<p>I have read everything I can find, but can’t solve my problem with I Tunes 9- this didn’t happen with the previous version my kids’ are still using. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
When I import a CD with more than one artist on it, I end up with as many albums as artists. For instance, James Levine’s 25th Anniversary with the Metropolitan Opera; there are 8 tracks on it; even though my setting are by album, not by artist, I end up with EIGHT albums of Levine’s 25th Anniversary, one track in each of them. Another CD may have 20 tracks, all by one artist, but she has someone else singing with her on the last track- I then have one album with 19 tracks, all listed under the main singer, and another entirely seperate album, with the same name, but listed with the additional artist.
As I said, the settings are all correct, according to the web site and the kids, who have over a thousand CD between them. They’ve never had this problem, but both use the previous version of I Tunes, which is no longer available to download and I doubt would be compatible with my 5th generation Nano anyway.
I’m stumped.</p>
<p>I believe that on the ‘get info’ tab, there is a box you can check to indicate the album is a compilation. That will place all the tracks (with different artists) in a single album.</p>
<p>MADad, you have saved my marginal sanity, thank you! It works! Now, is there a way to get that to happen automatically, or do I have to go through and do it manually each time? Funny, it only happens on some CDs…</p>
<p>Handling compilations is the bane of any iTunes’ user’s experience. The downside of marking an album as a compilation is that the album no longer shows up under the artist’s name, but only under Compilations.</p>
<p>A workaround for many pop albums is to make sure that all the songs have the artist and album artist listed as the solo act. Then, add any additional guests to the song title, e.g. “Do The Hokey Pokey (w/ Sheryl Crow)”</p>
<p>The new federal regulation that every pop song feature a rapper will drive you crazy with this as will things like Dreamgirls soundtracks.</p>
<p>interesteddad, I’m sure lots of Ccers want to do the Hokey Pokey with Sheryl Crow!</p>
<p>You can do a lot of things by changing the tags. A lot of classical music, for example, comes with the artist field set to the conductor / orchestra. I prefer to sort all stuff by artist so I change things around.</p>
<p>My problems are showing up with classical recordings and only some of them, at that. CDs which clearly label themselves as compilations seem fine, it’s the ones with just one track which is a duet, for instance, that cause havoc. Those “celebratory” discs are really trouble- as I said, each track ends up in its own separate album when they import. Now that I know how to manually correct the problem, I can do it, but I guess I was really surprised to encounter the problem to begin with. So, now that I’ve come this far, I assume after reading Lergnom’s post, that I can list those under the particular orchestra/conductor?
BTW, I really appreciate the help on this!</p>
<p>Just when I thought I was becoming adept at this, I have now discovered that I Tunes 9 is also doing the same thing when it comes to importing operas with more than 2 CDs. The first two settle in nicely under the same album art, while the subsequent discs form an entirely new album. WHAT am I doing wrong? This never happened in my D’s earlier versions, so I’m wondering if the newer #9 has some sort of glitch?</p>
<p>I am afraid to update my iTunes from version 8, but my iPod is a little bit older than yours-- last year’s nano. Anyway, I have problems something like you describe even with this older version, so I do as MADad recommended-- I go into the “get info” tab on each song or piece of music, and make all of the fields identical, except for the title of the song, which I can change as well, so that it is still identifiable. That way even compilations can all show up under the same album. Don’t know if that will work with iTunes 9. I have read many horror stories when I searched for “iTunes 9 problems.” You can try that and see if there is any further advice for you. MANY problems turned up with that search… :(</p>
<p>Version 9 is EVIL! What works one minute won’t work the next, leaving me at the mercy of my memory- which can’t be a good thing. For example, I imported 3 discs from one opera- the first was able to connect with the cover art, so I know it’s disc 1. I then did as suggested and was able to label the second (which is parked back 4 spots in my display!) as DISC 2, but there’s no art with it. The third and final disc is right next to the first one, but no matter how much I try, I am unable to label that one- when I click on it, it will show as Disc 3, but even though I’ve changed it, it won’t show up that way in my listing. Grrrrr…
I did post this question in the iTunes Forum, under problems, but no answesr- CC is much more “user friendly”!</p>
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<p>That happened in all versions. Here’s the cleanest way to handle multi-disc sets.</p>
<p>Highlight all the tracks from Disc One, click Get Info, and enter 1 in the Disc field. You can enter 1 of 3 discs if you like. I just enter 1 and leave the “of” part blank.</p>
<p>Now, Highlight all the tracks from Disc Two, and enter 2 in the disc field. Repeat for Disc 3, entering “3”.</p>
<p>Now, highlight all the tracks from all the discs and give them the idential album name, for example, “World’s Worst Opera” instead of "World’s Worst Opera (Disc One). This will give you ONE album containing three discs. Just copy the artwork from a song to all the rest of the songs.</p>
<p>Many multi-disc sets import incorrectly as Opera (Disc One), Opera (Disc Two), and Opera (Disc Three), which is silly given iTune’s built in field for handling multi-disc sets.</p>
<p>Are you guys sayin’ we are gonna have troubles with our Apple products? Sheesh, so much for the “not made by Microsoft” thing! I already replaced my week-old iPhone 3GS with a new one because the original one had sooo many problems. I can’t wait to do the iTunes thing to discover all of the other joys 
Is Apple becoming too big to fail like MSFT?</p>
<p>Apple has always released buggy, unfinished software. iTunes and iPods have had their share of “oops, we broke it” software releases. There are still ways that iTunes violates basic conventions that will drive you stark raving mad – like how it doesn’t remember the last folder used when choosing files (except every once in a while when it does, for no reason).</p>
<p>And, of course, Apple’s software is notorious for wiping out underlying files on the disc drive when it crashes, a real no-no. I just had a comprehensive iTunes library mess after iTunes crashed. It unlinked half my library. Took three weeks to fix and I’m at least an advanced intermediate iTunes user.</p>
<p>Having said that, I don’t think any of the issues described here are specific to version 9. The issues surrounding Compilations have been there since I first used iTunes (first gen Nano) and long before that. Most likely, the installation of Version 9 changed one of the default preferences (there are some user-choices about how Compilations are handled).</p>
<p>One of the real problems with Apple is that they provide dreadfully bad instructions and help, or none at all, arrogantly assuming that every feature of their software is “intutitive”. iTunes is a fairly elaborate database program. Some info on the use of tags and playlists would help a lot of people.</p>
<p>I am heading over to try your fix, interesteddad- thank you! When I did look in the field, it says disc 1 of 3, disc 2 of 3, etc, but the problem is really annoying. The inavailability of album art is a whole other issue…
Bunsen, if you have some time on your hands, and you will as soon as your newest IPhone goes out on you(!), tool on over to YouTube and search out some of the terrific videos of guys taking out their frustrations over their deceased pieces of Apple equipment on the poor,hapless machine. My favorite is the guy who suggests the many uses for a Mac… boat anchor being one of the most creative!
I believe in sharing the misery which is why I just gave my youngest S an X Box to keep at his father’s house. Hey, it’s all the kid wanted and since his elder brother works for MSFT- figuring out all of the ways to break an X Box, OTHER than simply breathing in it’s general vicinity- it will give them something to talk about to help bridge their 16yr age gap!</p>
<p>I found another possible “Compilations” solutions, but, as I said, I don’t have iTunes 9, and I won’t update to it. Anyway, I looked in my iTunes library through the hard drive, and found “Compilations” in the alphabetical list of artists. I isolated which albums were included, and went into each song’s information. On the lower right hand corner was a check box that said it was part of a compilation. I unchecked all of those, and the “compilations” disappeared from the original list. That seems to have created individual artist listings in the library, and it seems to have solved the problem. Good luck!</p>