Album artwork not syncing on iPhone iOS 5.1 update

Yes, I kept the 128k bit option.

Randy, does this need to be done everytime a new album is introduced into Itunes for transfer to your Iphone? Is there a default setting in Itunes that will do this automatically instead of manually doing this every single time?

Hey this worked for me as well.

Well I'm less mad now xD

I have found a solution. It is very simple, in fact.

> Remove the feature "Convert songs which have a debit superior to 128 kbit/s".

> Go to a song and right-click on it.

> Chose the feature "Create an AAC Version".

> When the AAC version is created, delete the other version (or let it, if you want).

> Just put the song in AAC version (which have an album artwork, of course) in your iPhone.

> Check your song in the iPhone... It is done !

[sorry for my bad English, I am French]

cwg123 - that is a very good question. I am not sure what the answer is, as I've not added any new music since I solved the problem. I'd like to think that any new music added via ripping a CD or through iTunes would use the latest tag version by default... but then why did my newer songs now have their art work before? Hmmm - maybe the whole library has to be 2.4 (or latest) it gets confused. I'll experiment when I get some more time and see what happens when I add new music...

That's pretty good english KA0iMHiN! I'm sure you've seen how poorley many of our own people write! Anyway, I think just converting the ID3 tags to 2.4 (via right clicking on multiple songs and choosing that option) is a little easier than converting the whole song file and then deleting the other one.

Actually unless it's already an AAC file the ID3 tag conversion won't work (at least for me). I tried converting several different albums in MPEG format to 2.4 and didn't work until i did the AAC conversion.

Thank you! It worked for me.

Well, I added an album today (downloaded from Amazon)... and while the artwork for THAT album made it to my iPhone... I do notice that a few of my albums are missing artwork now. Like maybe 10 out of 680 albums are missing art work on the iPhone. The artwork is in iTunes. Oh well, another 10 hours to erase and re-sync music... come on Apple! Please fix this!

I tried what Randy said on the last page (last post on page 8) but unfortunately no luck. The only thing that seems to work for me is to copy and paste twice directly onto the iPhone as others have suggested. I DO always have the convert higher bit rate to 128 kps box checked (I have the 16 gig 4 and I always feel like I need more room). Songs that are in my iTunes already at 128 kps have the artwork show up without issue.

Out of curisoity, I put some large files that need to be converted down to 128 kps onto my second generation iPod touch (they haven't updated the operating system in years). Same thing, I selected convert higher bit rate to 128 kps. Artwork shows up 100% of the time, regardless of the file size I have it at in iTunes. So don't know how much of this is iOs 5.1 (and perhaps 6.0) and how much of it is iTunes. I'm guess it's the operating systems(s) more than iTunes.

Another oddity...when you do go through the hassle of pasting the artwork TWICE and then later delete that album off your iPhone, you can put it back on and the artwork shows up without hassle, even after downcoverting.

I have the same problem - 90% of album artwork that appears in iTunes, and is associated with each song but will not synch to my iphone. Album art synched with the previous IOS 5, no problem, My library is over 150 gig and I usually keep about 30 gig of music on the phone. I've never compressed the music when synching, but in an effort to get the artwork, have changed the setting to compress to 128k, then not to compress, still no artwork. I've backed up the phone and restored three times, no artwork. I've attempted to update the ID3 tags to V2.4 for my entire itunes library, then synched, still no artwork (Itunes will not keep the updated ID3 tags?). While connected with the cord, I've gone into the music files on the iphone, selected all songs on an album, pasted the album artwork,- looked like it was updating, but once again it DID NOT. I've deleted selected albums, then manually re-added, still no artwork. I even rebuilt my entire iTunes library, wiped the phone, manually re-added the songs, NO ALBUM ARTWORK! I've obviously invested many hours to resolve, searched for answers to this problem, and attempted every recommendation I've read, still no artwork! Is anyone sensing my frustration YET! I realize its just ARTWORK, but it frickin worked before! Losing functionality should never be acceptable when upgrading OS, but apparently to the goofs at Apple, its not a big deal. Apple, you could learn quite a bit from Zune- just too bad those devices never caught on. This is ridiculous!

64 gig, 4S, IOS 6, Itunes 10.7.021.

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.

Thanks for the input Vishnu. All of my "Name, Artist, Album info" is/has been populated for some time - I'm obsessive about ensuring the info is correct. Re: what is in iTunes is what appears on the iPhone- not true. 99% of iTunes library (over 150 gig) have the album artwork in iTunes, but when synched, the artwork does not display. What is really interesting and I discovered this after my post yesterday, using iTunes, if I access my iPhone music files, and select "get info"- the artwork is included with these files on the phone- it just will not display; not in cover flow, not when reviewing by artist, album or song. That would indicate to me that this is an IOS 6.0 issue. The ID3 tags also show version 2.4. I've reviewed settings on the phone to see it there is anything that I could change to correct and did not find anything. +- 10% of the album artwork do display but I've not been successful in identifying what is unique about those and the ones that do not display.

Apple's marketing campaign for iOS 6 specifically states: "Listen to music everywhere. See it, too: You can browse your collection by album art." Pretty amazing to boast that without confirming that it works. Worked fine in iOS 5. I created a support ticket yesterday with Apple, and- as identified before, it's apparently not been reported enough to get any attention from within. What I refuse to do is buy more Apple services, be it iCloud or Match, to correct album artwork. If that is their objective, pathetic.

64 gig, 4S, IOS 6, Itunes 10.7.021.

hi Rcnico,

Sorry to hear about this. Somehow it worked for me the above steps. And i did miss stating, the iTunes and Phone have to 'sync' after updating. Sine you have done it, ignore that. But I feel the software is behaving different for different people. And I do agree, to solve a problem, there is absolute no chance that You should agree for buying another Apple service. Keep us posted on what you get from Apple Support if any. Did you walk in to an Apple Genius? If your warrenty has expired, get someone with new iPhone to see if they have problem and visit the shop with their phone, you might be able to still check on the issue with Apple genius