Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff

Subject: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: cnd
Date: 24 Jan 16 - 11:44 AM

My iTunes keeps changing my songs on me behind my back. I'll put a song in and it will say, add artist info that I don't care about, or an (incorrect) release date. That doesn't really bother me that much.

But what does bother me is when I put in a song with no album and it adds an album. If I can't find the original album a song was released on, I'll just leave the "album" section blank. But then iTunes will go in behind my back and add some cheesy 90s compilation album picture and track listing and other things. How can I get it to stop doing this?

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 24 Jan 16 - 12:15 PM

Why do you need to use iprunes?

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: GUEST,#
Date: 24 Jan 16 - 12:24 PM

See if the following is any help, cnd. I don't have or really even know what iTunes is, but maybe the posts (there are two) will be of assistance. Good luck to you.

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Jan 16 - 08:13 PM

I have an iMac with around half a dozen items on iTunes, several are new songs from friends, one is a burn of a couple of rare early Australian records, another is a modern CD which contains a track I hate, so I copied it to iTunes & deleted that track!

I occasionally listen to the historic album, but when I want music I put one of my 600 or so CDs on my small CD player.

I'm not interested in buying tracks from iTune store, nor do I have a mobile (cell) phone or any other device so I don't need all the bells & whistles on iTunes.

A couple of years ago I bought a double MP3 of 'An Australian Folk Song a Day' & have never loaded it into iTunes it as I'm not sure what iTunes will do with it.

I've just searched for 'alternatives to itunes for macs' & found some interesting articles about alternatives which I'll discuss with my Mac expert when he arrives on Friday to upgrade the memory & fix a few things.

Apple's iTunes Is Alienating Its Most Music-Obsessed Users Nov 2015

sandra (not geeky or techy)

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: GUEST,#
Date: 24 Jan 16 - 08:27 PM

Might help if I put the link in this time DOH.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4490689?tstart=0

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: cnd
Date: 24 Jan 16 - 11:40 PM

Thanks all, but my goal is not quitting iTunes. Honestly, I've got over 300 tracks on there, and I don't feel like changing over. I mostly just use it as a convenient way to listen to music while doing other work. I think I may have a solution: I went to "preferences" and un-checked "Automatically retrieve CD track names from the internet," and "automatically download album artwork," as well as "share details about your library with Apple." I think most of those won't do anything except the last one. The last two options were placed under "store," and the first one under "general" if anyone else wants to try it. I'll keep you posted if that doesn't work.

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: G-Force
Date: 25 Jan 16 - 04:54 AM

How about '(various)'?

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 25 Jan 16 - 06:55 AM

Just like microsoft word (at least the version I was forced to use in the bad old days of work) turn all the automatic features off and it'll be fine.

I have ripped my whole CD collection into iTunes plus a quarter of my, now digitised, LP collection (well over 40 GB) and I have no problems with it.

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: GUEST,Howard Jones
Date: 25 Jan 16 - 08:06 AM

When you play a track from your computer the music player (not just iTunes) looks for information encoded into the file to display artist, album, name and other information. If it can't find it, it goes to an online database. If it finds an exact match you should be OK, but where it can't it often downloads something it thinks is similar (which might just be identical track length).

The principal database is Gracenote, which is very comprehensive but can't be expected to know about obscure recordings from long ago, or even more recent ones by small independent labels who haven't' submitted the data.

There is at least one other database, used by at least one player, which is unable to distinguish between artists or bands who share a name. There are at least two other musicians called 'Howard Jones', and I hear that one of them did quite well, but he and the rest of us are all lumped together in a single entry. Similarly, my ceilidh band shares its name with a Japanese rock band and a classical flute quartet - unlikely to confuse anyone but a computer.

What is really annoying is when it becomes impossible to get rid of the incorrect information, especially when it is attached to your own recordings.

The answer is to turn off the option for the player to go online, however when it works properly this is a useful feature.

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: Mr Red
Date: 25 Jan 16 - 08:34 AM

Why tell Apple anything ? They seem to be cornering the phone-payment market, and want the music end. Then with such data they can target adverts at you, like more music, or more stuff that you can live without.

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: Amos
Date: 25 Jan 16 - 04:16 PM

Here's a viable alternative for safe management of your tunes.

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: cnd
Date: 25 Jan 16 - 04:36 PM

Thanks AMos, but I don't have a Max

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 26 Jan 16 - 11:56 AM

Howard Jones--Thank you for that explanation! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that has had unchangeable incorrect information added to my own recordings. A rather wistful guitar piece that I wrote for my daughter is forever named "Get On the Van!" and has been labeled as Ska. Still not as bad as the Spotify player, which plays commercials when I use it to listen to my personal music files.

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 26 Jan 16 - 05:09 PM

Irrespective of what itunes inserts for you, you can still change it. From memory, if you right click on what you want to change and select "get info" you can change/add/delete whatever you want.

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: cnd
Date: 26 Jan 16 - 05:46 PM

Yeah, it's just annoying to change it and then it changes back and then change it again and again and again

Subject: RE: Tech: iTunes is changing my stuff
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 27 Jan 16 - 09:24 AM

Turn the auto features off first - I've never had it change anything of mine and I've one hell of a lot of stuff on there.