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How can I stop iTunes from changing tags in Widows 8?

So, this is not new to Windows 8, I've also had this problem for years with Windows 7 also. However it seems to have gotten worse with Windows 8. I've been hoping Apple would fix this but it has been an ongoing nagging problem with iTunes for as long as I can recall, maybe 2008-ish?


Here is my problem, I double click a song and the song starts playing and simultaneously disappears. I then realized the song was moved to a duplicate artist name. The reason for this is iTunes has filled in the sorting tag info for "album artist". So they have the same "artist" and "album" but different album artists. So I delete the album artist and they recombine. I then play another song and poof its gone as well. Resorted with a new "album artist". So I fight a never ending battle or keeping my songs grouped correctly because iTunes keeps changing the tags and messing up the sort order.


The next problem I have is I go though my artist list and find "Santana/Santana" or "Bob Seger/Bob Seger". Why is it changing the artist tag from "artist" to "artist/artist" on my tag? I then see two Bob Seger artists. One has an "album artist" of "Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band" the other is blank since I don't use the "album artist" tag. So for years I'm constantly re-editing tags trying to keep iTunes from separating artists into multiple listings.


As I said previously lately it is so bad that every time I click a song it vanishes into a new artist album listing creating duplicates. I've disabled every preference I could find and nothing works. So at this point I assume it is an iTunes problem. Am I the only one who has this problem?

Posted on Mar 4, 2015 10:23 AM

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11 replies

Mar 4, 2015 11:29 AM in response to robertfromchesterland

Make sure that these two options in Edit > Preferences > Store are turned off:

User uploaded file

Then exit iTunes and open it up again. Your metadata entries should then be persistent - with these options checked iTunes will be comparing what you have with the information held in the iTunes Store, and will overwrite with the latter for Store purchases (and if you have iTunes Match). If you have any iOS devices you should also turn off Show All Music under Settings > Music.

Mar 4, 2015 11:52 AM in response to robertfromchesterland

Ah, you might have a different issue. Do you use other software (such as Windows Media Player) to access the same media files as you use with iTunes? If so, there can be conflicts over your metadata ("tags") being added, updated or overwritten. See turingtest2's notes on Getting iTunes & Windows Media Player to play nicely - the specific symptom you describe may indicate that another application has modified the metadata for some of the media in your iTunes library - iTunes will only "see" such changes when you play a song or access its properties using right-click > Get Info.

Mar 4, 2015 12:17 PM in response to robertfromchesterland

I think even using Get Info may not reveal the change, though it is possible the behaviour has altered since I last tested it. Playing or updating the tracks location in a script such as UpdateTagInfo seems to get iTunes to re-evaluate the tag.


Assuming WMP is involved it may be best to make the necessary settings adjustments to prevent further changes, use the script to get all of the background changes exposed within iTunes, then correct as you see fit. Alternatively I do have another script called ExportImport that could be used to back up the current state of your tags (you should temporarily rename the media folder during the export phase), after which you would then run UpdateTagInfo and then use ExplortImport in its import mode to restore the corrupted data.


tt2

Mar 4, 2015 12:27 PM in response to robertfromchesterland

It is possible for WMP to fire up in the background when visiting websites that use Windows Media Audio. The default settings allow it to load up all the content of your music folder into its library and update the tags with missing information. Check the settings referenced in Getting iTunes & Windows Media Player to play nicely. Is the WMP library already populated with media?


tt2

How can I stop iTunes from changing tags in Widows 8?

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