Why does iTunes change my file names

Similar issues and other quirks arise in all media management software. Back when I still used it regularly WMP used to list my AC/DC albums once under AC and again under DC! It also had a nasty habit of automatically "correcting" (i.e. breaking up) double albums that I'd managed to sort out the way I wanted. Fundamentally there is no "right" way of organizing things (except mine of course! 😉 ) and the software designers are working to a brief, not the actual needs or desires of us users. Short of a perfectly crafted complete and consistent database, that works just the way you want it, and the tools to audio fingerprint every track to match it to its entry in that database I don't see any way for it not to require some manual tweaking. I'm not prepared to test it but there is a tool called Tune Up which might suit some people. Personally I suspect that it would undo many of my personal choices such as consistent use of Title Case, square brackets for guest & featured artist info. in song titles, custom naming of albums with the same title by different artists (e.g. Greatest Hits), treating classical composers rather than the performers as the Artist/Album Artist, etc.

tt2

I ran into this problem today, noticing my song titles were changed to "Track #" (# being the track number of course). So on a song in Windows Explorer I right-clicked -> properties -> details and saw the title of the song was tagged as "Track 1."

At the bottom of this window is a link to "Remove Properties and Personal Information." Clicking on this opens another window in which if you select the radio button "Remove the following properties from this file:" and then check "Title" and click "OK" removes the tagged title of that track. If you import the file into iTunes AFTER doing this iTunes will default to naming the song from the filename, since there is no available tagged title!

Please note you can select multiple songs before editing the properties to process as many songs at once as you wish, and can do it for properties other than the track name.

Hope this helps people like it helped me!

If you make sure iTunes isn't going to rename the files the moment you import them (turn off the Keep... and Copy... options) then my script TagFromFilename might work even better. 😉

tt2

Have you got a third grader handy! 😝

Scroll to the top of the scripts page for some more information... Basically a script is a program that still exists as human readable text rather than the compiled machine code of standard programs. Normal programs run faster, but take more work to produce. Scripts are reasonably easy for the user to modify if they are so inclined.

tt2

I think I may have forgotten to point you in the direction of a potentially useful post of mine. This migrate iTunes library post explains how you move a library from one computer to another in a way that preserves all the metadata and also contains a backup link.

Probably address elsewhere in this thread, but ,wav files won't carry a tag. If you have and want to keep high-quality files converting them to AIFF or Apple Lossless might be wise. My ConvertFormat script can simplify the task of changing formats but keeping ratings, play counts and playlist membership.

If I haven't covered it before in this thread mp3 files with multiple embedded tags are a potential cause of lost information when tracks are reimported. iTunes likes a single ID3v2.3 tag. Right-click > Convert ID3 Tags > None several times followed by Right-click > Convert ID3 Tags > v2.3 can usually fix the multiple tag issue, but you have to reapply artwork afterwards.

tt2

There must have been metadata, intentional or not. If there is no tag at all then when a track is imported to iTunes it assigns Name from the filename and, if it is keeping media organized, moves it to Unknown Artist\Unknown Album folder. If a file is moved anywhere else then iTunes is processing the embedded tag with whatever data it contains.

If you still had the right filenames then my script might have been of some use. I've also helped to repair somebody's collection of reimported and renamed .wav files by importing an older copy of their database and using a script to connect the broken entries to the renamed files. If you had an archived copy of an iTunes library with the correct information that might still be feasible.

One last thought is Picard Tagger. It might be able to identify your tracks and update them with sensible information.

tt2

OK, this is an old thread so I don't expect a response but there are a few things I need to point out.

First, it is absolutely true that it doesn't matter what the filename is in Windows. iTunes associates the video in your library with the file in Windows regardless of what the name is in iTunes... so your song in iTunes could be New Kids On The Block but the file in Windows could be ACDC - iTunes links the two. This brings up the first question - Why does iTunes bother changing the name of the file at all? If it really doesn't matter what the filename is then why does iTunes change it? Like a previous poster here I had a load of shows I had named Show-Season-Episode. I imported them into iTunes and found that not only did iTunes change the filenames (which I would have been OK with had they made any sense) but it changed the filenames randomly so that Episode 01 was changed to Episode 03... Why? If it doesn't matter what the filename is then why does iTunes bother changing the name at all?

Next, I went through the tediousness of changing the metadata in both iTunes (Get Info - Info & Video) and Windows (Title) and found that the name in iTunes was changed appropriately (yay) but no change was made to the filenames. What I found strange was that I changed the Title tag in Windows first and found that iTunes changed the names listed which indicates that iTunes reads the Title tag in Windows. However, even after changing the metadata in iTunes as well I still have random filenames. SO... I went to the trouble of trying to change the filename then going in to iTunes and playing the associated video which iTunes of course asks you to locate the file. I clicked on the appropriate file and the video played.... surprise, surprise - the filename was changed back to the previous random incorrect filename (once again Episode 01 was labeled as Episode 03).

Alright, obviously iTunes is getting it's metadata from somewhere...but where? Why on Earth does iTunes read from and sort on tags that you, as the End User, can't change. I mean, it would be understandable (but still unacceptable) if iTunes sorted on metadata (tags) that you at least could view and change. But to sort on info the end user can't even see... not much respect for the people that use your product.

iTunes is a terrible product and has been since I bought my first iPod back in like 2004. Don't buy an iPad if you want to use any other format than mp4. I work in IT and have for years heard IT geeks complain about Microsoft but I never saw Microsoft wedge end users into using a specific product/format the way Apple does with iTunes...I mean, ten years and I still can't play avi or mpg files on my iPad? Come on, seriously?

Hi. Renaming of files added to the library is optional, but enabled by default. If you turn the feature off then your filenames won't change following tag edits. Without seeing all of the metadata it would be hard to know exactly why the files got the names they did.

iTunes normally organizes music files in the general layout:

..\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\<Artist>\<Album>\[[D-]## ]<Name>.<Ext>.

where <Artist> is Compilations if part of a compilation is true, the <Album Artist> if that isn't blank, <Artist>, or Unknown Artist if <Artist> is also blank. [D-] is an optional leading disc number set if either disc number or disc count is greater than 1 and the track number is non zero, and ## represents a two-digit track number with leading zero if required, but both disc & track numbers are omitted if the track number is zero. File and folder names are truncated to 40 characters. Any character not valid for filenames is replaced by an underscore.

TV Shows go to:

..\iTunes\iTunes Media\TV Shows\<Show>\[Season S\][[D-]## ]<Name>.<Ext>

where there is an optional grouping into season folders if season numbers are applied. Note that Episode Number is not used in the filename scheme.

Lastly if two files would otherwise have the same name iTunes will add a trailing digit to distinguish between them, the first number assigned is 2.

An added complication with the process is that iTunes may sometimes fail to move files at the time of a change, perhaps because there is still a locking handle active immediately after the edit. It has no housekeeping routine to tidy up later if an action is blocked at the time. Turning Keep organized off and then back on again should force it to go through the library any make any necessary changes.

There are plenty of apps for playing video in alternate containers, such as .avi and .mkv, but I agree, Apple should support these formats directly in iTunes and their devices.

tt2

I'd be interested to know whether you managed to get this issue sorted and, if so, what the solution was. Thanks.

Have you tried going to Edit > Get Info whilst playing the song? I have tried many things and that's the only thing that work