Windows 7: Music Folder Won't Display By Album Or Artist

In My Music folder when I try to arrange my music by the artist or by the album, all of the songs are grouped into an "Unspecified" tile by Windows. When I arrange them by folder, every song is in the proper folder for the artist and album, every song has the correct tag info entered for it.

Windows simply refuses to organize my songs by their album or artist. I've tried everything, re-edited all the tags, deleted the music from the computer and then transferred it over again. I'm at a loss and now it's just really frustrating me.

Hello GTO86,

Could you set Music folder with "Arrange by" Folder, and "Sort by" album or artist for this. You could also drag say the "Album" column over to the far right if you like as well. Here's an example.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ort-stack.html



Hope this helps,
Shawn

When I have the window set up that way, all of the proper information is in there, every song has an album and artist associated with it.

Really, having it arranged by artist is just an aesthetic issue, it looks much better that way than by folders or any of the other views like details.

This is how I want it to look -



The problem is, there's only one tile and all it says is "Unspecified" even though every single song has all the proper info entered.

Just in passing... you might consider alternatives to Windows Music Library if you are a serious music collector who gets great joy from multiple "organization" and presentation options, album art, artist bios and pictures, playing MP3 and FLAC, simple and advanced search, etc., etc.

I myself do NOT use Windows' Music Library functionality, nor do I use Windows Media Player for music. I generally use Winamp as my "external player" for playing music (and displaying album my high-quality 500x500 album art in a 500x500 window).

And... I also use Jaangle, as my music collection organizer. It will do EVERYTHING you're asking of Music Library and much much much more. It has a built-in music/video player (which plays MP3, FLAC, and much else) or you can invoke an external player (e.g. Winamp) if you prefer.

But it's Jaangle's organization and presentation options (e.g. 10 different sort sequence arrangements which all music collectors inevitably use at different times, multiple "themes" for display of artist/album/title, etc.), automatic retrieval of album reviews, artist bios and pictures, cover art (if you don't have your own), etc., that make this product such a treat.

I know... you're probably a long-time user of Windows functionality. But you should at least consider other options, and Jaangle is terrific.

If you click on a group of arranged files by Artists, it will then give you a "Group by" view of those "Arranged by" files in more detail like below.

I think I'm doing a poor job trying to explain what's wrong and how I want my music displayed.

Right now, when I try to arrange my music by artist, it simply shows one tile, stating unspecified, even though every song has its full information entered for it. Below is a screenshot showing what it looks like now.



This is what I want it to look like.



Notice, each artist has its own tile and has several tiles displayed showing the album covers for their respective albums.

I can not figure out why my music will not display like that, even though all of the appropriate information is entered.

Why does the existing music library definition screenshot show "unspecified" for the library definition itself, where as your desired goal screenshot music library shows "2 locations"?

What's different about how you've defined "Music Library" in both situations?

Does "unspecified" mean you have ZERO locations defined for the so-called "music library" situation which is your problem?

Good catch Darryl.

@GTO86,

You will need to include the folders that you have your images saved at for the library. The defaults are the C:\Users\Public\Music and C:\Users\(user-name)\Music folders, with the C:\Users\(user-name)\Music folder set as the default Save to folder for the library.

No, I have only the "My Music" folder included because that's where all of my music is stored, there is nothing in "Public Music" to display. I did include it though, just to see what happened and its the same thing, still unspecified.

This is such a minor issue but it's just driving me crazy that I can't figure it out.

Though I don't normally use Explorer and Music Library and Windows Media Player for my music collection (as I've said before, I use Jaangle and Winamp), my experience trying to duplicate your experience doesn't produce the same results.

Starting off with NOTHING defined (i.e. deleting the two default folders, i.e. "2 locations", which are there by default when you install Windows 7), it looks like this:



Then I add just the "My Music" folder as the one and only location (shows as "1 location", not "unspecified" as your screenshot shows):



And with that "1 location" defined for Music Library, and with the only contents of the My Music folder being whatever Microsoft places there by default for demonstration purposes, the arrange by "artist" looks like this:



Yes, it shows "unspecified" under the generic folder icon... but the entire contents of the My Music folder is from Microsoft, and actually contains no real music.




Can you show us what is the content of your My Music folder?

I also tried adding ONE MP3 FILE to the My Music folder:



And now the Music Library presentation looks different: