iTunes program problem

[MartyJazz]

Today, I open up the iTunes program and while all my selections are listed, the artwork for each selection is gone. I'm afraid to synch my iPod with the program for fear that the artwork will then disappear also on the iPod. Getting info on each selection also shows an absence of the artwork. Suggestions?

[mjzee]

Do you keep your iTunes/Album Artwork folder on your computer's internal hard drive or on an external drive?

[John L]

I wish that iTunes would just store the artwork in the respective album folders. That would make moving things around to other external drives, backups, and what not much more straightforward.

I don't even mess around with artwork in iTunes. I keep my artwork in a separate database.

Edited February 14, 2010 by John L

[Shawn]

It sounds like a database glitch. I always recommend backing up the two iTunes database files daily.

The two files needed are the "Itunes Library" file and the "Itunes Library XML" file. If you open iTunes and it's messed up, just shut the program down, replace those two files with the backups from the day before and everything will be normal again upon relaunch.

[MartyJazz]

Do you keep your iTunes/Album Artwork folder on your computer's internal hard drive or on an external drive?

I keep all the iTunes database(s) on an external drive. Using Windows Explorer, I see that the Album Artwork folder is there and seems to be populated, but I can't figure out how to make the individual art covers show up in the iTunes program. What's more is that when I click on "Get Info", I get a message for each song/title that "the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?". More confusing is that when I then click on "Edit", "Preferences", "Advanced", the location of the iTunes music directory on the external drive does show up, so why can't each individual selection be found?

[GregK]

iTunes is a piece of crap. I seem to get a new problem with every time I open it. I lose my album artwork or have them mismatched for a handful of random albums after each sync. I have no idea why.

[mjzee]

Do you keep your iTunes/Album Artwork folder on your computer's internal hard drive or on an external drive?

I keep all the iTunes database(s) on an external drive. Using Windows Explorer, I see that the Album Artwork folder is there and seems to be populated, but I can't figure out how to make the individual art covers show up in the iTunes program. What's more is that when I click on "Get Info", I get a message for each song/title that "the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?". More confusing is that when I then click on "Edit", "Preferences", "Advanced", the location of the iTunes music directory on the external drive does show up, so why can't each individual selection be found?

It just sounds like, for whatever reason, iTunes isn't "seeing" the external drive. At first, I thought the EHD might just be powered off, but you say you can see it through Windows. Try rebooting?

[Noj]

iTunes is a piece of crap. I seem to get a new problem with every time I open it. I lose my album artwork or have them mismatched for a handful of random albums after each sync. I have no idea why.

I've had this weird issue with artwork. Suddenly Quasimoto came up with the artwork for a Horace Silver album. I was like, wtf?

The other problem I've had with my iPod is not all the artists will be listed under artists, but I'll be able to find it in a playlist. Again, wtf?

Those are the only two bugs I've encountered. Otherwise it works well.

[Shawn]

I keep all the iTunes database(s) on an external drive.

If you are using an external hard drive for the location of your database files (as I do), then I highly recommend making sure the drive is "awake" before opening iTunes. Just open Windows Explorer (or Finder) and browse to the drive real quick and access it, that will wake it up...then open iTunes.

I've had a problem a couple times where I opened iTunes while the external hard drive was still asleep and it caused iTunes to freak out because it couldn't find the database files fast enough...so it thought the library was corrupt and tried to repair it. iTunes isn't patient enough for my particular hard drive to spin up. But since I discovered that, accessing the drive prior to opening iTunes has kept any problems from occurring.

[mjzee]

iTunes is a piece of crap. I seem to get a new problem with every time I open it. I lose my album artwork or have them mismatched for a handful of random albums after each sync. I have no idea why.

I've had this weird issue with artwork. Suddenly Quasimoto came up with the artwork for a Horace Silver album. I was like, wtf?

There are two places for artwork to display, at least when using Cover Flow: in cover flow itself and in the lower left of the iTunes window ("Now Playing"). "Now Playing" will display the cover associated with that particular track (so it's on a per-track basis). Cover Flow will display the cover associated with the first track of the album (so, while it's also on a per-track basis, the track may not be what is playing). So for Quasimoto, 1) look at the cover displayed under "Now Playing," and 2) look at what album it came from, then look at the first track on that album. These should give you some clues.

The other problem I've had with my iPod is not all the artists will be listed under artists, but I'll be able to find it in a playlist. Again, wtf?

This has to do with compilations. If you choose a track from one of those artists who are not listed under artists, and open the information for that track, you'll probably see "Part of a compilation" checked. This means that this track is filed by iTunes under the album name, rather than the artist. iTunes does this so that, when you play a "Various Artists" album, it will play the album as it was originally presented. But iTunes will also list that track if you search by the artist.

I have noticed when ripping albums to iTunes, there are times that it indicates "Compilation: yes" when it shouldn't. I try to look for that and correct it before the rip occurs. But you can also correct it afterwards.

[mjzee]

I keep all the iTunes database(s) on an external drive.

If you are using an external hard drive for the location of your database files (as I do), then I highly recommend making sure the drive is "awake" before opening iTunes. Just open Windows Explorer (or Finder) and browse to the drive real quick and access it, that will wake it up...then open iTunes.

I've had a problem a couple times where I opened iTunes while the external hard drive was still asleep and it caused iTunes to freak out because it couldn't find the database files fast enough...so it thought the library was corrupt and tried to repair it. iTunes isn't patient enough for my particular hard drive to spin up. But since I discovered that, accessing the drive prior to opening iTunes has kept any problems from occurring.

I'd recommend something different: keep the iTunes folder (the one that contains the sub-folder "Album Artwork", but here I'm talking about the entire iTunes folder) on your computer's internal drive. This will give you better, more reliable performance. You can still keep all of the music folders on the external drive. As long as you regularly backup, you should have no problems.

Oh, one other thing: I keep another backup set "offline": an EHD that I backup to once a month, then disconnect and keep in a closet. That way, my music investment is safe in the event a power surge fries both my computer and backup EHD at the same time.

[John L]

I keep all the iTunes database(s) on an external drive.

If you are using an external hard drive for the location of your database files (as I do), then I highly recommend making sure the drive is "awake" before opening iTunes. Just open Windows Explorer (or Finder) and browse to the drive real quick and access it, that will wake it up...then open iTunes.

I've had a problem a couple times where I opened iTunes while the external hard drive was still asleep and it caused iTunes to freak out because it couldn't find the database files fast enough...so it thought the library was corrupt and tried to repair it. iTunes isn't patient enough for my particular hard drive to spin up. But since I discovered that, accessing the drive prior to opening iTunes has kept any problems from occurring.

That scares me. I have my default iTunes music on an external drive. But I try to economize on its use, so as not to wear it out too fast. Therefore, I only hook it up every two weeks or so. In the mean time, I continue to use iTunes for new music. If my external drive is not hooked up, iTunes will revert back to the internal hard drive as the default drive. So far, iTunes has not "freaked out" or "tried to repair" anything in my library file. It's true that, with earlier versions of iTunes, sometimes it would make the shift to a new default drive permanent, forcing me to choose my external drive as the default repeatedly after not using it. But I have had no problems in the last few years like that. Am I doing something risky that I should be worried about?

[Noj]

iTunes is a piece of crap. I seem to get a new problem with every time I open it. I lose my album artwork or have them mismatched for a handful of random albums after each sync. I have no idea why.

I've had this weird issue with artwork. Suddenly Quasimoto came up with the artwork for a Horace Silver album. I was like, wtf?

There are two places for artwork to display, at least when using Cover Flow: in cover flow itself and in the lower left of the iTunes window ("Now Playing"). "Now Playing" will display the cover associated with that particular track (so it's on a per-track basis). Cover Flow will display the cover associated with the first track of the album (so, while it's also on a per-track basis, the track may not be what is playing). So for Quasimoto, 1) look at the cover displayed under "Now Playing," and 2) look at what album it came from, then look at the first track on that album. These should give you some clues.

The other problem I've had with my iPod is not all the artists will be listed under artists, but I'll be able to find it in a playlist. Again, wtf?

This has to do with compilations. If you choose a track from one of those artists who are not listed under artists, and open the information for that track, you'll probably see "Part of a compilation" checked. This means that this track is filed by iTunes under the album name, rather than the artist. iTunes does this so that, when you play a "Various Artists" album, it will play the album as it was originally presented. But iTunes will also list that track if you search by the artist.

I have noticed when ripping albums to iTunes, there are times that it indicates "Compilation: yes" when it shouldn't. I try to look for that and correct it before the rip occurs. But you can also correct it afterwards.

For the artwork problem, I'm actually positive that the wrong artwork has somehow populated the wrong album, so it's a somewhat more vexing issue without a user error explanation.

Thanks for the tip on the "part of a compilation" checkbox, though.

[mjzee]

For the artwork problem, I'm actually positive that the wrong artwork has somehow populated the wrong album, so it's a somewhat more vexing issue without a user error explanation.

Oh, that'll happen all the time. iTunes tries to match the album with the correct artwork, but frequently gets it wrong. Here's what you have to do if an album shows the wrong artwork:

1) Try to find the correct artwork. I like Amazon (especially Amazon mp3, which seems to have newer cover scans than the CD music area). Once you find it, copy the image (not the image address).

2) In iTunes, navigate to the album with the wrong artwork. Double-click on the album to show the list of songs on the album (remember that iTunes associates artwork with the individual song, not the album. So if the album has 8 tracks, there are 8 different wrong images you'll need to replace).

3) Highlight the first track, and hit ctrl-i (or right-click the track and choose Get Info).

4) When the info window opens, click on the Artwork tab. You should see the wrong artwork.

5) Click on the artwork to select it, and hit Delete. Then click in the blank artwork box and paste the artwork you copied from Amazon.

6) When you see the correct artwork there, click on the Next button. Then do step 5 again, and again, and again, until you've done it for all the tracks on the album.

You should now see the correct artwork associated with each track.

[mjzee]

Actually, much faster is to highlight all of the tracks on the album and:

1) Ctrl-I or command-I and drop the artwork in the artwork box

or (even faster)

2) Just drop the artwork in the bottom left window. Make sure that it says "Selected Item"

and not "Now Playing" because that's another way of getting artwork on to wrong tracks.

Do #1 if you already have artwork for the recording and you want to change it.

Do #2 if you don't already have artwork for the recording showing.

Rod

I don't think that works. I think it only works if you don't have artwork already there. If you do, I don't think the new artwork will overwrite the old artwork.

[rostasi]

Actually, much faster is to highlight all of the tracks on the album and:

1) Ctrl-I or command-I and drop the artwork in the artwork box

or (even faster)

2) Just drop the artwork in the bottom left window. Make sure that it says "Selected Item"

and not "Now Playing" because that's another way of getting artwork on to wrong tracks.

Do #1 if you already have artwork for the recording and you want to change it.

Do #2 if you don't already have artwork for the recording showing.

Rod

I don't think that works. I think it only works if you don't have artwork already there. If you do, I don't think the new artwork will overwrite the old artwork.

Yup, if you do #1, it will kill the old artwork. Doing #2 won't kill the old artwork tho - it just adds to it.

Believe me, I'm adding new artwork over old many times each day.

There are all kinds of other tricks that you can do:

One of which: if you have a front cover and a back cover picture, then do #1 and place the back cover picture in the box first, then the front cover picture just after and your front cover actually shows up in the main window with your back cover just a click away. It's strange, but it's opposite of what you'd think it should do. If you have more pictures to add (picture of the disc, for example), you have to follow #1 with #2 and drop the third piece of artwork in the bottom window.

Remember:

Do #1 if you already have artwork for the recording and you want to change it.

Do #2 if you don't already have artwork for the recording showing.

Believe me, I do this dozens of times a day.

Rod

Edited February 20, 2010 by rostasi

[Jim R]

For the artwork problem, I'm actually positive that the wrong artwork has somehow populated the wrong album, so it's a somewhat more vexing issue without a user error explanation.

Oh, that'll happen all the time. iTunes tries to match the album with the correct artwork, but frequently gets it wrong. Here's what you have to do if an album shows the wrong artwork:

1) Try to find the correct artwork. I like Amazon (especially Amazon mp3, which seems to have newer cover scans than the CD music area).

Amazon images are often too small, imo. I usually begin with a Google image search, and look for a nice image at least 300 X 300. Another great resource is this, which someone shared here a number of years ago: http://www.slothradio.com/covers/ (one tip: don't use any quotation marks or apostrophes in the search boxes, or you won't get any results).

If I still haven't found something good, I'll search ebay (or Popsike, which collects images from past auctions), or use one of the sites dedicated to displaying album art (Gokudo, Birka Jazz, etc).

6) When you see the correct artwork there, click on the Next button. Then do step 5 again, and again, and again, until you've done it for all the tracks on the album.

As Rod points out, that's way more work than is necessary. For any field related to a given album (artist, sort artist, title, etc), you can change the info by first selecting all tracks and then hitting Command/I. Doesn't matter if you're making a change or entering the data for the first time.

[Jim R]

Actually, much faster is to highlight all of the tracks on the album and:

1) Ctrl-I or command-I and drop the artwork in the artwork box

or (even faster)

2) Just drop the artwork in the bottom left window. Make sure that it says "Selected Item"

and not "Now Playing" because that's another way of getting artwork on to wrong tracks.

Do #1 if you already have artwork for the recording and you want to change it.

Do #2 if you don't already have artwork for the recording showing.

Rod

I don't think that works. I think it only works if you don't have artwork already there. If you do, I don't think the new artwork will overwrite the old artwork.

Yup, if you do #1, it will kill the old artwork. Doing #2 won't kill the old artwork tho - it just adds to it.

Believe me, I'm adding new artwork over old many times each day.

There are all kinds of other tricks that you can do:

One of which: if you have a front cover and a back cover picture, then do #1 and place the back cover picture in the box first, then the front cover picture just after and your front cover actually shows up in the main window with your back cover just a click away.

Okay, that I did not know. Can you elaborate? I just tried it (pasting in a back cover and then immediately afterward a front cover), and I'm not seeing how to access the back cover image (if in fact it worked... I did it for an album that I had already entered art for several days ago, so when I pasted in the front cover, it didn't show in the art box- as if it was already there). When you say the back cover is "a click away", I'm not sure what you mean... click on what?

edit: okay, I get the "a click away" part now (clicking on the highlighted arrow in the lower left corner for the selected item, for those who may be following along). I dragged the rear cover to the lower left corner after re-entering the front cover art in the art box in the "multiple item information" window. Still not sure how to add both using that method, though...

Edited February 21, 2010 by Jim R

[rostasi]

Right Jim - the arrow above the bottom box...

Two ways to do extra artwork:

1) Highlight all of the tunes of an album and Ctrl-I or command-I them.

Put the back cover in the "artwork" box first...then the front cover.

When you're done, the front cover will show automatically

and the back cover will show when you click the right arrow above the lower window.

If you want to add more artwork, then you need to drop them in the lower window.

You can drag as many pictures into that bottom window as you want and

your front cover will still be the first one showing.

2) If you're starting with no artwork in the bottom window,

highlight all of the tunes of an album and make sure that the bottom window

says "Selected Item" (very important - I will elaborate later).

In this case, you have to drag your artwork in the order

that you want it finally presented whenever you click the window arrow.

If, like me, you want: front cover, followed by back cover,

followed by disc image, followed by everything else,

then you have to drag them into this window in that order.

For #2 (above), you have to have "selected item" showing when you do this

because if you have it on "now playing" and you start dragging artwork

into the box it will assign that artwork to whatever track that your playing.

So, if you're listening to Duke's "...A Train" and you drop a Miles picture in the box

- even if you have a full Miles CD highlighted, the Miles pic will become the artwork for "...A Train."

Rod