How to fix iTunes compilation CD grouping issue on Windows 11

To ensure that compilation albums are kept together, there are three separate tags (or fields) that need to be correctly completed:

1. 1. album artist - (not the artist tag)
   2. compilation - (make sure to read the Special Note* in the compilation paragraph below)
   3. album - (the album's title)

and it's the compilation flag that can catch people out.

The album artist tag:

iTunes is fussy about compilation albums and it needs the album artist tag to be filled in (for every song on the album) with the text Various Artists in order to keep the album together.

Where it differs from at least one other music management programme that I know of is that it isn't fussy about this tag for single-artist albums. On a single-artist album, the album artist tag can be empty and iTunes does not complete that tag by default. Every time you add a compilation (various artists) album to your iTunes Library, you need to check that this tag is correct. It probably won't be until you change it.

The compilation tag:

In order to keep a compilation album together, the compilation tag must be set on for each song on the album. A common problem can be that some songs on the album are are marked (set), while others are not. That will cause the album to be split up.

To check this:

• • select all the songs on the album and use iTunes' top bar menu to choose Edit/Get Info (and answer "yes" to the question about editing multiple items)
  • this opens the Details tab; look for the compilation tag towards the bottom of the pane
  • there must be a tick in the box. Note that I specifically do not use the word "checkmark", with which you may be more familiar. See the screenshots below. In all four of the pictures, the view shows the Edit Items panel for two or more songs on an album:

and

If you see the dash mark, do not think of it as a "checkmark". It indicates that one or more of the selected songs does not have the tick mark in it. If you see this, the remedy is to click the box twice. The first time will leave the box empty and the second will add the tick to the box and therefore to every song. You will see a green "tick in a circle" icon to the right, as shown below:

Tap the OK button, which is lower down and not shown in the screenshot

Finally, here's the same view if none of the selected songs has the compilation flag ticked:

To add the tick for a compilation album, simply click on the box once and tap the OK button.

* Special Note: as far as iTunes is concerned, a Greatest Hits or Best of album by one artist is not a compilation album. Unfortunately, the Gracenote database that iTunes uses to complete these tags for CDs that you copy into your library may have the compilation flag turned on for this type of album. If it's on, you need to turn it off for all the songs on the album.

The Album tag:

To keep an album together, every track on the album must have the same title. This may seem obvious, but see the next section.

Trailing spaces (in any and all common tags):

The suggestion that you refer to about the trailing character is a real problem, which is why it has been mentioned. It's very easy to have a space after the text in a common tag (such as the album title), but very difficult to spot.

If you think this is the issue in any of the common tags, try the following:

• • select all the songs on the album
  • highlight the tag that you suspect may have a trailing space by selecting from the end of the text, back to the start. If the blue highlight extends beyond the last letter, there is a trailing space:

and

If you cannot spot the extra gap after the word Break in the two screenshots above, that just shows how difficult it is to spot. This tip is not full proof, it's possible to highlight the text but still not include that "space".

The remedy is to copy the text from one song and paste what you copied into every song on the album.

First of all, check the compilation flag. It's almost certain to be the cause of a split up compilation album. Then check the album artist tag.

Just to add some thoughts to this thread:

Edits not taking, see Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows - Apple Community. AirPlay or multiple tags are a potential cause.

See Getting iTunes & Windows Media Player to play nicely - Apple Community for thoughts on sharing a common library/media folder between the two apps.

See CustomRenamer for a script that can rename files to your preferred layout and update iTunes at the same time so you don't have to manually repair broken links.

In the Songs view make sure that View > Column Browser > Group Compilations and View > Column Browser > Use Album Artists are both ticked. These options affect behaviour throughout the app, not just the column browser and should be enabled for best results.

See also Grouping tracks into albums and my reply to this thread I Tune Library - Apple Community if you have an album that refuses to coalesce under one album cover.

tt2

RKapoor1973 wrote:

the multi select edit is just not saving for certain albums.

If the changes you make are not being saved, that suggests that the files for those songs are Read Only. That is the files in Windows Explorer, not in iTunes itself.

• Right-click a song in iTunes and choose Show in Windows Explorer (assuming that Windows has not changed the procedure on Windows 11)
• look at the Properties for the file. (On Windows 10, it's right-click the file and choose Properties from the context menu
• if the file is set to Read Only, click the box to turn it off. Repeat for each affected song

If that doesn't work, check the folders in which the file is located. Usually, the Read Only box has a block in it, which should be okay. But if the box has a tick (checkmark), turn it off.

If that fails to resolve the issue, I suggest that you re-check the steps I provided in my last post.

... hoping Apple engineers at least ensure that multi-select edit's work even if they can't find the time to fix this feature which has been broken for over a decade.

I've been using iTunes for many years and I have frequently made use of the procedure I have offered here. I have not experienced (nor am I aware of anyone else having) this issue.

If you have a YouTube account, perhaps you could post your video there and provide a link to it here. If Apple won't allow a full link, simply substitute the .com with dot com and I can work that out. You can always delete the video once we've seen it.

RKapoor1973 wrote:

Windows Media Player Legacy is also better at ripping (ex. lets you select individual tracks).

iTunes does offer the option to select which tracks are going to be imported into your library when ripping from CD. If it is not giving you the option to select which tracks to import, you probably need to change the iTunes setting back to When you insert a CD: Show CD. Look in Edit/Preferences/General>When you insert a CD: and change the drop down menu option to Show CD.

When you insert a CD now you will see a screen like the one shown below:

iTunes imports the ticked (checked) tracks. To prevent a track from being imported, untick (remove the checkmark). Then tap the Import CD button.

My understanding was that iTunes keeps all its metadata in the dedicated iTunes folder, so it's separate from the music files...

That's not the full story. While iTunes stores some metadata in its .itl file, it's only data that iTunes uses exclusively, such as Play Count, Last Played, start & stop option etc. Data about the song itself is kept in the song's file, not iTunes' one; this includes track title, artist, album title, genre as well as other data. I assume that this includes the compilation flag because the Import CD window has an option named Album is part of a compilation of songs by various artists, but it is often incorrectly marked.

I make a point of checking every compilation album that I rip from CD after I've imported to my library, to ensure that both the compilation flag and the album artist tag are correct (as detailed in my previous posts). They are often not.

I use Windows Media Player to make changes to individual file metadata.

But if that metadata is not stored in the song's file, it will not be seen by iTunes.

A golden rule is that once a song is listed in your iTunes Library be very careful about changing any information relating to it in Windows Explorer or Windows Media Player (WMP), because it may cause unexpected issues in iTunes.

I suggest that you try the following as a test:

1. 1. use iTunes to re-import a compilation cd that has previously caused you problems (you can modify the album title prior to importing, to keep it separate from the previous import)
   2. do not add the album to WMP
   3. do not change anything about the album in Windows Explorer
   4. then go through the steps I've outlined previously to see whether the album is correct or not:

• • • select all the tracks on the album
    • check that the compilation flag is set on for every track. Note that a dash mark in the compilation box indicates that some tracks are not set as compilation
    • check that the album artist field (tag) has the text Various Artists (in plural) in every track

Does that sort out the issue?

By the way, when you change the when you insert a CD setting, tap on Import Settings... (next to that text) you can set iTunes to import from CD in MP3 at 320kbps. I acknowledge that iTunes cannot import from CD as flac format, but it also cannot add or play files that are already in flac format, so that particular aspect of your discussion is irrelevant.

There is no "bug" in iTunes concerning compilation albums. The issue is mainly caused by the music industry, which doesn't understand what a compilation album by various artists means. It's simply a quirk that we have to deal with and I've explained how to do that. It does work.

RKapoor1973 wrote:

iTunes on import correctly set the ‘Part of Compilation’ and ‘Part of Set’ media file level flags, and showed the tracks grouped under one album. iTunes however put all the files under “C:\Users\[UserName]\Music\iTunes\iTunesMedia\Music\Compilations” whereas I prefer to keep them under “C:\Users\[UserName]\Music” so I moved the folder there and the flags were preserved.

It's clear to me now that the root cause of your issue is that you're undermining iTunes' organisational structure. As previously stated, once you have added files to your iTunes Library be very, very careful about editing them in Windows Explorer or WMP or anything else. That specifically includes moving the files - don't move them.

If you move the files after you have added them to your iTunes Library, then iTunes will no longer know where the files are and will be unable to play the music. I suggest that you check now the album that you moved; does it still play or do you get an exclamation mark next to the song title of an unplayable song and a message telling you that the original file cannot be found?

Regarding the media level flags; I'm not convinced that the properties information that you're looking at in Windows Explorer is the same as the tags that iTunes is using. Study the screenshot below, which shows the same album in iTunes (on the left) and Windows Explorer (on the right):

Although it's not shown in the screenshot, I can assure you that the album is marked as part of a compilation (and note that it's in the Compilations folder in Windows Explorer, because iTunes put it there). But look at the Windows Explorer image; not one of the songs has Part of a compilation turned on and only some of the the Part of a set field are positively marked. And yet, the album behaves correctly in my iTunes Library. But there's more:

Compare the Part of a set field with the Disc No. field shown in iTunes. The Disc No. tag is made up of the disc number (x of) and the quantity of discs (of x). e.g. Disc No. 1 of 3. Where there's a number in the Part of a set field there is no quantity of discs shown in iTunes. However, look closely at the following screenshot:

As you will notice, if the number is on its own, it's the disc number, not the quantity of the discs, even though it's under the "quantity of discs column".

I don't know exactly what Explorer is showing, but I have to be frank, I don't think you should be concerning yourself with what is shown in Windows Explorer. iTunes is a music library management tool and despite your misgivings, it's actually a very good one (and I'll be sad to to see it's demise). Let iTunes do its job.

As a test, purely for this discussion, I added the No. of Discs number to all the tracks in the album shown above by highlighting all tracks and editing them as one step. What I expected was that in Windows Explorer the Part of a set field would then be populated with the disc number as we've seen in the last screenshot. But to my surprise, that's not what happened:

It has added the disc number but only on tracks that already had the number. I checked some other compilation discs and had equally puzzling results, including on one disc the number 0 (zero). Weird!

I think you may need to make a choice:

• • accept things the way they are and continue to be unhappy with iTunes (unnecessarily as there is no bug in iTunes that is causing this)
  • accept things the way they are and don't try editing in Windows Explorer as it serves no purpose except to satisfy you but upset iTunes
  • if WMP and iTunes are not getting along, decide which one you're going to sacrifice, either in terms of which one you use or which one fails to organise as you want

You may consider another method altogether, but I do suggest that whatever you do, don't modify files that iTunes is trying to manage for you.

Sometimes computer programmes just don't get along with each other.

By the way, here's another tip that you may find useful:

If you have a single-artist album, with guest artists on one or more tracks, the following tags have to be set as follows on each track:

• • artist - the tag should have the principal and the guest artist. Each song has to be looked at individually
  • album artist - the name of the principal artist only. This tag can be set one track at a time or preferably as a multiple selection of all tracks on the album
  • compilation - must be off (the box must be empty). This tag can also be set one track at a time or preferably as a multiple selection of all tracks on the album

Consider Nelly Furtado's album Loose, which has guest artists on some tracks. The screenshot below shows the details for a track featuring a guest artist. Note the artist, the album artist and the compilation tags in both screenshots:

Looking at one track on the album:

Now look at the same panel when all the songs on the album are selected:

• • • notice that the artist tag has the greyed out word Mixed in it. This indicates that there is different text in some of the selection, which is correct since some tracks are only Nelly, while others include additional artists. Don't change this tag
    • the album artist tag has the name of the principal artist only (Nelly Furtado). This an important tag to get correct
    • the compilation tag is turned off (the box is empty)

Looking at every track on the album in one selection:

I too, am having a similar problem, and NONE of the solutions offered above is working either.

And it's a relatively recent problem. Only after a recent OS update did this issue start occurring. Until then, editing a large number of tracks, and clicking the "Album is a compilation...." check box would easily consolidate them all in to one album.

Now, the only way to do it is individually.... (I would like to upload a video too... might do a Private YouTube video and embed it....)

Running Sonoma 14.4.1

the fiend wrote:

I make a point of checking every compilation album that I rip from CD after I've imported to my library, to ensure that both the compilation flag and the album artist tag are correct (as detailed in my previous posts).

I also check any "Greatest Hits" or "Best Of" albums by single-artists as these are the ones that the music industry wrongly marks as compilations. Yes, they are compilation of songs by one artist, but that's not how iTunes treats them.

RKapoor1973 wrote:

I have only very recently started using iTunes for ripping. All my music content was WMPL ripped from my CD's or purchased online from non-iTunes stores - so was NEVER under the iTunes folder to start with.

And yet you originally only told us that...

iTunes has had this problem (for over a decade at least) where it doesn't group multiple tracks from a compilation CD under one album even though it gets the album name right and the tracks are all under the same folder (on a Windows machine). Windows Media Player has always handled this grouping without a problem.

Makes no difference whether you're speaking from your personal experience or hearsay, the fact is that if music was copied from CD into WMP and then added to iTunes, it is possible that there might be small issues.

For example, if I create and save a document in Open Office and subsequently use Save As to save it as a Microsoft Word document, I may see a warning that some formatting might not be saved in the revised format. It's just a fact of life that we have to deal with. Since the music industry isn't one coherent body, I doubt that the minor conflicts between WMP, WMPL, iTunes and other programmes such as Media Monkey, will ever be resolved. From my experience I know that if I add a music file created in iTunes to one of the well-known alternative music libraries, I do get the odd anomaly that I have to deal with. So these things can happen the other way as well.

The exclamation mark on moving songs is one of the simpler problems to fix in iTunes.

For you, perhaps, but you would be surprised how many people get very exercised about it when it happens and they don't find it easy to fix (and so they end up here).

Though iTunes doesn't auto-detect where the songs moved to (even though they are under the library folder it knows about)

No, you're right, it doesn't. Again, your example serves as a demonstration of the differences between one programme and another and as always when working with different programmes that essentially do the same thing, one has to learn those differences and accept them.

iTunes does set the "Part of a compilation" and "Part of set" flags on rip (as my iTunes import picture showed)

I'm confident to report that it doesn't happen that way in my iTunes Library, which again, is why I brought it up here.

Inspite of this lengthy discussion I am no wiser on what caused the multi-select edit failure for certain albums for which I created this post originally

Perhaps not but at least you now have the benefit of the pointers I have outlined here, which even if you don't regard them as a fix, it is a workaround - something you asked for.

I have switched to Apple Music + Apple Devices apps <...> I'll know in a few days if they are better or worse.

Indeed. It's all your choice. All I've tried to do is resolve the issue that you wrote about; compilation CDs not being correctly held together as one album.