Album Artist "VA" albums do not appear in latest version of MusicBee

[squigglez]

I have always marked album artist for various artist albums as VA and had no problems. With the new version 6335 VA albums in Album View suddenly don't show up anymore. Could it be a name length error? V.A. shows up but not VA.

I went back to previous version and problem is solved, so it is definitely something in the programming.

Thank you.

[psychoadept]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

There have been some significant changes to the way sorting is handled.  I suggest you find one of the affected albums (by searching, maybe) and check the new Sorting tab of the tag editor to see what it says.

[theta_wave]

Welcome to the forums.  I had a similar issue with <ALBUMARTISTS> "Various Artists" not appearing in "album and tracks" (build 6322): https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=21707.0

TL;DR: Clearing out entries from Preferences > Sorting/Grouping > "set custom sort values for individual artists, composers and albums" > "Artists..." and "Albums..." brought them back.  They still show on build 6336.  As to 6335, I skipped that build, so I don't know if your issue is tied to that build and as to the how my "various artists" compilations reappeared after doing what I did.  Good luck!

[squigglez]

Hi All,

Thanks for the welcome. I installed 6336 and no problems. I did not do anything differently. Thanks for the tips. Have been using MusicBee for years and this is first hiccup.

[squigglez]

Now "VA" is sorted in Album Artist/Album right after "D" instead of in "V"?

After I unclicked "enable custom sort values for individual artists, composers and albums" in "Edit/Preferences" (which I had never set myself, by the way) it went back to normal as suggested above.

[redwing]

You could open Artists list just below the setting and check how "VA" is set to be handled and adjust it.

[Barbie-qu]

I updated to Ver. 3.1.6345 yesterday and I'm seeing a similar behaviour to @squigglez.

In 'Artist and Tracks' view, when I sort by 'Album Artist/ Album' the Various Artists albums end up being sorted incorrectly.
All albums tagged with Various Artists in the Album Artist tag appear in the middle of 'F' in the list.

For example:

The Focus Group - Elektrik Karousel
Various Artists - 12" 80's Classics
Various Artists - A Boy's Own Odyssey: Acid House Scrapes & Capers
Four Tet - Pause

When I looked in the sorting tab, all Various Artists albums had 'Forest Mighty Black' set as the Album Artist sort string.
When unticking "enable custom sort values for individual artists, composers and albums" in "Edit - Preferences - Sorting/Grouping" the list sorted correctly.
Ticking the 'enable custom sort values' again returned the original sort order and the same 'Forest Mighty Black' sort string.

This doesn't sound like it is intended behaviour to me.

[Steven]

if you click the "Artists" button in the sorting preferences, can you post a screenshot so i can see the mappings

[Barbie-qu]

I now can't reproduce the behaviour I had. When I toggle the 'enable custom sort values' the sorting stays correct. When I look in the sorting tags the sort string is correctly set to Various Artists.

Here is the screenshot you asked for.
http://i.imgur.com/ZTq3Jo6.png

I also have my settings.ini and error log from when the issue was happening if that's helpful.