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

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!

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:

Ipad says:

Iphone says:

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?

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.

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.

Having exactly the same issue. Match is synching correctly between my desktop and laptop. Artist is randomly wrong on iOS devices thus splitting the albums.

I'm really really unkeen to wipe my phone and start from scratch 😟

I just spent 3 days working out what to delete to get below the stupid 25k limit... and now this

hmmm...

m

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

Kai,

I was adding a number of albums recently so I can track mine - it is 27th April, 10pm.

DK

Been going on for the last couple of months for me. Got a lot worse recently though.

I Noticed things we're going wrong last Friday (1st of May) when I stared to replace my MP3 ripped CDs by Apple lossless. Strangely both replaced by ALAC CDs and untouched CDs are affected by the issue.

I filed a bug this afternoon, I suggest you guys do the same.