LMS Media scanner not scanning albums correctly

[gstalnaker]

Can anyone tell me why my LMS v8, even after a complete rescan this afternoon (it did this before the rescan by the way), shows some albums as if they are not albums but individual tracks? Like this (an "album" with 40+ tracks, different artists and NO year, but all in the same album):



I cannot see in mp3tag why the LMS scanner is doing this. mp3tag shows this as a single album with 40+ tracks. And it's not the only album shown like this either. I have multiple opera recordings where the album name is the same for all tracks, but LMS displays them as individual items in Genre - Album view. And it's not Material either - the default skin shows the same. It's something that the LMS tag scanner is doing.

It's really baffling.

Thanks.

[slartibartfast]

Can anyone tell me why my LMS v8, even after a complete rescan this afternoon (it did this before the rescan by the way), shows some albums as if they are not albums but individual tracks? Like this (an "album" with 40+ tracks, different artists and NO year, but all in the same album):



I cannot see in mp3tag why the LMS scanner is doing this. mp3tag shows this as a single album with 40+ tracks. And it's not the only album shown like this either. I have multiple opera recordings where the album name is the same for all tracks, but LMS displays them as individual items in Genre - Album view. And it's not Material either - the default skin shows the same. It's something that the LMS tag scanner is doing.

It's really baffling.

Thanks.

Can you show all the tags in one of the tracks, you can take a screenshot of More info/View tags? I have similar albums that appear under Various Artists.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[Grumpy Bob]

Two suggestions:
1. Have you flagged the album as a compilation via the COMPILATION tag? <---I always flag compilations this way.
2. Have you populated the ALBUM ARTIST tag? And if so, what with? <--- I think some people advocate using "Various Artists" in this tag, but it's not the way I approach this.

Robert

[d6jg]

So that is one album of 40 tracks but each has a different cover image?
I suspect LMS thinks that because they have different covers they are different albums.
Test the theory by giving them all the same cover (make a backup copy first).

[mherger]

> So that is one album of 40 tracks but each has a different cover image?
> I suspect LMS thinks that because they have different covers they are
> different albums.

No, the album grouping doesn't take cover into account. Covers are
evaluated long after the album grouping. Check tags, in particular
MusicBrainz IDs, folder, album title etc.

[gstalnaker]

Thanks everyone.

Though the example screencap is for a "created" album (sort of a modern
mix tape), the issue applies to other albums I have. But you've all
given me ideas I can explore. I'll see what mp3tag can tell me. I think
** I ** may be the cause as I have a rather particular tagging scheme I
want for my classical/choral/opera albums and thus I use mp3tag to
impose this scheme for any newly ripped album before I add it to my LMS
library (that is, I do not blindly use musicbrainz/freedb, especially
for classical/choral/opera as the tags are frequently quite incorrect).

I only use the "normal" set of tags: Title, Album, Artist, Track, Disc,
Year, Genre, AlbumArtist, Composer, Comment (the default set exposed by
mp3tag's UI). To my knowledge I've not touched any other tag so did not
think to "review" them as part of my workflow. I will now review them.

Regards.

Guy

On 3/4/21 3:56 AM, Michael Herger wrote:
>> So that is one album of 40 tracks but each has a different cover image?
>> I suspect LMS thinks that because they have different covers they are
>> different albums.
>
> No, the album grouping doesn't take cover into account. Covers are
> evaluated long after the album grouping. Check tags, in particular
> MusicBrainz IDs, folder, album title etc.
>

[AlecSp]

Have you tried using mp3tag's View -> Extended Tags option?

This was a revelation to me when I discovered it a few years ago. There can be so much unwanted junk tagged away which you never see in the main interface - these days I happily blow away all the tags I don't want.

You may well have nothing there if these are files you've ripped and tagged yourself - but you never know what automated tagging may have been applied by your tools.

In the end, though, a music library tool can only present its own interpretation of the tags used in your files. And I've certainly seen some software giving quite different views of my own library.

[gstalnaker]

Michael,

A question if I may ... if tracks are in separate folders, does the
scanner treat them as, somehow, separate, even if they have the same
Album, Artist, AlbumArtist, Genre, and Composer?

That may be what's going on, if this is true.

Thanks,

Guy

On 3/4/21 3:56 AM, Michael Herger wrote:
>> So that is one album of 40 tracks but each has a different cover image?
>> I suspect LMS thinks that because they have different covers they are
>> different albums.
>
> No, the album grouping doesn't take cover into account. Covers are
> evaluated long after the album grouping. Check tags, in particular
> MusicBrainz IDs, folder, album title etc.
>

[mherger]

> A question if I may ... if tracks are in separate folders, does the
> scanner treat them as, somehow, separate, even if they have the same
> Album, Artist, AlbumArtist, Genre, and Composer?

Yes, I believe the folder is used to distinguish albums of the same
artist and name. Some collectors have multiple copies of the same
(remastered, ripped from vinyl, whatever).

[gstalnaker]

Michael,

Thanks! That may be it. I'm working to get tracks in single folders rather
than in nested subfolders. I think this may be why my opera albums of
Wagner's four Ring operas end up as they do.

Guy

On Thu, Mar 4, 2021, 11:05 PM Michael Herger <slim (AT) herger (DOT) net> wrote:

> > A question if I may ... if tracks are in separate folders, does the
> > scanner treat them as, somehow, separate, even if they have the same
> > Album, Artist, AlbumArtist, Genre, and Composer?
>
> Yes, I believe the folder is used to distinguish albums of the same
> artist and name. Some collectors have multiple copies of the same
> (remastered, ripped from vinyl, whatever).
>