Most artists sync, some are not allowed?

OK, Here's what I know after browsing my itunes music folder. All of the missing albums were CDs that I ripped to my drive using iTunes. Some are AAC format, and some are MP3, as I switched to encoding in MP3 after a time.

What's strange is that it would seem that all the missing music is being grouped by itunes into the "Compilations" folder inside the itunes music folder. However, some of the albums in this folder HAVE been synced to the ipod, but a majority of them have not, and do not show up as available to sync when I manually browse the list in iTunes.

Is this then something that must be solved via a software update to the ipod (I have the latest version) or can I somehow relabel the music so that the sync program recognizes that these file exist? I would assume that the problem has something to to with the fact that while all my other music has folders for the album artist, all of these albums are grouped into the "compilations" folder, and lack an artist folder. However, that would not explain the few albums from the compilations folder that are syncing. There does not appear to be a correlation between file format and albums that are/are not syncing.

How perplexing!

There is no exclamation point. All the files are right where iTunes put them when I copied the CD onto my drive, and I have not moved any of them. All of them show up and play in iTunes on my computer.

When I say they are unable to sync, this is what I mean:

When I check the ability to sync only certain artists and playlists to my ipod, it opens up an area with two scroll-bar lists. The one on the left shows a list of my playlists, and the one on the right shows a list of all my music by artist in alphabetical order. Each artist has a box next to it that I must check in order to have it sync to my ipod. The artists that are being left off when I sync do not even appear in this list. So, to answer your question, they aren't identified at all, they are just missing, as if the sync operation has overlooked them for some reason.

They also do not sync when I select the all-inclusive option to have my entire library synced over.

I will try changing their info so that they are not part of a compilation, and see if that helps.

OK, here's an update on what's happening now. When I do as you suggested and change the info so that the albums are not part of a compilation, they appear in the list of artists available to sync, so that issue is solved.

Something I did notice about this issue:
As an example-

I have only one album from the group Oingo Boingo.
This album was listed as a compilation, so Oingo Boing did not show up on the sync list.

I have several albums from the group Bad Religion, but only one of their albums is listed as a compilation. Bad religion DOES show up on the sync list, and the album listed as a compilation is also synced.

It would appear that artists who ONLY appear in the compilations folder and nowhere else are overlooked. This applies to several artists in my itunes library.

This is also true of multiple albums from the same artist, for example:

I have two albums from the group N E*RD, and they are both listed as compilations, so N E*RD does not appear on the sync list.

Some of the albums in the compilations folder actually ARE compilations, like movies soundtracks. These albums include several artists, and these artists only appear in my library on these albums, so none of them sync either.

Phew! How complicated!

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The only remaining problem lies with one single song. I'm not terribly upset about it, but I bring it up because it's a song I purchased from iTunes, and is the only song I own from this particular artist. For some reason, iTunes does not offer me the option to remove this song from the "part of a compilation" distinction. The option is just not available. I thought I would point this out since it's the only song involved in the dilemma that I did not copy from a personal CD, and appears to be uneditable because it came from the iTunes store.

It looks like this is a sorting/recognition issue with the newest version of itunes? I would assume that since the problem is solved when the files are edited to no longer be part of a compilation it's something that must be fixed via a patch to iTunes.

OK, now I understand why they were not included, the only problem is that when I do check "import all music" they are not synced then, either, as I mentioned above. They only synced after I removed their status as compilation albums. Trust me, I have restored/resynced four separate times under different settings to attempt to get these files on the touch.

And as for the song I downloaded from itunes, I checked all of the tabs (and re-checked after you mentioned the difference) and no, the option to remove from compilation does not exist.

With my entire library on my ipod (plus some photos), I still have three gigs left over, so it's not a space issue.

My ipod is set to sync everything, I have tried "sync entire library" as well as only selected artists, and I understand that they will only sync if checked off.

I DID find the compilation marker for the itunes song! Thank you. For some reason, the way my windows is set up (I have customized it heavily) the option shows up very small compared to everything else. So in a roundabout manner, my problem is entirely solved, but that doesn't mean that somebody else can avoid it easily instead of having to go through and manually re-label several albums as I did, and even if their option to sync everything works out, not having the option to choose what is synced and what is not could be the bane of a well-endowed library. Thank you both for your help with this, I am much closer to the full "iPod experience" now!