iTunes Album Art Screensaver with iTunes Match in Lion

To resolve the problem is easy:

While holding down the "Option" key, click on the iTunes icon on your dock. Then just re-choose your iTunes folder in the Music File inside your home folder. Somehow, this reconnects the broken chain for the "No Album Artwork found in iTunes folder"

There is no need to delete anything in your preference folder, or repopulate the Album artwork, or redownload the album artwork.

I hope this helps you. Let me know.

I am running the latest OS X Lion and iTunes update to date.

What should happen when I hold down the option key and click on the itunes icon? It seems to just hide itunes and then bring it back.

Hi JanaDear,

First of all, quit all applications, including iTunes, then hold down options while clicking on the iTunes wigit in the dock. Then a window will open with the following options:

Quit; Create Library...; Choose Library...

Click on "Choose Library..."

In the following window, choose your "Home Folder" in the left columb (the little house with your name next to it); on the right double click on the "Music" folder, then just highlight the iTunes folder.

Next you click on "Open" on the bottom of the window.

Upon doing that, iTunes should open. Also, your Album Artwork Screensaver should be repaired.

To test that, go to System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > click on the ITunes Artwork. You should see the album artwork appearing on the right side. Click on Test if you wish.

Let me know if it worked for you.

Also, please indicate if this solved your question.

Enjoy!

@Matroos8,

I just tried what you said, exactly, and still isn't working. Any more suggestions?

Sigh. Frustrating!

What operating system are you running? This was done on OS X Lion.

You can also try and restart your computer/laptop after you did what I suggested.

Make sure you highlight just the iTunes folder inside your Music folder, which is located in your Home folder, when you choose your Library.

Close iTunes before you test if the screen saver is working in System Preferences.

Just play around and try different things, you'll eventually get it right.

I tried to recreate the broken iTunes Album Artwork Screensaver again, but did not succeed. My screensaver is still working fine. I wanted to see if there was a different way of doing this.

Let me know how you are doing.

I'm on Lion 10.7.3, iTunes 10.6 (40). I restarted, and still not working. I'll keep messing with it, trying different tweaks, and see what I can come up with.

And yup, I followed the directions just like you told me to. I'll keep trying! Thanks!

If you want, you can go to Finder -> Home Folder -> Library -> Preferences -> ByHost.

In ByHost, you can delete all the .plist files that looks like this:

com.apple.screensaver.iTunesArtwork.(some random codes).plist

These are the settings for your screensaver in System Preferences. They get re-created when you set it up again in System Preferences.

If you cannot see the Library file in your Home Folder, then you will need to download an application called "Hidden Files". It will help you to see all the hidden files on your device. In Hidden Files, you can switch the visiblity on and off whenever. It just helps to keep your windows neat.

I remember, under Snow Leopard you were able to see the Library file in the Home Folder, but with Lion it changed. It only became visible with the Hidden Files application.

After you deleted all those settings in the ByHost file, then reset your iTunes folder with options, and try the screensaver again.

Let me know how you are doing. Remember, always keep good backups of your device before you attempt any changes.

Good luck buddy.

Matroos8,

Thanks for all the help. Followed this latest set of directions, a few times, doing it with iTunes closed, then open, then closed, rebooting, again, etc. Still nothing. Not sure what's up. Sigh.

I'll keep trying, but it's not looking hopeful until there's a possible fix with a new iTunes version or a Lion update.

Thanks again!

You are welcome!

One more thing you can try - do the same with your iPhoto application as with iTunes. Maybe, just maybe it will help. I am just guessing here because I could not re-create the broken iTunes Album Art screensaver, to work through it with you.

Remember, the Library file you are looking for, and that you need to go to, is situated in your Home Folder and not in your HD folder. You need to go exactly like I told you previously. Those settings needs to be deleted in the ByHost folder.

All the best!

@matroos8

I have had this same problem since buying my iMac a year ago and have been trying to fix it ever since. I have tried every possible solution I could find, including deletion of plist files from other directories. Today I followed your instructions and upon deletion of the /byhost plist files the screensaver FINALLY stared working!!! Thank you very much!!!

I found that I too had this problem. I have tried everything that is suggested here and else were.

What I had to do was maybe a combo of everything suggested here and what I did. Don't know for sure, but I am not going to try to break it again to find out.

After none of these suggestions would get it to work I started digging.

Using Activity Monitor, I could see that when I had the System Preferences open it was taking way to much Physical RAM and CPU, so I selected "System Preferences" from the list of open processes and then clicked the "Inspect" button at the top of the Activity Monitor, under the "Open Files and Ports" tab I could see that the "iTunes Library.itl" file was trying to be accessed. So then I closed the "Inspect" window and clicked the "Sample Process" button. I got A LOT of information, and a lot of error messages refering to iTunes that contained the text "(in iTunesAccess) load address" and a bunch of different numbers that I couldn't tell you what they mean. Searching google for "(in iTunesAccess) load address" didn't give me anything of value, so I figured that since System Preferences kept trying to call the "iTunes Library.itl" file and I was getting a bunch of iTunes errors in sampling the System Preferences process, that the problem might lie in my library.

So to test, I copied about 50 or so songs with album art to the iTunes library of a new user I had just created on my computer. Then I tried to turn on the artwork screen saver, and it worked right out of the gate. So that told me it wasn't a global problem with the computer, just within my profile. Since I have had the same library for about 10 years though hardware, OS, and iTunes upgrades, I thought, maybe if there was some way I could rebuild my Library file it might be happier, and since I don't want to loose all my play lists and what ever historical data is kept in the library file, rebuilding seemed like the best option.

So here is what I found on how to rebuild the Library file, it is pretty easy, but scary to. I have a Time Machine back up of my computer so I felt better knowing that I could just revert back. Before you try this I would make back up copies of "iTunes Library.itl" and "iTunes Music Library.xml" if you aren't backing up your computer already.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451

Then if you have problems with your PodCasts after.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2562

After all that everything worked like it was suppose to. Happy day and all the peasants rejoiced.

I really wish Apple would address the issue though, I know it's a small detail, but that attention to small details is sometimes what makes Apple so effing cool. Seems like they are starting to let more fall through the cracks.

I've been dealing with this mess, on and off for months now, maybe more than a year. And it's been driving me nuts because whenever I had my box connected to a projector in my room, having my iTunes artwork come across the front board was mesmorizing to my kids! Instant attention. It was amazing.

So I came here today, searching around for new ideas and solutions, and the one posted by beetle124, while initially frightening and nerve-racking while waiting for everything to rebuild, did the trick. Thank you!

I had the same problem followed all of the steps mentioned above and none of them worked.

I got it working by recreating the itunes library; you can find all of the steps here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451

Tried everything in this thread. Still get the no artwork message when the screensaver activates.

using itunes 10.7 (21)

lion 10.7.5

Here's how I solved the problem:

1. Go into finder (or windows explorer).

2. Find the Album Artwork file within your itunes file (usually "computer name/music/itunes/album artwork") I noticed that I had 3 files, "cache," "cloud," and "download." The Cloud file was empty. But the cache file and download file had the exact same information.

3. Open the cache file. That should reveal a file that is identical to the file that is revealed if you open the Download file. On my system that file was "5C376133A78DCCBE" (may be different on your system, I don't know)

4. Right click your mouse over the 5C376133A78DCCBE file and select copy.

5. Go back to the Album Artwork file and open the Download file.

6. Right click your mouse over the 5C376133A78DCCBE and select paste. Let it overwrite/replace the 5C376133A78DCCBE file with the same 5C376133A78DCCBE file.

7. Go back to Album Artwork, right click the Cache file, and select "move to trash"

8. Quit iTunes (if you had it open).

9. Hold down the option key and reopen itunes.

10. Select "choose library"

11. Go "computer name/music/iTunes" and select the "iTunes Library.iti" file.

12. If you see iTunes importing the album artwork, you've done it right.

13. Test the iTunes Album Artwork screensaver and hopefully it works for you like it did for me!

MacBook Pro running OSX 10.6.8