album artwork in Catalina Music

I've also been experiencing this issue since upgrading to Catalina in December. Many of my music files with embedded album artwork do not show the artwork in Catalina. The strange thing is that these same tracks show the artwork in iOS.

Anyone have any success in recovering this embedded album artwork in Catalina?

Im not tech savvy - and have upgraded from Itunes High Sierra to this mess. The only artwork that has migrated for me is, oddly enough, music that was bought on Itunes. Anything purchased as a SACD or CD, owned legally and imported as such has no artwork. I wont comment on my thougths on that but id really hope that this is not an indication of the companies thought process.

I will say however that im extrememly annoyed as an end user that all the album artwork ive added, or was there to begin with, to my files over the years has been lost and appears to have no path to return at this stage.

Please advise of any solutions that may exist.

thanks

I completely share your point of view.

I downgraded to Mojave and will postpone buying new Mac as long as this issue lasts.

And what will the next issues be?

No more artwork on the synced iPhones?!

So disappointing as I switched from PC to Mac a long time ago just because of the better way Apple was managing music...

and and .... the same file in containers is available on my MacBook - why isn't not finding it god only knows! I also deleted the one on the MacBook and copies over the one from the Mac just to be sure - still nothing! I have Apple Music and Cloud sync.

Absolutely agree with your comments above. I am still tirelessly searching for album artwork on my Music - some albums put together from personal tracks - but music keeps trying to add their own album artwork - really getting to me - hours and hours of needless work on an app that I pay for with Apple Music and iTunes Match too! Apple needs to address this - wishing I hadn't updated to Catalina - not found anything purposely positive to say about it yet!

I agree. They should either start giving us what we want in the app or just say what it is, a way to sell Apple Music. Until now I have not even looked for a replacement but after using iTunes for years in Windows I converted to a Mac about 10 years ago and never even considered using anything else. I am now actively looking for a replacement.

It is inconceivable to me that Apple isn't aware of this thread and isn't fully aware of this issue. And it is equally inconceivable to me that fixing it would amount to anything more than a weekend job. The fact that they continue to ignore it, after all this time, speaks far more eloquently to Apple's problems and shortcomings than anything I could write here. If Steve Jobs were still alive, heads would have rolled over this.

Does anyone know if there is a way to make sure Apple see this thread? Who actually is 'admin' on it?? Uuummm I do wonder! Also, whilst on the thread does anyone else have their 'music' on an external hard drive with any tips they can share please?

So I've been having a multitude of issue with Apple Music. On iOS everything is fine - but when it comes to Mac Catalina it's awful.

I subscribe to iTunes Match, Apple Music.

On Apple Music - the Album Artwork comes and goes. Sometimes it shows others it doesn't. Often when I click on an album - it doesn't even work. Generally have to click more than once for anything to actually function. Very basic functionality doesn't work - and frankly wondering why I even bother subscribing....

With my personal library - which I've had since the early days of iTunes. I've put in countless hours - meticulously maintaining this over the years - including the Stars Rating format..... Luckily it behave better than Apple Music. But from time to time see Album Artwork vanishing.

Then there is my Apple TV library - which does all the same things. Purchasing on the TV App on Catalina is almost impossible. Artwork doesn't show - just text and frankly end up having to open my Phone to view anything.

This has really started to make me question Apple on a whole. Catalina has been one of the worst roll outs I can remember. I'm hoping this is just a bump in the road for a more stable build. But you shouldn't leave your loyal customers out for almost a full year with bugs like this.

DoubleJava wrote:

Hi inAJet,

I’m guessing that these types of issues will persist until Apple decides to fix them

Frustrating, but true. There are only two possibilities here:

(1) Apple is unaware of the discussions within these forums, and hasn't come across this bug ever in what I can only assume is a massive beta testing campaign - all of which I find impossible to believe;

(2) Apple is aware of the issue, and has decided to do nothing about it - which is equally impossible/frustrating to believe.

Which leads us to the overall conclusion that the continued existence of this headache is impossible/frustrating to believe!!!

Is it working for you? It keeps showing nag screens about donations for me and aborts operation. It's insanity Apple does not address this bug for such a long time. Pretty sure their marketing thinks it's great that local music is not working as intended to push their cloud and subscription based products.

It worked for me. Yes, every album you pull the artwork appears a donation box. Not good user experience.

I totally agree that Apple is pushing hard on this Music cloud that many of us will never subscribe.

Finally someone with a similar size library although I only have just over 11,000 albums. I have completely given up on the album art issue and feel fortunate not to have lost or had my many remastered music tracks replaced (like iTunes Match does) with something else ( So Far ) My years of painstaking album art restorations on many of my albums has been replaced with whatever Apple feels is appropriate. Luckily I still have a complete backup prior to installing Catalina on my Mac mini desktop with High Sierra so if I am desperate I can access my previous artwork but that would be laborious process. All of my artwork was embedded and still a large percentage was destroyed. To add insult to injury I also lost a great deal of albums where I had multiple artwork embedded on the same album which has always been possible prior to Catalina. ( Front , Back , Sleeve and additional photos etc ). Besides I am getting too old now to care since no one in my family shares my interest in preserving the big band greats from yesteryear. It is all about getting you to subscribe to Apple Music.

I have found that most of the music I wish to listen to is now on YouTube and have subscribed to YouTube Premium which I may eventually go to exclusively. Thank you for all your work in getting through to Apple but I share your doubt that hey even care. They could not have tested the Music App with large libraries and Custom art of if they did they just don't care.

Pudge -- I'm hopeful with the hours that I've spent reporting this that they do see what the issue is... hopefully they will address it. Many of my albums are burned from LPs or are from CDs long since out of print -- a lifetime's collection. Vocal, american songbook, and many genres... Much of my artwork is visible through "find it in finder" so they are still attached to my digital music files but the app isn't recognizing them.

I was initially worried that the big library (1.5 T) was causing the issue, but we recreated the problem with a library of only two titles. I have not subscribed to Apple Music and the app functionality should not depend upon that. I've avoided the iTunes match stuff and prefer to own my digital library. I still have about 5000 CDs and 100 albums that I've never gotten rid of but I do tend to only buy digital now (unless I get the digital and the CD by supporting kickstarts of new albums)....

Keep collecting! I find that people are always eager to share who their favs are... and we all could learn more... Big Band I tend to think 50s and Glenn Miller, but then wonder how far removed is Nelson Riddle? Would love to see what's in that library, I'm sure you have some gems!

Here's to hoping that they fix this issue soon!

Be *very* careful about exposing your irreplaceable music files to iTunes Match. If you do, make sure they're all securely backed up somewhere off-line. iTunes Match has been known to replace your files with something it would prefer you to have, usually without telling you. I personally wouldn't allow iTunes Match within 1,000 miles of my Music Library.