cover flow on ipod classic 160gb 6th gen

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cover flow on ipod classic 160gb 6th gen

I was just given an ipod classic 160gb 6th gen, it the previous owners music on it, so I hooked it up to itunes & restored it & updated it to factory settings & put my name on it. I noticed in cover flow mode, that albums are doubled, one for the entire album, then the album cover again for individual songs. when I go to album view, the albums show up ok, there are no double ups there. I also notice when I scroll down to the now playing with the split screen, it comes up blank with no cover art. I had an 80gb 5th gen ipod & everything seemed ok. I wiped it clean with a restore as well to start fresh. It took about an hour & a half to sync over my music library from my external hard drive to my new 160 gb 6th gen ipod. It seems to play ok, so far, I just got it today, & I have been playing it on & off to try it out.

I am running itunes 9.0.1.8. Also when I plug in my ipod, itunes ops up with an update message for me to update, I click ok for the update, but nothing seems to happen, so I do not know if itunes has updated or not.

Message was edited by: Sossity

Dell dimension, Windows XP

Posted on Nov 9, 2009 11:17 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

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278,875 points

Nov 10, 2009 3:44 AM in response to Sossity

For the artwork issue see my previous post on Grouping Tracks Into Albums, in particular the topic One album, too many covers.

The *Now Playing* menu item on the iPod always displays with a grey panel on the right-hand side. Click the center button and the display will revert to the currently playing track.

tt2

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Answer 2

Sossity Author

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Nov 10, 2009 2:09 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the reply, do you have a more visual way of describing how to solve the one album too many covers problem? I am not sure where I set Album=Album artist, is this in the get info window? I also notice that some of the individual songs on albums with guest artists, are listed ie; 1.song by John Doe feat. Jane Doe, but I guess this is not enough for itunes or the ipod, so I should have those songs ie; 1.song; by John Doe feat Jane Doe in brackets?

I wonder at what point or how many songs on an album with featured guests does itunes then consider it a compilation? Do I mark an album say with a total of 20 songs & 6 are with featured artists, or another album of 20 songs with 15 featured artists, at what number of featured artists qualifies it to be a compilation? when there is more than 1/2 the songs on any given album with featured artists?

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Answer 3

turingtest2

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Nov 10, 2009 3:43 PM in response to Sossity

Perhaps this makes it clear what I'm suggesting?

Before:
User uploaded file

After:
User uploaded file

In the example screenshots I have cleared the *Album Artist* field to illustrate how Cover Flow would behave on the iPod. Note how 3 guest artists trigger 7 covers as the value of Artist changes.

In my mind it's only a compilation when there's no particular artist you would call the "Album Artist". iTunes/Gracenote CDDB will often use this flag for a "Greatest Hits" type album. In addition I believe some albums from the store also set this flag to group the album together when there are guest artists. Again I find this unsatisfactory as the album then appears in a different place in Cover Flow from other albums by the same album artist.

tt2

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Answer 4

turingtest2

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Nov 10, 2009 4:29 PM in response to turingtest2

Note how 3 guest artists trigger 7 covers as the value of Artist changes.

Actually things are not usually that bad on the iPod owing to other features that govern the enumeration of the tracks and triggering of new covers. I ended up with just the two repeats when I synced the "Before" version to my iPod. To get a repeat you need at least one other album by the album artist and to get multiple repeats more than one album must feature guests. That said, implementing the workaround prevents multiple listings in the Artists menu and albums being credited to Artist/Guest instead of the Album Artist alone (which would happen if the first track features a guest).

tt2

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Answer 5

Sossity Author

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Nov 10, 2009 8:09 PM in response to turingtest2

so when there is 3 or more guest artists, should I check off an album as a compilation in the get info panel in itunes?

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Answer 6

turingtest2

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278,875 points

Nov 10, 2009 10:37 PM in response to Sossity

I think you are missing my point. If you went to the store to buy a copy of Love.Angel.Music.Baby would you look for it under G or under Various Artists? The fact that there are tracks with credits to other artists doesn't detract from the fact that this is an album by Gwen Stefani. In my mind the "correct" way to tag this album would be as shown in the Before image, though with the *Album Artist* filled in as "Gwen Stefani". Experience has shown however that the iPod fails to group the album properly on the Album Artist tag, hence I record the guest artist details in the way shown in the After image (though again I also fill in the *Album Artist* field). I don't set the Compilation flag for anything other than a "Various Artists" album.

tt2

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Answer 7

Sossity Author

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Nov 10, 2009 10:46 PM in response to turingtest2

I see your point now, I think, that's how I think it should be too, I went through a few of my albums that had multiple covers with guest artists, & I went in & renamed them just as you had shown in the photographs, (like with the Gwen Stefani album) but after a sync with itunes, & a browse through my ipod cover flow, those same albums were still coming up in doubles, so I went into one of them & checked off the part of a compilation check box in the info pane for all the songs on the album selected, did another sync with my ipod. I then powered up my ipod & looked through the cover flow again, & finally those albums were consolidated into one cover.

I also notice in cover flow, that the artists are not always grouped together in ABC order, it seems to group some & put others at the end.

I am just trying to find a pattern to what itunes & my ipod are doing to read my albums how I want, so I can be more efficient in managing my itunes & ipod library. It is weird, as I was told somewhere in this forum that your ipod contents are a mirror of your itunes library, so from that it means to be that however my itunes library appears, my ipod should reflect this. But evidently it is not, they are 2 different things.

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Answer 8

turingtest2

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278,875 points

Nov 10, 2009 11:02 PM in response to Sossity

Sadly the iPod & iTunes have suble differences in the way they organise things which can be quite hard to pin down. The Grouping Tracks Into Albums post covers other possible causes of multiple covers or things appearing in an unexpected order. If you still get multiple covers after moving the guest artist into. the track title (like the After image) then the cause is probably covered by One album, still too many covers or Tried that, there are STILL too many covers!. If you've used the compilation flag to fix a problem album that isn't really a compilation then you'll find it appears in the wrong place, as described in Missing Artist or Album not with others by same artist.

Best of luck with getting things sorted...

tt2

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Answer 9

Sossity Author

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Nov 10, 2009 11:12 PM in response to turingtest2

The visual you provided for your 1st solution was very helpful for me, many thanks! it cleared it right up, as you did for that solution could you give me some visuals of your next solutions? when the 1st one does not work for multiple covers.

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Answer 10

turingtest2

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278,875 points

Nov 10, 2009 11:55 PM in response to Sossity

I don't have time to conjure up more graphics just now, but I previously started work on illustrating the One album, still too many covers fix on my website. I should probably get around to cropping/enlarging the images rather than using full screens but it should make the point.

tt2

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Answer 11

Sossity Author

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Nov 11, 2009 12:27 AM in response to turingtest2

Ok, should I try the trialing X, for those persistent multi covers that do not respond to adjusting the track names as first suggested? I went to your tips page & saw the graphic for that. Is it ok to just leave the Xs in or must they be removed?

I also looked at your image for handling multi discs, will this group multi discs together in cover flow? & when one is playing a multi disc set, will the ipod just go straight to the next disc (disc 2) in playback as though it were one single album? or will playback stop at the last track of disc 1 & then one would have to select disc 2 to play. Will the multi disc set still come up as 2 different discs to selct to play? I may not want to start with disc 1.

One of the albums I was having trouble with multi covers was part of a 2 disc set, disc 1 was credited to the main artist, but had guest artists for 1/2 the tracks, disc 2 was by the same artist with no guest artists. I have now gotten disc 1 to show as a single cover in cover flow by checking off part of a compilation in the info panel, but it does not appear next to disc 2 in cover flow.

on an off note, I notice when I press my ipod button or navigate any of its features, there is a slight grinding noise, I can hear the hard drive, when I bring it close to my ear, it sounds like a chewing mouse is this ok/normal to hear slight noises? it seems to be functioning alright. It is pretty responsive.

Message was edited by: Sossity

Message was edited by: Sossity

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Answer 12

turingtest2

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278,875 points

Nov 11, 2009 12:44 AM in response to Sossity

Sossity wrote:
Ok, should I try the trialing X, for those persistent multi covers that do not respond to adjusting the track names as first suggested? I went to your tips page & saw the graphic for that. Is it ok to just leave the Xs in or must they be removed?

iTunes tries to be "smart" and only updates the tag if it thinks you've changed something. Adding the X is a temporary measure to force iTunes to acknowlege that something has changed and thereby hopefully merge the album. Once it's done you can get rid of the unecessary trailing Xs.

I also looked at your image for handling multi discs, will this group multi discs together in cover flow?

Yes, that's the point.

& when one is playing a multi disc set, will the ipod just go straight to the next disc (disc 2) in playback as though it were one single album?

Yes.

or will playback stop at the last track of disc 1 & then one would have to select disc 2 to play.

No.

Will the multi disc set still come up as 2 different discs to selct to play? I may not want to start with disc 1.

No. You can always chose which track to start playing.

One of the albums I was having trouble with multi covers was part of a 2 disc set, disc 1 was credited to the main artist, but had guest artists for 1/2 the tracks, disc 2 was by the same artist with no guest artists. I have now gotten disc 1 to show as a single cover in cover flow by checking off part of a compilation in the info panel, but it does not appear next to disc 2 in cover flow.

Again setting *Part of a compilation" is the wrong approach. Set *Part of a compilation* to No, put your guest artist info. into the track titles (or any other scheme you choose) and make sure that the Artist value is consistent for all tracks.

on an off note, I notice when I press my ipod button or navigate any of its features, there is a slight grinding noise, I can hear the hard drive, when I bring it close to my ear, it sounds like a chewing mouse is this ok/normal to hear slight noises? it seems to be functioning alright. It is pretty responsive.

Yes, the noise from disc activity is normal. My iPod lives in a silcone sleeve which probably muffles it a bit and most of the time I'll have already have music playing so I'm rarely conscious of the noise of hard drive activity but it is there.

tt2

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Answer 13

Sossity Author

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Nov 11, 2009 2:03 AM in response to turingtest2

how do you check for consistent artists value? do you have a visual for this? should I group these 2 discs in the way you describe combining multi discs?

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Answer 14

turingtest2

Level 10

278,875 points

Nov 11, 2009 2:29 AM in response to Sossity

Select all the tracks of the album & Get Info. Fields which have the same value for each track will display that common value, other fields will be blank. Again, it's up to you, but I would merge any multi-disc albums. Select the tracks of the first disc and make sure the disc numbers read as *Disc 1 of 2*. Select the second disc and make sure the disc numbers read as *Disc 2 of 2*. Select all the tracks of both albums and set the Artist, *Album Artist* & Album to the desired values. Click OK. Personally I also renumber the tracks of the second album so they are sequential but that's just my preference.

User uploaded file

tt2

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Answer 15

Sossity Author

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Nov 11, 2009 2:33 PM in response to turingtest2

I am a little unclear on selecting & setting artist, album artist, & album to desired values, do you mean I type something in next to or in these spaces in the get info panel? & what desired value do I type in? what do I type in? what are desired values? & where do you get them from? can you give me an example? I understand the 1st part about making sure disc 1of 2 & 2of 2 are marked, I can see this in your graphic. But I don't see the part about selecting album,artist, & album artist & setting to desired values.

I also still have some single disc albums that are persisting with multiple covers, I have reduced the amount of covers showing down to 2.

just curios, does the newest ipod 7th gen 160gb 2009 have all these problems in cover flow & coordinating with itunes properly? I am determined to get all of it or at least most of it right, but it sure has turned out to be tedious, Apple really needs to get their act together, just as their motto states "it just works"

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