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Itunes 12.7 bug: every song is its own album

Devices: iPhone 7+ IOS 11.1, iPad Mini 2 IOS 11.1, iPhone 4s IOS 9


Since updating to iTunes 12.7 for Windows, albums of MP3's can no longer be grouped by album on my devices. Each song is appearing as a separate album.


NB: this is music being uploaded from my PC to my iPhone, not downloaded from iTunes or the cloud.


After uninstalling 12.7, deleting the .itl file and reverting to iTunes 12.6, (beware iTunes will delete all your device's ringtones and music), music is transferred correctly and groups by Album as expected.


Reinstalling 12.7 reintroduces the bug. Uninstalling and reverting to 12.6 reverses it.


I have seen others reporting the same issue.


Can we get confirmation that this is a known issue and will be fixed, please?

iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 11, null

Posted on Sep 27, 2017 3:43 PM

Reply
74 replies

Jun 21, 2018 2:13 PM in response to absquatulater

Actually, there IS a solution - found on StackExchange - and it's pretty easy.

I I tested this with Mac:

1. If album(s) you want to move to iPhone are not in iTunes - import the into iTunes library on the desktop

2. Connect iPhone to laptop

3. Move (drag) album(s) from iTUNES LIBRARY onto the iPhone


that's it. The album, album art and all the tracks are imported and correctly assigned to the album(s).

Jul 12, 2018 10:25 AM in response to absquatulater

So what the **** is gonna happen when I attempt to add my external 8TB music collection, full of mp3 and Flac files into the library aka the Itunes clusterf--ck?


I predict disaster. Why cant these ******** just undo the crap causing this problem in the first place !!!!



You ever try downgrading an Itunes from 12.XX to an older, smarter version when you are using High Sierra ?


Forget about it!!!!

Jul 12, 2018 10:55 AM in response to Chuckworld

You can create a library on the external drive and/or set the options under iTunes > Preferences > Advanced for Keep... and Copy... so that it doesn't make copies of files you add or move them around. iTunes doesn't read any structure imposed by folder layout, an album is a collection of tracks with a common album title and artist or album artist. iTunes won't read your Flac files. See iTunes for Mac installers for advice on installing an older build.


tt2

Jul 13, 2018 5:45 AM in response to Kiran Wagle

There are several issues at hand; some in iTunes and some in iOS 11.x ... both on macOS and Windows. Also note that some older operating systems may not support ID3v2.4 (ex: Windows 7) without 3rd party shell integration add-ons for Explorer and/or Windows Media Player. The same is likely true on older macOS (ex: El Capitan).


Using iTunes Library to Copy to iOS Device:


As of iTunes 12.7, ID3Tag v2.4 is supported. iTunes sets the "Work" ID3 tag equal to the "Grouping" tag. As previously mentioned in this thread, problems arise if the classical music tag details are partially filled in. This can be remedied by ensuring that the "Grouping" ID3Tag is empty.


iTunes expects files to be added to the Library via the "Automatically Add To iTunes" folder; during the add/import process, iTunes renames the files (ex: ## song name.mp3). Songs with the "Compilation" ID3Tag are placed in the "Compilations" folder. Artist/Album folders are initially determined by the "Album Artist" ID3Tag.


Copying the songs from the iTunes Library to the iOS 11.x device yields expected results.



Using iTunes to Copy to iOS Device (i.e. Not Using iTunes Library):


Copying the songs from the iTunes Library to the iOS 11.x device yields songs that appear as their own separate albums.


Removing the songs from the iOS device and recopying yields expected results providing that the ID3Tag information is correctly entered and "Grouping" ID3Tag is empty.


The reason is it works the second time around is that the Music SQLite database on the iOS device contains a list of all songs that have been copied to the device ... even when the song is removed. This can be seen by used a tool (ex: iMazing) to copy the SQLite database locally to a computer and using an SQLite DB Viewer to examine the tables.



Using a 3rd Party Application to Copy to iOS Device:


Using a 3rd Party Application to directly copy the songs to the iOS device yields the expected results regardless if the ID3Tags are properly set or not.



At first guess; it leaves me wondering if perhaps a further iOS update will be required as the problem persists on iOS 11.4.1.


Cheers,

Jul 13, 2018 7:13 AM in response to H Gagne

Here's an animated GIF showing the various ID3Tag details from one of my compilation tracks:


User uploaded file


I typically use iTunes as a conduit to copy tracks to my iOS Devices. Now I'm having to either copy the tracks via the iTunes Library, or copy/delete/copy if I want to continue what I was doing before, or use a tool like iMazing.

Jul 15, 2018 11:25 PM in response to Fan Boyd

Hi all, I've kind of figured out a workaround, if you want to call it that.


Essentially, what you want to do is open "get info" for every song that is showing up as it's own album. In my case, it's every song that isn't in an album. When get info is opened, in the "album" field, just hit the spacebar once and save. Do this for all songs that aren't in an album. The caveat here is that every additional song added will need to have the typed space into the album field.


In my library, I sorted by album name and then I batch selected every song not in an album, and I edited the album field for all. I tested this first with a group of songs under one artist only, and it worked. Then it worked for the rest. Hope this helps you guys out there. I'm still waiting for the bug to be fixed too.

Jul 29, 2018 12:28 PM in response to AlbyDangles

I've got a very similar problem, but only with about 1/3 of my music. It's also randomly dumped one song in the middle of a different album by a very different artist - despite the fact that everything is in the right place on iTunes on my PC :/


These are all tracked I've ripped from CD into iTunes, but so are about half the tracks that are behaving.

Itunes 12.7 bug: every song is its own album

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