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iTunes 12.3.2 does not merge tracks into existing album

I wanted to append a few tracks ripped from my vinyl singles as bonus tracks to an album in iTunes 12.3.2.35. I added the albums to a playlist and added the correct albums titles. Yet somehow the tracks weren't added to the appropriate albums. They remained in a single album (with two different titles!) that had an identical title to an already existing album.


I checked and double-checked, but all fields were entered correctly. I could force to merge one album by selecting tracks over two albums (one regular and the other the album with two titles above) by renaming the album from "title" to "title -" and back. I concluded this must be a bug so I tried the same with the other. Unfortunately this didn't work.


This is what the album looked like in iTunes:


User uploaded file


and this in the Finder:


User uploaded file


I finally managed to group everything into a single album by adding a fake album artist tag and removing it. But there must be something really off with the new iTunes and grouping into albums.

Posted on Dec 16, 2015 3:15 PM

Reply
13 replies

Dec 16, 2015 8:57 PM in response to Ruud Altenburg

I have the same issue. It just started with the 12.3.2.35 update (Mac OSX El Capitan), which has also created other problems involving the alphabetical sorting of edited playlist folders. The standard "fixes" noted by Mobie Blues do not work. I have removed all information from the tracks, re-entered the correct album and artist names, deleted the tracks from the iTunes library, re-added them back into the library, and deleted and reinstalled the iTunes app. Nothing is working at this point. I have stopped making any edits to iTunes tracks or playlists at this point.

Dec 17, 2015 5:09 PM in response to cliffrandall

I found what appears to be a work-around solution until (hopefully) Apple fixes this bug. The albums are splitting whenever tracks are edited in the Artists view. If tracks are edited in the Songs view, everything works. Unfortunately, once the edits are made in Artists view and the album "splits", there is no going back. So I had to delete the tracks where the albums were incorrectly split, re-add the files from my backup iTunes music folder, and then make make the edits from the Songs view. What a pain.

Dec 18, 2015 5:30 AM in response to Ruud Altenburg

I managed to merge one album by editing the album title and the other by entering an 'album artist' and deleting it. But apparently these workarounds are random.


BTW another issue I noticed (in the second screen shot) is that the file names aren't updated, even when "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" is selected. Normally (as in iTunes 11 anyway) they would be prepended with disc and track number.


I had postponed "updating" to iTunes 12 for as long as possible, but Apple forced my hand with iOS 9. iTunes 11 could upgrade my iPhone to iOS 9 but sneakily refused to connect to it once it was installed. iTunes 12 is an even bigger nightmare than I had anticipated.

Dec 29, 2015 11:18 AM in response to Ruud Altenburg

I had the problem were I imported a double album and ended up with two versions and two covers.

Everything according to the info was exactly the same but adding disc 1 of 2 and 2 of 2 wouldn't group them together.

To get round it I found if you "cmd select both albums" and then "cmd I" then change the Album name to <album> and Ok it, the albums would merge together.

Then "cmd I" and change the album name to the one you want and Ok it.

However when I looked at the album only half was there, and half was deleted. ......... panic.

DONT PANIC ........ close down iTunes and reopen it and then check and you will find one album cover with disc 1 and disc 2 when you drop down.

I hope this helps.

Jan 16, 2016 3:27 PM in response to welshcatholic

Thanks for the hint but that still didn't work in the latest version. What did work was:


1. sudo su

2. rm -r /Applications/iTunes.app

3. restore iTunes 12.3.1.23 from Time Machine backup

4. copy/backup offending albums via Finder

5. delete albums from iTunes

6. copy albums back to iTunes

7. rename artist in offending albums to "David Bowie--"

8. rename artist in offending albums to "David Bowie"


Surely I will stick to this version of iTunes because I'm pretty sure the next update will mess up things even worse.

Jun 11, 2016 3:12 AM in response to Ruud Altenburg

I have had the same problem this week. It would we an idea for Apple to add a pop-up tab when adding any artist with a recommendation tab, asking 'would you like to add this artist to..... ???? Come on apple !!!


Anyway, my new work around works.

1. Right click on the David bowie Group with the highest number of tracks on the left hand Artist pane.

2. Copy the Artist name from there.

3. Right Click on the Rouge Tracks and rename them - artist - there XXXX. Apply it.

4. Quit iTunes. Open iTunes . Rename the artist in the XXXX David Bowie by pasting the name you copied earlier.

5 Drag them to the desktop and then delete them from the iTunes library.

6. Quit iTunes. Open iTunes and go to David Bowie - like you have on your picture above.

7. Then add the tracks to your library from your desktop. They should now merge to the Artist in the right way.

iTunes 12.3.2 does not merge tracks into existing album

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