Albums being split by iTunes

This is really bugging me since iTunes 11 was released. I'd say a quarter of my albums in iTunes 11.0.2 are being split when in Artist & in Album views. It appears to be the 1st track of each of those albums being split from the others.
I made sure that all the tracks have the same Track & Album artist written, and the same Album name. I copied & pasted into the fields, so I know they're all correct.
I found this article http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1468 but, I don't really want to mark them as compilations (because they AREN'T!!!).
This is an example of what's going on:
If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated!

... I've found an even easier way of resolving this, where the main artist has guest artists on different tracks:
select all the tracks in the album
change the album artist field to that of the main artist
click on OK
... lo and behold, all the tracks are then grouped together as a single album but retain the individual artist name(s) on each track

Similar Messages

Album with mixed artists is being split by iTunes and loses cover art?

It's got different artists for each track, and the album is split up and the cover art goes when put onto iTunes. How to fix?

Generally all you need to do is fill in an appropriate Album Artist. For more details see my article on Grouping Tracks Into Albums, in particular the topic One album, too many covers.
tt2

Songs from the same album are split in iTunes after import

I just installed iTunes 8 and had it automatically import my unprotected WMA files. When browsing the albums in iTunes I noticed that several albums had been split into 2 or more albums. I did some digging around on the Forums and found out why and that the solution was to mark the songs as being a part of a compilation.
I followed the instructions here (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1468). E.g. one album was showing as 5, so I selected the songs, did a Get Info, then Options tab -> Part of a compilation = Yes. I have "Group compilations when browsing" turned on in the Advanced tab of the Preferences dialog.
Yet when I browse by album, the songs are still showing in 5 albums.
Any ideas?

There is something different about the tags to create this condition. I have run across it many times. The solution should be as follows:
Select all of the items on one album, even if they are listed as 5 albums. Right click, then Get Info. You might see that some of the info on the multiple items info screen is missing. This is because at least one of the songs is different than the rest. You should use this screen to ensure the Artist and Album fields are exactly identical, and that the Compilations button (on the options tab) is the same for all the songs on the one album. By entering info on the multiple items info screen, you change all of the info for each song. This is particularly important for anything you did not directly import into iTunes from the CD - the previous import or copy did not didn't ensure these tags were the same.
Post your results - I'd be interested in knowing if this helped.
Nathan

Hi, when I upload music into itunes from a cd it sometimes appears in itunes as two different albums and split up the music in 2 or even three albums....how can i merge these albums...this is particularly true when one album may have different composers?

Hi, when I upload music into itunes from a cd it sometimes appears in itunes as two different albums and split up the music in 2 or even three albums....how can i merge these albums...this is particularly true when one album may have different composers?

Generally setting a common Album title and Album Artist will fix things.
For compilations that aren't, select all tracks, Get Info, and on the option tab set Part of a Compilation to No. If it already says No tick the box alongside, then click OK.
For deeper problems see Grouping tracks into albums.
tt2

I just got my dads old iPhone 4. I restored it to factory settings and set it up with my apple id. The albums in my music are fine in iTunes but on my phone the albums are split and each song is its own album. Does anybody know how to fix this?

My dad has recently gotten a new phone and I got his old one. With his permission I restored it to factory settings and set up the iPhone 4 as a new phone with my apple id. Everything has downloaded fine but I have had many problems with my music. First it was where my phone didnt recognise my apple id, but I figured that out. Then it was where iTunes took one of my albums and split it so all the songs where their own albums. I fixed the album split on iTunes but its still like that on my iPhone. I have looked online everywhere and I still haven't found a solution! I'm getting super frustrated! Does anybody know how to fix this?

No it's not stealing. They have an allowance that you can share with so many computers/devices. You'll have to authorize her computer to play/use anything bought on your acct. You can do this under the Store menu at top when iTunes is open on her computer.
As far as getting it all on her computer....I think but I am not sure (because I don't use the feature) but I think if you turn on Home Sharing in iTunes it may copy the music to her computer. I don't know maybe it just streams it. If nothing else you can sign into your acct on her computer and download it all to her computer from the cloud. Not sure exactly how to go about that, I haven't had to do that yet. I wonder if once you authorize her computer and then set it up for automatic downloads (under Edit>Preferences>Store) if everything would download. Sorry I'm not much help on that.

IPhoto Albums not seen in iTunes after iOS 6 update

I upgraded a 3rd gen iPad and an iPhone 4 to iOS 6, then updated my Macbook Pro (2.4 ghz quad core i7, 8GB RAM) to 10.8.2 with the requisite iPhoto update. Now, iTunes will not show my iPad even though wireless sync is enabled, unless the iPad is connected to the laptop via the docking cable. Both iPhone and iPad error out on synch with an error 1140 if synching photos is enabled. Under the photo tab, the button to have "selected albums, events and faces" is grayed out. So I can only select to sync ALL photos or none. I believe the error 1140 is stemming from my library being too large to sync to the i-device. In any case, I can no longer choose certain albums that were enabled under iOS 5. The area below these options in the Photos tab in iTunes also does not show any albums, where it used to do so in a grayed out fashion even if that option was not selected. Major issue here. Have tried all the rebuild and repair of iPhoto library. The kicker is that both the devices I upgraded have the exact same issue, so I'm thinking this is an update/Apple problem, not an issue with my devices or config.

Ok, all. I think I found the problem. In searching for reports of this issue and solutions I found someone that mentioned they had fixed a similar issue with a "free" program called "iPhoto Library Manager." The app apparently lets you split a library into multiple smaller ones or combine multiple libraries. Generally it just "manages" your libraries. I figured I had nothing to lose so I checked it out. Turns out it costs $19.99 but they do have a free demo.
I launched it and it immediately told me that it couldn't display my library and albums due to an issue with the AlbumData.xml file on line 22155. I read in the documentation of the app under it's "Help" menu that likely causes were a keyword with a "null" character at the end, or a file path being referenced inside the library that had an ampersand or backslash in it. The person on the board I'd found had had a keyword issue.
Anyway, I opened the iPhoto library by showing package contents (right click the file to choose this) and loaded up the AlbumData.xml file in TextWrangler, since that displays line numbers. I found that line 22155 indeed referenced an mp3 in my iTunes library that had an ampersand in it. Deleted that line. Then it said line 22156 had an issue so I deleted that, at which point iPhoto Library Manager instantly displayed all my albums. I checked iTunes and it too now showed my albums and the option to sync only selected albums was no longer grayed out!
Per the Library Manager's instructions, I saved the AlbumData.xml file I'd modified. The app said the iPhoto only writes this file out, it doesn't read it. However, other apps read it to get your album info, hence the issue. So I had to go into iPhoto and fix the problem, else the next time I exited the app, it would write the file back out improperly. I noticed in the xml file that where the song was listed it was also referencing one of my albums. So when I launched iPhoto, I went to that album and checked the slide show settings. Sure enough, I had set a custom playlist for that album and listed the song I had seen on line 22155 in the AlbumData.xml file. I removed that song from the settings, and exited iPhoto. No more issues! I appear to be all set!
Now, I'm not clear if I NEEDED to edit the AlbumData.xml file. Just looking at it showed the error and then I had to fix it in iPhoto. So you can probably do that. However, the iPhoto Library Manager software is the only thing I know of that could show WHERE the error was. Since the free demo works for this purpose, I'd suggest giving it a shot. This issue is obviously caused by our individual libraries and is not an Apple issue. Now, the album that had the problem has existed for almost 3 years and I've never had an issue like this arise before so it's anyone's guess as to why it became a problem now. Fortunately, it's all in the past for me now, though!
Hope this helps someone. Good luck!

How can I prevent 'Various Artists' albums being broken up in library?

Sorry, maybe this is a basic question. I'm new to using itunes. Lots of my music very non-mainstream, so iTunes can't find the tag info. So I have started to fill in missing tags myself, which is fine. But for albums with various artists, I thought I could prevent iTunes from splitting them up if I filled in "various artists" for "artist" and the individual artist for "album artist". Unfortunately, I find this is not the case. These albums still wind up being split up when I import them into the library. Is the only way to get them to display together to list various artist for both "artist" and "album artist"????

Set the Albums as "Compilation" in the Get Info field for the various tracks. To select multiple items such as all the songs in an album, click on the first track in the list hold down the shift key and click on the last track to highlight the selection. Right click anywhere in the selection and choose Get Info, you'll get a message asking if you want to edit multiple items, choose yes. Down in the left hand corner of the info box change Compilation to yes.
If you want to see your Compilations in the iTunes Browser Window go to Edit>Preferences>General and check the box "group compilations when browsing". To turn on Browsing go to View>Show Browser or click on the browser "eye" icon in the bottom right of your iTunes window. Compilations will appear in the Artist box.

Can I split my iTunes library across two hard drives?

I am busy ripping my huge movie collection into an iTunes library, so I can play through my new Apple TV to my HDTV. Trouble is, it looks like I'll probably need at least 4TB's of HD space before I'm all finished. What I would like to do is to buy an external HD unit with two 3TB drives, and split my iTunes library across them, while still being able to view all of the movies on both drives all of the time, and give me lots of extra room for future expansion.
Is this possible? If not, does anyone know of an aftermarket Thunderbolt 4TB external HD? I found a 4TB drive, but not with Thunderbolt.
Thanks.

I have the same question.
I would like to be able to do the same thing with all my media. I'm a DJ and certain aspects of Mac Os X Lion or iCloud, and iTunes Match, don't favor folks with tons of media, storage wise. I'm not happy that there's a limit on how much space iCloud will give you. Yet, I feel forced to upgrade to Lion within the next 4 days. I've been hesitant to rip my collection or even upload all those digital copies because where will I put all those files. I agree with needing like 4-8T just to store, but how? I don't have Thunderbolt, only Firewire on late '08 iMac 20" and USB on 08 MacBook 13" Aluminum. Bleh!
If you can use Time Capsule to back up your entire network with more than one computer, it would seem likely that you should be able to piggy back 2 xTime Capsules. I believe they come with 2-3Ts now and you can get them refurbished? I'm gonna look at Time Capsule Support to find out for myself, I'll let you know what I find, also. One thing I did noticed was that I had uploaded a bunch of Digital Copies from movies I had bought from Blu-Ray Combo Packs like 2 years ago and deleted them from MacBook for more space, only to recently find that they had been saved as purchased items from the iTunes Store. So now I can grab them from iTunes and watch them anytime off my Apple TV.
Good Luck,
Jenn

Can I split an "iTunes LP" into individual tracks?

Hi there,
Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere but I've been looking for over an hour and can't find anything that helps.
I recently purchased the song "Where Are We Now" by David Bowie in order to register my pre-order for the album "The Next Day" which came out a couple of weeks ago. I didn't realise it was an iTunes LP and now I am stuck with two problems.
1) I can't insert the original track I purchased into the main album so I have two entries on my iTunes library, one containing one song and one containing the rest of the album
2) I can't split the iTunes album into separate tracks and it's driving me nuts.
If I have to play the album as a whole and not be able to cherry-pick tracks from it then okay, I guess I can live with that. But with track five as a stand-alone it means I have to listen to the rest of the album and then go back and listen to track five separately? This can't be right.
I've not come across iTunes albums before and they SUCK if this is what I have to put up with, and I'm certainly not buying the album again via individual songs because that'll cost me over £20.
I hope someone can help, because I'm extremely annoyed. I can't even burn the thing onto a CD and then re-import it because I can't insert track five into the album where it should be.
Thanks,
Bee.
iTunes 11 for Windows; iPad 3rd gen, iPhone 4S, iOS 6.1.3

Okay, panic over, there was one step I didn't complete and now I've done it, it's worked fine.
I shouldn't be allowed nice things.
As you were.
Bee. x

HT1473 When downloading a CD album, if it contains different artists, the album is split up into separate albums/icons. How do I get all songs into one album (just like the original CD)?

When downloading a CD album, if it contains different artists, the album is split up into separate albums/icons. How do I get all songs into one album (just like the original CD)?

Generally, in iTunes, all you need to do is fill in an appropriate Album Artist to keep things together. For older iPods each track from the same album should have the same artist, or be marked as a compilation where appropriate. For iOS devices you may need to go to Settings > Music > Group By Album Artist > On.
For more details see my article on Grouping Tracks Into Albums, in particular the topic One album, too many covers.
tt2

HT1725 What might be causing incomplete downloads of an album or songs within an album being cut off?

What might be causing incomplete downloads of albums or songs within an album being cut off in itunes?

If you live in a Region that allows re-downloading Music...
Delete the Song(s) and re-download...
Download Past Purchases
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
If not... Contact iTunes Customer Service
Apple Support iTunes Store Contact Us

Some albums are splitting on iPhone

Some of the albums on my iPhone 6 iOS 8.1.2 are splitting into two albums. These are albums I downloaded on iTunes. How can I get them back into a single album? Right now I took them off my iPhone and have only the cloud version if I want to play over wifi. The albums are normal on my iPad 2, iMac, and PowerBook Pro.
Thanks!

I reset my phone to factory settings and reinstalled the backup from the Cloud. That solved the situation, albeit it was long and tedious in that I had to download the iOS 8.1.2 and reinstall before I could go to the backup. Took about 90 minutes--way too long to fix the issue. Anyone have other solutions should this happen again? And if anyone knows why it happened in the first place, I'd appreciate your input.
Thanks!

Why is iTunes match not matching a few specific tracks in an album?, why is iTunes match not matching a few specific tracks in an album?

iTunes Match has worked relatively well for me (I have almost 12,000 tracks), but there are a few oddities:
1. I'm not sure that iTunes Match has propery identified the 2009 re-mastered Beatles albums, which I bought as CDs before being released on iTunes. There is something distinctly odd with the stereo separation, and some vocals have thus disappeared (especially on Abbey Road).
2. I have a protected classical Naxos CD by the Kodaly Quartet, playing string quartets by Debussy and Ravel. Three of the tracks are identified as being unsuitable for matching. Why would this be? There are other instances of this elsewhere in my library.
3. 'Jerry Springer: The Opera' won't match at all. I assume this is censorship, which is an absolute shame. What would Mr Jobs be saying about that, I wonder?
4. Quite a lot of album art is missing. This is not to obscure albums, necessarily, but to well known works, such as The Beatles White Album.
5. Smart Playlists seems to be a bit of a disaster.
If anyone has any thoughts or solutions, I'd love to hear from you.
Thanks!
John

Hi,
Read this https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4113
Jim

Album artwork disappearing in iTunes?

I'm running iTunes 11.2.2 on a Mac with MacOS 10.9.3 installed. For the last several weeks (I don't know when this started, exactly) I've noticed that some of the songs/albums on my iPhone were missing artwork - either that, or it showed the artwork for album 'a' while playing album 'b'. After looking on iTunes, I see that roughly 1/3rd of my albums are missing their art. Some are albums that I burned to my iTunes library, some are ones that I purchased. I've tried right-clicking on the album and selecting "Get Album Artwork" - but this only seems to work about 25% of the time, and it's failing even on albums I purchased through iTunes.
I know for sure that I had artwork for all these albums at one point - is there an archive or a thumbnail gallery somewhere that I can re-connect to? Alternatively, I'm wondering if there's a cache file somewhere that might have been corrupted - and that restoring it might magically reconnect my artwork. I'm grasping at straws here - but I don't relish the prospect of finding artwork again for all these albums...

I have done that but the thing is.... I have all my music on an external hard drive. When you create a new ACC file, it stores the files on the internal hard drive. I do not like keeping anything on my internal hard drive other than my software I run.
With that said, I am guessing that as long as you have music files stored on your internal hard drive, there will not be an issue with your album artwork showing up.
I also store movies on an external hard drive and do not have an issue with the artwork being displayed...
So who knows what the issue is !!!

Same Album Different Section Of Itunes

Hi,
In Itunes, i have put a few songs by the band i am in - when i have edited all the information to be exactly the same and click on the respective album to just show these songs they are in 3 different sections (as if it were 3 different albums) rather than all being in one list.
How can i get them into one album as such? Itunes says there is only one album there but it shows them separately.
Thanks

Try selecting all the songs at same time before doing 'get info'. When the editing window opens with multiple songs selected only fields that are the same on all selected tracks will be filled in when window opens. After opening window type in the album name in appropriate field.
What happens sometimes is that there are extra spaces in tags. The program sees them but we may not.

Albums being split by iTunes

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for