iPhone13 - wrong album covers after 1st time synching with iMac

I think mine fixed itself via the following steps:

1. In Finder, open Sync Settings for the iPhone 13
2. In Music tab, unselect "Sync music onto iPhone 13".
3. Click Apply. Wait a bit for music to disappear from iPhone. I still had a handful of single tunes that I had bought through Apple that remained, with incorrect artwork. I ignored them.
4. Re-checked the Sync music onto iPhone 13 box.
5. Clicked Sync.
6. The albums began to reappear on my iPhone, with the correct artwork.
7. The Purchased music album art appeared to be corrected, too.

Hi All,

I also have this frustrating issue!

100% correct artwork on iTunes on my Mac, completely jumbled on my iPhoneX (running 15.5).

If you have the issue then make sure you report it to Apple (link below), if enough people complain they might fix it!

Product Feedback - Apple

Well put.

However, I don't believe an Apple moderator/expert ever sets eyes on these discussions. Best to put your efforts into submitting a bug report. Here's the link:

Feedback - Apple Music - Apple

First off, I feel your pain. My library contains nearly 14,000 songs that I've amassed for over 20 years. Some came from ripping CDs, but the majority came from purchases in the iTunes Store.

Recently I tried deleting my whole library and the Music app from my iPhone 13, re-downloading the app, and replacing my library via USB sync from my MacBook Pro. Songs and artwork on my MBP are pristine. Both devices are running the latest OS.

After a brand new sync, all the same problems exist in my iPhone's library: missing artwork, wrong artwork, truncated audio playback (but song is still "playing"), songs that skip ahead to next song before it's finished, and probably some other problems I'm forgetting to list.

In short, the app is broken. I'd recommend submitting a bug report. Maybe that'll move the needle if they get enough complaints. Here's the link:

Feedback - Apple Music - Apple

I got so fed up with the iOS Music app bugs and the software engineers' inability to fix them, I emailed Tim Cook directly: tcook@apple.com

I listed these bullet points in the email. If you have any others, add to the list and send to him.

iOS: Album missing artwork (even after removal of entire library and Music app, and re-sync via macOS Music app).

iOS: If an album is removed from iOS Music and is re-synced from macOS Music, iOS removes album artwork.

iOS: Audio cuts out before song is finished playing. Only solution is to delete and restore song or album via macOS Music app and re-sync to iPhone.

iOS: Song playback jumps to next song before a song is finished playing.

iOS: Wrong artwork is shown for an album.

macOS: Audio cuts out before song is finished playing, must re-download from iTunes Cloud.

macOS: Wrong artwork is shown for an album (different from wrong artwork in iOS).

macOS: Audio cuts out before song is finished playing, skips to next song. Only solution is to delete and restore song or album via macOS Music app and re-sync to iPhone.

macOS: “Year” release date of albums is missing.

macOS: Purchased albums from iTunes aren’t showing as Purchased when navigating to Artist > Album in iTunes Store. Can’ re-download. Can only re-Purchase.

macOS: Purchase date of many albums are missing.

macOS: In sidebar, clicking Artists link displays list of artists but the majority of thumbnail images are missing.

macOS: Removing all songs can be performed from iPhone Sync Settings when iPhone appears in sidebar/Finder. But songs aren’t actually deleted from the list. All remain.

I urge everyone reading this thread to submit a bug report as well. FWIW.

Feedback - Apple Music - Apple

Yeah, I feel your pain. The missing album artwork has existed ever since the Music app was introduced on macOS. Which was what? 2016?

I'd suggest submitting a bug report. Apple doesn't monitor these discussions as far as I know.

Here's the link:

Feedback - Apple Music - Apple

I totally agree. There's no "Get Album Artwork" choice in iOS/Music like there is with macOS/iTunes for each album.

I've focused on this artwork issue intermittently for over a week now and have encountered multiple instances of not only missing artwork, but artwork that gets REMOVED after I sync an album. The process goes something like this:

A bug that has been plaguing iOS/Music for several years now is songs' audio cuts out before a track is finished playing. When I encounter this, the fix is fairly simple:

1. Remove the album from iOS.
2. Double-check the song in iTunes to make sure it plays through properly.
3. Re-sync the album.

However, in doing so, iOS has a tendency to REMOVE THE ARTWORK COMPLETELY from the album and replace it with a generic musical note icon. Thanks Apple, that was kind of you. Is that your "AI" hard at work?

I just don't understand how the iOS software engineers can be so negligent and sloppy. Especially with an app that's an essential selling point for iPhones.

I had the same issue with my iPhone 13 Pro, now running software version iOS 15.5, and I do not use the cloud..

SOLUTION:

1. Delete all songs on iPhone (make sure every song is in your iTunes on desktop first). You can do this a little faster by going to Settings>General>iPhone Storage>Music and deleting each album by swiping left and hitting delete.
2. Plug your iPhone into your desktop, open iTunes, click the Sync Summary tab. Under the Options section, select the checkbox next to "Sync only checked songs and videos." Now under the Music tab, I recommend manually deselecting all Artists, Albums, Playlists and Genres. Run a sync with no music selected to ensure all music is removed from iPhone.
3. Finally, run a new sync through iTunes, only this time select each individual Album you want to add to your iPhone. I used to add individual "Artists" to my iPhone but this seems to screw up the album artwork (I would see a Coldplay album cover while playing an Avett Brothers song, etc.). If you sync individual playlists, this seems to sort out the album artwork correctly as well, just avoid selecting individual "Artists".

This is what worked for me and I felt compelled to share! I hope Apple fixes this issue with the next software update, but this is a temporary work around.

I spent 2 hours on a call with Apple Tech support.

Here is what worked for me (iPhone 13 Pro 256):

1. Back up your iPhone
2. Sign out of Media Purchases (Settings/Account/Media & Purchases)
3. Remove Music from iPhone
4. Restart iPhone
5. Sign in back to Media Purchases
6. Reinstall Music on iPhone
7. Sync your music with computer

Good luck!

I was about to give up my Music library too over the weekend but I thought I'd give it one more valiant attempt.

I'm happy to say I managed to somehow get my Album Artwork back. I believe I've also figured out the cause of so many songs in my library being corrupted -- songs' audio would cut out during playback before the song was actually done playing. I'm guessing this issue was caused by my copying music library files from an old Mac to a new many times -- vs. downloading fresh copies from iCloud to the new machine.

Also note: probably 1/3 of my library is comprised of songs ripped from CDs plus a few purchased from Amazon; the rest are iTunes purchases. So some of these steps how I handled those types of songs.

In terms of hardware/software, I'm using the latest version of macOS for my 16" MacBook Pro M1 Max and latest iOS on my iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Here's what I did:

1. I went through my macOS library and identified all the non-iTunes songs. Those were copied to a new folder on an external SSD.
2. I selected all songs in my macOS music library and deleted them. [Sweating a little now.]
3. I signed out of macOS Music.
4. I deleted all .plist files and preferences in my system/library that have anything to do with Music or iTunes.
5. I restarted my MacBook Pro.
6. I launched macOS Music. At this point Music thinks it's running on a new Mac and is ready to listen to/import songs.
7. I signed back in with my iTunes ID (which is different from my Apple ID) and downloaded ALL songs I ever purchased from iTunes. 6-7 reported download errors so after all were downloaded, I viewed all songs and sorted by name. The download icon indicates any that weren't download. I re-tried those and the downloaded properly.
8. I signed out of Music, then signed back in with my Apple ID. This is because over the years signing in to iCloud with my Apple ID on my Mac and making iTunes purchases puts my music into 2 different databases on iCloud. Cool eh? Meh. Anyway, downloading albums from both IDs puts all my music into a single macOS library. All albums will stay in the library and won't disappear regardless of which ID I'm signed in with. So far so good.
9. In macOS Music, I needed to re-import all those non-iTunes albums. Go to File>Add to Library>go to folder on external SSD and I selected the folder that contained all the albums and clicked Open. They imported in a couple minutes. Done.
10. At this point, I've basically rebuilt my entire macOS library. 3-4 ripped albums were missing artwork so I found art on Amazon and updated those manually.
11. On my iPhone I deleted the Music app. This deletes all music and files.
12. On my iPhone, I launched the App Store app and re-downloaded the Music app.
13. I connected my iPhone via USB cable and in the Finder/Sync settings for my phone, I made sure to un-select Sync Entire Library. I applied the change and did a sync to my phone with nothing selected. This cleared out any residual music files.
14. I selected Sync Entire Library and let her rip. I swiped through my entire list of Albums on my iPhone and all have the artwork. No more generic music note icon where the album art should be.
15. It remains to be seen if this whole process has remedied the songs whose audio would cut out during playback. My gut tells me it has. Prior to this rebuild, if I came across a corrupted song I would delete the album from my iPhone, delete it from macOS Music, re-download and re-sync. This would fix the song(s). I hope the steps I took today has now fixed all of them in one fell swoop.
16. Cheers. I hope this gives you all some hope.

I have been struggling with this exact issue for days. I have read all 8 (9?) pages of this thread. Here is what I have and what WORKED (!!!!) for me:

iPhone 13 Pro Max running OS 15.5

Mac (purchased February 2022) running Monterey 12.1 and Music ver. 1.2.1.40

Mac backs up hourly to Time Machine.

My music library is stored on my Mac, not on the Cloud. My library consists of 1,802 songs across 163 albums. 95% of my library is CDs burned to the Mac via external hard drive, mostly in AIFF format. The remainder are songs/albums purchased from iTunes.

The album art problem happened last week when I burned a new CD to the Mac and then synced the iPhone. Result was all the artwork totally screwed up. (CD was Ben Levin, "Still Here." Great stuff; highly recommended!)

Based on a combination of all of your helpful suggestions, here is what I did:

1. Spent yesterday making sure my library, as it appeared in the Music app on my MAC was clean and correct as far as album art and playlists. I had to add album art to about 20 albums.
2. Today I synched my iPhone to my Mac (using Finder since I no longer have iTunes on my Mac) using lightning cable. I included a backup to the Mac, with no options selected in the "General" window and NO music selected from the "Music" window. This appeared to successfully remove all music files from my iPhone.
3. I double checked that the Music library on my Mac was still fine. It was.
4. I deleted the Music app on my iPhone.
5. I turned off my iPhone and restarted it.
6. I added the Music app to my iPhone via the App Store.
7. Using Finder (since I no longer have iTunes on my Mac), I synced my iPhone to my Mac, via lightning cable. This time, I backed up "important information" on the iPhone to the Cloud (NOT music; there was none anyway) because, for whatever reason, I didn't want to overwrite the backup I did to the Mac in #2 above. Again, no other options were selected in the "General" screen. In the "Music" screen, I selected "Entire Library" and no other options. Clicked Apply.
8. It WORKED! All album art is where it should be. Playlists are intact.

Thank you to everyone here who took the time to say what worked and what didn't! For what its worth, I reported the bug to Apple, but I'm not holding my breath. Thinking about emailing Tim Cook. If I do, I will post a copy here.

I don't know if you still have the same problem? I have my iMac since 2018. I bought my iPhone 11 last year and performed data transfer from my iPhone SE to iPhone 11. And I realised that a lot of the Album covers were not sync correctly. I ignored this errors initially but it eventually drove me nuts. I contacted Apple via Chat and they helped to fix may problem. Now everything is in sync. Here was what I was asked to do:

1. Backup my iPhone onto my iMac (and not on iCloud!).
2. Then I need to reinstall my iPhone to the latest IOS.
3. Connect iPhone to iMac.
4. Backup iPhone now to iMac. This might take a while
5. When the backup is done, you can look up the backup of iPhone data by Typing or coping and pasting this: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
6. Now in Finder, click on the connection to your iPhone, then select the option Restore iPhone.
7. Skip the Q to 'backup the settings' as it has been done in step 4.
8. Select 'Don't Backup' (as it has been made already in step 4) and now it will restore your iPhone.
9. You will see messages such as 'downloading software update...'. It will take several minutes or longer depending on the data volume.
10. Next message shows 'now preparing iPhone to restore...' It will take sometime again...patience is required.
11. Next message shows 'Your phone has been restored to factory setting.'
12. The iPhone will be restarted..then when prompted 'Set up manually' or 'Quick Start'? Choose Set up Manually option!
13. Another Q: 'do you want to set up as a new phone or restore from backup'? Choose restore from Backup from 'iMac/PC' (and not from iCloud'!!)
14. Message...'connect to Mac...' and 'restoring...' should appear.
15. Message now says 'restoring xxx from backup on iMac and restore in progress on phone.' This will take a long time....
16. After a successful restoration, now the iPhone is restarting.
17. You would have to reset FaceID etc....as usual like getting a new phone.

This process worked for me and all the albums on my iPhone are in sync with the original album covers!!

My iPhone 13 had similar problem whereby Album artwork messed up on iPhone but all good on Windows PC iTunes.. iTunes on my PC is where I store all my music and then download (sync) to my iPhone. Corrected the album artwork cover problem by deleting all the Downloaded music on my iPhone 13... then used iTunes on my windows PC to restore music on iPhone. Steps I used as follows:

1. Connected my Windows PC to my iPhone 13 via cable.
2. Started iTunes on PC. As a precaution, backed up iPhone to PC via iTunes and sync music from iTunes to iPhone.
3. on iPhone, go to Settings / Music
4. Selected/press  "Downloaded Music" and thereafter on the Downloaded music screen you see a list of all the song titles. Note the first line says "All Songs". Left swipe the "All Songs" line to display the red Delete button on the iPhone.
5. Press Delete to delete your entire music library off the iPhone.
6. Sync music again from PC iTunes to iPhone
7. Problem should be resolved. ( Was for me)... But not sure if the problem will start up again?

BTW, I have 2000 tracks on my iTunes on windows PC, 99% of the tracks added by myself from various sources, including Album artwork. Interesting to note that the size of the downloaded music database on iPhone before deleting all,  was about 45gb and then after restore (sync) was 28gb, for the same music database. That seems to indicate that the sync from iTunes on PC to iPhone is buggy (obviously not news to all of us). There are various solutions on this forum that have similar success. The steps above don't require much work but there is a time to wait for PC iTunes to repopulate (sync) to  iPhone.

I did some additional testing this morning. ClarkT's process worked only once for me. Subsequent syncing of albums one-by-one didn't guarantee the transfer of album artwork to my iPhone.

I kinda started over and removed my entire library from the iPhone except for a few albums from my 1st sync last weekend. All of those synced properly at the time.

After a 2nd test today to sync 2 more albums, macOS/Music shows the album art for Hall & Oates "Abandoned Luncheonette". After a sync, it's missing on the iPhone. Abacab did sync to the iPhone correctly though. So I'm batting about .500 with the whole sync process. Both of those albums were purchased from iTunes, btw.

See screenshots below.

And, after a few days of listening to my full library on my iPhone last week, I again came across several songs that would end abruptly without playing all the way through on iOS/Music. They're fine on macOS/Music, but corrupted after the sync to my iPhone.

Frustrated AF.