On my PC with the last update itunes will only play one song at a time not the complete album

Hello Newleyretired, 

Thanks for reaching out in the Apple Support Communities. I have a vast music library in iTunes, so I can understand your concern when you’re only able to play one song at a time, and not the album.

Make sure that you do not have the songs set to repeat:

Play, repeat, and shuffle music

If this doesn't help, have you tried removing an album and downloading it again? This article will show you how to find purchased music in iTunes on your PC: Redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books from the App Store, iTunes Store, and Apple Books.

If it’s still happening even after reinstalling an album, let us know the following information. This information can be helpful to others in the Apple Support Communities and lead to additional answers:

1 - Is this occurring with music from Apple Music, downloaded from another on-line retailer, or imported from CD?

2 - Does the same thing happen with all albums, or only certain artists?

3 - Is your iTunes Library stored on the internal drive or an external drive? If it’s on an external drive, is it a networked drive or connected directly to the PC?

Have a great day! 

Typically this can happen if you've accidentally unchecked the whole library. That can happen by ctrl-clicking a checkbox in the songs view. which then checks or unchecks all tracks in the current view.

tt2

Newleyretired wrote:

Thanks for your help, it seems to be a problem with it creating playlists. When I play a an album it creates a play list,

That sounds rather odd. Do you mean the list shown at 4. (by clicking on the icon 3.) in my screenshot below, or 5. Playlists?

As a part of identifying the cause of your issue, make sure that the icons at 1. and 2. are asa shown above: that is, grey arrows on lighter grey background. If either arrow is white, with a darker grey box around it, then that is "on". To eliminate other causes, both shuffle and repeat need to be off. Note also, that the repeat button takes two cvlciks to turn off (the first click turns on Repeat 1, which puts a small 1 in the arrows).

Use the entry Check Selection in that context menu to allow your tracks to play normally.

Hover your mouse to the right of the word Library near the top left of your screenshot. The word Edit will appear. Click that to enable the Songs view as shown in the fiend's post, and other useful views of your library.

tt2

Oh! I forgot, the check-boxes that tt2 referred to are the ones to the left of the song title (Clean Window) in my large screenshot. Do these boxes have a tick (check mark) in them?

Aha!

To add to tt2's post, perhaps I can explain what has happened.

1. ... my screen looks totally different to yours see attached.

2. I might be a bit slow on the uptake I will not see 70 again, but i try...

I doubt it's your speed or seniority - iTunes is unbelievably complex. It has many ways of presenting the information to you, most of which you will never use. tt2's post has shown me something I'd not seen before - and I've been using iTunes daily for years.

Your screenshot shows you in the Artists' view, and your right-click menu shows options specific to that view at that time, which is effectively a view of all eleven songs on the Adele album. Here's the equivalent view of my Amy Winehouse albums (well, one's a single, but only you, me and tt2 know what a "single" is. Anyone under 40 probably doesn't):

Notice that like your picture, the right-click menu in mine also states Check Selection.

If we now look at the same artist in the Songs view (more on this view later), we see this:

And here's the point; un-ticked songs do not get played by iTunes unless you specifically select them to play. So, you manage to get a song playing, but when it finishes, every other song in the current selection (the rest of the album) is un-ticked, therefore will not be played - unless you specifically select it to play. Since there is nothing else to play in your current selection, iTunes stops.

This is correct behaviour. It's a useful feature (yes, really). The issue is that somehow, all your songs have become un-ticked. Don't worry (for now) about how that has happened - simply use tt2's suggestion (choose Check Selection) to put the ticks back. Going back to my first Amy Winehouse screenshot, if I click on Check Selection in the right-click menu and then look in the Songs view again, notice that the ticks are now in the boxes:

Hooray...

But now that the ticks are in the boxes, the right-click menu changes:

Notice that it now states Untick Selection.

-------------------------------------------

The Songs view:

I notice that your menu does not show the Songs option. If (and only if) you would like to have that view available to you, you can add it easily enough. In the second picture (in this post), notice the word Edit that I've ringed in orange. It only appears when you hover your mouse over the line that says Library. Click on the Edit button and you will see the following view:

Adding a tick to the Songs option will add Songs view to the list. The click on Done (which replaces "Edit" and will be shown all the time that you are in the edit mode.

Your Songs view might not look like mine, because I have selected further options in order to display additional columns. See what I mean about iTunes being complex?

-------------------------

Final point - un-ticking songs:

Why - you may ask, is that feature useful?

Good question (I reply).

Among other things in my music library, are songs that are artist interviews and Monty Python albums (mostly speech). To prevent them playing - unless I specifically want them to, I un-tick those songs. iTunes skips them when playing. For example, suppose I don't want the remix version of Amy's Rehab to play, but I do want the other songs to play. I un-tick it:

Yes, I could have not imported it into iTunes, but then I would have fewer choices...

P.S.

tt2; if you've got this far. I hope you don't mind me suggesting that you might be over 40 years of age. I suspect you might be...

I forgot to mention that a typical cause of the this issue is accidentally ctrl-clicking a checkbox in the songs view or a playlist while trying to use ctrl-click to add tracks to a selection. This has the effect or checking or unchecking all tracks in the current view. Seems unlikely in your case as you were unfamiliar with that view of the library, but it might help others understand why things have come to be as they are.

tt2

...

I never had this problem with my LPs.

haha... watch a youngster trying to play an LP.

tt2; if you've got this far. I hope you don't mind me suggesting that you might be over 40 years of age. I suspect you might be...

And the rest. Closer to 60 than 50.

tt2

Glad to hear that you have this sorted - it's why I contribute to these discussions...

60!

I won't be seeing that again...