Album art in Music for Catalina

There are multiple versions of this script. If you use an old link, you might end up installing a script that is not compatible with your current OS version. These scripts will run but won't bring a solution. Please check if you're running a script that is compatible.

When I first run the script, I run it overnight and a huge portion of the missing artwork had been recovered. After, I run the script on individual albums still missing artwork. Again, album artwork had been added. Took me multiple attempts but only a number of 80/90 albums out of 1500+ albums required adding artwork without using the script. Still working on that though. It shouldn't be necessary....

Try selecting albums without artwork, right-click, and select Get Album Artwork.

tt2

Just build yourself a smart playlist where the album artwork condition is false. Then view that smart list as albums.

Further to these issues, I've found albums which have cover art in my pre Catalina library and that art is lost in Catalina. Typically when I use the technique of playing some songs the art is indexed and shows up, however in some situations that doesn't work. In addition to that I ask Music to get album artwork and it fails.

So in summary, not only have I lost the artwork for this album in the transition from iTunes to Music. It isn't an automatic exercise to recover the artwork, so now I am going to be asked to revisit a large portion of my approximately 3,313 albums to then search for artwork in a web browser, (something I had already done at least once).

I suspect there is a larger underlying bug or omission in development of the transition of libraries from iTunes to Music. Let's hope that Apple considers this issue and has not completely moved on to only developing for Music subscribers.

I right-clicked on the album, then "Get Info". Go to the Artwork tab. Left-click on it and drag the artwork to a folder. It will then extract a jpg or png file to the folder. The image file will also be named after the album you're extracting from.

Ok, I found something very interesting and disturbing. I want you all consider below concern before putting any more effort on this album artwork issue.

For those who are using iTunes Matches or Apple Music subscription that have Apple to upload our music, we have a huge issue: Apple is removing the album artwork entirely and I experienced that myself see below.

Steps:

1. Upload any songs or use existing songs
2. Tried both "iCloud" matched or uploaded type
3. Make sure you have the album artwork embedded to the song already, not provided by Music app (confirm from the Finder and/or 3rd party music app or tag editor)
4. Turn off "Automatically update artwork" in iTunes
5. "Remove Download" of those songs from iTunes
6. "Download" those songs back from iTunes
7. Use Finder or 3rd party app, you can see those songs album artwork have been removed. This does't make any sense. Why my songs' original artwork are being stripped by Apple, especially those songs that Apple do not have a match. This is a huge red flag and consider a bug, not a feature.

With last update "column browser" feature is back but the option to show album art in songs view still missing.

in iTunes was possibile with flag in"always show artwork" options.

Now in song view mode you view only rows of plain text..

I write a feedback with the request of restoring the album cover art view in song view

This was the perfect visualization

Some of you here, experiencing the same bugs as myself, wonder if Apple cared enough to fix this problem. They only care enough IF you complain loudly enough about these glitches. They listen more about software/app problems at their “feedback site”. Please post your bug experiences to that site:

p.s. - right now the iTunes bugs feedback page exists, they have not yet renamed it to “MacOS Music app feedback” (even tho it is no longer called iTunes in the new Catalina)

https://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

I'm having the same issue here, but it is even more odd than it would first appear.

I am finding on all four of my Macs that artwork in my library (about 4000 songs) of CD-ripped and purchased music that artwork is randomly missing.

Odd, different artwork is missing on each machine, which has the same library.

Prior to Catalina, this was all working fine for years. I did not notice it originally when I upgraded in the fall, but have been noticing over time more and more tracks appearing without artwork. It seems like it gets worse as times goes on.

Even more strangely, some of them show the artwork still associated with the file and/or play the thumbnail in iTunes (oops, Music!) when I play on the Mac. The same tracks will not show the artwork on an iPod, Sonos or iPad/iPhone synced with or drawing from the Mac.

A call to Apple resulted in the old "we are aware of the problem."

It sure seems like it is an indexing problem between the music file and the artwork.

Hi all of you "Music" discontents. While I am retired and have nothing but time on my hands ... to do things like re-scan and re-attach my album artwork and liner notes for my 4000+ albums, I am worried that this is just an exercise that will need to be repeated when Zesty Italian replaces Catalina as the next operating system. I cannot quite follow where the artwork is located and how it is associated with the music files. It appears as though this is the rot of the problem seen when replicating the music onto other devices. Currently I am only working with three variables, my iMac, my iPhone 6, and an iPod for the car. When I load the album cover it seems to be part of the individual music files as seen in the details of the file. The "other artwork" is some kind of note with a location unknown. If you try to view an enlargement of the "other artwork" from within Music it does not expand but if you drag a copy to desktop then you can open it with review and see a full size version. This is good if you actually want to read the liner notes... (why else would I attach them??). As for the process of attaching multiple artwork, this is a strange process. The easy way is to delete whatever other artwork and/or cover artwork and then add the cover image. Save this. Then re-open the get information, artwork tab and select the multiple images from Finder and drag them over to the artwork tab so they are in the "other artwork" section and then "okay" the selection. I have found this the best way as even though artwork can appear to be there, adding additional other artwork can be a hit and miss process depending on where and how the previous artwork was attached. I urge everyone who finds themselves in the "music" discontents movement to continue sending your feedback to Apple at https://getsupport.apple.com/?caller=psp&PRKEYS=PF32

I don't have a great solution, but I can clarify one aspect of the problem, particularly with regard to custom artwork. I copied my entire iTunes folder to the Catalina Music folder. I option-started Music. It asked me which library did I want to link to. I navigated out of the Music/Music (yes...) folder and into the now Music/iTunes folder, and chose the iTunes library. It then asked me if I wanted to name it "Music 1". (It creates a new music folder & converts iTunes folder to "Music"). Now, I did my own custom artwork for a CD I ripped to iTunes that was from a local music group. The CD has never been publicly marketed, so it's the only artwork that exists. Here is a MAJOR DIFFERENCE in iTunes & Music. When I entered the custom artwork into Track 1 in iTunes, that artwork was automatically displayed in EVERY SONG of that album. I did NOT have to put artwork in each song. (good feature: less time consuming; saves space). In Catalina - WEIRD: the artwork DID transfer .. to 'the album'. but not the songs!!!!!! When I have a playlist that has some of an songs of an album that has custom artwork; the artwork is likely to show up in the little Collage that Music makes for the playlist. BUT ... it DOES NOT show up under the songs UNLESS the artwork is specifically loaded into that song's Get Info/Artwork panel. I experimented ... individually loading the first half of a album's artwork song by song; and leaving the rest blank. That's what I get displayed. The second half of the albums's songs, no matter which playlist, have generic icons. Summary: for Custom artwork: Music recognizes it as 'album' artwork, but not 'song' artwork unless specifically entered song by song. GONE is the 'you just have to enter it once' that was wonderful in iTunes. I have focused only on custom artwork. PURCHASED artwork, though took a long time to load, seems to be doing better. Have not explored it as much yet. Looks like Apple considered their moneymaker but not their users. :-(

Nick Peck wrote:

They have suggested I call the Engineering Department.

Same issue here since upgrading to Catalina in December. Incredibly frustrating. I've found that tracks with missing artwork seem to be those with embedded artwork. I've also found that deleting one of these tracks and re-importing it will cause the artwork to appear correctly; however, this is not a suitable workaround for a library thousands of tracks strong. It almost seems as though 10.14.2 indeed fixed the issue displaying this embedded artwork, but failed to rescan the existing files to restore artwork that was missed on initial migration.

I'm curious, as I would like to do it myself: how do you "call the Engineering Department"?

Hi All

I have been reloading album artwork and other artwork to my 4000 album ripped cd collection. Slow process. Made it to Sting! Updated my Catalina OS to the latest last night (Ver 10.15.4) that included some changes to Music (now ver 1.0.4.104). Imagine my surprise that when I went to add some more scanned images to a Sting album "other art" they add but you cannot see them! When you bring up the get information, select the artwork tab, you can see the "album artwork" and one and one-half frames of "other artwork". Normally you can cursor across to view all of the attached other artwork but now it is frozen. Cannot move with my mouse or the directional control keys. Went back to other albums and found the same problem. Called Apple support and did the normal safe start , alternate user login, new Music account and no joy. In the safe mode there is even less artwork support just the one album cover and one "other artwork". Adding more just kills what you had before. Apple Tech support is working on the problem, but you should hesitate before upgrading Catalina to this version. I do have Time machine and may be reverting if no solution is found.

I'm have the same observation on Apple Music 1.0.4.104: the album art is in the file (Get Info > Artwork) and if you go to this tab and just move the artwork and save, it shows up.

So the question would be whether there's a script or way to have Apple Music re-index and pull the album art from the files.

I have noticed that when a new iTunes album or even a song is added, the artwork disappears. There is no easy way to download artwork, allmusic.com and another site once allowed copy and paste function. I have found that transferring a song from my backup files to the folder and importing that song brings the artwork back for that album.

aHow do you make ALAC copies of AIFF?

I am truly disappointed in Apple and this music app.