There are many ways to edit song information in iTunes that will help you sort your music. You can group songs together in an album using the Album Artist field. You can also set track numbers and use alternative song, album and artist information just for sorting.
Comments: 14 Responses to “MacMost Now 572: Fixing iTunes Sorting Problems”
Investe
13 years ago
Thanks Gary!
I'll go and fix my girlfriends Library because it's really messed up!
Dave Blake
13 years ago
Hi Gary
This is kind of related so thought I would ask it here.
I have in my library albums by Bruce Springsteen, Bruce springsteen & the E street band & also Bruce Springsteen & the sessions band.
Is there any way without changing the artist name to "Bruce Springsteen" that I can get these to just show up on my iOS device as "Bruce Springsteen" rather then 3 separate artists? this would also be useful where you have an album of duets.
OK. Then just change the artist. Or, build a playlist. Try different things until you get the result you want.
Dave Blake
13 years ago
ok think I will wait to see if there is anything in iOS5 before I change my library metadata. Thanks for your help and I really enjoy your great content
Mr Anthony Cotton
13 years ago
I just did it way you said,change the artist. I have also did what you have said Try different things until i get the result i want. I have iTunes playing in the background while i am working on Photoshop. As i have said before i am self teaching myself, but i have learnt a lot of things from this site. When you are changing the artists name you get prompted by iTunes,also when you type in the name of the song or album you get prompted again. I don`t know why? Anthony
Michael Bell
13 years ago
I have various cd's imported from lectures where the producer has no information on the cd for it to be recognised as anything other than private so, on importing it I put in the name of the lecturer and some other basic details, then import. More often than not it turns up in iTunes under the category I have place it in and the track numbers are in a random order, as you can imagine its like reading a book upside down & back to front. Ihave played around with the options that I can see but must be missing something to get the order back! Can you guide me?
Did you double check the information for each track? Is it still correct? Maybe you are just viewing it in a different way in the iTunes library so it is sorting it alphabetically or "last listened" or something like that.
Michael Bell
13 years ago
checked that & its still in an odd order, I have tried renaming one cd from Track 01 along with producer name to 1 Track with producer name & that works.......odd!
Joe Coto
13 years ago
Gary, How can I add on iTunes the track numbers automated in sequence to a album that does not have them on the original file. example:
Sail Away
Come Together
I would like to add the track numbers as follow,
01 - Sail Away
02 - Come Together
Just add the track numbers. What the video, you can see where the track numbers go in the info panel. Or, do you mean you want to add them to the song name too? You can just edit the song name if you really want to do that. There are AppleScripts out there that you can use to do that automatically. Search for them.
Vicki B.
13 years ago
I hope this works for audiobooks, b/c that's what I'm having trouble with, and it keeps sorting backwards, too.
I have no idea why but I don't read a book from the back to the front; I'd like it to go from front to back. Except the people who created the discs made it be letters instead of numbers so disc 7, for example, goes from 7a to 7t.
But the sorting option is sorting numbers backwards too. IDK why.
If a column is sorting backwards, click on the column header again. Doing this will reverse the order (A-Z, Z-A, etc) of the column. Works in the Finder and other places too.
Thanks Gary!
I'll go and fix my girlfriends Library because it's really messed up!
Hi Gary
This is kind of related so thought I would ask it here.
I have in my library albums by Bruce Springsteen, Bruce springsteen & the E street band & also Bruce Springsteen & the sessions band.
Is there any way without changing the artist name to "Bruce Springsteen" that I can get these to just show up on my iOS device as "Bruce Springsteen" rather then 3 separate artists? this would also be useful where you have an album of duets.
Many thanks
Dave
Yes. Watch the video. You can set the "Album Artist" for instance.
hi Gary
That does not transfer though to iOS
OK. Then just change the artist. Or, build a playlist. Try different things until you get the result you want.
ok think I will wait to see if there is anything in iOS5 before I change my library metadata. Thanks for your help and I really enjoy your great content
I just did it way you said,change the artist. I have also did what you have said Try different things until i get the result i want. I have iTunes playing in the background while i am working on Photoshop. As i have said before i am self teaching myself, but i have learnt a lot of things from this site. When you are changing the artists name you get prompted by iTunes,also when you type in the name of the song or album you get prompted again. I don`t know why? Anthony
I have various cd's imported from lectures where the producer has no information on the cd for it to be recognised as anything other than private so, on importing it I put in the name of the lecturer and some other basic details, then import. More often than not it turns up in iTunes under the category I have place it in and the track numbers are in a random order, as you can imagine its like reading a book upside down & back to front. Ihave played around with the options that I can see but must be missing something to get the order back! Can you guide me?
Many thanks
Michael
Did you double check the information for each track? Is it still correct? Maybe you are just viewing it in a different way in the iTunes library so it is sorting it alphabetically or "last listened" or something like that.
checked that & its still in an odd order, I have tried renaming one cd from Track 01 along with producer name to 1 Track with producer name & that works.......odd!
Gary, How can I add on iTunes the track numbers automated in sequence to a album that does not have them on the original file. example:
Sail Away
Come Together
I would like to add the track numbers as follow,
01 - Sail Away
02 - Come Together
Thank you!!
Just add the track numbers. What the video, you can see where the track numbers go in the info panel. Or, do you mean you want to add them to the song name too? You can just edit the song name if you really want to do that. There are AppleScripts out there that you can use to do that automatically. Search for them.
I hope this works for audiobooks, b/c that's what I'm having trouble with, and it keeps sorting backwards, too.
I have no idea why but I don't read a book from the back to the front; I'd like it to go from front to back. Except the people who created the discs made it be letters instead of numbers so disc 7, for example, goes from 7a to 7t.
But the sorting option is sorting numbers backwards too. IDK why.
If a column is sorting backwards, click on the column header again. Doing this will reverse the order (A-Z, Z-A, etc) of the column. Works in the Finder and other places too.