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Kai2k Author

Level 1

0 points

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

Top-ranking 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 26, 2015 1:00 PM in response to boeboe

PPlease don't reset phone if you haven't done already. Save yourself the hassle. It won't fix it. We have reason to believe it's iOS 8.3 only issue. The feeling is iOS 8.4 when released on Monday will possibly fix it.

boeboe

Level 1

0 points

Jun 26, 2015 1:05 PM in response to Scottyboy99

@Scottyboy99 thx for your respone. I had just prepared to start the restore but it´s early enough. So I´ll wait for iOS 8.4 :-)

Jun 26, 2015 2:48 PM in response to Kai2k

I'm having the same problem as all you guys. I just noticed it last night; I've had it happen before but never to this extent. I keep an incredibly clean iTunes library so this misorganization shouldn't be happening. But after reading the threads on this issue I agree that iOS 8.4 should fix this; especially since the people running the beta claim the issue is gone. Cant wait till we get the update.

Jun 27, 2015 3:49 AM in response to iThinkingDifferent

Started happening to me as well. Very frustrating. I've spent hours trying to get this right, and then yesterday, this happens. I present, for your viewing pleasure, my new John Digweed section:

Jun 27, 2015 4:22 AM in response to Kai2k

It seems worse this morning, album art is now all over the place with artwork for individual tracks that appear on other albums representing the whole

album.

Very poor implementation from Apple.

Jun 27, 2015 5:29 AM in response to DavidMorton

Dude, you're library looks EXACTLY like mine right now. I had to think back and thought I might have posted last night and forgot about it. I have all of those Digweed albums and they are a mess right now.

Actually my entire library is a mess right now. The same as everyone is describing here. Only happened to me yesterday though. And I can pin point the moment in the afternoon because my iOS Match libraries were fine thought the day. I was on my laptop at one point, shut it down and grabbed my phone as I was walking to my car and I literally watched it happen.

I have a 15k track library that is quite impeccably organized. I have a lot of what I would say a unconventional music to the majority of iTunes users. Reason for saying that is that I used to be an underground house music DJ and I still collect a tone of "dance music". So I have tons of single track and two and three track EP's raging through a few decades. With that you you end up with a lot more artist and albums than you would if most of your library was made up mostly of full length albums/CDs (obviously). Which I also have a good amount of. With that said...My iOS libraries are absolutely mangled right now. Looking through quickly, its looks like anything that I had tagged as "various artists" or "compilation" has been broken apart. But I have to report that its is not only that. I have 3-4 track EP's by the same artist that have been pulled apart. Buts it seems quite random at this point. But again, its looks like everything that is "various artists" or "compilation" has been broken apart. And just like you all, my laptop where my library is located is perfectly intact. Even with Match turned on.

***** that some of you have been experiencing this for over a month now. I'm not in a panic yet because this just happened to me yesterday and there is an update coming any day now but I would certainly be much more frustrated if I were experiencing what some of you have been. At this point I would say just make sure you're main library is backed and just hang on a few days and see what happens with the update.

Jun 27, 2015 9:19 AM in response to Kai2k

Well I'm with you now. My library is completely messed up on both my iPad and iPhone. It happened yesterday. iTunes on Mac is fine. I wonder if this has to do with the progressive implementation of Apple Music. See attached: my Boys don't cry album by Shostakovich...

Jun 27, 2015 9:32 AM in response to Kai2k

This has happened before with iTunes Match. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

Complete phone reset and syncing from iTunes makes everything happy. They've had a long time to get a fully baked product, and they're just not hitting it.

Jun 28, 2015 10:19 AM in response to Kai2k

I am having the same issue as everyone else in this thread. I'm not quite sure what to do at this point.

Jun 27, 2015 11:20 AM in response to mbushnell

JJust to update people who have come to this thread late. Before any drastic action I suggest wait and see what ios 8.4 brings. Whilst there is still uncertainty someone did report the problem seems fixed in the beta. It seems the mess is specific to iOS 8.3. If it's still a mess after installing iOS 8.4 then it's time for us all to hit Apple hard on this. I am very annoyed as is, but there's not much we can do. If anyone has forthcoming calls with apple support point them to this forum, although the seem ignorant to the issue feigning no knowledge. Deep down Apple must be aware - I think something cloud side got pushed and caused the mess and somehow also relates to the Apple music that is coming

Jun 28, 2015 2:48 AM in response to Kai2k

AAbsolutely raging this has happened to me too. Takes months of perseverance to get tags and nearly 25000 tracks perfect, then in front of my eyes a lot of them are corrupted Have fed it back, and hopefully as some have said the new update will resolve all of this. Unfortunately, in my previous experience, when things have gone wrong with iTunes Match, Apple do not seem to be very forthcoming with any support, even though we pay for this service. Proof of this is the very fact there is no obvious support route on their website Have fed back via the link supplied earlier. If new music streaming app fit for purpose very well may cancel iTunes Match

Jun 28, 2015 10:17 AM in response to Scottyboy99

Jun 28, 2015 3:11 AM in response to rudifromharderwijk

That *** if that's the case

Jun 28, 2015 3:23 AM in response to Kai2k

I feel everyone's pain.....below my original post in this feed. I have 170gb of music that has been formatted correctly.....I tried everything, upgrading to the Beta version of 8.4, downgrading to IOS 8.2 (apple engineer sent me the ispw file), deleting my Apple ID which *****, removing everything and re adding.....nothing works. It is something that they have changed in the service itself...nothing to do with the IOS. As much as I have spent so many hours with them, receiving a substantial amount of itunes vouchers and a full refund, I do hope someone looks at this and realises its affecting more then a handful of people. They support team are not experienced in match and fob you off with the same techniques. Very poor from apple, very poor.

"I have been having the same issue and have spoken to 5 senior iTunes engineers with still no progress. I have been using iTunes match for some time now and this is a new bug. Before you guys go to the extreme like I have I will list what I have tried......

1) turning off iTunes match from MBP and iPhone

2) removing all songs from phone, and MPB whilst turning match on and off

3) deleting 169GB of music from the icloud, and rematch

4) getting a refund for match and it being removed from my apple ID then re signing up and matching all songs again

I have tried everything you guys have listed above, and I must add that my iTunes library is formatted correctly. I even had a senior engineer remote on to my MBP and check all the formatting and still no explanation as to why this is happening.

I have another call from an engineer booked today. I will update."

Jun 28, 2015 3:32 AM in response to Community User

Can I ask: have you tried deleting tracks from the iTunes library with "delete from iCloud" ticked, but without deleting the files from disk, then reading them?

I've tried that and so far it seems to have worked, and the change hasn't reverted in the last week so the album stays together.

The reason i ask is that, with 24,999 track, I'm not keen to do that by hand if a few days late it is all going to get messed up again.

(Update on my Amazon trial - it seems to work okay, but I'm still hoping iTunes match will work)

cheers

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