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Level 1

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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

Best reply

Brandon_71

Level 1

0 points

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!

View in context

146 replies

Jun 30, 2015 8:44 AM in response to s2s

It looks like iOS 8.4 fixed several of my issues. John Digweed is now listed once in my library, but it appears that the files that were locally resident on my phone are now recognized as separate from the ones that are in the cloud. (On Saturday I wiped my phone and added all my music back.) In any case, it seems much better than it was before, so I'm happy. I'll play with it more later.

Rod410

Level 1

10 points

Jun 30, 2015 9:18 AM in response to Kai2k

8.4. Problem solved!!

Jul 1, 2015 5:19 AM in response to Rod410

I had same problem last week and tried for a day to fix it. Decided Apple must have made a change without telling anyone so I sent a complaint. What happened?

Apple released new Music App today and everything is fixed. Wished they would have told everyone just to wait instead of keeping everything secret. Saw some people were going to extraordinary lengths to get their library in order. They would be mad now.

Level 1

8 points

Jul 1, 2015 6:56 AM in response to Kai2k

I upgraded to 8.4 and almost all of my problems were solved! Finally. Make sure that your sort order is correct. I had a few were I had to change the sort order. This has been one long frustrating road.

Jul 2, 2015 7:27 PM in response to Brandon_71

That's a lot of trouble to go through for something you're paying for. When you pay for it, you should have the expectation that it will work properly.

Jul 8, 2015 1:43 AM in response to Kai2k

The issue seems to be resolved with the latest iOS 8.4 update with the new music app.

Jul 8, 2015 3:16 AM in response to Kai2k

Hi guys, although iOS devices are all fine after update, my Apple TV still shows corrupted tracks. Don't think that's getting updated till later in the year. I have painstakingly been updating tags in iTunes, ie. changing album artist and changing it back again for the full album of those affected. This forces ATV to update tags straight away

Oct 6, 2015 2:21 AM in response to ozrainmaker

I'm also having similar problems. iTunes seems okay on my iPad and Mac, but on my iPhone the album tracks are often scrambled. For instance, last night I wanted to play a Cream album and after the first track the next two tracks were from a Gabriele album, even though the track description was as it should be for the Cream album. That's just an example - this seems too happen with loads of my albums.

What should I do to fix it???

Oct 11, 2015 3:30 AM in response to Kai2k

This is an interesting thread. I've loaded a lot of my best (classical) recordings to my iMac, from CDs that are around 25 years old, then I've 'archived' the CDs to the loft. I took some time manually inputting track and album details, and artwork, since gracenote is a joke when it comes to classical. So far so good...

Then I subscribed to iTunes Match, attached Apple TV to my TV to that I could have my music gently playing around the place, but the list of tracks and artwork that appears is now a random dog's breakfast.

I'm not an IT expert, nor do I expect to be, I just want to listen to music - strangely enough that's why I started buying Apple in the first place.

I hope Apple actually read this and fix it. I was thinking of taking a subscription out for Apple Music, but this has put me off. I do hope that Apple haven't lost the plot.

Regards

England

Oct 11, 2015 3:41 AM in response to Kai2k

I'm not an IT expert, nor do I expect to be, I just want to listen to music - strangely enough that's why I started buying Apple in the first place.

I hope Apple actually read this and fix it. I was thinking of taking a subscription out for Apple Music, but this has put me off. I do hope that Apple haven't lost the plot.

Regards

England

Oct 11, 2015 4:34 AM in response to ChristchurchUK

I hope they fix it too, and have also decided for now to avoid Apple Music. Pretty disappointed too that it hasn't been fixed.

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