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iTunes match - on iPhone iPad split albums and wrong album artists

Hello everyone,


I'm having real trouble with iTunes match. So I have no issue actually playing the music, but the albums are being not only split but they have the wrong album artists. None of the issues are present on iTunes on my Mac, its all on iOS.


Firstly, I'd say my iTunes library was pretty much well organised pre-match. Albums had the correct art, the ID3 tags were such that everything looked correct and made for functional searches when using an iOS device.


All of my issues seem to be because of match. At first when I saw the split albums I thought it was just the ID3 tags being messed up somewhere but I've since wasted hours experimenting and I just can't seem to fix it.


I've tried (in no particular order)


Turning match on and off

Re-booting all devices

Making sure the iOS devices had all music wiped (via iTunes) before enabling match

Using iTunes to correct ID3 tags

Using the Yate ID3 editor to correct ID3 tags

When I say correct I mean select all tracks in a given album and make sure:


Album artist equal

Artist equal

I've tried the 'add a space on to artist / album artist then take it back off' trick

Remove any other 'mixed' fields such as composer

Check there is only one cover art file and it's the same for all tracks

Remove any mixed sorting fields

Renamed files

Renamed folders (then re-imported)


Now the interesting thing is that there is no pattern, some are correct and some are not. One album for example is Energy Never Dies by the black eyed peas. I bought this from a shop and ripped it. It's split into 3, one artist is the Black Eyed Peas, one is Elton John and one is Rhianna.


I've noticed the when the artist is wrong it's always the same artists (Elton John and Rhianna for example)


Interestingly, the wrong artists are different on the iPad to the iPhone, but the albums are split the same. Also, the one of the bad artists is one I made up for a mix tape, which makes me think the bad info is not on Apple's servers.


It's as if some old album artist data on the device from what was on there pre-match is corrupting things, but I don't fancy wiping the devices.


One way around it is to delete all artist and album artist info, but keep the album name the same (for grouped tracks). I can then search by album name and the album art is correct. This isn't ideal though as I cannot search by artist.


I've done some research before coming on here and I've tried quite a few fixes what have been suggested but I'm still no further forward. I'm hoping someone has some ideas otherwise I'm going to go through my library and remove all of the artist info as the work around like I say.


I'd like to report the bug to Apple but I can't seem to see a way of doing so. If anyone knows how to do this I'd appreciate a tip please.


Many thanks in advance,


Kai

Posted on May 4, 2015 3:01 PM

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Posted on May 5, 2015 3:30 PM

Had the same problem. Complete mess. I found a solution that solved it for me, but it's a chore. Anyways.


First I restored both the iPhone and the iPad. It seemed like the devices remembered some of the wrong metadata, so this seemed like the only solution. Then I deleted everything from iTunes Match and created a new, empty library. I added a few albums by an artist, for example Stevie Wonder. In iTunes on the Mac the metadata was correct, but on the iPhone it was still a mess. Albums split up, some with Elton John as artist, some with Miles Davis.


I then selected all the albums I just uploaded and deleted them (make sure to check the "also delete from iCloud"). I then added them to the library again, but changed both the artist and album artist name to something else, for example Stevie Wonderboy instead of Stevie Wonder. I updated iTunes Match and all the songs and albums were then correctly placed under Stevie Wonderboy. Finally, I changed the artist and album artist name back to Stevie Wonder and it worked!


In steps:


1. Restore devices

2. Delete iTunes Match library and create a new one.

3. Add albums and select "Update iTunes Match".

4. Delete albums from the cloud and make sure they are gone on your iPhone or iPad (do not select "Update iTunes Match").

5. Add the same albums again and change artist and album artist name. Press "Update iTunes Match".

6. Make sure that the albums and songs are placed correctly under the new artist name on your phone or iPad.

7. Change the artist and album artist name back to original name. Do not press "Update iTunes Match" after changing the name back, just let the changes trickle through.


This worked for me. Have to do this for pretty much every band and artist I add to iTunes Match. What a mess. Hope it works out for you.

Also, remember to backup!

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Question marked as Best reply

May 5, 2015 3:30 PM in response to Kai2k

Had the same problem. Complete mess. I found a solution that solved it for me, but it's a chore. Anyways.


First I restored both the iPhone and the iPad. It seemed like the devices remembered some of the wrong metadata, so this seemed like the only solution. Then I deleted everything from iTunes Match and created a new, empty library. I added a few albums by an artist, for example Stevie Wonder. In iTunes on the Mac the metadata was correct, but on the iPhone it was still a mess. Albums split up, some with Elton John as artist, some with Miles Davis.


I then selected all the albums I just uploaded and deleted them (make sure to check the "also delete from iCloud"). I then added them to the library again, but changed both the artist and album artist name to something else, for example Stevie Wonderboy instead of Stevie Wonder. I updated iTunes Match and all the songs and albums were then correctly placed under Stevie Wonderboy. Finally, I changed the artist and album artist name back to Stevie Wonder and it worked!


In steps:


1. Restore devices

2. Delete iTunes Match library and create a new one.

3. Add albums and select "Update iTunes Match".

4. Delete albums from the cloud and make sure they are gone on your iPhone or iPad (do not select "Update iTunes Match").

5. Add the same albums again and change artist and album artist name. Press "Update iTunes Match".

6. Make sure that the albums and songs are placed correctly under the new artist name on your phone or iPad.

7. Change the artist and album artist name back to original name. Do not press "Update iTunes Match" after changing the name back, just let the changes trickle through.


This worked for me. Have to do this for pretty much every band and artist I add to iTunes Match. What a mess. Hope it works out for you.

Also, remember to backup!

May 6, 2015 12:55 AM in response to Brandon_71

Hi Brandon,


Thanks for the reply. It seems like the issue then is certainly to do with Artist (album and track) info on the devices, being corrupted as you say.


One thing that surprised me is how few people seem to get this issue (as I didn't find a lot on-line).


Last night I set my iPad up as a brand new one, brought in match and it was still a mess.


When you say restore, how do you mean exactly? So for example my phone is currently suffering the artists issue. If I restore it back to the latest backup from iCloud (say this was done today) then surely it will just pull everything in, including a corrupted set of artist info? I assume you think the corrupt info is on the device, not on Apple's servers?


I hope you don't mean reset the phone to a brand new phone each time? I have far too many apps and settings to do that!!!


Thanks for your help so far. Tonight I might have a go at what you said once I clarify the restore part of it.


I'm shocked Apple allow this. My experience of Apple so far has been excellent. For example i've recently migrated my photos to the cloud following the latest release of OSX and it's perfect.


Sounds like a missed opportunity for Apple. Shame.


Thanks,


Kai

May 6, 2015 1:31 AM in response to Kai2k

To back you up, here are some screenshots on the issue. There's something really really going wrong here.

Screenshots are taken from 'empty' iTunes library with match enabled (so everything what you see is directly coming from Match)


Itunes Cher album:

User uploaded file


Ipad says:

User uploaded file


Iphone says:

User uploaded file


As you can see, both iphone and ipad are saying something different about the two albums and they are both wrong. There is absolutely nothing to find in the itunes library that connects the Believe single to Jason Nevins or Pato Bandon. The metadata in itunes is correct but the two devices keep displaying messed up data.

What's happening here?

May 6, 2015 1:54 AM in response to Kai2k

In my experience, you have to completely reset the phone to a brand new one. I should clarify that steps 1 and 2 is something you only have to do once, not everytime you want to upload some music. After you have done step 1 and 2, you just repeat step 3-7.



I reset my phone and reset the library (in other words, removed everything) in the cloud so when I enabled iTunes Match on the phone it said “No content”. I then uploaded one of the artists that was creating trouble (for example Black Eyed Peas). On the phone it was still apparently a mess, split into several albums, one being Elton John and one Rihanna and so forth. This is normal. I then delete this album (Energy Never Dies) from the cloud. I add it again and change artist and album artist name to something different, Black Eyed Peashooters for example. Upload again, and finally change it back to Black Eyed Peas without pressing “Update iTunes Match”.



The metadata seems to be corrupted both on the devices AND in the cloud as Wintertje demonstrates. However, it seems like the metadata in the cloud is possible to change while the metadata on the device refuses to behave, which is why a reset of the device seems the only solution.



iTunes Match works in mysterious ways so this may not work for you. I have tried to figure this out for months, so frustrating. You could try this without resetting your iphone, that did not work for me though.

May 6, 2015 2:10 AM in response to Brandon_71

Wintertje, thank you for the screen shots- yes this is exactly the issue I am having.


Brandon, oh no - reset the phone! Nightmare! What I think I will do is reset my iPad and try that as a test first, as doing my phone is a more in depth task! If I get it all working properly on the iPad then I know it should be worth the effort on the phone (as there is a good chance it will work).


TBH the goal is to get my library all in order and backed up then job done, as for any new music I use Spotify, but I want to keep my existing stuff, which includes mix tapes copied to MP3 and the like.


I'm tempted to push on with this as the concept is excellent. Already I'm re-discovering old albums I forgot I had.


Thanks again, I will have a try and report back my findings. I guess I will know quite quickly if it has worked or not, as I will start with an album who's metadata is broken.


Thanks


Kai

May 6, 2015 2:17 AM in response to Brandon_71

Brandon,


Could you please clarify the step - 2. Delete iTunes Match library and create a new one.


How do you create a new library? I presume you just mean remove everything from the match library but how do you do this?


So I have my music all in folders under music (Max OSX), then that was imported into iTunes. Am I to remove all albums from iTunes and make sure I tick the 'remove from the cloud' option OR is there some clever way to remove from the cloud / match and leave my local iTunes library intact? I'm aware that I've invested time in the past in getting the correct album art etc.


Thanks,


Kai

May 6, 2015 2:38 AM in response to Kai2k

To create a new library you press alt while opening iTunes. Select "Create Library" and name it iTunes Match or something. Go into the preferences and uncheck "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library". Your local library will be kept intact. Turn on iTunes Match, and all your music in the cloud should appear. Now you can delete the music. I use two libraries, one for Match and for local files. After you have removed the music you should let iTunes sit open for a while before doing anything more to make sure everything is gone.


Use your newly created library to add and upload music. You should probably also turn off iTunes Match on your other library.

May 6, 2015 4:24 AM in response to Brandon_71

Thanks Brandon,


I didn't even know you could have more than one library. Excellent, I will try this tonight. In fact now I know this the whole process doesn't seem so bad, as I always have my local library which I've perfected over the years. I wonder if I can import to the match library from my 'local' itunes library location, so I bring in the correct album art etc, rather than pulling it from my music folders (which were originally copied from windows).


I am going to raise a bug with apple on this. It should be easy as I can direct them to this post which explains everything!


Thanks again,


Kai.

May 6, 2015 11:06 AM in response to Michael Ward5

All,

I guess that the issue is related to changes in Apple music system. It also started happening to me, newly added albums are creatively split at random on iPad & iPhone, but not on iTunes. I think that any attempts to repair will fail as I have tried dozens of solutions. I believe that we have to wait as they fix it ( I believe they use iTunes :-) ).

DK

iTunes match - on iPhone iPad split albums and wrong album artists

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