Artists Listed Multiple Times with Different Spelling/Name Formatting

[arcana777]

I've got a Zune 80GB. After loading all of my music, I noticed I had artists listed multiple ways; i.e. "David Arkenstone" and "Arkenstone, David". I found out that while my Artist tags were correct, my Album Artist tags were not and were clearly the culprit. I spent hours correcting these tags and making absolutely certain they matched.

When I finished the tag correction process, I erased my Zune using the Erase button in the device settings in the software. I then proceeded to reload the device. I have 4000 songs and this is a 7 hour and 40 minute process.

When it was done re-syncing, I assumed all of my problems would be solved. Instead, it's as if I never fixed even one of those Artist or Album Artist tags! Interestingly, my genre corrections and album art changes took and are all fine. It's just the artist names that are STILL not listed correctly. How in God's name do you get the Zune to recognize the changes you've made to the Artist and Album Artist tags? This is insanity! Shame on you, Microsoft for making this such a nightmare!

I was a little suspicious that it took only a couple seconds to completely erase 25GB worth of data when it took 7 hours and 40 minutes to load. Something tells me it's not actually erasing everything. It's hanging on to old information somehow!

HELP!!! How do I fix this? I don't know if I can stand another nearly 8 hour wait to see if "maybe" it decided to do it right this time. Anyone have a solid answer to this dilemma?

[arcana777]

After much tearing my hair out, I've got this problem solved. I was so focused on the fact that my tags appeared correctly in MP3Tag that I never noticed my collection in the Zune Software didn't reflect my corrections. *smacks forehead*

I'd read about the Media Collection Reset tool but the description of that tool stated it would fix the following problem:

"Music tracks may become associated with incorrect albums after you upgrade to a newer version of the Zune software"

That did not describe my problem at all so I didn't try the tool at first. Yes, I upgraded my firmware when I bought my Zune 12 days ago but that was before I'd ever loaded anything onto it. Plus, I had ZERO issues with albums being associated with the wrong artist so why should I try this? Bottom line here folks is that Microsoft's description of what this tool does actually doesn't say enough. It solved my problem. It fixed almost everything. The 5 artists it didn't fix I'll deal with in some other way. 5 artists out of whack is better than well over 50 (which is how bad my problem was). If you use this tool:

1. Close your Zune software as Microsoft instructs.
2. Run the tool.
3. Open your Zune software again and don't freak because it's going to first tell you, You have no music in your collection.. Let it go... it's okay.
4. Next it's going to tell you Your Zune is linked to another computer. when it isn't. Just select the option to "Link your zune to this computer." and you're good to go.
5. Your collection will be rebuilt and your Zune re-synced. Just have patience if you have a large collection.

I feel so much better now. If anyone else has this problem, I hope this helps you too!

[Dizzy]

They're in a sticky here: http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/gen...agnostics.html

Sorry we couldn't help you sooner! Glad to see you worked things out on your own