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Various Artist - sorting problems iTunes

So i have a huge library of compilation albums, some are identified correctly in terms of song name, artists name, album name, and the 'album is a compilation of songs by various artists' ticked. HOWEVER


the vast majority of them simply have Various Artists, or Various where in many cases the actual artist name is part of the file name (if that makes sense).


The issue I have, when using iTunes 12.x is when I use the 'artist' list, the 'various artists' doesn't put all albums under that single grouping, but rather, it randomly picks albums, or in some cases only parts of the album, and lists each item individually, so my 'artist view list' in iTunes is enormous.


I've mucked about with the 'info/sorting' tab a lot, but in many cases it just reverts back after I click OK.


I believe changing data in the iTunes 'info' window doesn't actually change metadata in the files themselves, so it is likely this metadata that is the problem?


If anyone has a solution - it is getting really boring having this huge list, and having to hunt for a complete compilation album because iTunes scatters it's various parts under all sorts of groupings.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11), WD My Cloud NAS

Posted on Feb 27, 2016 5:11 PM

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15 replies

Feb 27, 2016 5:36 PM in response to turingtest2

Thank you - i've tried all this sort list stuff, but i've not tried the 'x' idea, so I will give that a try. Just now i've gone through and changed the 'info' data to just say various artists for about 20 compilations, the same with sort artist and album artist, but when it updates and I go back to 'songs' view, none of that data is there.


I do wonder if my music library is just too big or too full of these compilations/various artist type albums and iTunes just isn't up to the job. I also ponder that this was never an issue until Apple music came along and wanted to rewrite everything, so despite having that (Apple Music) disabled (in theory), I suspect that little bit of code does not help.


Thanks for the 'add and x' idea, I'll see if that resolves this ongoing frustration.


Cheers

Feb 27, 2016 5:33 PM in response to MichaelRT1972

Generally setting a common Album title and Album Artist for each album will fix things.

If tracks are to be synced to a non-iOS device this needs to be a common Artist and/or the album needs to be set as a Compilation.


If iTunes shows multiple instances of an artist or an album then what generally works is to select all related tracks and use Get Info to add say a trailing X to each of the fields that the tracks should have in common:

  • For an album; Album, Album Artist, and Artist (if artist is the same for all tracks)
  • For an artist; Album Artist (and Artist unless there are guest/featured artists listed which should not be changed)

Apply the change which merges things together, then remove the excess characters.


Use the songs view and display the fields Album, Sort Album, Album Artist, Sort Album Artist, Artist and Sort Artist side by side so you see whether or not it is appropriate to edit Artist and if sort values could be causing any further problems. See Grouping tracks into albums for more help if required.


tt2

Feb 27, 2016 6:25 PM in response to MichaelRT1972

If metadata changes don't take possibilities are tracks marked as read-only or with incorrect security permissions that don't allow the files to be updated, or in the case of mp3 files, multiple tags. A workaround for this last possibility is addressed in the linked article.


Apple Music doesn't exactly make fixing up metadata easier. 😕


tt2

Feb 27, 2016 6:53 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks again, i did check folder permissions and such, all appear to be ok, as in i'm the owner with read/write permissions etc on the external drive. I did take your advice and changed all the artist and album artist to have XX at the end.... updated all the songs, then changed it back to various/various artists... it does seem to have 'mostly' worked. there are some that haven't but i'm so over itunes I'll just delete the tracks that aren't playing correctly.... probably never miss them anyway....


You seem to know lots about iTunes.... so here's a quickie, I'm sure in one of the playlist types, the smart or non smart, there used to be a right click option that said 'update smartlist' or words to that effect. This appears to have disappeared now, and the couple of lists I have that in theory should update as I add new tracks, so they can be copied to my iPhone, well it doesn't work.... any clues, did apple remove this 'update' feature because they thought their alternative option worked?


Thanks again for your help/wisdom, iTunes skills are like hens teeth.

Nov 13, 2016 11:48 PM in response to turingtest2

I have used the "trailing character" trick and it usually works, though it's obviously a bug that should be addressed. This was never an issue with iTunes until recently. I have been adding new songs to the Library the past few days and with the new iTunes running on OS Sierra they will not sort to the artist- they will create a new grouping. The problem with using the trailing character is that the artist has over 3500 songs already and it takes iTunes a LONG time to process them. I've never used the "Album Artist" field. Is there no other way? Thanks.

Nov 14, 2016 12:11 AM in response to jmj20

Eek, you certainly don't want to have to update 3,500 tracks just to get say 10 to fall in line. Try changing the problem tracks so that they don't match, either with a trailing X or something random. Close ITunes then reopen which should make it reindex the collections of values for autocompete. Now go back in to edit the field you're trying to fix and use autocomplete to select the value you want. Hopefully iTunes will merge the items as it is supposed to.


tt2

Nov 14, 2016 11:46 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for your help. To verify your suggestion: All 3500 songs already have a trailing "x" since I used that trick a week ago and it did work. The 2 songs that will not sort also have the x- I put it in as I added them. I added a y to one if them and a z to the other. That did separate them. Then I quit iTunes, re-opened it, and changed the y and the z back to an x. Now they have stayed separated from one another as well as the artist, so it's worse. I quit iTunes again and re-opened. Still no change. I restarted the computer but no dice either. Before I had this issue, I found that if the "Album Artist" field had an entry it would effect the sorting so I've made sure that it was blank. Could that have an effect now? If so, it would mean re-sorting all 3500 again. Also, when I go to "Recently Added" it shows the album I'm trying to add to and all the songs are there as they should be- ??

Nov 14, 2016 12:59 PM in response to jmj20

All 3500 songs already have a trailing "x" since I used that trick a week ago and it did work.


The idea of the trailing X method is to add it to merge things, then immediately remove it again so that things are shown the way you want them to be. In most cases one is working with a single album, or a few albums by a single artist. Modifying 3,500 tracks at once is a little more drastic. Ideally you'd be able to work with just the new tracks in a way that links them to the rest. I know that I've always been able to get there in the end but it does seem to take an unnecessary degree of persistence. 😠


BTW artist sorting is controlled by the first non blank value from Sort Album Artist, Album Artist, Sort Artist, Artist. I'd generally recommend that that Album Artist is completed as appropriate. Use sort values consistently if you're going to add them and don't try to merge different primary values with a common sort value.


tt2

Nov 21, 2016 7:56 PM in response to turingtest2

With, as you said, "an unnecessary degree of persistence" I was able to get the songs sorted to where they belong by adding and subtracting trailing characters multiple times over many days. But any newly added songs since then have the same problem- so the issue persists. I have always been careful about consistency with the fields since I have learned how they can mess up the sort- for instance, "Album Artist" can cause problems so I leave that blank. I also leave the "Artist Sort As" field blank also unless it's an artist with a first and last name because I sort by last name. I wonder if they would help in a positive way in this case? The reason I believe this is a bug is because in Album View or Recently Added the songs are displayed as they should be- it's only in Artist View that they're not, they create multiple grouping for the same artist- and Artist view is what I use 99% of the time. If you have no other suggestions I'll just have to hope that Apple sends a fix soon. I have been using iTunes for about ten years without this issue until the last couple of upgrades. Thanks, again. Jim

Various Artist - sorting problems iTunes

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