Why does iTunes make a mess out of my TV Shows library?

I'm not really sure where to post this, as it doesn't seem like Apple pays much attention to the official Apple Support Forums, but I'll give it a go nontheless.
The thing is, as most Apple TV owners I have to rely on iTunes for handling my media library in order to get it working towards my Apple TV (currently an Apple TV 3rd Generation, Rev A) which is perfectly fine. I find iTunes to be very well organised and owning several OS X systems, only using iOS devices and everything my music library already consists of only ALAC (Apple Lossless) music tracks and I like to keep all my audio books in M4B (AAC) simply because it’s much better organized this way. As long as all the metadata is done right one can’t really complain about how iTunes is doing things other than the Windows version being rather slow when you start filling it up with content, the OS X version is vastly superior in terms of performance and overall stability but I guess that is to be expected.
I have absolutely no problems with my ALAC (Apple Lossless) music library, no matter how many tracks I add they are all there, with the correct metadata and everything. Same goes for my audio book library, the only ones being somewhat troublesome are those I’ve got in MP3 format instead of M4B (AAC) as they get automatically listed as music instead of audio books, but that’s fixed within a matter of seconds just marking them as audio book in iTunes metadata. My movie library, which used to consists of loads of self-ripped Blu-Rays encoded to MKV’s with either Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 is now repacked into M4V / MP4 containing Dolby Digital 5.1 (AC-3) and with the help of metadata downloaded from IMDB they are all listed correctly with the correct metadata, so all is good and dandy.
But when it comes to TV-Shows things starts to get messy. We are still talking about only M4V / MP4 files containing mostly Dolby Digital 5.1 (AC-3) audio tracks, and a few containing 2.0 AAC audio tracks. The problem is iTunes is making a complete mess out of things, no matter what I do.
Some TV-shows are added and shown correctly in my iTunes library, others are just not working out at all! Take my six seasons of LOST for instance.
I tried to redo the metadata on the first six episodes of season 06, but they just won’t show no matter what I do. The weirdest thing with these episodes is that when I manually play the M4V files using iTunes, iTunes recognise them as LOST Season 02 episodes and not Season 03 episodes. So LOST Season 03 - Episode 01 which is "01. A Tale of Two Cities" is shown as LOST Season 02 - Episode 10 which is "10. The 23rd Psalm". That's quite odd, which was the reason why I went ahead and rework the metadata of these episodes just to be sure.
But still it won’t show in the iTunes library and when manually opening the M4V files with iTunes it still shown as being "10. The 23rd Psalm" instead of "01. A Tale of Two Cities". If I open the file with QuickTime Player, Windows Media Player or Media Player Classic Home Cinema they all list it as "01. A Tale of Two Cities" and not "10. The 23rd Psalm" as iTunes does. Watching the playback is making quite clear it's indeed playing back A Tale of Two Cities and not The 23rd Pslam episodes, even in iTunes.
I have no clues why iTunes is making a mess out of the first six episodes of LOST Season 03, it really doesn't make much sense as there is nothing with the M4V files, their contains or their metadata that points towards iTunes recognising it as a LOST Season 2 episode at all.
Just to confirm the metadata in iTunes I tried to remove the whole LOST series from my library and went ahead and added ONLY the first six episodes of Season 03 and nothing else. Then they are showing correctly, with the correct metadata for each and every episode.
But upon adding the rest of the bunch they disappear and suddenly iTunes starts mixing the first six episodes of Season 03 as Season 02 episodes...
As soon as I add any episode of LOST Season 02, 10-15 they seem to replace LOST Season 03, 1-6. So Season 03 is working perfectly, having all the right metadata and everything but as soon as I add LOST Season 02, Episode 10, LOST Season 03, Episode 01 starts playing as LOST Season 02, Episode 10 and then disappears from the library. Upon adding and playing back LOST Season 02, Episode 11 it replaces LOST Season 03, Episode 02 which then disappears from the library and this goes on for episode 10-15 of Season 02 which for some reason replaces episode 01-06 of Season 03.
This isn’t isolated to only LOST, same goes for a few of my House M.D season whereas iTunes is starting make a mess of things mixing metadata of Season 3 with metadata of Season 4 for no obvious reason. This is quite frustrating as this renders my Apple TV quite useless when iTunes is not capable of handling my media library correctly.
Several episodes are missing in quite a few of my various TV Shows as well, some requires me to manually open the M4V / MP4 while browsing my library for it to get listed as it’s not being added while adding the folder to my library.
This has been going on ever since iTunes 10.X, and it’s behaving like this on all my system it being Windows 7, Windows 8, OS X Mountain Lion or OS X Mavericks. Surely something has to be done in order to solve this? There is nothing wrong with my M4V / MP4 files as I’ve re-ripped them, re-encoded them, re-done their metadata and everything without any luck and consider it only happens with various TV shows and not with my music, audio book nor my movie library I see nothing pointing at it being a problem with my content but rather iTunes making it all fuzzy for no apparent reason.

Seems like I actually figured out what was going on.. When I re-do my MKV's into MP4 / M4V's applications like Subler, MKVtoMP4 and other toolkits are grabbing metadata from servers like IMDB.
Upon retrieving metadata they also grab something called "XID" which is supposedly Apple's very own iTunes specific ID or serial if you like for each specific TV show available through the iTunes Store. This seems to be causing the problems with missing episodes and episodes starting to playback as a different episode from another season.
I always wondered why House Season 04 - Episode 01 - "Alone" always got played back as House Season 03 - Episode 11 - "Words of Deeds". It was always the exact same mix-up each and every time. iTunes never seems to mix-up anything other than the same specific episodes each and every time, and all the missing episodes are always the same ones, from the same TV show, from the very same season. I always found that a bit strange as I would expect library mix-ups from iTunes to be somewhat random and not consistent like this.
So I tried to simply tried something completely random, renaming House Season 04 - Episode 01 - "Alone" into "RARW Season 11 - Episode 42 - "Come at me bro"" and House Season 03 - Episode 11 - "Words of Deeds" into "TESTING Season 04 - Episode 05 - "Testing this"" and it will still do the same, now my randomly generated metadata of "RARW Season 11 - Episode 42 - "Come at me bro"" was played back as "TESTING Season 04 - Episode 05 - "Testing this"". So it clearly had nothing to do with whatever metadata I added to the video within iTunes, it would continuously mix-up the very same episode no matter what.
So then I grab my toolkit to see what kind of information was garter from IMDB's database to see if I could spot anything weird going on? I didn't really see anything, but I noticed the XID with it's "Apple:vendor_id:2003-tt0367279" input, so even though these two episodes had different XIDs I tried to simply input my very own like "House Season 03" and "House Season 04" and then all of sudden everything worked out perfectly.
I'm not entirely sure whos to blame here. As the XID was indeed different I see no reason why iTunes should confuse one for the other in the first place, perhaps there is something fuzzy with the iTunes database or something. I don't really care though, I see no value in having the "correct" XID as long as my iTunes library is showing and playing back everything correctly so now I have just went ahead and re-done ALL my XID's of every TV Show to have their very own for each season just to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.

Similar Messages

  • Why does Itunes Windows download Numbers, Pages, iMovie and iPhotos in Library and I can't even open it. It is taking up space, safe to delete?

    Thanks for helping me out in advance. I recently installed Itunes and figuring things out.
    So I click the thing that said downloads available and the download screen started dowloading the apps below. It takes a huge amount of space in my tiny hard drive (256 GB), I clicked, double clicked, hyper-clicked and nothing really happened.
    Is it safe to delete in iTunes, or windows explorer window?If I delete it would it delete it from my iPhone? Pardon for my newbness..

    Hello traderjohn,
    You can absolutely delete those apps within iTunes. If you ever need to download them back in you can do that as well. It should not affect anything on your iPhone and when you sync your iPhone. Take a look at the articles below for more information. 
    How to delete content you've downloaded from the iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, or Mac App Store
    http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT5772
    Download past purchases
    http://support.apple.com/en-us/ht2519
    Regards,
    -Norm G. 

  • Why Does iTunes Make Combining Songs Into a Single Album So Difficult?

    Can anyone explain, or refer me to a website, that explains and lists in a "1,2,3" manner the illogic of the iTunes "get info" panes and why iTunes splits, combines and erases data depending upon what you put in the "get info" area. I have looked at many websites with suggestions and some work and some don't. The frustration I have is that I cannot decipher the logic of what iTunes is doing. Some comments and examples:
    1. I thought it was convention when you highlight multiple anythings, and specify a change, this change is done on all highlighted things. For example, when I want to combine several songs into a single album, highlight them all and fill in information in the "get info area", sometimes it combines, sometimes it splits the songs, sometimes it erases the artwork. Even when I specify "part of a compilation".
    2. Sometimes when I add "various artists", it combines the various highlighted songs but then erases the artwork.
    3. One would think that when you specify any songs as "part of a compilation" that would automatically force these songs into a single album. Sometimes iTunes does, and sometime it does not.
    4. Even when I think I have entered exactly the same information there apparently is something different. It has taken me up to 15 minutes first of very careful checking of spelling, spacing, etc. then just totally randomly changing something before I can get songs together.
    5. Why isn't there just a very simple button that says something like: "no matter what, force the highlighted songs into a single album? Is there any way to simply and easily force songs together into a single album no matter what is in the individual "get info" areas?
    Anyway, you get the idea. Surely there is some set of rules or logic that I am totally missing. Thanks.

    Thanks, that was extremely helpful but unfortunately this very well laid out website confirms the fact that this is a very un-Apple-like interface that is confusing, contradictory and extremely difficult to use. Not sure if anyone from Apple reads these threads, but in the next version they need to do an extremely serious remake. I think this part of the interface must have been designed by refugees from the PC camp who somehow got hired by Apple!
    Thanks again.

  • Why does safari make a mess of eBay websites?

    While using safari manoevering in eBay very regularly the page layout becomes completely messed up (wrong fonts / font size / lots of graphics missing) or comes with an error message concerning having too many redirects, a warning that it takes me to a discontinued site or similar error message.
    I never get these message when using my Windows7 computer or using the eBay iPad app trying to make the same choices.
    I obviously have no clue how webpages work in general, but this has become very frustrating and takes the fun out of using my brand new MacBook Pro.....

    Safari: "Could not open the page, too many redirects"

  • Why does iTunes make me log in every time I open it since upgrading to v.12.0.1.26 and Yosemite?

    Since upgrading to itunes v. 12.0.1.26 and Yosemite (same day), iTunes has been making me log in every single time I open it.
    Not only that, but it makes me log in several times, for iCloud, for iTunes match, for whatever else we do on iTunes. It gives me like five different reasons to log in, and I have to type my password in five times.
    Can anyone tell me what is going on here and how to fix it? Thanks!

    Back up all data before proceeding.
    Launch the Keychain Access application in any of the following ways:
    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
    ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Keychain Access in the icon grid.
    Select the login keychain from the list on the left side of the Keychain Access window. If your default keychain has a different name, select that.
    If the lock icon in the top left corner of the window shows that the keychain is locked, click to unlock it. You'll be prompted for the keychain password, which is the same as your login password, unless you've changed it.
    Right-click or control-click the login entry in the list. From the menu that pops up, select
              Change Settings for Keychain "login"
    In the sheet that opens, uncheck both boxes, if not already unchecked.
    From the menu bar, select
              Keychain Access ▹ Preferences ▹ First Aid
    If the box marked
              Keep login keychain unlocked
    is not checked, check it.
    Select
              Keychain Access ▹ Keychain First Aid
    from the menu bar and repair the keychain. Quit Keychain Access.

  • HT4914 Why does iTunes Match not really match some songs in my library? Any thoughts?

    I have noticed that many songs in my library are really not upgraded to 256, even though they say Matched. I thought Matched was supposed to also mean "We found your song and upgraded it to 256." Am I wrong? Thanks.

    Hey SeanE80
    If you are experiencing issues with your purchase of iTunes Match, you can report the issues by following the steps in the article below.
    How to report an issue with your iTunes Store, App Store, Mac App Store, or iBookstore purchase
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1933
    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
    Regards,
    -Norm G.

  • When I download a long album from ITunes containing like 20-30 tracks, why does ITunes sometimes segregate one track and create a separate album out of it. I can merge the track into the other tracks on a playlist, but I can not merge the 2 albums.

    When I download an opera album with lets day 40 songs (tracks). Why does iTunes create one album of tracks lets say 1 through 22, skip 23 and then 24 through 40. Then a separate album with track 23 is created. I can merge them together in a playlist but not as a single album. I go into the info under the file menu for each and make sure the information is the same but they still will not merge.

    I'm not sure why this happens, but I found a workaround. Below the album title it will list the artist(s). The issue seems to happen when there are multiple artists. For example, an Album titled "Over the Sea to Skye" has The Chieftains and James Galway as artists. Some tracks (for whatever reason) will list only one of these and result in the playlist showing what appears to be multiple albums. You can click on the artists and it will highlight. Paste in what is appearing on the other "albums" and it will then show as one:
    Hope that is somewhat clear enough to help. Doesn't fix whatever the issue is but it is a workaround. For me this is only happening with CD's that I have imported.

  • HT2341 why does my sound icon grey out and doesn't allow me to make changes on the system settings

    why does my sound icon grey out and doesn't allow me to make changes on the system settings

    When you go to System Preferences > Sound what does it say for Output? Have you had headphones plugged in? Sometimes the headphone jack gets stuck thinking it has something plugged in when there isn't anaything there. SMC also has something to do with Sound:
    SMC RESET
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
    Shut down the computer.
    Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
    Wait 15 seconds.
    Attach the computers power cable.
    Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.
    The 5 second timing is important to a successful reset.

  • Why does iTunes think my iPad is a new one?

    When I connect my otherwise happy iPad to iTunes, iTunes says "This computer has previously been synced with an iPad or another iOS device" and wants me either to "set up as new iPad" or "restore from the backup of <my iPad name>". Of course it's just the same iPad I've connected, so why does iTunes not recognise it as such?
    This happened before, and I know if I select "Restore from the backup of <my iPad name>", it deletes and restores all the apps and media content, but in the process I lose all data e.g. progress in games, data and configurations entered into apps etc.
    This is iTunes 10.2.2.12 on Win 7 64-bit, iPad 16GB with iOS 4.3.1.
    Any suggestions what I can do? Even if I have to restore from backup, is there a way I can prevent this happening again?

    I'm having same problem! I tried the trick of unplugging right after the sync begins and the only thing my iPad does is give me a sync failure message and restarts itself. I plug ipad back in and get same message??? I've emailed iTunes support and they have not been able to help. I tried all the standard stuff like de-authorizing/athorizing, checked that my iPad iOS is the latest version (which it is), latest version of iTunes installed (even uninstalled/reinstalled iTunes). No matter what I try cannot get around this message.  I too have tons of app settings/configurations that get lost if I go thru the restore option.  I actually tried the restore option out of frustration, lost all of my configurations AND still get the same message - seems like my iPad is caught up in a loop no matter what I try.  To make matters worse, my iTunes library got lost as all my songs are showing up with an '!' next to each song (meaning it cannot locate the file).  I checked and they are truely missing so when I go to my purchased music all of my purchases show up (all 4000+ of them) however are all listed as 'Downloaded' in the right margin???  My true objective here is to be able to transfer my purchases on my iPad to my iTunes as my iPad is complete as far as all apps/recent purchases.  HELP !!! Thanks

  • Why does itunes in France have a complete lack of english language content on the TV programmes... prefering to release dubbed programmes and not the original english language content, surely it will cost nothing to release both?

    Why does itunes in France have a complete lack of english language content... prefering to release dubbed programmes and not the original english language content?
    It would be just as easy to release both a dubbed version and then a subtitled version.
    I am a native english speaker but live in France. My father has just moved over to live with me in France and speaks very little French.
    The price for a television series is very often more than a dvd box set but does not offer language options.
    My French is passable but I would still prefer to hear the programme in English.
    Using itunes uk is not an option as my cards are french or english with a french postal address.
    The content has been adapted for the french site all i want is to access the original.
    The series i have been trying to buy is HBOs 'boardwalk empire'.
    The stupid thing is to please my father i would buy up most the HBO, BBC and Channel 4 content a cost of a couple of thousand euros.

    Try giving Apple feedback: http://www.apple.com/feedback and also contact the Apple headquarters at http://www.apple.com/contact  We are all fellow users and not Apple employees and often raise questions like yours ourselves.  If enough make Apple aware of a market/need then something may be done about it.
    France has come a very long way with regard to other languages.  When I lived in France, mid-880s, there was an entire Ministry devoted to the purity of the French language...that was the time the PC came out.  A TV news person was cashiered for using the term 'computer' on-air instead of the French created word 'ordinateur'.  They took the language extremely seriously at that time.  At least today there is recognition and even use of English by the masses

  • Why does itunes say the entry point is not found

    why does itunes say it didn't install correctly and to reinstall?

    Greg, did the "Patchburn" really work for you?
    I had the same problem today. I have a smart playlist made up of: Kind>is>Protected AAC audio file. This smart play list allows me to keep track of music I've downloaded from the iTMS after inadvertently deleting the Purchased Music default playlist. Yes, I know a new “Purchased Music” playlist is created when you buy music again, but it doesn’t contain any of the songs you’ve already downloaded.
    When I went to burn this playlist (several hundred songs) to multiple audio CD format - I go the same result you got.
    "After asking to burn a play list it asks to insert CD, checks the media, checks the play list and then stops with the apple icon reappearing and NO error message."
    Apple tech support couldn’t help me - I found that out the hard way - after 1.5 hours on the phone. No, I haven't exceeded the 7 time burn limit either.
    I tried selecting all the songs in the smart playlist and creating a new [regular] playlist and tried to burn from that, but got the same result.
    Finally, I tried typing "Protected AAC audio file" from my main library in the search window, selected all the songs that resulted, created a new [regular] playlist from that selection and the burn was successful.
    It was a real pain and took almost 3 hours to figure out, but it worked. I'm going to try the "Patchburn" download talked about earlier, but don't know if that's the real problem.
    Yes, I have upgraded my SuperDrive, but iTunes recognizes it - Preferences>Advanced>Burning - if your drive shows up here then that's not the problem. Besides, I had the same problem when trying to burn to the original SuperDrive too.
    I think the problem may be deeper inside iTunes itself. Duh! Maybe something with Apple tightening their DRM scheme which may make us unwitting beta testers to see if they tightened the noose too tight or not. Just a guess.
    Any thoughts, anyone?
    Power Mac G4 MDD   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

  • HT4623 why does my ipad kick me out of FB and sometimes to the 'settings' page or sometimes to the desk top, for what reason?     I have 50.8 GB of capacity available; it is version 5.1.1 and model MC497LL.   it is WIFI and internet via AT&T???  Can you h

    Can anyone help me?  Why does my ipad kick me out of FB?  Sometimes to the 'settings' page and sometimes to the desk top?  I would like to know why this happens and what I can check or change to make it stop.   I have 50.8 GB of capacity available; it is version IOS 5.1.1; model MC497LL.  It is WIFI and internet via AT&T?   Can anyone give me some clues on what to do; or change in settings???  Thank you very much! 

    Please read this whole message before doing anything.
    This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
    The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.
    Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. You must hold down the shift key twice: once when you turn on the computer, and again when you log in.
    Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a Fusion Drive or a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
    Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.
    The login screen appears even if you usually login automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
    Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
    After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

  • Why does Itunes sync my purchase transfers to the wrong hard drive?

    I'm running windows 7 with a 64gb SSD boot drive and 1tb data drive. My boot drive is almost completely full. I installed itunes on my data drive and set the preferences to sync media to the data drive as well. I plug in my old ipod to tranfer purchases before an update. The tranfer never finished because it synced all of the data to my boot drive and now my boot drive is completely full and the data is nowhere to be found. I recently had the same problem with it syncing an iphone backup to the same drive, but I found a work around for that. Why does Itunes instist on loading stuff on the boot drive? How can I redirect it? This is simple preferences that should be available to change, but simply aren't.

    Your phone connected, iTunes running, under the Music tap, make sure there are no checks in the boxes labeled "Entire Music Library", & "Automatically fill free space with songs":

  • Why does itunes delete all my existing photo gallery on my ipad when i import new photos from my PC ?

    Why does itunes delete all my existing photo gallery folders when I try to import (sync) new folders from my pc ?

    you nees to make sure you are selecting everythin that you want on the iPad even things that are already on the iPad, if not it will remove anything not checked in iTunes.
    Click HERE for more information on Syncing

  • Why does itunes store not pop up and not tell me why?

    Why does itunes store not pop up and then not tell me why? i"m wondering if it could have anything 2do with me just transefering music with my flash drive?

    Does it show in the Purchased section for downloading ? Click on the Purchased under Quick Links on the right-hand side of the iTunes store homepage.
    If not then have you tried logging out and back into the account ? If that doesn't work either then try contacting iTunes Support :  http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/contact/

Maybe you are looking for