Embedded artwork not diplayed in iTunes

Thanks for your quick reply.

I installed a quicktime plugin for ogg vorbis file and since then iTunes handles them fairly well. The thing is that both mp3 and ogg vorbis files are affected by this strange behaviour.

I will check for the ID3 version, maybe that gives a clue, thanks!

I am confused. If Mp3tag tells me an mp3 has the tag version: ID3v2.3 (ID3v1 ID3v2.3), is that okay or not?

tt2, thanks again very much for your help.

Half of the problem is now solved: obviously, a lot of my files seem to have TWO tags attached. If I remove one (hence it reads only ID3v2.3 (ID3v2.3 in Mp3tag) iTunes recognizes this for mp3 files.

I did not manage to fix .ogg files yet, but I will find it out hopefully.

I think I will have to check the mapping of the vorbis comments.... will keep you updated!

A short update:

For all mp3 files, it looks like I simply have to delete my iTunes database completely and add them again - if I start to play an mp3 files with an updated cover, iTunes detects the cover once it plays the actual song. Simply adding them to the library again did not work. Thats no worries.

BUT the ogg vorbis files are!

Now it is getting interesting. Obviously, there is a recommended way how to embedd cover art in ogg vorbis files. Namely by using the "METADATA_BLOCK_PICTURE" tag. On their website, xiph.org even provides test ogg vorbis files to test media players. Funnily enough, Mp3tag recognizes the cover and displays it, Winamp does not (but it recognizes the existance of the METADATA_BLOCK_PICTURE tag) nor does iTunes.

When comparing an ogg vorbis file with an embedded cover picture which is display both in Winamp AND in iTunes I cannot make out any difference. They both have the METADATA_BLOCK_PICTURE tag filled with some encoded stuff but the one seems to work, the other does not. So there IS a way how to display pictures in iTunes AND Winamp for ogg vorbis files, the questions is: how exactly?

Very strange...

Okay so you dont want to work with Easytag (an opensource software) since it adds deprecated COVERART* metatags which neither Mp3tag nor Itunes nor Winamp can read.

Args, this is getting annoying!

Edit: Okay, now. I have two ogg vorbis files. One works, one does not. How can I compare them, reading: with what programm? Any help would be highly appreciated!

Yes that might be the case. I now know at least for several files that in iTunes the cover is shown - but I am not sure whether it is because it is embedded (I doubt it) or because of the automatic artwork detection.

Obviously Winamp does not support the display of embedded artwork with the Metatag in my version of winamp (an older one - source) - and it seems like where Winamp shows the image, it is because there is a Folder.jpg in the directory. So mystery solved but no solution found, IF there is one!

Ah, follow up question: would there be a way to automatically add the artwork which is embedded in the file with a script or something to iTunes?

Okay, I am done (with nerves :-)) I deleted my iTunes DB completely and imported all songs after cleaning up the tags and adding covers to 98% of the songs. After letting iTunes search for artwork, most of the albums now have a cover which is okay.

Nevertheless I am currently running trials on different alternatives: MediaMonkey is a no go in my view usabilty wise. MusicBee is way better (usability is almost as good as iTunes and the UI is very intuitive) and has very useful features such as automatic lookup of lyrics for songs and if you add artwork via MusicBee it lets you choose between different sources and automatically embedds them.

Will try Songbird now too, if anyone is interested how it compares to the other programms, let me know.

Goodbye iTunes without ogg vorbis support, hello fake iTunes with ogg vorbis support! 😀

I just downloaded Songbird and it is just fantastic! It works like Firefox: you can completely customize it. There is one skin which makes it look exactly like iTunes but better: it works perfectly with ogg vorbis files! There is a neat addon for displaying lyrcis, a party shuffle addon and a genius replacement, a media flow which looks like the album cover media display from iTunes and you can watch and change your current Play Queue - BY DEFAULT.

This is great 🙂