Split Albums

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. Occasionally it may help to close and reopen iTunes between the two renaming operations. Part of a compilation should also be set consistently.

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

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.

One further tip for really stubborn duplicates. At one point I had three lots of Various Artists in the artists view of my iTunes Match library that wouldn't respond to the usual trailing X treatment. What I found worked was to add the trailing X to start with, but then with each group that iTunes wanted to keep separate start typing a value and let iTunes autocomplete from say Var... to Various Artists. Picking from the autocomplete lists seemed to work when pasting/editing the whole value didn't.

tt2

So that's

• H:\Music
• H:\Music\iTunes
• H:\Music\iTunes Media
• H:\Music\iTunes Music

with media scattered around the last 3?

See Make a split library portable. Ideally you would rearrange everything into the standard shape of an iTunes folder containing the library files and an iTunes Media folder containing all of the media. I'd also usually put that folder at the root of the drive, i.e. as H:\iTunes in this case. Which way to do that is most efficient depends in part on how big the library is and how much free space you have. If you don't already have a backup it might be best to rebuild the library in the right shape on a new drive, check it all works, then blow away the old one and clone everything back as a backup.

tt2

When you make the first edit, e.g. adding a trailing X, is it accepted and shown in the main display? If not see Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows. Otherwise try closing iTunes and then opening it again. Are the tracks still showing as two or more entries? Is the same set of tracks in each? Have you looked for any of the other issues detailed at Grouping tracks into albums?

tt2

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2