Is there a way to recover deleted album covers on Apple Music for non-iTunes albums?

Question

Is there a way to recover deleted album covers on Apple Music for non-iTunes albums?

I upgraded my Apple iMac 2017 to a Mac Mini M2 2023 (brand new) and an Apple Studio screen. I moved from Ventura to Sonoma 14.4.1. I used a thunderbolt cable and transferred at high speed without interruption. A problem emerged on the new Mac Mini, where I had to sign in anew with my Apple Id and then authorize my new machine for Apple music before I could use it properly. Upon opening Music only some album covers were displayed and the system froze. I had to force quit and restart. And, then, all the album covers disappeared from my library of 2900 albums. I tried to use Apple Music /file/library/Get Album Artwork, and it seems to work (ie, the process does not blow up). But, the album covers never download. If I select a song and click on "Get info", the image of the cover is not present under "Artwork". All of the covers are gone. The worst part is that Apple music deleted my covers for dozens of albums not available via iTunes, so I will have to reload the covers manually, I fear. Does anyone have any advice?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Mac mini (M2 Pro, 2023)

Posted on Apr 26, 2024 10:23 PM

Reply

Answer 1

TheLittles

Level 10

192,639 points

Apr 29, 2024 8:32 PM in response to Lippoldtskivich

"Is there a way to recover deleted album covers on Apple Music for non-iTunes albums?: I upgraded my Apple iMac 2017 to a Mac Mini M2 2023 (brand new) and an Apple Studio screen. [...]"

-------

Getting Album Artwork Back:

Search, then Add:

Upon transfer, iTunes updated itself to the latest available of Album Artwork. So, search for the artwork you want through Google Images. See Here: Add Artwork to Content in Music on Mac - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 2

TheLittles

Level 10

192,639 points

Apr 29, 2024 10:03 PM in response to Lippoldtskivich

"Is there a way to recover deleted album covers on Apple Music for non-iTunes albums?: I upgraded my Apple iMac 2017 to a Mac Mini M2 2023 (brand new) and an Apple Studio screen. [...]"

-------

Getting Album Artwork Back:

Export/Import the Music Library:

So, what happens when you export your entire library on your older Mac to a hard drive, and then important the library to the new Mac? See here: Save a copy of a playlist in Music on Mac - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 29, 2024 10:54 PM in response to Lippoldtskivich

FWIW when I upgraded to Big Sur, I manually converted the old iTunes folder to the new Music.app folder structure.

Some album covers could not be re-downloaded so I grabbed a few from the old iTunes. I have rather small music library but it was messy anyway:

I grabbed some missing album covers from the old iTunes/Album Artwork/ folder:

There are lots of folders so browsing them is difficult. So put them in the same folder and with GraphicConverter > File... > Browse Flat... > Edit: Select All > press Delete key to move them to Trash (make sure it is empty before doing that) > move all from the Trash to a folder.

Then convert .itc to .png with GraphicConverter > File... > Browse > Right-click: Quick Convert into same Folder as PNG.

Then GraphicConverter > File... > Browse > View > Show all in Slideshow and check if there is anything that might be used for missing album covers (there might be lots of duplicates and low-res covers).

Music folder structure on Ventura - Apple Community

Reply

Answer 4

Apr 29, 2024 9:41 PM in response to TheLittles

Thank you for your message. Actually, I have nearly 3000 albums nearly all of them either purchased from iTunes or downloaded from Apple music. During the transfer from my old 2017 iMac running Ventura to my new Mac Mini M2 pro running Sonoma 14.4.1, Apple stripped out all of the album covers from my library. If I click on a song and then Get Info, the album artwork page is completely blank (white) for nearly all of them. If I click on File/Library/Get Album Artwork, then nothing happens. (Even if I upload the art for an individual album, then it only displays in the little square of the player (left of the name of the song), but not in the full album directory.) In any event, it is not practical to find each of the 3000 album covers and upload them. If you have any other suggestions, they would be most welcome! Thanks again, DL

Reply