Q: iTunes track numbers now limited to 3 digits?

Paul Duke1 wrote:

 

I just noticed that when I alter any of the info for a song in iTunes, iTunes throws out the track number if it has four digits. For instance, if a track number is 1,234 iTunes changes that number to 1.

 

I realize this is unusual... I happen to have some language lessons I've subscribed to for years so the track numbers are up into the 2,000s.

 

Can anybody confirm that iTunes 12 only supports three places/digits in the track number field?

 

I'm using iTunes 12.3.1.23 on OS 10.10.5 Yosemite.

 

thanks

 

Paul

Paul,

I tried it on my machine, running iTunes 12.3.0, and indeed the Track field is limited to 3 digits.

"Now"? I use iTunes 7.5 from 2007 and it is limited to 3.

You could try using a third party tag editor which supports 4 digits and see if iTunes is still willing to accept them as long as it isn't asked to write them.  I don't know what is available for Mac but I know Media Rage is a tag tool.

Hi Paul,

I can confirm that modifying other track details will truncate track number to a single digit.

This even happens when you opening the details box and clicking the arrow in the bottom corner to cycle through tracks without making any changes!

I can also confirm that while previous versions were limited to typing 3 digit track numbers in the box, they would leave a previously entered4 digit track number alone when cycling through tracks.

I'm running OS X 10.10.5 and iTunes 12.3.2.35

I'm having the same issue with 4-digit track numbers being truncated. Like you, I've got lots of language lessons with track numbers well up into the 2000s - those numbers were attached to the downloaded podcasts (ChinesePod for you too?). Those numbers are important for filing. But unfortunately, whenever I change any other tag, the track number is reset - I guess only the first digit is kept, and the others are scrapped. iTunes then doesn't let you re-enter the original 4-digit track number. I believe it never has let you enter one directly, although it's accepted them if that's the way the track came.

Even undoing what you just did doesn't fix the damage - it undoes whatever other change you made most recently, but the track number change doesn't revert.

To repair the damage: Doug's Apple Scripts can work: "Put Track Prefix to Track Number" and, if I recall correctly, "Increment Number Tags" can also do it.

However, I wish the reset wouldn't happen in the first place. I've got most of these lessons with Media Kind = Audiobook (because iTunes has a bad habit of occasionally deleting old podcasts). And I've got them in playlists with repetition, but Apple broke those options for iOS devices when they moved all audiobook files to iBooks. So now I'd like to rename those language lessons as Media Kind = Music, but if I do that, I'll lose all the track numbers, which will really mess up the sorting. Doug's Apple Scripts can repair damage to a couple of tracks, but if you're repairing hundreds or thousands, it'll take forever.

Your original recollection was correct. There was a brief period of time when four-digit track numbers were indeed supported, but have now regressed to just three digits. I remember this distinctly, because I reported it as a bug, and was glad to see Apple addressed it. In my case, the four-digit track numbers were significant for Podcasts, because many of them use the track field for episode numbers.

Not only did Apple take away the four-digit field, but also totally wreck what's left of the numbers by making them all number one.

Time to file again.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

It looks like the bugs related to this have been fixed in iTunes 12.5.1. Now, if I make other edits to a file with a 4-digit track number, the track number remains unchanged. I believe you still can't make a 4-digit track number - that's limited to three digits - but at least iTunes no longer throws out already existing 4-digit track numbers when you're editing something else.