Compilations on phone broken up by artists if albums by same artist are downloaded onto the phone
Background: Longtime iTunes user here. I burn CDs and do not use Apple Music. I've had albums bought via iTunes but have only retained a few and do not regularly keep them on my phone.
The following issue has been going on for sometime now, through multiple OS/iOS updates: If I have a compilation on my phone and I have another song by an artist that's on that compilation, iTunes will separate that artist out. See pics below. In those examples, the artists you see outside of the Various Artists groupings are all artists I have albums by on the phone at the same time. So: I have albums by the Clash as well as the T2 Trainspotting soundtrack; if I didn't have the Clash albums also selected, then it wouldn't do this. I've seen my phone go back and forth time and time again. Also, as I've tried troubleshooting and puttinga few albums on at a time, I noticed everything was fine—until I added a second compilation. For example, I had albums by Blur and Trainspotting and had no other compilations and Trainspotting was in one piece. I then added the Grosse Pointe Blank soundtrack (and albums by the Pixies, Echo, etc.) and I watched as the iPhone split up GRP and Trainspotting. I've gone over everything I can think of.
I assure you: No Various Artists is not in Album Artist and Yes, these are all marked as a "compilation of songs by various artists." I have never had this issue until a year or so ago and most of these files are not new and are all organized by title via Sorted As etc.
What I've tried:
• Removing all music files from my phone
• Changing the name and then re-namaing the affected albums
• Re-entering all Sorted As names to ensure they're all uniform (i.e. Echo & the Bunnymen is Sorted As Echoandthebunnymen). I have always had artists and songs sorted this way so just including that I re-input them.
Any suggestions? Is there some iCloud setting I'm missing? It seems that it's an Artists grouping issue and I assume it's because of Apple Music (the same reason why I can "Suggest Less" of a song that's my file). I've dealt with this thing for too long and I'm fed up.
