iTunes seems to limit the amount of music I can load.

Oldgoat912- wrote:

I paid a fortune for my iPhone. I am NOT interested in paying Apple for music that I already own. For years and with many iterations of the iPhone I have uploaded CDs into iTunes to transfer to my iPhone (Yes I am very old and still use ancient technology). I load one CD at a time and then manually move the music to my phone. However, with the latest iTunes, there seems to be a limit to the number of albums that iTunes will accept! If there is still room on my phone why is there a limit? I am a moron when it comes to tech, so I may be doing everything wrong. If so, please point me in the wrong direction.

I want nothing to do with Apple Music or the Apple store. Over the decades I have amassed a large number of CDs with music that I like. I just want to have that music available on my phone. How does an old ******* accomplish that task?

Use iTunes to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your computer - Apple Support

It seems I've misunderstood what you're saying.

As I now understand it, it's not a matter of the number of albums that iTunes will accept, but simply that you have music in your iTunes Library that shows up under songs, but not in the albums view. (Point to note here: every song has an "album title", even if it's an old fashioned single - i.e. one track. A one-track single usually uses the song title as the album title as well.)

Let's see if anything here helps you.

Using the picture below as your guide:

• in the Songs view of your iTunes Library, identify a song (1.) that you are unable to find in the Albums view. Note that in the Songs view, you can display the album title (2.) column if you wish
• right-click on the song and select Song Info from the context menu
• look on the Details tab at the album (3.)

• does the album title field contain the album name?
  • if it does, make sure there are no leading spaces in the text
  • if the album title is missing, you can fill in the information now
  • once the album title field is completed, look for that title in your albums view. It should now be possible for you to find it

You can edit common information for several tracks (songs) at once. For example, if you wish to edit the album title for every track on the same album, highlight all those tracks and right-click/Get Info. The screen you get to allows you to edit the album field for all those songs in one go. However - make very sure that you are typing in the correct box. Do not type into the Album Artist box by mistake.

• in the picture above, this shows the edit box for several songs on the same album
• the artist field states mixed because it's a compilation album; each song is by a different artist - hence "mixed"
• the album field (Crate Diggin' Fever) is the album title. It's the same for all the songs I've selected - hence it displays the album title
• the album artist field states Various Artists because it's a compilation album and various artists contribute to this album
• a single artist album may not have any text in the album artist box. This is not an issue

Here's another point to note (several in fact) about Compilation albums. Take special notice of points 3 and 4; could either of these points be the cause of your issue?

1. 1. as far as iTunes is concerned, the definition of a compilation album is one that has a different artist for each song
   2. an album of one artist's greatest hits is not a compilation album (even if everyone else says it is)
   3. if an artist only appears on a compilation album (or several compilation albums) and does not have an album of their own in your Library, that artist will not be listed in the Albums view. This means that if you use the Albums view to look for artists, these artists may not be listed
   4. This is a very important point to note: look again at the picture above. Notice the box named compilation. It's used only for various artist albums. But, if that box is ticked (checked) for a single-artist album, it will prevent that album from being correctly listed under the Artist list. it appears to depend upon which version of iTunes you have.

A bit more on this:

Look at the following example. I have only one album by Laurent Garnier, so the artist should appear in my Artist list under L, for Laurent. But if the album has the compilation flag selected, the artist name does not appear in the artist list in the Songs view.

If I turn off the compilation flag, the artist name appears:

The important thing here is that you are not facing a restriction on the number of albums you can have in your Library. This means that the most likely cause of your issue is that the tags (those pesky fields we've discussed) may not be correctly filled in. I've asked you to check some of your songs to see if we can work out what is missing.

Oldgoat912- wrote:

I already have one Clancy Brothers CD loaded and working. I tried to upload a second.

"Upload" from where?

 Oldgoat912- wrote:

For years and with many iterations of the iPhone I have uploaded CDs into iTunes to transfer to my iPhone

I was under the impression, from that comment, that you already had all your music in digital (computer) form, but that the issue was that the songs were not appearing in the albums list, even though they were in the songs list, so I don't understand why you need to "upload" the album now, let alone why this second album is missing from the albums list.

It sounds to me as though you have several different symptoms, producing one or more problems. In addition, I think there is an issue with terminology; for example, the phrase "uploading" means (to me) sending a copy of a file from my local computer (up to) to the internet (remember, we often "download from" the internet). But to add music to my iTunes Library, I either rip it from a CD, or if the music is already on my computer, I add it to my iTunes Library. Note the difference.

• Rip means to use a computer programme to copy from the CD onto a computer. iTunes can make the copy from the CD directly into iTunes by ripping from the CD
• Add to an iTunes Library means to add an existing computer music file to iTunes, using iTunes' add file to library option

Let's concentrate on just one problem at a time: in this case, the "missing" Clancy Brothers album. Just that; forget your phone for now and forget every other song, album and problem. Once we work out why one album isn't visible where and when you want it to be, then we can address which other albums are affected by the exact same cause - and then (and only then) can we look for any other causes that may be producing similar problems.

So - where was the second Clancy Brothers album at the time you tried adding it to your iTunes Library? Was it still on a CD and you were using iTunes' import from CD option to rip a copy, or was it on your computer and you were adding the files to iTunes? IIf the music was already on your computer, how did you originally copy it from the CD, which computer programme did you use?

Oldgoat912- wrote:

However, with the latest iTunes, there seems to be a limit to the number of albums that iTunes will accept!

I'm not clear whether you're saying you cannot add music to your iTunes Library, or music in your Library to the iPhone.

First of all, there is no limit (that I know of) to the number of albums you can have in your iTunes Library. What you can add to your iPhone is dictated by the capacity of the phone, not some whim of Apple's. If you have more music in your library than can be fitted onto the phone, I can offer you a neat workaround. But first of all, we need to be clear about the precise nature of the issue.

My Library has 3,631 albums and 21,335 songs in it and I know of others who have more. There is no also requirement for you to pay again for the music you have added to your iTunes Library from your CDs (or other sources).

Describe the symptoms you're having, rather than what you think the problem is and perhaps we can work out how to resolve this. For example, if the problem is getting music from iTunes onto the phone, what are your doing in order to accomplish this and what happens when you try?

Have you previously added music to this phone?

It sounds a bit of a mess, which may take a few posts here before we can solve this issue for you. Bear in mind then, that there isn't an “instant fix” answer (yet).

A bit of background:

First of all, syncing the contacts on your phone is a completely separate step to syncing the music. Let's focus on the music, even if it involves using Sync at some stage. Ignore any issues you've had with your contacts. Let's also do all this without having the phone connected to your iTunes library.*

Next, when changing computers it's not unusual for iTunes to lose track of some, many or even all songs, but it's not always iTunes' (or Apple's) fault. (Note - sometimes it is.)

Usually, the best advice is to copy the complete iTunes folder, which contains your music and some important non-music files (specifically, the iTunes Library file - known as the .itl file) onto the new computer and then tell the new iTunes where to find the itl file. That in turn effectively tells iTunes where the music is located as well. If you have only copied the music files (and not the .itl file) then you may lose any Playlists that you made.

What you need to do now:

Let's establish where your music is now. Did you copy the entire iTunes folder (which includes some special iTunes working files, such as the the .itl file), or did you copy only the music in that folder from your old computer onto the new laptop? In either case, where did you put it, on the C drive or a different one?

Did you check to see if any of your music was located in other folders and copy that as well? For example, music purchased as digital copies from Amazon will not be in the iTunes folder. Do you now have copies of all your music on the new laptop, even if it's not showing in your iTunes Library?

* Edited, by author, after initial posting.

Oldgoat912- wrote:

... If there is a way to screw things up, I will find it like a heat-seeking missile.

hhmmm...

.... I may be doing everything wrong. If so, please point me in the wrong direction.

I assumed that this was your attempt at humour. Perhaps it's not helping you.