You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

artist folder duplicated to hold single song from artist's album

I bought a new album at Amazon from an artist currently in my ITunes and imported it into ITunes. ITunes created a duplicate file folder for that artist to hold one song file from the new album, the 12th of the 13 songs on the new album. You'd never know the difference in ITunes - the album holds all the songs in order, and I can find nothing different about that 12th song in the Song Info window. The duplicate folders have the same name - the artist's - so the file info looks the same in Song Info between that song and the others on the album.


The only difference is in File Explorer, and I'm the kind of person who wants that to be correct too. :) This is not the first album I've bought from Amazon and imported into ITunes, but it's the first time this has happened.


I moved the song file from the duplicate folder into the correct folder, it slotted into place as the 12th song, and deleted the duplicate. When I close and reopen ITunes, the 12th song file is once again moved from the correct folder to a duplicate. Everything still looks fine inside the program and the song plays as it should.


Thanks for any help you can provide.

Posted on Nov 19, 2021 7:49 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 20, 2021 3:45 AM

This advice is normally for issues that are visible in the iTunes library, but the same process should ensure the data used to organize the physical files also becomes consistent. Given you cannot see the difference my guess would be that the rogue track contains a non-breaking space character instead of a space somewhere.



If iTunes or Music show multiple instances of an artist or an album then what generally works is to select all related tracks and use Song Info to add say a trailing X to each of the fields that the tracks should have in common:

  • For an album; Album, Album Artist, and Artist (if artist is the same for all tracks) *
  • For an artist; Album Artist (and Artist unless there are guest/featured artists listed which should not be changed)

Apply the change which merges things together, then remove the excess characters. Occasionally it may help to close and reopen the application between the two renaming operations. Part of a compilation should also be set consistently.


* If tracks are to be synced to a non-iOS device there should be a common Artist and/or the album should be set as a Compilation.



Use the songs view and display the fields Album, Sort Album, Album Artist, Sort Album Artist, Artist and Sort Artist side by side so you see whether or not it is appropriate to edit Artist and if sort values could be causing any further problems. See Grouping tracks into albums for more help if required.



One further tip for really stubborn duplicates. At one point I had three lots of Various Artists in the artists view of my library that wouldn't respond to the usual trailing X treatment. What I found worked was to add the trailing X to start with, but then with each group that the application wanted to keep separate start typing a value and use the autocomplete from say Var... to Various Artists. Picking from the autocomplete lists seemed to work when pasting/editing the whole value didn't.



tt2

Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 20, 2021 3:45 AM in response to tpsmtlmvn

This advice is normally for issues that are visible in the iTunes library, but the same process should ensure the data used to organize the physical files also becomes consistent. Given you cannot see the difference my guess would be that the rogue track contains a non-breaking space character instead of a space somewhere.



If iTunes or Music show multiple instances of an artist or an album then what generally works is to select all related tracks and use Song Info to add say a trailing X to each of the fields that the tracks should have in common:

  • For an album; Album, Album Artist, and Artist (if artist is the same for all tracks) *
  • For an artist; Album Artist (and Artist unless there are guest/featured artists listed which should not be changed)

Apply the change which merges things together, then remove the excess characters. Occasionally it may help to close and reopen the application between the two renaming operations. Part of a compilation should also be set consistently.


* If tracks are to be synced to a non-iOS device there should be a common Artist and/or the album should be set as a Compilation.



Use the songs view and display the fields Album, Sort Album, Album Artist, Sort Album Artist, Artist and Sort Artist side by side so you see whether or not it is appropriate to edit Artist and if sort values could be causing any further problems. See Grouping tracks into albums for more help if required.



One further tip for really stubborn duplicates. At one point I had three lots of Various Artists in the artists view of my library that wouldn't respond to the usual trailing X treatment. What I found worked was to add the trailing X to start with, but then with each group that the application wanted to keep separate start typing a value and use the autocomplete from say Var... to Various Artists. Picking from the autocomplete lists seemed to work when pasting/editing the whole value didn't.



tt2

Nov 20, 2021 1:16 PM in response to turingtest2

Your first guess must be the correct one! In Song Info I replaced the spaces in the Song, Artist, Album, and Album Artist fields, to cover all possibilities, then moved the song file to its rightful place and deleted the duplicate folder. I've closed and reopened ITunes twice since then, and everything is in place with no duplicates. Thank you!

artist folder duplicated to hold single song from artist's album

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.