IPod wont show songs under artists

Question

Referring to this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302773
i have a question:
I am experiencing the same problem as described on that page. Only thing is, it is much more severe for me. I'm guessing that over 100 of my 900 songs wont show under artists.
Yet, most of my songs do not have an album name.
First question, why do only a part of those songs that don't have an album name not show under artists on my iPod?
Secondly, is there no easier way to get this problem fixed than giving the songs an album name? Firstly, it's impossible for me to know what songs do show and which are not shown under artists on my iPod, i only know a few. It's not like im going to go through all 900 songs to find this out. Secondly, i do not know the correct album name for each song. If i fix an album name, i want it to be correct and not made up in my head. Thirdly, it takes ages and ages to name albums for all songs that do not have album names.
So is there any easier way?

Answer 1

"First question, why do only a part of those songs that don't have an album name not show under artists on my iPod?"
It's a bug as far as I know, possibly in the future some update or change to iTunes and/or the iPod software will rectify it.
"Secondly, is there no easier way to get this problem fixed than giving the songs an album name"
At the moment, no there's not.
"it takes ages and ages to name albums for all songs that do not have album names"
Actually you can do it quite quickly. Sort your library by Album to bring all the blanks together. Click on the first song in the list and holding down the Shift key click on the last. This will highlight all in between . Right click on the list and chose Get Info, say yes when you are asked if you want to update multiple items. Put None or Unknown or any title of your choice in the album field and click OK. This should sort the problem out for you.
There's also one other thing that that contributes to songs not appearing under Artist on the iPod and that is if the song is marked as part of a compilation.
If the tracks are ticked in the Get Info>Info tab as part of a compilation, they will not appear under Artist on the iPod. Highlight a song in iTunes that you know is not appearing correctly on your iPod. Right click on it and choose Get Info and click the Info tab (alternatively choose Get Info from the File menu), if "Part of a Compilation" is marked untick it and afterwards update your iPod, you should find it now appears as normal. Compilations are stored in a separate folder in iTunes so the songs don't appear inside the normal Artist>Album folder which may be why this happens.