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[Hitters]

Hello community. I am new to JRiver. So far, I am astonished by the amazing quality of the sound. I have tried other expensive software and must say that JRiver is the better sounding by far. Besides this, the user interface has been clear enough for me to do many things. That is, until now.
I have added a high resolution album bought at a download store. These 7 files were easily recognized as ONE ALBUM and played perfectly on other software. For some reason JRiver split it into 4 pieces when I added it. After renaming the files and adding the same cover image for all the four pieces it ended up being two albums. The even tracks (2,4,6) are one album, the odd tracks (1,3,5,7) are another one. I tried changing every single name, adding the same year to all the files, etc. All the seven files HAVE THE SAME ALBUM NAME AND ALSO THE SAME ARTIST NAME. No matter what I do I cannot make the seven files be recognized as ONE ALBUM. This is very inconvenient because, being a classical music album, it is meant to be listened with the tracks played in a certain order.
Does anybody there have any clue on how to solve this? Another curiosity: this has happened to ONLY ONE ALBUM. I have added hundreds of albums and they are mostly recognized as they should, and the few that were split I was able to integrate them via RENAMING.
Thanks a lot for your assistance. Greetings from Buenos Aires.
Juan

[aliciaviola]

Probably you have different names for the album artist or album in the tags. They should be the same for all tracks to be recognised as ONE album.
Frank

[HaWi]

This is very inconvenient because, being a classical music album, it is meant to be listened with the tracks played in a certain order.

First, welcome to the community!
I'm sure you'll fix the splitting. I remember having this issue, too, early on. As was said, make sure the Album name is the same for all tracks. Also, that they have the same cover art and I'm pretty sure they need to have the same Album Artist as well (not 100% sure about this). Sometimes, characters copied from various sources will not be treated as "the same" even though they look identical on the screen (this is a MacOS thing, I believe). So what I do is this:
1.) Select all tracks
2.) Open the Tag View
3.) Type the information in the respective tag field
This makes sure that all selected tracks get exactly the same information.
Also, regarding tracks being played in order, you'll love the "linked tracks" feature. You can highlight tracks (say all movements of a classical composition) then right click and select Library Tools from the pop-up contextual menu, then select "Link Tracks". This will ensure that when you play one track, the others will be played in the  correct sequence as well, automatically. Especially when you make Playlists with classical works this will play all movements of compositions in the correct sequence even when you shuffle the playlist (if all the tracks are properly linked shuffling will shuffle compositions, not tracks). This is essential for me when playing classical music.
Good luck, you will get to love MC more and more as you discover new things to do with it. Also, don't hesitate to ask questions here, there are some very knowledgeable and helpful people on this forum and I cannot thank them enough for the support they have given me. It allows me to enjoy MC beyond my original wildest dreams.
cheers,
Hans

[Hitters]

Thank you both, HaWi and AliciaViola.
Unfortunately, as I said before, I have typed the VERY SAME album name and artist name to all the seven tracks. I also used the VERY SAME cover image as well. Tried changing the name to all these fields, etc etc. Nothing worked.
Though I am new to JRiver I am quite experienced using ROON, Audirvana, Audiogate and iTunes, so I figured that all the fields should have the same data.
I also tried linking the tracks, as suggested by AliciaViola. Nothing changed.
I had to give up. I will probably no longer listen to this album due to this problem. It makes the experience an awkward one.
Best wishes

Juan

[RoderickGI]

Read this very carefully. https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Album_Artist_and_Album_Artist_(Auto)

What you are doing should work, but there is something amiss. If all the files for the Album are in one directory, in addition to the Album and Album Artist field matching exactly, then the Album shouldn't be split. It shouldn't even if the files are spread all over the place.

If you want to fix it though, post an image of a View showing

[Name] [Album] [Artist] [Album Artist] [Album Artist (auto)] [Year] [Filename]

Make sure we can see the full path and file name from the [Filename] field, like the image attached.

[wer]

The link that Rod meant to provide is this one:
Click https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Album_Artist_and_Album_Artist_(Auto)

Hitters, based on the words you are using, which is all we have to go by, it sounds like you are missing an important fact.

You say you are adjusting "album name" and "artist name" to all seven tracks, but that is not enough.  There is another tag, Album Artist, that must be set.

The names of the three fields (tags) that must be set:
Album
Artist
Album Artist

If these three agree across all 7 tracks MC will see it as a single album.

So you said you put the same value for "album name" across all 7 tracks.  Double check you entered that in the "Album" field, because there is no field called "Album Name".

Now ensure "Album Artist" is the same across all 7 tracks.  Then you should be fine.

[Hitters]

Unfortunately, I do not have the ALBUM ARTIST category. I am attaching a screen shot of what I have.

Thanks again!

[wer]

You do, you just have it hidden.

Right click on the column header where you see the word "Artist" and a menu will pop up.  Select "Album Artist" from that menu.

You can also do this in the tag editor. You can bring up the tag editor by clicking on a file once, then hitting the two keys Alt-Enter.

And you should drag the edges of columns left and right to make them wider so you can see what you actually have in the Album field.  We can't see either, can we?  Or on that right-click menu, you can select "Auto Size All Columns"

[RoderickGI]

Also please make sure that the full field contents are shown, as in my sample image, and not truncated. You can just drag the field wider.

In fact, I suggest that you click on the "Artist" View and drag it up to the "Audio" heading above it, then select "Copy" in the menu that pops up. Then you can add the columns required, including [Year]. [Album Artist] and [Album Artist (auto)] which are all missing, without changing the default "Artist" View. If space is limited the [Name] field is not as important. It can be truncated if necessary.

Show all these fields:
[Name] [Album] [Artist] [Album Artist] [Album Artist (auto)] [Year] [Filename]

Media Center has quite a learning curve. Learning to create and modify Views is a big part of that. This little exercise will start you on that path.

PS: That URL always catches me out Wer. The bracket at the end never gets included properly. Very annoying... I fixed that so it will never happen again! 

[Hitters]

OK, I have been trying to get access to the ALBUM ARTIST column but failed completely. I could not find the list you both mention. I was able to go to VIEW, CUSTOMIZE VIEW, where you can add categories. I tried adding ALBUM ARTIST but even after saving the option the column is NOT displayed. There was an ALBUM ARTIST (AUTO) category.
Also, I do not know how to grab ARTSIT VIEW into the AUDIO. I do not even have an AUDIO category. Sorry, I must be dumb. But honestly, I have been able to preform these tasks and far more complex ones in ROON and iTunes. I am lost here. Will keep on trying tomorrow. It is very late here in Buenos Aires and got too frustrated to keep on with it. Thank you for your patience.

[wer]

Ok Hitters, listen carefully.

Rod's advice is good but you are having trouble following it.  Despite what experience you think you have in Roon or whatever, you're getting very confused with MC, and anything having to do with customizing views is simply too complicated for you at this point.  So stay away from that.

Please just follow exactly the very simple advice I gave you before:

Right click on the column header where you see the word "Artist" and a menu will pop up.  Select "Album Artist" from that menu.

You can and will find it, because it's in your own screenshot, so open your eyes, and look at your own screenshot. The bottom third of the screen, where you see the words Name Artist Album Rating Genre all going across in a row.

THAT is the column header.  So do what I said above, and you will add "Album Artist" as a column.  Then you can click in each of those cells in that column to edit the field for each file.

Do THAT, and it will most likely fix your problem.

MC is not a program that is easy on beginners, but you need to do a lot of reading.

[HaWi]

I have been thinking about possible reasons. One is that sometimes, when text is copied from various sources, it is not recognized by MC the same way other software recognizes if. In other words, the same word appears in a field/tag in several tracks but MC sees them differently somehow, as demonstrated by searching for the word by typing it into the “Search” field and only finding a subset. This happens sometimes when copying from browsers (probably an encoding issue).
What I do to fix this is the following
Select all tracks
Open the tag view (<Alt>-<Enter>)
Type the information, e.g. “Santana”, into the tag field (Labeled “Album Artist“)
Press <Enter>
This simultaneously changes all tracks to the identical word “Santana” for Album Artist.
I’d suggest trying this for Album and Album Artist. It may or may not fix the split but it also won’t do any harm.
Cheers,
Hans

[blgentry]

The names of the three fields (tags) that must be set:
Album
Artist
Album Artist

If these three agree across all 7 tracks MC will see it as a single album.

Close, but incorrect.  [Artist] can be anything on any song in an album.  It's the [Album Artist] field that controls how albums are grouped when the Artist is different. This is important for compilation albums.  Say you have an album of hits from the 80s.  Every song will have a different [Artist] field, because every song is from a different band/group/artist.  As long as the [Album] field is the same and you set [Album Artist] to the same thing for every song, it will all group as one album.

For compilations, it usually makes sense to use something like "Various" for the [Album Artist].  Another choice is "(Multiple Artists)".  For some DJ compilations I set [Album Artist] to the name of the DJ, and [Artist] to the individual artist for each different song.

Learn to use the Tagging Window.  Open the Tagging Window with Alt-Enter.  On a Mac keyboard the Option key is the same as Alt.  It should say Alt in small print on it.  You can easily examine and change your tags using the Tagging Window.  I ignored this MC feature for a while and was using a different program for tagging.  Then I watched someone using the Tagging Window and I couldn't believe how easy it was!  Try it.  It's very nice.

Brian.

Brian.

[HaWi]

It should say Alt in small print on it. 

My keyboard has "option" on the Options key. Some other keyboards have "option" with a smaller "alt" superscript, so it may vary.

[wer]

Close, but incorrect.  [Artist] can be anything on any song in an album. 

I know, I left that subtlety out because I didn't want to confuse him further as he had already said he had standardized his artist names, and I didn't want him to see variation in Album Artist (auto) which he could and would confuse with Album Artist. Likewise it seemed the tagging window would be too complicated for him.

[RoderickGI]

Are you still with us Hitters?

Despite all the discussion above, what you are asking for help with is a very simple thing. If you post an image as I requested probably everyone here will see the problem immediately.

If you are still having trouble creating an image as I requested, let us know. Doing that is also very easy, once you know how.

[Hitters]

Sorry for keeping you waiting. I have been busy today and only now I have been able to read all the answers and act accordingly.
I must tell you that I have succeeded and now these seven files are grouped as ONE ALBUM. I am attaching a screenshot.
Part of the problem is that the background I have chosen is a very dark grey (Purity) and some buttons are difficult to distinguish from it.
Thank you so much for your patience.
I am sure I will be contacting you again soon.
Greetings from Buenos Aires