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After hours and hours of uploading iTunes crashing repeatedly, removing problematic songs, etc. and matching the rest of my iTunes library iTunes Match finally finished.
Now all of the cover art for rare albums, etc. that I had scoured the Internet for over the years has been lost. 😟
Needless to say I am very dissapointed. I have a normal Time Machine backup , but I don't know of any way to recover those particular files. Any help would be appreciated. TIA.
I am not sure how many of you had to re-os, power off multiple times, or restore. So, try these and hit 'like' and/or 'This solved my question' or 'This helped me', if it works as explained below.
What you do on the iTunes is what appears on iPhone. Artwork missing in iPhone is unlikely, if iTunes on PC has them. I am going to be very simple in writing, for everyone to understand as clear as possible. Follow the below steps -
1. Go to iTunes (On PC). Right Click and select 'Get Info'.
2. If any error message gets displayed there, try to play it once or locate that song manually, if you have recently changed the location.
3. Select 'Artwork' tab and ensure the artwork is still there.
4. (Here is the funny part) - Go to 'Info' tab (the tab between 'Summary' and 'Video')
5. Ensure for any particular song, the following values are always captured -
a) Name -
b) Artist -
c) Album - (Most of us tend to delete this album data, to avoid seeing duplicate of the name or artist)
Eg. On my iTunes (PC), a song is categorized -
a) Name - Bad Day (Ladies and Gents - I did not purposely select this song 😉)
b) Artist - Daniel Powter
c) Album - Bad Day
Try the above simple step and see if it works. If not, reply back to me and mention the exact error message. Can try to help.
Well you're replying to a thread I started almost a year ago. Since then there have been several updates to iTunes (and certainly iTunes Match) and AFAIK it's not an issue anymore...at least not for me. Keeping iTunes updated is the first step, but I suppose if someone's still having an issue your resolution might work.
FWIW I was using this methodif cover art went missing...but again, that hasn't been an issue (for me) for quite a while.
Missing Artwork:
1. Apple Images: The quickest way to get Apple's artwork images is to Select: File -> Library -> Get Album Artwork... additionally be sure to have the "Automatically Download Artwork" preferences set for any future CDs you convert.
2. Custom Images: There are several suggestions that will render your custom artwork in this thread including attaching to the song/album in iTunes (Get Info this method) which is probably the best solution.
Surprising this old thread continues to generate replies! As you mention, the resolutions have already been posted.
Che! wrote:
Missing Artwork:
1. Apple Images: The quickest way to get Apple's artwork images is to Select: File -> Library -> Get Album Artwork... additionally be sure to have the "Automatically Download Artwork" preferences set for any future CDs you convert.
FWIW this method works most of the time but is still not failsafe. I have several albums (mainstream including The Beatles) where Apple provides incorrect artwork. Sometimes only the wrong disc image in a collection that contiains two or more covers, other times something completely wrong. Adding your own artwork can fix this and now it appears to be "sticking" even after updating iTunes Match.
This is a old thread, but for some unknown reason iTunes just lost about 20% of my artwork. (about 2000 songs)
So the hours I've invested in getting the artwork for these songs in order have been lost.
I'm gradually fixing the missing artwork, but there's a few hours of my life that I'm never gonna get back.
If it does it again, I simply wont bother fixing it - it would seem like a fairly futile exercise to continually add artwork to songs only to have iTunes randomly delete it..
That's very frustrating and it's happened to me, although not to 20% of my library...more like six or a dozen tops. Although it's much better than it used be it still happens.
I've followed all of the advice with respect to adding cover art...downloading it from Apple, finding it myself and using "Get Info" and adding it manually for an entire album, per song, etc. and it still happens now and then.
I've tried Cover Scout as well, but that doesn't prevent iTunes Match from changing things later.
The only application I've found that seems to make things "stick" is one of Doug's scripts, "Embed Artwork". Even then it still happens once in a while.
After the first couple of times things went mssing or were suddenly incorrect I created a file (in iPhoto, but could be saved anywhere) of all of the cover art I've added over the years. Now I don't have to scour the Interwebs when one goes missing or iTunes Match updates it with the wrong one.
FWIW I also found that cover art that was larger than 1000 x 1000 px gives iTunes Match some heartburn. I either reduced the size of what I had or found a file online that was smaller. Apple uses 300 x 300 px but 500 x 500 or something near that seems to work fine as well.
This isn't optimal, and certainly not Apple's best effort as it's obviously still a work in progress but having used iTunes Match since the first day it was released, I can say that it has improved markedly. Hope they get the rest ironed out sooner than later.
Album Art downloading/updating
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Over the past couple of years I have built a substantial iTunes library of albums I have ever known and collected, the thing I find most annoying about retrieving and adding to my collection is that the artwork for the title you have just faithfully committed to iTunes does not necessarily automatically download the corresponding album cover artwork, or at best finds one that best matches the selection I have on the original album, I have developed a strategy over the months of fine-tuning to address the issue by matching the title of the album on my laptop to the one on the iTunes library, in this way I have been able to capture the artwork and download to my laptop, the fun starts when I want to transfer across all iOS devices via iTunes Match, I have been successful in updating to iPad and iPhone 5, alas my Apple TV is late in catching up, so to hasten the process I delete the album from my library and re-add the album(s) manually, then go to settings in Apple TV and logout and login again, this has proved effective thus far but is obviously time consuming, it is high time that Apple Inc. addressed this issue and put in a fix to better manage artwork downloading.
I have just started using iTunes Match using a MacBook and the latest iPod. I have all the album art on my MacBook but a small number of albums on the iPod do not have the art. My solution to the problem is to delete all the album art in iTunes using the MacBook by going through every track and deleting the art. Then put it back onto every track (Select all the tracks, use Cmd+I to bring up the Info and then add the artwork). Run iTunes Match and on the iPod quit the Music app and restart it. The album art appears.
I have a problem with cover art on my Apple TV for months now. I can add albums without problems and I can also see my album artwork in itunes at home and at work when I log in there. But every album I have uploaded the last few months will not show cover art on my Apple TV. It is getting annoying. I resetted my Apple TV twice. I have all the latest software versions of Apple TV and iTunes, I have my cover art in every single file but it will not show up. It used to work fine but the last couple of months it doesn't do a single cover. Does anyone have the same problem and maybe a solution? Thanks!
I am only using iTunes Match on serveral devices and not Apple TV but issues might be similar. One issue seems to be that the album art might only be attached to the first track. If you use Cmd+I to see the album art and step through every track it looks as though the art is on all the tracks. However, sometimes I have found that it is only on the first track or first few. You will only find out by deleting the art track by track and then replacing it on all the tracks. I have found this works most times. I did have a problem with one album which had a very small jpg file and after replacing it with a bigger one I got the art. Sounds odd but it worked.
Similar story in 2013. What a horrible shame that Apple still hasn't fixed this issue, and forces us to jump thru all these hoops to fix what never should have become a problem in the first place!
I think that cover syncing works now, but I'm not sure 😕
There is a delay with syncing, be patient!
On Apple TV 2 I've turned off iTM in settings, then turnod back to on immediately.
iTM synced on ATV2! 🙂
My iPhone 4S synced also, here it can be a solution if you just close and reopen Music app. If it's not working, try to delete all of your songs in Settings.
I think that these things doesn't matter now:
- cover resolution is 300x300 or 600x600
- whether or not the cover image is embedded to the music files
Prior to version 11, I had never had a problem with cover art. Now, both cover art on my iPhone and iPad are completely ruined. Whether or not it is embedded does not matter. I've given up. Now I have Pink Floyd Dark Side of The Moon album art plastered all over the place. Something happens during the syncing process that causes my album/movie art to be totally rearranged. Oh well, I am sure version 12 will bring new problems. Oh, I just noticed that the Django soundtrack is the album art for Twilight Zone Season 2!
I had the same issue dating back to Oct 2012 - Solution - on the Apple TV : toggle iTunes Match off and then back on - has worked for me ever since. Whenever I import or purchase, when satisfied with artwork and track tags (title case, ratings, plays, etc) I toggle iTunes match in the Apple Tv settings off and then back on, wait the cursory 10 min or so while it updates and everything is perfect.
Apple is not going to fix this problem. It's been a bug for well over (2) years now. I've called for help, emailed their feedback department, emailed Tim Cook, and left forum posts regarding the issue. The solution to the problem is to drop iTunes Match and start using a different service entirely. Google and Amazon both offers alternatives. Neither are perfect, but they correct bugs instead of leaving customers in the dark.
iTunes Match Lost Cover Art
