Can I re-configure my iTunes artist/album settings en-mass?

All my music in iTunes has "Album Artist" as my main category to display the info' all my albums. This way, all my albums display in iTunes with the artist name above and the album title below. Now that I have an ATV1 connected to my TV, there is no "Album Artist" option to play my music, only "Artist" & "Album" etc.
Unless I can somehow get an "Album Artist" option in my ATV (which I doubt) my only other option I can see is for me to swap the information for all of my iTunes tracks/albums between Album/Album Artist/Artist. This would take many, many hours!
Simple question therefore:-
Is there a method to swap around all this information for all my tracks without going through each one in turn?
For example, move the info' from "Album Artist" to "Album"?
Thanks in advance.

Hmm, if I understand correctly then for say Animals by Pink Floyd you have entered Animals as the Album Artist and Pink Floyd as the Album title, and you now want to switch back to the conventional use of these fields? Or have you just left the Artist field blank?
Either way I could write a script for that. You'll find some of my existing ones here.
I don't have an Apple TV so I'm not sure exactly how it behaves, but Artist & Album Artist can have somewhat different behaviours in iTunes and various Apple devices, so you may need to do more work to get everything displayed neatly on all your devices. More on that in my article Grouping tracks into albums.
tt2

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ITunes 11: In the store, I can no longer sort by name/artist/album

I can no longer sort by name or artist or album when I'm in the store with iTunes 11. Yes, I discovered the View Options in the Menu Bar. By when I select it nothing opens. Same for Command-J. It doesn't do anything either. I've tried hitting Command-J repeatedly, but nothing.
The fact is, it seems utterly stupid to have this work differently than when you're in your library---by simply hitting name/artist or album in the bar at the top of the list. Having to sort lists in the Store via a completely different method than the lists in one's library is totally counter-intuitive.
But back to my problem: The View Options won't open for me. Anybody know how to fix this?
I've got a lot of music I wish to buy, but I need different methods of sorting, otherwise it'll be a nightmare trying to keep track of things.
Thanks,
Doug

I have the same exact problem. I am using a Windows computer running Windows 7. I was able to see them prior to the installation of 10.4. I have this problem on 2 computers and have a hard time believing that no one else is having this problem

I can no longer edit my track/artist/album info.

Normally I would right click ---> Get Info and edit my track or go to File ---> Get Info and do the same.
I am able to get to the point of changing the information, but after I make the changes, I click OK, but they are not reflected in iTunes.
Is there a setting with 7.0 that I need to enable to allow editing? Thanks!

Your iTunes may be corrupted. Try re-installing iTunes 7 and see if that fixes your problem. I have used the function as recent as an hour ago and have not had a problem with editing. I did not have to enable any settings to be able to do so either. I am not sure if there is a setting for that but I assume if there is you would find it under the "Preferences" in one of the tabs.
Good luck!

(ios5 ipad bugs)I can't get changes of album art, artist, album and other tags to show up in the iPad music player, but they show up correctly in the iTunes device view. Certain random songs do not sync correctly. Wifi sync hasn't worked yet.

(ios5 ipad bugs)I can't get changes of album art, artist, album and other tags to show up in the iPad music player, but they show up correctly in the iTunes device view. Certain random songs do not sync correctly. Wifi sync hasn't worked yet.
I mostly use technology for education and professional audiovisuals and lights.
I don't sync music because I use music from at least 4 different computers. (manually mange music)
I use my iPad to play performance tracks for church and a local gospel group out of our church, Won4Christ.
I chose to buy the iPad because the laptop of one of the group members (dellxps running iTunes) was randomly losing and mixing up music and I wanted a more stable option that was bigger than my iPod touch.
I tried to add some data to music libraries that I previously added to my iPad, but the data only shows up when looking at the device in iTunes.
Wifi sync has not worked on either my laptop or desktop ( both running windows 7 enterprise 64 and newest iTunes) not really a big issue, but very annoying
When browsing through library playlist albums on the iPad, random artwork shows up on playlists with no artwork that you touch while dragging, and it does not go away until you change to another navigation tab and back.
Random songs out of hundreds that I added showed up in iTunes grayed out with a sync circle beside them. Those songs would play back okay on the iPad but were unplayable through the iTunes device view. I had to delete the songs manually through the library along with the playlist and add them again.
These seem to be major stability bugs in the "new" music app and iTunes. My only option right now seems to be to delete the songs that I want to change and re-add them with the changes already applied rather than changing the id3 tags and artwork on the existing music. I hope apple will release updates to resolve these issues.
Thank you for actually making it to the end of this manuscript of annoyances.

Just wondered if anyone had any other suggestions.

I upgraded itunes today and now some of my music from cd's is in grey and I cannot open it on. I changed sync to AAC and went in and selected genres, artists, albums that I wanted to download. I want to listen to my music. Can anyone help me?? Please! .

I downloaded latest version of iTunes to my computer today and now some of my music - a lot - is showing up in grey after syncing to my iPhone 5 and I cannot open it. All music is from cd's purchased and before download was accessible. I went to SYNC and changed to AAC and reselected genres, artists, albums and synced again without success. Can anyone help? Please. I am so frustrated and have wasted all day on this. I want my music back!!!

When you upgraded, itunes should have put a copy of the itunes library database in a folder named *Previous iTunes Libraries* . If you upgraded itunes today it will show as
iTunes Library 2010-02-28.itl
Use these directions to get it back
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967
Since I am not sure of your setup, look for the "Previous" folder on both your C: and F: drives.

Try as I might I can not import my CDs, along with their info into iTunes. Either they arrive complete or without the artist, album or cover... I am using v10.5.3.3. Any ideas?

Try as I might I can not correctly import my CDs. Either they come in complete or they arrive without info (i.e. Artist, Album, cover page and so forth). Any ideas on how to solve?

Try posting in the iTunes forum sinc you have an iTunes issue not an iPod touch issue.

I have music files by the same artist but they are listed in itunes in more than one album hod can i add then to just one album pf that artist

I have music files by the same artist but they are listed in Itunes in more than one album hod can i add then to just one album of that artist I am using windows 8.1 .

iTunes will group songs into an album when:
All songs have the same value for the Album and Artist field, or
All songs have the same value for the Album and Album Artist field
All songs have the same value for the Albumfield and the Part of a Compilation flag is checked.
If you want to group all the songs by one artist into a single "album" you can do so by following one of these rules. However, it may be more useful to create Playlists to group music like this and retain the original release information. One Smart Playlist for each artist you're interested in would meet this need without over-writing information about the source albums.

Can I force iTunes NOT to create artist/album folders when importing?

I've unchecked the "Let iTunes organize your music" box. All I want is to have iTunes rip the song, and place the song (unburdened by artist and album folders) in an external hard drive.
I can't seem to make that happen - can iTunes do it? If not, any Mac-based program you can recommend?
Thanks.

Can I force iTunes NOT to create artist/album folders when importing?
No.
Just RIP it and drag it from the main iTunes screen to wherever you want it.

HT1351 Only want to see sync songs/artists/albums on iPod touch (not the whole library in iTunes). How to do it?

I only want to see on iPod touch songs/artists/albums manually selected for sync (not the whole library in iTunes). How to do it? Not sync titles appear in grey colour...

So if I understand you correctly, you want to be able to sync only certain songs, artists, and albums correct? If so you can configure this set up from under the iPod's Music configuration tab in iTunes as described in the Syncing Automatically section in the Apple support document you linked in at the top of the page. Note that you cannot select only certain songs, but you can set it up to sync selected Artists, Genres, and Albums.
If the tab and its configurations are grayed out, it is likely because your iPod is set up for manual management, meaning the manually manage music and videos option is enabled from under the iPod's Summary tab.
B-rock

How to configure the iTunes,to display only folder name as Album.

How to configure the iTunes,to display only folder name as Album under Music.
I have a folder with name "English" under this I have plenty of folders which are either movie names or custom names created by me,inside of these are the music files. I just want all the files to be copied to the iPod with out any album artwork(which the itunes display under "Album By Artist" contains).The "Album By Artist" doesnt seem to contain just the folder name,it gets something else like the website from where the music file downloaded. This makes me irritating to browse through iPod or iTunes.
Please help me in configuring,so that I can just see the same folder/music hierarchy I see in my windows machine in the iPod.

Yep, I agree with Jurjen. It is not only limited to ACTVT, but rather fields of other objects as well which are "action" or "activity" related.
I would start the other way around - give them '03' only and investigate any transaction specific claims that it is not enough. There will be a few...
Cheers,
Julius

Is there a way of making my iPod's "cover flow" sort in the same way the software can . Artist -- Album by Year . It only seems to do Artist -- by Alphabetical Album . I want it look like it does on the PC .

Is there a way to make the "cover flow" on the iPod match the sort style that I use on the software . I go with Artist -- Album by Release Year . But the ipod seems to only do Artist -- Alphabetical by Album , and then there are a handful of albums oddly out of place . Can it be done ?

Ottonomy, here's what to do.
Connect your iPhone to your computer and open the iPhone's playlist in an iTunes window. Copy/Paste the entire playlist into a new(!) playlist in iTunes, not on your iPhone. Then resort the playlist. After you sort it, Copy/Paste it to a new(!) playlist on your iPhone. Now delete the old playlist on your iPhone and rename the new playlist the name you want it to be (probably the same name as the old playlist).
The downside to this method is that you have to do it every time you add a song to the playlist. Unfortunately, I don't think there's another way.

Organize iTunes file list by Directory Structure instead of artist/album?

Hello, I have searched for different audio players for os x which might have this feature but so far have had no luck. What I'm looking for is a feature similar to that of foobar2000 for win32 where I can organize my music by directory structure without the iTunes automatic organization by artist/album. Is there a way I can accomplish this in iTunes with some sort of xml config or hidden options? Thanks.

You don't have to have iTunes move music around on your hard drive (Preferences>Advanced>General, uncheck Keep iTunes Music folder organized and Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library) but I suspect that's not what you're asking. You can't automatically view music from within iTunes by directory structure. iTunes organizes by ID3 tags ("mp3 tags"). You could, I suppose, spend a lot of time replicating your directory structure by using folders and playlists within iTunes but you'd probably have to do it all by hand.
You could check out Doug's Scripts to see if there are some scripts that might help.
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/index.php

How can I list the songs in an album in iTunes without having to do it one by one? Some albums are not numbered.

How can I list the songs in an album in iTunes without having to do it one by one? Some albums are not numbered or they show 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1.

Poor metadata needs to be corrected if the album is to display properly in iTunes. iTunes sees an "album" as any collection of tracks with the same Album title and the same Album Artist (or Artist if Album Artist isn't set). Each track of the album should have distinct Track V of W and Disc X of Y vaules. W,X,Y are optional, but X may be needed for multi disc albums.
See Gropuing tracks into albums for details.
tt2

Can iTunes show albums just once in list of albums?

For illustration purposes:
If I have just one album in my library by a single artist: In Album grid view, I'd see one album cover as expected. If you double click the cover you'd see the list of songs in that album - all as expected.
If you click list view (upper right) while looking at the one album cover, you expect to see one line of text with the artist's name, and then if more detail is desired, clicking that text line, you'd get the the list of songs.
Not so... iTunes shows all the songs in that album when going from Album grid view (1 album), to Album list view - all songs in that album.
So... being that I have 100's of albums, instead of seeing a list of albums, I see a list of all songs.
It seems that the only way to see all the albums in your library is in the graphic album cover view?
Can't I see just a text listing of all my albums?

I have 553 artists, 1045 albums and 12,045 songs. What I would like is to see a list of just my 553 artists. Instead I see a list of all 12,045 songs sorted by artist/album. This is very unusable way to look at the data. We need a hierachical view.
Since I have 4 AC/DC albums, for example, my list starts out with AC/DC listed under Artist 40 times since there are 4 albums each with 10 tracks.
I would hope there's a way to just show AC/DC once, with an arrow or ability to double click to open this up just like it was a folder in Finder list view.
Doing so would show me 4 AC/DC albums, clicking any of those would show me the tracks for that album.
I want to see by artist:
AC/DC
Aerosmith
Al Green
And then if I open AC/DC:
AC/DC
--Back in Black
--Dirty Deeds
--High Voltage
--Powerage
Aerosmith
Al Green
If I open Back/Black:
AC/DC
--Back in Black
----Hells Bells
----Shoot To Thrill
----etc...
--Dirty Deeds
--High Voltage
--Powerage
Aerosmith
Al Green
There needs to be a way to collapse all the songs down into by albums and down into by artist.

How can i convert from alac to mp3 and export to artist/album hierarchy

I am trying to populate a 32GB SD Card with music to listen to in my car. My itunes library is largely in apple lossless format, but the car stereo does not play that format.
I have created a playlist of all of the music I'd like to have on the SD Card (but its in apple lossless format).
So what I'd like to do is:
a)     Bulk convert a large number of apple lossless files to MP3.
b)     Export the MP3 files to an external Finder folder, organized in Artist/Album hierarchy
c)     Delete the MP3 files from the itunes library so as to have just the apple lossless version maintain in the itunes library
Sounds pretty simple, but I'm having a devil of a time trying to figure it out.
I can find a way to do the conversion and export the MP3 files (and subsequently deleted from the itunes library), but they will not be organized by Artist/Album in the Finder folder.
Similarly, I can export a bunch of files from itunes to a Finder folder and have it be organized by Artist/Album.
I just can't do one followed by the other.
I suppose this would also work if instead of exporting the newly created MP3 files, it would establish a new playlist in itunes with these. Then, I could just export them and have them then organized by Artist/Album; and then I could delete all of the MP3 files in the playlist.
Any thoughts or ideas on how to accomplish this goal? (I do know the manual way of doing this, but am trying to figure out a faster, more elegant way).
M

I ask because you wrote, "I just can't do one followed by the other".
You can. Just do one followed by the other.
Convert the files to mp3.
Put them all into a playlist. A smart playlist with Kind is MP3 and added in last one day will do it for you.
Select the songs in teh smart playlist
Run Export to Album Folders script.
Select all the songs in the playlist then Command Delete to remove them from iTunes.

Can I re-configure my iTunes artist/album settings en-mass?

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