Album order: missing track #

I have about 7300 songs in my iTunes library. Most of these I imported from the original CD using the "Get CD Track Names" to fill in the song names, etc. About two thirds of my songs have no Track Number saved (if you Get Info on a track, the little box is empty). The problem is that since upgrading to 7.6, the albums that don't have track numbers don't play in the correct order, and there doesn't appear to be a way to sort them in their original album order. In previous versions of iTunes, the tracks were in the correct order if I sorted by album or artist. My questions are:
1. Why did this change in 7.6?
2. How did previous versions know the order in which to play songs on an album? Is that information saved in the iTunes .xml file or someplace like that?
3. Is there a way to fix this without manually adding track numbers to 5,000+ songs?

Not as yet, but some people have found that re-encoding them to a different file format has helped - but only in a limited few cases.
Remember that (in my view) iTM's primary raisin d'être is to make your music available from your computer to your iOS device so it doesn't matter if any music is matched - it's just available to your iOS device in it's current format as with manual syncing.
Of course in reality many people were hoping for more and I understand the frustration with this. For example I was hoping iTM would fix all my id3 tags so I could harmonise my 4 'puters libraries but that ain't gonna happen.
Regards,
Shawn

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How can I get iTunes to display the tracks from a CD in their original (album) order?

To be absolutely honest, I don't really understand what this box is for, so I shall just use it to repeat and expand on my question. (I have already sent a "Feedback" comment on the same topic).
How can I get iTunes to display the tracks from a CD in their original (album) order?
It seems to me that there is something very basic wrong with the way iTunes handles CD Tracks.
Professionally produced CD tracks are seldom if ever in a randomised order. Why then does iTunes seem unable to display the tracks in the order they appear on the original CD source - whether from a personally owned CD or from a download from the iTunes Store?
Some music demands a specific, non-alphabetic sequence in order to make sense. Why does it seem that iTunes only offers Alphabetic, or reverse alphabetic order - both of which make a nonsense of the original, often intended order of tracks?
Why not replace the so-called "cover-art" in the bottom left hand corner if the iTunes window - which, while it may look attractive to some, gives the barest of information concerning the original disc, with a list of the original CD tracks in their original order, so that the user can easily reestablish the order in which they should be played.
As I would expect legibility might be a problem with doing this, why could not the original contents, (in their original order), at least, be displayed when the "cover art" is double clicked-on - the result of which at present gives me an enlarged version of the "Cover Art". While on the subject of the contents of the source disc, what about all the album notes which someone takes trouble to write in order to increase the appreciation of the music on the CD and the listener's general background knowledge of the artists involved. Such notes, it seems to me, have considerable intrinsic value in their own account. I would, I think, normally be prepared to buy such "Sleeve notes" - so long as a "taster" was supplied (as it is for the music) - for something like the cost of a single 'Tune" on iTunes.
These two aspects let Apple iTunes down enormously, in my opinion. I think that by chopping even quite protracted sequences of music up into bits does no one any favours - except perhaps Apple's already quite substantial bank balance. People have to be aware that two and a half, to three and a half minutes is a very short time to develop a piece of worthwhile music, and that there are many, many composers, not all of whom are alive today who have written music that huge masses of mankind value for the enrichment of their lives and the human condition in general.
Please make the viewing of iTunes tracks in their correct order by default possible. By all means have the alphabetical variations available as offering a different approach to the music, but not the sole approach to it - PLEASE.
Frustratedly yours
Alan Whitaker
PS I work at my old 24" iMac Intel Core 2 machine which runs OS "Tiger" - because it is more beautiful to look at, the screen is more pleasant to work on, and because, in some ways it is more capable (it will run FreeHand MX without needing a "patch"), than my more recent 21.5" which runs "Snow Leopard". (I don't find it that much slower, either).

Dear Mike
Thanks for the support. I am utterly amazed that after all the hype about how good iTunes is that it cannot play a downloaded CD in the correct order, and that what that order should be is not available directly from within one's own iTunes installation. (I know that one can go back to the iTunes Store to check what the order should be, but having downloaded the tracks surely iTunes is clever enough to retrieve this important information.
My iTunes to differ from yours in that I have also noticed that it seems unable to download copies of my "talking books" in the correct order either. But in my case it downloads them - from a CD - in order, but with the first track downloaded first - so that it appears at the bottom of the column of tracks so that it would get played last! (At least this is, while being inexplicable, a relatively "logical" bit of blundering and because of this is relatively easy to put right!).
I like many genres of music, some of which are not really programmed except perhaps by the artist performing them. I know that Frank Sinatra was very careful to programme his album songs to obtain a particular effect and in relation to the keys of the music. iTunes presumes to know better.
Film scores may be totally randomly put together, in some cases, but in others the order is vital to one's appreciation of the music as a whole and how it relates to the plot of the film.
In symphonic music most works are divided into sections and are conceived by the composer that way. Some individual sections may gain a life of their own if played separately, but they are never complete in the sense that the composer envisaged them without being placed in their proper context.
Opera and probably most choral music too, is similar except that the words may well become meaningless if the order is changed at the whim of a piece of ill-written computer code, while ballet music has to be heard totally within its sequential context or it becomes meaningless.
Finally, I would venture that iTunes, by jumbling up the order of the tracks as recorded on a CD, does an immense disservice, not only to the music on a particular CD, but to music in general, by expressing everything in terms of "Songs" - which it seems to interpret as stand-alone items of between 2 and 4 minutes whatever the genre. Even the way the iTunes publicity speaks of how many "songs" it can store instead of how many minutes or hours of recorded sound. This has to be another brick in the wall of "dumming-down" of people's expectations, and the shortening of their attention spans.
I don't know about anyone else, but I feel betrayed by Apple over this. Perhaps the look, feel and general presentation of an item are not the most desirable features of a consumer product. Maybe it should be judged more on it fitness for the purpose for which it was sold. There is one other possibility - that Apple are trying to redefine "Music" - and that everything that lasts longer than about 3.5 minutes or is in the form of what could for want of a better term be called symphonic in the broadest sense is something else - not "Music" within Apple's new definition, at all!
Well that's off my chest! now I can get down to creating some sort of order in my iTunes Libraries, knowing that I have to reconsult all the sources in order to confirm the source playing order.
Anyway thanks again. At least I know that it is not just me
alanfromthatcham

How do I change the order of tracks in an album?

I've got an album of uploaded tracks and they're automatically in alphabetical order. Is there any way I can change this? Thanks

Click on a different column header...
Selecting Artist or Album or track # will sort in track order.

Missing tracks in iTunes album folder

This evening I downloaded a 28-track album from the iTunes store. All 28 tracks show up in iTunes and on my iPod. All 28 tracks play in iTunes and on my iPod.
I backed up the new album by copying the iTunes folder to my external hard drive.
But then.....when I checked the back-up, I was surprised to see that only 2 out of 28 tracks on the new album had been copied to my external drive. Twenty-six tracks appear to be missing.
So I went to the original iTunes folder, and found the 26 of the 28 tracks appear to be missing there as well.
I then did a hard drive search-by-name for some of the missing tracks, and nothing turned up. But they must be on the hard drive somewhere, right? Or I couldn't play them in iTunes.
Baffled.

Scratch this thread.
Rebooted the computer twice, and all missing files have magically reappeared in their folder.
Go figure!

US Version of Album Missing Tracks

So I've been waiting on the release of Frank Turners new album Tape Deck Heart. I've been tracking this album for months, and as soon as iTunes put it up for PreOrder I did. However I just now noticed the US iTunes PreOrder is missing 3 tracks!
Tracks 1-12 are standard on all albums 13-18 are supposed to be part of the bonus track deluxe edition, and 19-20 are thrown in on the iTunes deluxe edition. The AU edition of the Deluxe version of the album is complete but the US version is missing one of the deluxe bonus tracks (Cowboy Chords) AND both the 'iTunes Deluxe Edition' live version songs 19 and 20.
AU Link:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/tape-deck-heart-deluxe-edition/id608870981
US Link:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/tape-deck-heart-deluxe-edition/id606653643
Of course, I can't purchase the album from the AU store because I have a US Apple ID.
How am I supposed to get the missing song, do they just eventually add it? Is there a way to buy from the AU store? Am I forced to download a SINGLE track from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Tape-Deck-Heart-Deluxe-Explicit/dp/B00CBUMTVU/ref=sr_1_2?i e=UTF8&qid=1366438269&sr=8-2&keywords=tape+deck+heart) since it appears they will have it?
I just don't understand why US users don't get the itunes bonus tracks, AND are missing one of the albums deluxe edition tracks.

You could try deleting the tracks that are wrong, then using iTunes Store > Quick Links > Purchased > Music > Not in My Library to redownload them.
If the problem persists use the report a problem links in your account history to contact iTunes Store support. Be clear exactly which tracks by number and title you are missing and that redownloading them yourself from your purchase history hasn't fixed things. Check the previews of those tracks in the store in case they are in error too.
tt2

HT1296 I downloaded an album from i Tunes to my i Phone 4 but somehow all but two of the tracks have deleted themselves from there. When I try to synch again (from a Windows pc) I can't upload the missing tracks again. they are playable from the PC but no

I downloaded an album from i Tunes to my i Phone 4 but somehow all but two of the tracks have deleted themselves from there. When I try to synch again (from a Windows PC) I can't upload the missing tracks again. They are playable from the PC but not the i Phone. Any ideas?

You may have to sync all your music off your phone (by unchecking Sync Music on the Music tab of your iTunes sync settings and syncing), then sync it back on to fix this.

Downloaded album missing tracks

I recently downloaded the album "Thunder, Lightning, Strike (Bonus Tracks)" by The Go! Team. It contains the correct number of tracks, with the correct titles, but two of them are in fact duplicates. Can anyone tell me how to remedy this? The vanilla version of the album doesn't seem to have the same issue, but it would cost me extra to download the missing tracks from there.

You could try deleting the tracks that are wrong, then using iTunes Store > Quick Links > Purchased > Music > Not in My Library to redownload them.
If the problem persists use the report a problem links in your account history to contact iTunes Store support. Be clear exactly which tracks by number and title you are missing and that redownloading them yourself from your purchase history hasn't fixed things. Check the previews of those tracks in the store in case they are in error too.
tt2

Complete my album downloads the missing tracks but then does not place it with the existing tracks in iTunes. i have a single song bought sat on its own and an album with a track missing, any ideas?

complete my album downloads the missing tracks but then does not place it with the existing tracks in iTunes. i have a single song bought sat on its own and an album with a track missing, any ideas?

I had this same problem and started a thread, but for the most part nobody responded and those who did somehow didn't understand what the problem was.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11504935#11504935
I'm sure the problem is sweat getting into the apple supplied headphone "remote." Basically even the smallest drop can slide down the wire and get into the unit.
Unfortunately I haven't found a solution other than to get a Belkin remote adapter and some sport headphones. This doesn't give you voice over, but you can still control the volume, skip, etc.
I've been doing this for a couple weeks now and it hasn't had a freak out since.

Album Art missing from one track

I've got a fair-sized CD collection, which I ripped to 320k MP3 a couple of years ago on a Windows machine. I've just imported the albums into iTunes on my iMac. I've managed to resolve a few problems, but this one has me beat:
One album has one track with no artwork. I realise that you have to import artwork on a per-track basis, so I assume that the artwork was missing from the ID tag when the album was originally ripped.
Thing is, I can't find the artwork anywhere else to re-import it onto this one track.
Is there any way of getting the artwork from another track on this album onto the track in question?

It is pretty simple. Just select the track with album art, drag the album art from the artwork window to desktop and you will have a .pictClipping file. Now select the track with album art missing and drag the .pictClipping into the artwork window and you are done.

Import tracks in album order when viewing by Date Added

I've seen some older posts regarding this, but nothing recently. Here's my issue, and I can't believe more people aren't up in arms about it:
I keep iTunes sorted by Date Added, so that my latest stuff is at the top -- pretty normal for a music listener, right?
Say I have a folder of mp3s and I drag them into iTunes. For a long time in years past, even though you're dragging the entire album in, they would just get added in the order that iTunes wanted, rather than in album order. Then, at some point recently, I assume after an update to iTunes (?), they magically started being added in the correct order. I was really happy about this, as the random order entire albums were added in was extremely annoying.
Now something's happened and the old behavior is back.
Does anyone know how to drag an album's worth of mp3s into iTunes and have iTunes load them in in *album* order, so that when you view by Date Added, they show your album as it would look on the back of a cd or whatever, in the correct order?

This won't directly answer your question, but I find that if I make a playlist of the album, then they appear in the correct order in that playlist.

List View shows all tracks of CD, grid view is missing tracks

I imported all my CDs into my iTunes library over the holidays. Over 40 GB of music. Now, I discover a flakey problem. On a CD, if I view via list view, the library shows 13 tracks. When switching to grid view and double-clicking on album, it shows tracks 1,2,4,6,9,12
When I use windows explorer, the iTunes folder only shows tracks 1,2,4,6,9,12. Yet I can play all 13 tracks on PC and iPod. Where are the 'missing' tracks being stored and why don't they show in both views? This is happening on quite a lot of the CDs that were imported, but others are fine.

This is most likely due to the content of the ID3 tags in the imported files. If a track features more than one artist, iTunes uses the first artist in the list to sort and organise the files. So one or more files imported from a CD might be stored in another artist's folder. iTunes plays the full album because it knows where all the tracks are (by virtue of the iTunes library database).
To get around this problem, edit the information for all the tracks on an album so the the "Artist" tag has the main artist first in the list.

How do I change the album order to "oldest-first" in my iPhone music player?

Ok, so up until my last update to iOS 7.1 when I opened an artist in my music player it would list their albums from the oldest to the newest, but since I updated to the new version, albums of any particular artist are listed from newest-to-oldest. I know how to change this order with podcasts, that's easy enough, but how to I change back to "Oldest first" for the music player? Please tell me this is possible, I much prefer to listen to bands' music in order.

Unless you opt to create a playlist and manually order the tracks, you can't.

Just bought a nano and want to download some of my iTunes library. The "Music" button shows almost all my selections but some albums are missing, yet thos albums appear on the nano icon on my desktop but none of the others. What's happening?

Just bought a nano and want to download some of my iTunes library. The "Music" button shows almost all my selections but some albums are missing, yet ONLY those albums appear on the nano icon on my desktop after being dragged there but none of the others. What's happening?
I've read some of the post here that I thought might help but they refer to titles (Music) and triangles in the "Devices" window which are nowhere to be seen when I open the "Devices" window.
I have iTunes 11.0.3 and Mac OS 10.6.8. Does this make a difference?

I should mention that, for the first problem, I do make sure that my new tracks are stored in the folder where I told iTunes that my music is in. Also, when I say the cataloging of my library stops short of cataloging all my songs, I have tried leaving the computer unattended for days (my computer's sleep mode is disabled). It always stops before cataloging all of my music regardless of whether I am doing something else while iTunes is cataloging, or if I just let iTunes be the only program that's open during the cataloging process.

Cover Flow Album Order

My 4th Gen iPod orders albums in Cover Flow by artist name, which I don't like to begin with, so firstly I'd like to know how to change this to by album title.
Also, even when it does order by artist name, it somehow works fine and then randomly puts a Simon and Garfunkel album right at the end, after 'Various Artists', meaning that particular album isn't even with the others I have by the same artists. This surely completely defeats the point of the artist name order, which I already don't want!
So even if there's no way to change the artist name order thing, I'd like some ideas on why it doesn't work with that one album please!
Can anyone help me?

I had this issue but managed to sort it...
Cover Flow was putting albums to the "back" of the list. All of the albums that were being put at the back were being classed by iTunes as compilations.
Even if the album is not in reality a compilation it will be listed as such by iTunes if it has any tracks with "artist 1 Feat. artist 2".
e.g.
Sting's album "Sacred Love" has a track with "Sting Feat. Mary J. Blige"
This meant iTunes classed the album as a compilation... (even if you change the artist details to remove the "Feat. artist" iTunes still classes it as a compilation... very frustrating!)
_To resolve the issue_
You will need to do this for each album individually (i.e. each album that is being sent to the back of the list) and it needs to be done in the main music library NOT in the playlists that you are syncing...
Highlight the album (all the tracks on that one album)
Go to "get info" (under "File" for any newbies :))
Select "NO" in the "compilations" box.
This should solve the problem

Wierd Album Ordering With The New Artwork

With the Artwork view (the middle one of the three)...
When im playing music on shuffle, when the song skips to a particular song, it moves that song up to the top of the list of the songs for that album. So instead of having the tracks sorted by Album and then Track number, one of them is out of order.
For example, if shuffle skips to track 5 in "Album X"...
the view would look like this:
Track 5 of Album X
Track 1 of Album X
Track 2 of Album X
etc etc...
The only way to get them back in order is to change something in their info pages so they get refreshed.
Then when a song in that album comes up again they are all out of order again.
This happens in all (as far as i can tell so far) albums meaning every time a song plays another album gets out of order.
Any ideas how to stop this?
Thanks,
Peter

After experimenting, this seems to only happen if you leave the new Album Artist column blank.
If you fill this in then it seems to be ok.

Album order: missing track #

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