Why is iTunes editing my sorting information?

It may be related to the options under Edit > Preferences > Store to:

• Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases
• Share details about your library with Apple

Offhand I haven't worked out which option does it for certain, what triggers the updates, or whether other factors are involved. Disabling both may however be the best policy.

tt2

Your database has probably been "helpfully" updated via one of the options. Turning them off doesn't restore the original data, but should stop it happening again once iTunes has managed to notice your own values. Playing a few seconds of each item is one way to do this, but time consuming. You may have some luck with my script UpdateTagInfo applied, say, to the contents of the purchased playlist, although I don't recall trying it with video files.

tt2

I'm bumping this up because I'd like to know the same thing. I organize my Harry Potter movies, my Planet of the Apes movies, my X-Men movies, etc. by order of release because that's how I prefer to see them in AppleTV. But at least once a week I have to go back into my library and remove absolutely pointless Sort information that the program has added, apparently solely for the sake of disrupting the information that I entered on my own. Why in the world would I want X-MEN FIRST CLASS to be sorted according to its classification as part of the "X-Men Experience Collection" if I don't actually have any other movies from that album? Why does BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES keep reverting to being sorted by director Ted Post? Who'd want that?

For that matter, if it is normal behavior for these movies to constantly reload Sort data, then why not give them tags that make sense from the start? Who's helped by seeing The Two Towers appear AHEAD of Fellowship of the Ring? (I can't even guess what data iTunes is using to sort that!)

Though I certainly don't expect anyone from Apple to actually show up here and answer a question.

I would like to "bump" again. This is a horrible problem. I have corrected my sort

order for all the same movies previously mention herein and more only to have it all undone.

Apple as mentioned by Scheisseler won't be seen here.... Where can this be posted or addressed so that Apple Will see it?

IT would also be nice (besides fixing this) if when viewing your Movie Library on your iPad as well as ATV that the proper sort order followed

there and displayed correctly.

I hope Apple can fix this.

jack

I have a script called ExportImport that can be used to save selected metadata from the iTunes library and then import it again at a later date. The original context involved restoring an older .itl file which held the "correct" versions of certain fields, exporting the data, then restoring the "current" .itl before reimporting the data. Because iTunes will read data from the current file if it available you may need to temporarily rename the media folder during the export phase so that iTunes can't read in the missing/wrong data although if the files are missing tags altogether this may not be a problem. I'm not sure without checking what fields are included in the current version but it should be easy enough to edit, or I can tweak the script if you let me know which fields you need to get written out.

Alternatively you can make the corrections by hand this time, and then export the corrected values in advance of the next time that iTunes decides to make corrections.

See this thread for details.

Don't forget to backup your library.

tt2

Since posting in this thread a couple of months ago, I've learned that iTunes only re-sorts your movies when you're signed in to the Store, because it compares the original tags to what you've done and then "fixes" things for you. This wouldn't be so annoying if it didn't use completely irrelevant data to do what it does (its default seems to be to sort by either artist or album, neither of which is likely to be anyone's preference), but it is what it is. Go to the Store menu and sign out, and it will stop re-sorting. At that point you can fix your info and not worry about it reverting to what the Store thinks it should be. Just bear in mind that when you sign back in -- to make a purchase or redeem a digital copy -- it will seize the opportunity to reorganize everything you've done.

Did you try disabling:

• Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases
• Share details about your library with Apple

It really ought not to make any changes with those two options turned off.

Weirdly I recently had iTunes decide that it needed to "refresh" my copy of Canned Heat's On The Road Again. When it did so it managed to download and update the tracks (the bit rates were different afterwards) but it kept all my metadata, exactly as it had been before.

tt2