ITunes 11 Organization issues

Okay, So I'm very OCD about my music and the way I organize it. Every time there is a big change with iTunes or I switch to a new iPhone, I run into hours of issues that I have to resolve to so that it is organized like I want it. With that said, I HATE iOS7's music player and the way it forces me to scroll through albums and I plan on finding a player that does it like I like. But in the meantime, I need some help.

First of all, I buy most music in CD or Record form. Call me old school, but I like to have the actual copy. I then save it onto an external drive. 98% of all my music is done this way. Occasionally I will buy single songs off iTunes if I know I don't like any more of that persons's music. I then relabel all of that so that it is in one album titled "Downloaded Music iTunes." I don't care what album each song actually come from. Just the artist. The problem I have ran into is no matter what I try in terms of changing the sorting tags, it keeps splitting them up weird. It will only list the song name (not the artist unless I click to play it) and some of them have numbers in front of them. I only have 29 songs I've downloaded from iTunes. So an example would be:

Wild roses
Titanium
1 All through the night
1 One Day
1 I'm Gonna Be
2 Let Me Be

And so forth.

I don't understand why it is putting the number in front of it. I've checked all the info and I deleted any sort of numbering. I also don't understand why it omits the name of the artist.


My second issue is that a few (not all) of the songs that I've downloaded from iTunes, show up oddly in my iTunes on my computer. They are sort of greyed out and they have a dotted circle next to them. Why?

I know these probably seem like nit picky issues, and well… they are. But it's just how I am about my music.

If anybody can help I'd be VERY grateful.

Can you post a screen cap of the "Info" sheet for one of those downloaded songs from iTunes? You can make a screen cap of the active window by using Grab, which comes with OS X. I'd like to see the "Info" tab and "Sorting" so I can get a grasp on how these are tagged.

In iTunes, under "View" on the top bar, then View Options, deselect "Track Number" might help the numbers go away. You were not specific on what you did to "delete any sort of numbering" so if you have already tried this, sorry to repeat it.

lifeisabeach said:

Can you post a screen cap of the "Info" sheet for one of those downloaded songs from iTunes? You can make a screen cap of the active window by using Grab, which comes with OS X. I'd like to see the "Info" tab and "Sorting" so I can get a grasp on how these are tagged.

Click to expand...

I also took a shot of what it looks like greyed out. I think I need to clarify the issue as they are two separate issues. This greying out with the circle business only shows up when when click on my iPhone within iTunes. And these are only songs that I've downloaded from iTunes. If I look at these songs in my regular music folder in iTunes (not under my iPhone), they show up fine. And they have a different info page because I have them saved onto my external drive. With all of that said, they are all on uploaded onto my phone.

If any of that makes sense.

I can't seem to get the screen shots to upload. But maybe it's worth saying that when I gather the info and sorting info from the greyed out ones, I cannot change them. It's whatever was assigned to them from iTunes. But like I said, I can change them in my regular music folder, but they aren't grey there. They look normal. I'll try posting pictures again.

MacInWin said:

In iTunes, under "View" on the top bar, then View Options, deselect "Track Number" might help the numbers go away. You were not specific on what you did to "delete any sort of numbering" so if you have already tried this, sorry to repeat it.

Click to expand...

Yes that is already unchecked. But the way that I removed the numbering was within the info section on each song. "track ___ of ____" that section. I just deleted them. I've done this for other music that I've downloaded in the past. And I put them all in one "album" to keep them together. Creatively titled "Downloaded Music 1" haha. Anyway, I have that all working fine. But for some reason no matter what variation of sorting tactics I use for the iTunes music, there is some issue. Currently I have a temporary work around where I've gone ahead and numbered all of them 1-29 so they are at least in order instead of some numbered and some not, and most of them numbered 1,2, or 3. But that's not how I want it as I'd have to renumber them every time I purchased a song.

I'm still not sure I'm making sense.

bathedinshadow said:

I can't seem to get the screen shots to upload. But maybe it's worth saying that when I gather the info and sorting info from the greyed out ones, I cannot change them. It's whatever was assigned to them from iTunes. But like I said, I can change them in my regular music folder, but they aren't grey there. They look normal. I'll try posting pictures again.

Click to expand...

The image-posting tool here isn't very obvious on how to use. When you reply, above this box you'll see a paper clip icon. Click on that to get a pop-up box, then "choose" your file. Once it is uploaded, close that box. Then click the small arrow next to the paper clip to select an image to put in in-line with your text.

I don't have the paperclip on the basic forum skin I use - for all the skin versions, click the 'Go Advanced' button below the reply box, which will show you the paperclip or you can scroll down to the 'Manage Attachments' option...

I don't know how to help people who are genuinely OCD about this stuff, but the actual answer is to let iTunes do the organizing behind the scenes, and just arrange the way they are SEEN on your screen to your liking. Micro-management is just pointless busy work IMHO, and that's exactly what I bought a computer to do for me.

Ditto for iPhoto and Aperture and Lightroom. Its all about databases of assets, and that's what computers are exceptionally good at doing and (most) humans are exceptionally bad at.

lifeisabeach said:

The image-posting tool here isn't very obvious on how to use. When you reply, above this box you'll see a paper clip icon. Click on that to get a pop-up box, then "choose" your file. Once it is uploaded, close that box. Then click the small arrow next to the paper clip to select an image to put in in-line with your text.

Click to expand...

Yeah I did that. But it wouldn't actually upload. It uploaded it without the pictures.

chas_m said:

I don't know how to help people who are genuinely OCD about this stuff, but the actual answer is to let iTunes do the organizing behind the scenes, and just arrange the way they are SEEN on your screen to your liking. Micro-management is just pointless busy work IMHO, and that's exactly what I bought a computer to do for me.

Ditto for iPhoto and Aperture and Lightroom. Its all about databases of assets, and that's what computers are exceptionally good at doing and (most) humans are exceptionally bad at.

Click to expand...

I'm glad that works for you. But I'm not seeing it as I want to. That's the point.

How would you like to see it?

Without screenshots I can't confirm this so can you check something for us.

Normally when I have removed some information from the info pane and things are still appearing there's a simple culprit. Open the info dialog on a track, go to the info tab and make sure everything is as it should be. Don't close the window yet.

Now move to the Sorting tab and make sure the information there is correct. The first column is essentially a repeat of the information in the "info" tab. Pay particular attention to the second column. Many of the sort/display options in iTunes rely on this column.