 26, 2016 7:31 AM in response to Yost
    Level 6 (19,660 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 26, 2016 7:31 AM in response to Yost

    Repeat this for other fields such as Album Artist, etc. There's a difference somewhere...

     

    BTW, adding just a single letter to the end works as well as retyping the whole name, but is a bit easier.

  • by Yost,

    Yost Yost Jul 26, 2016 9:10 AM in response to Rysz
    Level 1 (20 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 26, 2016 9:10 AM in response to Rysz

    Sorry, your suggestion didn't work. There really is nothing wrong with the actual metadata that I can edit. I changed it all, and then it's okay. But if I change it back to the values I really *want*, the problem reappears.

     

    Now I have deleted the complete album from my iTunes library. And after that I reimported it from the CD. It's the 2016 Audio Fidelity hybrid SACD release of Rage Against The Machine S/T album. Before importing I changed all names to "RATM X". It is imported correctly and stays together as one album. Of course I have 2 artists now in my Artist view, "Rage Against The Machine" and "RATM X".

     

    I select the complete imported album and change the artist to "Rage Against The Machine". I also check the sort fields and they have changed too. Once ready, the metadata is changed, but... the Artist view keeps showing the "RATM X" artist and lists the album under this artist, while all the metadata says it is "Rage Against The Machine".

     

    Okay, I quit iTunes and restart it, only to find that I now have 2 artists that both are called "Rage Against The Machine" **). One contains the newly imported album, the other one the rest of my Rage Against The machine albums.

     

    Now I change the rest of the albums to artist "RATM Y". The metadata is changed and the Artis view updates accordingly. Not I change the artist name on these albums back to "Rage Against The Machine". The metadata changes, but the artist name in Artist views does not. I quit iTunes and restart it. Now I'm back with 2 artists with the same name... (see **)

     

    I seriously think that this is a bug in iTunes...

  • by Yost,

    Yost Yost Jul 27, 2016 2:37 AM in response to Yost
    Level 1 (20 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 27, 2016 2:37 AM in response to Yost

    Today I experienced the "split Artist" problem also with another song I imported. In Artist view I now have 2 artists called "Peter Gabriel". One with the new song I imported, one with the rest of my Peter Gabriel collection...