Why does iTunes separate my albums into 2 albums?

Question

Why does iTunes separate my albums into 2 albums?

I have a problem that makes things like cover flow practically unusable. For some reason some of my albums (but not all, or even many) are separated into two different albums.

Mind you this is the same album. The same artist, the same name. No album artist is listed on either of them. Same album artwork.

But I have one icon that says (for example) The Great Burrito Extortion Case (Bowling For Soup) with the album art, but is only track 1, and then an identical picture and artist and album information, containing tracks 2-14.

I have tried selecting them all at once and changing all of the info so that it makes them the same, but no matter what I do, it stays as 2 albums.

What can I do to fix this!?

\/\/

Windows XP, iTunes 8.0.0.35

Posted on Sep 17, 2008 2:42 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 26, 2008 7:11 PM in response to WillACarpenter

I'm replying to bump this up since I'm having the same problem. I can't figure out for the life of me what's separating them, all their tag data is the same (I use MusicBrainz' Picard tagger). Does anyone have an answer?

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Answer 2

Katrina S.

Level 7

24,131 points

Sep 26, 2008 7:17 PM in response to WillACarpenter

Here is an article with good examples.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1468

Pretty much, you need to select all the tracks and type over the Artist, Album Artist, and Album fields. If that doesn't fix it, check "part of a Compilation" and then you can uncheck it again.

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Answer 3

Oct 24, 2008 2:21 PM in response to Katrina S.

Unfortunately that Apple article assumes user error, not a software bug. I imported three Everything But The Girl albums the other day. Track 1 of each album is shown on its own. All ID3 info is precisely the same. In this case and others I've seen, the problem is always Track 1. This points to its being a bug in iTunes.

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Answer 4

Oct 30, 2008 3:47 AM in response to Katrina S.

This works...but is a pretty ridiculous loophole.

\/\/

Message was edited by: WillACarpenter

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Answer 5

Katrina S.

Level 7

24,131 points

Oct 30, 2008 6:22 AM in response to WillACarpenter

I'm not a fan of that Compilation "feature", either...but you wanted to know how to fix it, and that's the only way I've seen.

edit - interesting you're only seeing it on track 1.

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Answer 6

Oct 30, 2008 7:44 PM in response to Katrina S.

well, yep, i've been having the same problem with some albums, and yes, just as described by everybody else here, its always track 1 separated from the rest of the tracks into a supposedly different album, even when ID3 info is exactly the same on all tracks.

but i did try to set these albums as compilations, which merges both "albums" into what we're supposed to see right from the start, and then +back to not-a-compilation+. and it worked! #P

thanks katrina s

cheers!

Message was edited by: anima incarnata

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