Tagging working differently in iTunes 12 ?

I noticed it too. It's not a real tag. It looks like iTunes is now labeling the "Artist" field as "Director" for a movie file. The same tag shows as "Artist" in a music file. The problem is that Apple is assuming that you use your Artist field for the Director's name on movie files like they do in the iTunes store. I don't know enough about metadata to understand why, even though iTunes can see metadata put into the files by other programs (like Director, Producer or Screenwriter), those tags can't be searched for, sorted by, or be edited within iTunes. After all this time and all the "stuff" they've crammed into iTunes, it's infuriating that they can't seem to do a little more with Movies and TV Shows -- everything seems to be about Music. I've never used Grouping, so I'm not sure about that. It just looks like Apple has relabeled the Artist tag to read "Director" for a movie. Thanks, Apple! Ugh!!

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

I've been using iDentify in the Mac App Store. It can re-encode content, but you can turn that off in the Preferences and then it just writes the tags. I think re-encoding is off by default. It does look-ups for data, artwork, and whatever else you might need. It's very thorough and has seldom failed to find data, but when it does, you can just fill in the IMDb number and it will find it right away. Be sure to go through the Preferences before you start anything because it will also do things like copy the cast list to the artist field (which I now regret letting it do for so long!), but I don't know if it does that stuff by default. It's really a great tagging program for Mac.

I think, for now, I'm going to start putting the cast list in the Album Artist field and leave the Director in the Artist field. It's a little manual, but at least I'll be able to find movies by Director in iTunes. I've looked and looked through the past few years and nothing out there that I can find sorts and indexes movies, TV shows, and music like iTunes. As bloated with other stuff as it is, it does that stuff really well. Good luck!

Guys, Director sure is a real tag. It has always been there, but it hasn't been accessible through iTunes itself. You had to use Subler, iDentify, and the likes to tag this and other movie-specific fields. Also, Apple hasn't replaced the Artist tag—it's still there. It's just that Artist isn't shown in the movie info field in iTunes anymore, since they probably believe the tag is obsolete, or remains unused by us—which is, of course, not true. iTunes 12 isn't user-friendly at all. It more and more looks like they're trying to get rid of power users in order to make us buy stuff from the iTunes store instead of managing our own media with their software.

Yes, "Director" is a real tag, but not in iTunes 12. If a file is a "Movie", iTunes displays the "Artist" field label as "Director", but there is no access to the actual "Director" field through iTunes 12. The "Artist" field still exists for music files and, I believe, TV shows, but all of these fields are one in the same; "Artist". If you tag a movie file using iDentify or Subler and put data in the field that those programs label as "Director", that information doesn't show in the "Director" field in iTunes. To display in iTunes' "Director" field, you have to put data in the "Artist" field in those other tagging programs. Apple has only made a cosmetic change in iTunes, there is still no access to the actual "Director" field in a movie file.

I apologize. You're right, I hadn't even noticed.

I assume that's because they believe most users use the Artist field for the director. Strangely, it seems that most people actually handle it that way. That's what I see when I browse the web anyway. Of course, that doesn't make much sense.

This is how it should be done:

Actors = Artist

Director = Album Artist

I'm sure this must be a bug. It's really just stupid.

Regarding the actual Director and Actors tags—be sure that Apple won't support those in iTunes, ever. Those will solely be accessible through a third-party software, since they're symbolic for original iTunes Store/Apple TV purchases. They want their content to stand out against the average user's regular ripped DVDs.

Apple wants what Apple wants, I guess.... I've been looking for a couple of years for something to replace iTunes, but in addition to the DRM on movies, there's really nothing out there that handles sorting and metadata information like iTunes does. I have LOADS of Movies and TV Shows and Music and trying to find something that handles that stuff is next to impossible. I'm on a Mac for "home theatre" stuff, so that limits it even more.

Actually, the iTunes Store puts the director's name in the Artist field and they list the cast, but it can only be found in the "Show Description" screen, so the cast isn't sortable or searchable either. It's REALLY annoying! I'm finally going through and copying cast lists found by iDentify to the Album Artist field.

I also just found out that it seems that iTunes 12 doesn't update itself when you write or rewrite metadata with a third party program like it used to. I don't know all of the ins and outs of iTunes, but before this version, you could change a tag in a third-party app and then "Get Info" (CMD-I) in iTunes and it would show the update you did. It's not doing that anymore.

It also seems like you can't edit certain fields when selecting multiple items. I tried to blank out the "Album Artist" field in 20 or so items in Movies and the field didn't show up on the Get Info screen when multiple items were selected.

Apple seems to be really taking control more and more as the OS and iTunes continue to be updated. So, gritting my teeth and working through it.... ugh!!

I just noticed that the movie info in the Artwork View remains untouched, which is relieving, but makes the whole thing slightly more confusing at the same time. What a jumble. Being a "power user," iTunes, as it is, has become impractical.

Rest assured, I'm on your side regarding most of your remarks . . . Unfortunately, I gotta go but will be back later.

If you're interested, I also wrote about some of the issues here: iTunes 12 Tagging Issues

Good post on the tagging issues. I can't figure out what Apple is doing to iTunes, but it doesn't seem like a good thing! I may have to redouble my efforts to find a replacement for iTunes and go back to buying discs and ripping them myself! I don't even mind the cosmetic changes in iTunes 12, but the rest of it....

I totally agree. The cosmetic changes are fine—some of them even make sense and have improved things. But the rest is unacceptable.

By the way, I never bought any digital downloads, except for stuff that is definitely not available on CD. Yes, I still buy CDs and rip them. I even scan the artwork. That's the only way to make me feel the music is actually mine, that I really bought it and devoted myself to it. Downloads aren't appreciated—they're here today, forgotten tomorrow. Last not least, I can decide over the kind I want. I only own straight AIFF copies for a bunch of reasons. As long as Apple doesn't even offer ALAC, there is no way I will ever buy anything from their store.

Concerning refreshing metadata when tagging via their-party apps, here's what I usually did. When I was done tagging a stack of movies, I would mark them and change a certain field, like Track #, or Disc #, and hit OK. After that, all fields are updated. I then change them back to 1 of 1 each. It takes only seconds. But that's not possible anymore either. And I won't change essential fields, like Genre, or anything else that I previously put work and thought into. There are some fields—and some individual files (for no obvious reason)—, however, that would still not update. In that case, hitting Play and letting it run for a couple of seconds helps refreshing their metadata, e.g. Description, which seems to be the worst when it comes to refreshing metadata.

I've been working the past few days on getting Directors into the Artist field, one by one through iTunes, copying and pasting from iDentify. That seems to be the only way to get the metadata updated in iTunes without jumping through goofy hoops. I've tried Plex, but didn't care for how that handled TV Shows. Some kind of replacement for iTunes is in my future, I think. I even took away iTunes' ability to organize the library sometime after v11 came out because it was scrambling things crazily! I'd have movies linked to TV Show episodes or music files or before I took away its file privileges, it was even linking things to non-media files. iTunes seems to have issues with NAS units, so that might have been the problem. Now, I control everything and iTunes is merely an indexing system. So, nothing surprises me anymore. I do regret though that iTunes has forced me to become a little less anal about metadata!

Good ideas for refreshing metadata, thanks!

Thanks, pomme! VERY helpful in the new iTunes. Doug gets my $1.99!