To clarify, the "missing" albums *do* show up under the correct artist in iTunes; just not on my iPhone. I've tried re-synching and rebooting my iPhone, but neither helped.

I was about to write and say that I've had similar sync problems with photo albums and iOS 5, but instead I have to say:

WTF!? You're an echolyn fan!? Know how many people I've met who've even *heard* of echolyn!?

Jory et.al., Tuesday 5 pm hst • ≠
" As the world " turns . .i dunno' but i've been told that iTunes ® only downloads cover art work from music you have actually and in fact down loaded and have purchased from the iTunes ® store .
The darn store won't let me up load my own ƒanciful artwork n e more for albums that do not provide such !
Waa Waa ( By George Harrison - it's a song :)
h t h ∞ What we listen to--> www.youtube.com/watch

OK, I'm going to throw out a bunch of ideas here. I'm going to use Yes as the example because it is easier to type than Todd Rundgren. I order to test these things out, you may need to unsync the library and then resync it.

Checking tack info:

Using the Get Info command in iTunes select a track from Yes that is synching to the phone. Compare that to a track that isn't synching. Check to see what information is different, like is Album Artist field filled out on one and not the other. Is the album labeled (incorrectly) as a compilation. If you display all the albums of the band together, you should be able to get the last track of the album that isn't synching right next to the first track of an album that is. That way you can toggle between the two in the Get Info window. My suspicion is that there is a discrepancy in how the artist is labeled. I don't like the Album Artist field and clear it whenever I have can. It seems to give problems sometimes but my research is not scientific at all on this. Reconcile differences (see below) and then resync.

Normalize the track info:

Sometimes I think there is a difference the way iTunes reads track info. Maybe there is a space after the artist name and when it comes to synching that messes things up. So normalize the track information, ie make it all the same. Display ALL of the Yes albums in iTunes (i would avoid compilations that have Yes on them.) Select them all. Go to the Get Info window and in the artist field RETYPE Yes. I'd check the Album Artist field to force it to clear. Click ok. And resync.

Differing iTunes accounts

Are some of the tracks you are trying to sync iTunes purchased music? Is it possible that it's stuff that you aren't authorized to play because it's from a secondary iTunes account or someone else's like a significant other. Again, the Summary view of the Get Info window will display this information. Summary view is only available when you look at a single track.

Bad metadata

If the tracks were acquired from a weird or unknown source like Limewire, it's possible that the metadata is corrupted. I've had buggy albums that refused to comply with being renamed and stuff. In some instances, I was able to correct it by 1) copying the music files to the desktop. 2) removing the tracks from iTunes and trashing the referenced files, 3) re-importing the tracks back in

NOTE:
Remember iTunes does not have the music files in it. iTunes is like a card catalog in a library. The music files are on a bookshelf somewhere and iTunes references them. So it's possible that the card catalog iTunes library file is corrupt.

Re-import the tracks from CD

If this is an option, try re-importing the tracks. It might not be an option.

Keep iTunes Organized

In iTunes preferences, is the Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized checked? I can barely fathom why someone would uncheck that. Usually Windows people do because they don't understand how iTunes organizes things and they'll label their tracks as Beatles, The. Anyways, that could have something to do with it but I don't know what.

Music files are in multiple locations:

If, like me, your music is on an external hard drive and not on the computer itself, this can present a problem if you ever launch iTunes and the drive isn't connected. iTunes will then store files in the default location (/Users/yourusername/Music/iTunes/). If you quit iTunes then reconnect the drive, then it will resume saving files to the external. But now you've got files in two places. That's a problem for backing-up and it could be something that is causing the problem you are having.

Rebuild iTunes Library.

Depending on the size of your library this could be big. You might want to google this and get a more detailed explanation with pictures. Basically quit iTunes. go to /Users/yourusername/Music/iTunes/ and remove the iTunes Library.xml, iTunes Library.itl...etc. Basically any FILE (not folder) that begins iTunes Library... Then when you launch iTunes it will be empty. Drag the /Users/yourusername/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media folder to iTunes and it will re-add all your tracks.

Note: doing the above will remove all your play lists, play counts and some other metadata not stored in the track files. It could also take a long time to rebuild. AGAIN: If you go this route, find a more detailed how to than what I wrote.

OK, well there goes my Sunday morning ;)! Ask any questions. Not sure if I have personal messaging turned on here but you could find me on Facebook if you wanted to. I do get notifications there. This is the only Tribe I look at on a regular basis.

My hunch is that the issue has to do with Album Artist but I am prejudiced against that Field. It has given me problems in the past.


If there is a guest artist on the track of note, I put that information in the Track field - Rundabout (featuring Todd Rundgren) rather than in the Artist field. That way I don't have to label the album as a compilation, which it isn't.