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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

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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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146 replies

May 6, 2015 1:10 PM in response to Kai2k

DId some development on html5 based iPad apps, because of that I stumbled upon the bug report tool you're talking about. It has a category iTunes which is also for iTunes Match. on second thoughts I think that way isn't appropriate either, but what are the other options? Give them a call?

Kai2k Author

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May 6, 2015 1:38 PM in response to Wintertje

The only options I've seen are this forum, developer bug reporter or 'book a support call' which is chargeable. I might ask the lads at work who are iOS devs (I'm android ha ha) to do it.

Cheers

Kai2k Author

Level 1

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May 6, 2015 2:08 PM in response to Brandon_71

Hey Brandon,

Firstly thanks for your efforts with this fix. I've tried it tonight, with a wiped (start as new iPad) iPad and followed your steps to the letter. The first album (infamous Elton John) got off to a good start, whole album with correct artist barring 1 split album with one song, but still with the correct artist. The only caveat here mind was I didn't wipe my phone. Maybe I should have turned off iTunes match on the phone so it was clear, but in any case.... To me the whole thing seems far too time consuming (iTunes match seems to warn you for a while that any changes you make to info may be lost as iCloud has not finished updating, so you have to wait) and too flakey - the more albums I added tonight the worse it got.

As such I am going to raise a bug report if I can (maybe through Apple developer) but for my own setup now I'm just removing all album and artist info. This will at least group them in albums with the right album name and art. I've noticed too that with this I can still search by Artist.

Thanks for your efforts once again, and thanks to the others on here for contributing also. It's appreciated.

BTW I am based in the UK.

Thanks,

Kai

May 6, 2015 2:44 PM in response to Kai2k

I'm very anal about my albums and how the tracks are labelled and it's taken the best part of two years getting my iTunes library in order. Last weekend I purchased iTunes Match so I could have access to my music anywhere. Great in theory! It has taken Match almost three days to sync (around 23000 tracks) and now when I go to Music on my iPad I'm finding nearly every album has one or two tracks missing. Many albums are split. I can't figure out why. For example the album Veritas by Agnes, searched under "artists" is split into 2 artists (both Agnes), so I open it under album view instead and it shows 3 albums called Veritas (all the same artwork) and with the tracks randomly divided between all three. It's going to take me forever to sort this mess out. I'll try reinstalling my iPad as suggested here.

The other thing I don't understand is what to do about albums that were not uploaded by iTunes match. I'm a DJ and have lengthy recordings of my sets, which I want to have on my iPad. I suppose I just have to physically transfer them to the iPad. I was going to use Match on my phone too but after the mess on my iPad I don't think I'll bother!

Kai2k Author

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May 6, 2015 3:57 PM in response to ruffianUK

Ruffian,

AS the others have said this looks like an Apple bug and we need to raise awareness to get a fix. I've tried the suggestions on here - didn't work for me.

one thing I will say is I created some MP3 files from old cassettes I had. These are not recognised by iTunes Match so they are uploaded to the cloud. I can access these on any device, so this should work for your sets. This all happened automatically for me.

so my fix was:

open album info after selecting all tracks

blank out album artist and composer

check the compilation box

then on iOS devices, result is album grouped into 1 with correct title and art. Artist is listed as unknown but when you actually play the album, the artist shows correctly.

Also you can still search by artist.

everything is still showing ok on iTunes on the Mac.

This is isn't a perfect solution but usable for me - I've wasted too much time as is.

the last thing is to raise a bug.

Thanks

kai.

Kai2k Author

Level 1

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May 7, 2015 12:52 PM in response to Wintertje

I've used the iTunes feedback facility to report my findings. There is a limited number of characters in the input fields but I've put a link to this forum on there

robjg

Level 1

8 points

May 8, 2015 2:30 PM in response to ruffianUK

Ruffian - you are limited to the file size of an individual track/file I think it's about 250mb. Anything larger than this won't sync to Match. I've got several large DJ mixes that won't go to the cloud

May 9, 2015 3:16 AM in response to robjg

Thanks for the response guys. As far as my large files I realise that these weren't uploaded due to size/length, that's okay, I guess I can transfer them to my iPad manually. I'm assuming iTunes Match will let me do that, haven't tried it yet! I know it says it will delete all music on there when you switch match on!

As far as the splitting of albums and artists up is concerned. I spoke to one of the guys in Apple Store and he said there was a temporary fix (which he got from the internet, curiously, not the Apple site) in which you group all the tracks on the album in iTunes and ensure the album artist field is blank and then re-upload. Sounds a bit of a hassle for me as it's a huge percentage of my albums / artists. Also it kind of defeats my spending the last two years cleaning up my iTunes and relabelling tracks so I can sort them by album artist and have the "Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg" etc. as the track artist (as it should be) rather than having it in brackets next to the track title.

So I think iTunes Match has been a waste of time for me (it's taken a week as it kept freezing), though it's not necessary been a waste of money as I have managed to upgrade the quality of 2500 tunes!

May 9, 2015 3:22 PM in response to ruffianUK

Hi! I'd like to give the fix you mention a go: thankfully I only have a relatively small percentage of albums split.

Do you have any more details on what "group all the tracks in iTunes" means? Is it filling in the "Grouping" text box within each track's Get Info? Or something else? If you have any more information, or a link to the web page the Apple Store guy mentioned, that would be brilliant!

May 10, 2015 5:32 AM in response to Kai2k

Having the same problem here... 😟 On iTunes the album is displayed correctly, but on my iPhone is splittled.

May 10, 2015 9:31 AM in response to Kai2k

This thing is driving me absolutely nuts. I tried deleting my iTunes Match. Wait 24 hours, and then new library and resync only to run into the same problem with different artists. There are 3 "The Beatles" on my iPhone and 2 "Drake"s on my iPad. I'm not gonna do anything drastic like wipe both devices to factory because setting it up again would take days. Really hope we can get Apple to fix it with 8.4 since they're revealing a new service.

May 10, 2015 1:36 PM in response to ruffianUK

Thanks - this worked for me.

I had a compilation CD (one of those free 20 track samplers record companies give away)

The album artist was set to Various Artists and all the tracks individually had the specific artist attached to it.

I left the track artists alone, but removed the album artist and just left it blank. Sure enough, the album then appeared as one on my iPhone just as it had done in iTunes

May 11, 2015 3:03 AM in response to Kai2k

I am also getting this issue - albums being added tend to have one random artist which is frustrating - nothing seems to fix it. Tried most of the above.

also, multiple artist albums are thrown all over the place.

I have recently moved my itunes library from one machine to another - this weekend was the big switch over and it has started since then.

Happens same on both my ipad and iphone.

Used match for three or four years and I have never had this before.

Has this issue been logged yet?

Any more fixes?

May 12, 2015 4:35 AM in response to Kai2k

Hello,

Same problem here. I have iTunes Match for a long time now and it's the first time I see this.

Yesterday I imported an Elton John album and it's OK on iTunes, splitted on iPhone.

What I tried :

- Desactivate Match on iPhone, reactivate, doesn't work

- Various changes on tags in iTunes Mac, doesn't work

- Check the compilation button in iTunes, it solve the problem and the album is in one piece on iPhone, but it's not a good solution for those like me who cares about having clean tagging system

What I didn't tried :

- Import another album from another artist to check if I repeat the problem

- Completely reinstall iPhone which I don't intend to

What I suppose :

- There's a temporary bug on iTunes Match, could be solved by Apple soon

- Apple has made minor changes in tag system in latest iTunes without saying it

- It's a bug of this latest iTunes, as last time I imported an album was on the previous version

Wait and see 😉

May 12, 2015 1:55 PM in response to Kasi Modem

OK I have news, I tried tonight to import another album from another artist (Eros Ramazzotti), no problem at all, perfectly showed in Match on iPhone as a single album as soon as it was synced on Match from the Mac.

I suspect a Match bug with some artists, not all (Elton John for me).

I deleted the Elton John album I imported yesterday evening and chose to delete also files on Match, the album disappeared also from iPhone. I then reimported it, and it was good on Mac, splited in 4 on iPhone once sync to Match.

So I suspect a Match bug, as my tag are all the same on all albums 😉

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