Q: Duplicate artists showing in My Music - Artist View
As of this week, for no apparent reason, since I have added any new tracks/music videos to my iTunes library, each time I do (with the exception of two tracks), each has been created as a duplicate artist (see example of Troye Sivan in image - Artist View on left hand column shows two Troye Sivan artists).
I added a music video (I already have two in the Troye Sivan artist library) and it created a new duplicate artist.
I have tried selecting all three tracks (in Song View) and editing them as multiple items so they are all identical but this doesn't work (as it normally would). Actually I tried this with a recent Duran Duran track and not only did this not work but it took several other tracks from albums and moved them into the duplicate artist library!
I added a Queen track but this worked fine (and I added it in exactly the same way as the other new tracks).
I've looked manually in my folders within the Mac iTunes library and they are all in a single folder in the correct album sub folders. When looking in My Music, Album View, they all appear together - it is only in Artist View.
Is anyone else aware of this issue? Does anyone have any solution? Is this caused by a recent update (either iTunes or IOS) that I am not aware of?
Thanks
iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11)
Posted on Dec 29, 2015 8:44 AM
OK so after almost pulling my hair out, I have found a workaround to this glitch. It seems to work on every duplicate artist that has been created this week in my iTunes library so I'm confident this works:
- Open My Music in Song View (top right drop down menu).
- Sort the columns by Artist (alphabetically) by clicking on Artist at top of column.
- Then click on Artist View
- Select to a song in the duplicated artist.
- Then click on Song View (top right drop down menu)
- The track you selected should be highlighted. Then select ALL those with the same artist name (above and below the highlighted track) - this should include your tracks in the duplicated artist
- Then Get Info on all selected items and edit as multiple items.
- Change the Artist name by adding a space and X
- Change the Album Artist name by calling it the same as Artist name (ie. With a space and X at the end)
- Click OK
- All should appear in a new single consolidated artist (with space and X at the end of the name).
- Then click on Artist View (top right drop down menu)
- Go to newly named artist and all albums/tracks should be in one place
- Select ALL tracks
- Then Get Info on all selected items and edit as multiple items.
- Change the Artist name back by removing the previously added space and X
- Change the Album Artist name back by calling it the same as Artist name (ie. removing the previously added space and X)
- Click OK
- The Artist still appears to be named with the space and X included, but if you quit iTunes and reopen this will change to the correct artist name.
A bit of a long process but for OCD nerds like me who like to keep their library in order, it works. Let’s hope whatever has caused this in iTunes is fixed in a new update as it's really annoying.
Posted on Dec 31, 2015 8:13 AM