How to merge multiple single albums into one album

You can make your own compilation albums if desired. Select the relevant tracks, give them a common Album title, e.g. the same as the playlist, and a common album artist, e.g. Various Artists. You may also want to set the part of a compilation flag. You may also want to edit individual track numbers to control the order of these items within the album.

tt2

If iTunes or Music show multiple instances of an artist or an album then what generally works is to select all related tracks and use Song Info to add say a trailing X to each of the fields that the tracks should have in common:

• For an album; Album, Album Artist, and Artist (if artist is the same for all tracks) *
• For an artist; Album Artist (and Artist unless there are guest/featured artists listed which should not be changed)

Apply the change which merges things together, then remove the excess characters. Occasionally it may help to close and reopen the app between the two renaming operations. Part of a compilation should also be set consistently.

* If tracks are to be synced to a non-iOS device there should be a common Artist and/or the album should be set as a Compilation.

Use the songs view and display the fields Album, Sort Album, Album Artist, Sort Album Artist, Artist and Sort Artist side by side so you see whether or not it is appropriate to edit Artist and if sort values could be causing any further problems. See Grouping tracks into albums for more help if required.

One further tip for really stubborn duplicates. At one point I had three lots of Various Artists in the artists view of my iTunes Match library that wouldn't respond to the usual trailing X treatment. What I found worked was to add the trailing X to start with, but then with each group that iTunes wanted to keep separate start typing a value and let it autocomplete from say Var... to Various Artists. Picking from the autocomplete lists seemed to work when pasting/editing the whole value didn't.

tt2

Right click on the song to get the Get Info box. Then use the "part of a consolidation and the song X of Y to get your desired result. For more detailed info, see the 'Change song or CD information' section in:

Change song and CD information in iTunes on PC - Apple Support

I’ve tried to merge songs from the same album in Apple Music from my iPhone but every solution suggests selecting and editing songs/data. I can’t figure out how you do that from the app on my iPhone. Am I missing something. I don’t have a laptop nor iTunes. Any help appreciated Thanks

I was wondering if you could hide and then unhide the items, but that too takes a computer. If this is a recent purchase you could at least report the issue via https://reportaproblem.apple.com/ and see if Apple Support have ideas on how you might fix it.

tt2

Hi. Still waiting for Apple support to reply, but I thought I’d found a solution. I deleted the duplicate albums from my own library, went back into iTunes Store and re-downloaded the purchased album and it was re-installed as a single album with all the songs on. Simple really. I did it with two albums I nought some time ago and that I wasn’t too hot on first in case if issues but it’s all fine. However, did the same with a recent purchase and now I can’t re-download from the iTunes Store even though it says it’s been purchased. Any suggestions? Cheers. M.

Its been recently been pointed out to me that you can unhide hidden purchases directly on a device, but that isn't covered in the support article on this topic. In the Music app on your device tap your avatar alongside Library to view your account, scroll down to Account Settings, and then scroll down to Hidden Purchases.

Whenever you see Purchased in the iTunes Store as opposed to Play, or the price, that indicates a hidden purchase.

tt2

You're not missing anything. The solutions all require a computer. You cannot edit metadata directly on an iPhone or iPad. Are you an Apple Music subscriber or are these purchased items?

tt2

Thanks for replying. These are purchased items.

Thanks again. I’ll do that.

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

Hi,

You may need to unhide the tracks Hide and unhide music, films, TV programmes, audiobooks and books – Apple Support (UK)

Jim