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User profile for user: Kylester
Kylester Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Song Titles on iPhone Showing a Number

On my iPhone 8 (iOS 11.3.1) some of my song titles are just showing a number (mostly "6" or "7"). This has been happening for several months.


In iTunes (v 12.7.4.80) the songs are labeled correctly. "Song info" shows the correct track titles. Even the now playing screen on the iPhone shows the correct titles.


Some things I've tried:

  • Manually deleting all music from iPhone and resyncing.
  • Deleting files from iTunes and re-adding.
  • Factory reset of iPhone.


Attached are screen shots of the issues from one particular song ("Mr. Self Destruct" which is track 1 of Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral). This isn't happening for all my music, but I've noticed it in several albums.


On iTunes everything looks normal. Song plays fine.

User uploaded file

"Song info" doesn't show anything strange:

User uploaded fileUser uploaded file


On iPhone in the Music App several listed track names are incorrect:

User uploaded file


But when you play the song it shows the proper track name:

User uploaded file


Any help with this issues would be greatly appreciated!

iPhone 8, iOS 11.3.1

Posted on May 3, 2018 1:26 PM

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User profile for user: Kylester
Kylester Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Posted on May 3, 2018 6:25 PM

That was exactly the issue! Thanks for your help!


If anyone else runs into this, here are a few tips for resolving it:

If you select "Song info" for only one song, you will have a drop down that lets you access the "Work" field instead of the checkbox that turingtest2 mentioned.

User uploaded file

  • To clear all issues:
    1. Go to a list view of all songs.
    2. Add the "Work" column.
    3. Sort by "Work" column.
    4. Select all songs with data you want to remove.
    5. Get "Song info" with all selected.
    6. Check the "Use Work and Movement" checkbox.
    7. Delete data from work field.
    8. (This might be unnecessary) Uncheck the "Use Work and Movement" checkbox.
    9. Click "OK" and wait on your files to update.
  • Then you probably want to follow a procedure like above to clear out the "Grouping" field from your songs. It appears the "Work" field gets filled when you make a change to a file with something in "Grouping".


Thanks again turingtest2!

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User profile for user: Kylester
Kylester Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

May 3, 2018 6:25 PM in response to turingtest2

That was exactly the issue! Thanks for your help!


If anyone else runs into this, here are a few tips for resolving it:

If you select "Song info" for only one song, you will have a drop down that lets you access the "Work" field instead of the checkbox that turingtest2 mentioned.

User uploaded file

  • To clear all issues:
    1. Go to a list view of all songs.
    2. Add the "Work" column.
    3. Sort by "Work" column.
    4. Select all songs with data you want to remove.
    5. Get "Song info" with all selected.
    6. Check the "Use Work and Movement" checkbox.
    7. Delete data from work field.
    8. (This might be unnecessary) Uncheck the "Use Work and Movement" checkbox.
    9. Click "OK" and wait on your files to update.
  • Then you probably want to follow a procedure like above to clear out the "Grouping" field from your songs. It appears the "Work" field gets filled when you make a change to a file with something in "Grouping".


Thanks again turingtest2!

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User profile for user: turingtest2
turingtest2
User level: Level 10
274,414 points

May 3, 2018 6:12 PM in response to Kylester

At a guess these tracks are in MP3 format and you had previously entered those values in the Grouping field. When the Work and Movement features for classical music were introduced Apple decided to reuse this field for the Work name. Use Get Info, copy tick the box that says Use Work and Movement, cut the existing value with CTRL-X, untick the box, paste into Grouping with CTRL+C if needed, and click OK. Sync. You should now see the correct track names on your iDevice.


If you see this issue with .aiff tracks then the unwanted work value cannot be removed for some reason. The workaround is convert the tracks to Apple Lossless, edit, then convert back if required.


tt2

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Song Titles on iPhone Showing a Number

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