How to group songs of same album into one album?

tdehan wrote:
This is maddening!!! Why is it that Itunes has such a hard time grouping songs that belong together in the same album together? I have tried multiple tricks I see on the internet and the songs still do not group as one album. What is the easy way to make this happen?

See my previous post on Grouping Tracks Into Albums. I'm not sure about easy but hopefully it's thorough.

Also, why is it so difficult for Itunes to read the Album Artwork? It's not for other audio applications. I have the artwork for all my albums, however recently re-installing ITunes after a computer crash and rebuild I am going through the laborious process of adding all my tunes back to ITunes. About half of the albums are not showing the Artwork. I use to be able to drag the actual image file to the No Artwork Available windows in the lower left hand corner, buy that doesn't function any longer. When I drag the image file to the box... nothing happens. What is the easiest way to manually ad the artwork back.

You've proably got the lo-res artwork (200*200px) that Windows Media Player creates so that music folders can reflect their contents. While there are some media players that can pick up this "folder art" iTunes will only look for artwork that has been embedded into the file. Is the iTunes artwork box set to *Now Playing* or *Selected Item?* You can click on the words to switch between functions, and iTunes will only try to embed art when on Selected item. Alternatively select all the tracks from the album, use CTRL-I to *Get Info.*, then paste art into the box on the info tab. If you don't have write permissions for the file, which could be the case since you've rebuilt your computer, iTunes may appear to accept tag changes and then revert next time you look at the file. If this is the case grant your own account and SYSTEM full access to your media folders.

tt2

+I have tried multiple tricks I see on the internet and the songs still do not group as one album.+

What tricks have you tried, so I don't repeat anything? Usually filling in Album Artist or correcting the Part of a Compilation checkbox fixes this.



+I use to be able to drag the actual image file to the No Artwork Available windows in the lower left hand corner, buy that doesn't function any longer.+
Have you changed your import settings to WAV files? WAV files don't have artwork or lyrics capability.
If they are MP3 files, the most common reason for artwork not being added is operating system permission problemss ont he music files.

tdehan wrote:
And yes, I read your post... doesn't work!

From the One album, too many covers section:

For true compilations, where each track is by a different artist, the answer is to set the compilation flag to true and enable the iTunes preference to *Group compilations when browsing.*

You can set *Part of a Compilation* for multiple tracks on the Options tab. The above should be enough to link a compilation although I'd also recommend setting the *Album Artist* to *Various Artists* or something else appropriate to the content, e.g. *Original Cast* for a soundtrack. You also need to be sorted on an album-friendly column. If they still won't join check through all the possible causes detailed further down the post. If that fails post back some specific details or a screenshot...

Going back to the artwork issue... *Album Artwork Not Modifiable* means just what it says and will be displayed for files that can't take embedded artwork, e.g. wav or files that iTunes knows are locked as Read-Only. A writable MP3 or AAC file without art will display the legend *Drag Album Artwork Here*.

tt2

+There is NO COMPILATION check box anywhere!+

Really? If I right-click > Get Info on a single track, it is on the Info tab.
If I Get Info on multiple tracks, it's on the Options tab.


Can you add artwork with another tagging program?

I was able however, to get all the rest of the loose songs to the appropriate albums by selecting the files and changing the individual Artists to VARIOUS ARTISTS. However, this is something I didn't want to have to do.

Nor should you have had to do so. Setting the *Album Artist* to *Various Artists* should have done the trick, assuming the Album & *Sort Album* values are consistent across the tracks.

tt2

tt2 is correct; you did not need to change the Artist.


+The issue with Artwork happens with ALL albums.. nothing is locked or read only...+


On one of these songs that won't accept artwork, does it have an artwork tab?
How do you know it's not locked? There is really no way to tell if it is locked in XP.
Just checking read only is not enough - you need write permissions.
A higher-up level folder could be affecting hte permissions on subfolders.

Message was edited by: Katrina S.