iTunes Artwork Screensaver Black or Blank

Question

Level 1

14 points

iTunes Artwork Screensaver Black or Blank

Hi,

When selecting the iTunes Artwork screensaver and running "Test", the screen is Black or Blank (no Artwork). I left it running for over and hour and the artwork never appeared. I have tons of artwork in my iTunes library and checked it after launching iTunes. The preview window for the screensaver is also blank and does *not* say "Your iTunes library does not contain any songs with artwork". As such, I'm suspecting some bug involved here.

Does anyone have a fix? I have tried the following suggested solutions:

- Consolidating / Rebuilding Library from iTunes. Then trying the screensaver

- Launching iTunes while holding "Option" key. Selecting the correct ~/Music/iTunes library again, then trying the screensaver

- Deleting the ~/iTunes/Album Artwork folder. Launching iTunes again. Downloading some album art. Trying the screensaver.

Insight into a solution that worked for you is appreciated.

Thanks

Mac OS X 10.7.3

iTunes 10.6 (40)

Large Library

imac 24", Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Mar 24, 2012 10:56 PM

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Answer 1

atod Author

Level 1

14 points

Mar 29, 2012 11:11 AM in response to atod

Can an iTunes developer comment or contact me?

I'm assuming there is some debug info I can provide or perhaps something in the XML library files are corrupted. I would start from scratch however I have too many playlists and song ratings that would be lost.

Thanks

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Answer 2

atod Author

Level 1

14 points

Apr 3, 2012 12:09 AM in response to atod

Folks,

This is how I resolved this. It appears that my "iTunes Music Library.xml" file had some invalid UTF-8 characters in the pathnames of some tracks. I had to use an XML validator and text editor to edit the Library.xml file. Hopefully Apple can add better error checking/handling into iTunes such that it automatically corrects this issue. My method of correcting this used some development tools and some may have a learning curve to use. It's worth it because you can save all your playlists and song ratings.

Here are the steps I took:

1. In iTunes, export your Library

File -> Library -> Export

I put it in ~/Desktop/Library.xml

2. I have "macports" installed. If you don't have it search for it and install it.

3. In Terminal.app

# sudo port install docbook-xml xmlcatmgr vim

4. Close iTunes

5. In ~/Music/iTunes

Create a directory called "bak"

Copy all *.xml and *.itl files into "bak" directory

6. Open up two Terminal.app shell windows

In the left shell, you will keep validating the XML file with "xmllint" looking for problems. In the right shell you will use "vim" to keep editing the XML until it is correct.

To validate the schema:

# xmllint --noout Library.xml

You should get some output like:

./iTunes Music Library.xml:398353: parser error : Input is not proper UTF-8, indicate encoding !

Bytes: 0xFF 0x30 0x3A 0x57

<key>Location</key><string>9V?0:W?1;X?/9V?-7T?,6S?1;X?3=Z?3=Z?1;X?0=Y?1>Z

^

./iTunes Music Library.xml:787054: error: xmlSAX2Characters: huge text node: out of memory

<key>Sample Rate</key><integer>48000</integer>

^

./iTunes Music Library.xml:787054: parser error : Extra content at the end of the document

<key>Sample Rate</key><integer>48000</integer>

As you can see, there is some characters in the <string> tag that do not conform. You only need to worry about the first error. Make note of the line #398353. Goto that line in your text editor ("vim" or whatever you chose that has Library.xml loaded).

7.

You should see the following XML which represents the track:

<key>XXXXXX</key>

<dict>

....

<key>Location</key><string>.... INVALID CHARS </string>

</dict>

Delete the entire track between <key> and </dict>. Save the file.

8. Recheck the XML file as described in Step 6

If you see errors, continue to Step 7 and resolve them.

If there are no more errors (no output) goto Step 9

9. Load up iTunes again

10. Import the *fixed* Library.xml file

File -> Library -> Import

11. Wait until the Library is imported. Your songs should be visable.

*** Note: iTunes is still reporting that some songs could not be imported "because the could not be found". It appears this accounts for about 5% of my original library. Not sure whats up here.

12. iTunes Artwork Screensaver now works!

I found that the non conformant UTF-8 characters were the root issue inside this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2220397?start=0&tstart=0

Hope this helps everyone.

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Answer 3

waaf1o73

Level 1

0 points

May 28, 2012 6:50 PM in response to atod

I am having the same problem and this looks like the solution. However, I am hesitant to try it because I don't want to lose my metadata--the Date Added data in particular. When you followed these steps, did you retain that data as well, or just the playlists and star ratings? If you didn't retain that data with this process, can you think of a way to amend it so I wouldn't lose it? Thank you!

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Answer 4

dalmanac

Level 1

5 points

May 30, 2012 4:06 PM in response to atod

Wow!

That is some fix.

How ridiculous has this operating system become when a standard feature like this is corrupted so easily.

I'm not stuffing around with my music library, potentially destroying years of accumulated metadata, because of this.

Apple, please issue a fix in your next OS update or release.

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Answer 5

Jun 4, 2012 6:18 AM in response to atod

Thanks for this fix...

I had the same experience , getting a black screen in the screensaver.

(It used to say it couldn't find any artwork, then it didn't even bother to say that.)

My problem was caused by iTunes not being able to find some items in my library.

So I deleted the file in itunes and re-added it.

kept doing this, it turned out I only had 3 missing files...

so I only had to edit and save my COPY of the library file.

when I got no more errors in my COPY, I tried the screensaver (after fixing the missing files in itunes)... and it WORKED...so sweet. Nice to have it back again.

No problems with losing metadata such as date added, playlists etc.. since I made the changes in itunes to fix it, not the library files.

Thanks to the provider of this solution for helping me to find the problems, and also for the info about xmllint (who knew I had it already???). I did not use macports (whatever THAT might be)...

Thanks again to the solution provider without whom I would not have been able to succeed.

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Answer 6

Jul 25, 2012 4:14 PM in response to atod

This is indeed the answer to this problem, but note, there may potentially be a much easier way to do this. If the screensaver was working fine, and just started to have this problem, odds are that the bad character is in a file you just added. Look through the most recently added music for artists/songs/albums with unusual characters in their names. In my case, the screensaver started misbehaving, so I looked at my list of recently added songs, and there was an album by Yael Naim. The i in her last name was a special character; when I replaced that character and quit iTunes, the screensaver worked again.

Somewhat embarrassing for Apple, of course, that their software can't handle names with non-English characters.

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Answer 7

Aug 1, 2012 2:28 PM in response to kenficara

Here's the easier way; I found it in another thread (works perfectly), authored by user "matroos8":

While holding down the "Option" key, click on the iTunes icon on your dock. Then just re-choose your iTunes folder [NOT the "iTunes Music" folder] inside your home folder.

Somehow this reconnects the broken chain for the problem of "No Album Art Found In iTunes".

No need to redownload your album artwork, or repopulate the artwork, or delete anything from your preference folder. Nor is it necessary to repair permissions for this problem.

matroos8 and I are both running the latest OS X Lion and iTunes update to date.

Congrats to matroos8 for his brilliant troubleshooting and post.

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Answer 8

atod Author

Level 1

14 points

Aug 1, 2012 10:38 PM in response to santranyc

Hi. I explained in the original post above that the method you describe below did not work for me. The iTunes library was corrupt with non-printable characters and as you can see above it needed to be manually edited. Your pointer appreciated, however please read symptoms fully (and test yourself) before posting solutions. Otherwise, people become confused and are just spun in circles with incorrect information.

santranyc wrote:

Here's the easier way; I found it in another thread (works perfectly), authored by user "matroos8":

While holding down the "Option" key, click on the iTunes icon on your dock. Then just re-choose your iTunes folder [NOT the "iTunes Music" folder] inside your home folder.

Somehow this reconnects the broken chain for the problem of "No Album Art Found In iTunes".

No need to redownload your album artwork, or repopulate the artwork, or delete anything from your preference folder. Nor is it necessary to repair permissions for this problem.

matroos8 and I are both running the latest OS X Lion and iTunes update to date.

Congrats to matroos8 for his brilliant troubleshooting and post.

Reply

Answer 9

atod Author

Level 1

14 points

Aug 1, 2012 10:40 PM in response to dalmanac

Yeah, it's definately a product bug. I suspect it's priority is low because the downloads from the iTunes store don't have this issue. It's the songs your friends give you. 🙂

dalmanac wrote:

Wow!

That is some fix.

How ridiculous has this operating system become when a standard feature like this is corrupted so easily.

I'm not stuffing around with my music library, potentially destroying years of accumulated metadata, because of this.

Apple, please issue a fix in your next OS update or release.

Reply

Answer 10

Aug 30, 2012 5:26 AM in response to atod

You're right. My apologies for not readig the thread more carefully.

I now have the same problem again, and the Option key trick doesn't work.

I'm searching recently added items but can't find any characters that look "illegal." Very frustrating.

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Answer 11

Sep 10, 2012 9:12 PM in response to santranyc

The Option key trick worked for me. I had recently split my burgeoning iTunes media in two parts by putting all the movies, TV shows and podcasts on an external drive, while leaving my music on the Mac itself. This must have confused the screensaver so it couldn't find the artwork. Thank you!

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Answer 12

Sep 30, 2012 10:16 AM in response to kenficara

Ken's fix worked for me. I had to rebuild my ipone (diff issue) and i noticed the last item added to iTunes was a voice memo - " Steve's iPhone". Deleted it, and my screen saver is back.

I guess it didn't like the apostrophe.

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Answer 13

gamcall

Level 1

4 points

Oct 1, 2012 8:32 PM in response to atod

Atod,

In my version of iTunes (10.7), I do not see a way to do File > Library > Import. The only import option is to import a playlist. What did you mean for us to do?

Instead of using xmllint, would any text editor capable of parsing xml files do?

& I'm confused over which file I'm going to replace with the corrected file. iTunes Library.xml or iTunes Music Library.xml?

Regards,

GAM

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Answer 14

gamcall

Level 1

4 points

Oct 1, 2012 10:43 PM in response to atod

Hi again Atod,

I don't have MacPorts installed, but I found & ran xmllint against both iTunes library files with no problems reported. Do I have to install MacPorts for the parsing to be enhanced and therefore show up the errors? I still have no Artwork screen-saver 😟

Regards,

GAM

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Answer 15

Oct 6, 2012 8:15 AM in response to SjSmith001

This was my problem too. I recently had to restore my iphone and these voice memos snuck into my itunes. THey must have had some weird character.....Thanks SjSmith001!

Ken's fix worked for me. I had to rebuild my ipone (diff issue) and i noticed the last item added to iTunes was a voice memo - " Steve's iPhone". Deleted it, and my screen saver is back.

I guess it didn't like the apostrophe.

Reply