Generic mp3 icons in Lion - still an issue...

I have had this issue on my MacPro ever since upgrading to Lion (although it is difficult to pinpoint exactly to the initial upgrade to Lion - may have been a Lion update).

I am currently running Lion 10.7.5 and iTunes 10.7 (64 bit) on a MacPro 1,1. My iTunes library is (and always has been) on an external FW800 drive, and the location is specified in the Preferences->Advanced setting in iTunes. I have had this configuration for years without any issues.

Whenever I add a new album to iTunes, I manually add the artwork to each song, so that the artwork is embedded in the file. Once the artwork was added, the file icon (e.g., right click -> Show In Finder) would change from generic to the actual artwork itself.

However, now, all of the icons for music files (e.g., mp3's) in my music library have a generic icon rather than the album cover art, even though the cover art is embedded in the file. I have no problem seeing the artwork in iTunes, but when I look at the file in Finder (and Get Info) it has a generic one.

I copied several mp3's from my iTunes library onto a flash drive and opened the flash drive on my wife's computer (MBP running Lion 10.7.5 and iTunes 10.7), the icons appears in the Finder window as expected. Furthermore, I enabled file sharing on my computer and opened my iTunes library from my wife's computer and the icons appear normally with artwork.

I must therefore conclude that the issue appears to be one in which the Finder on my MacPro has some configuration issue which is preventing it from displaying the finder icons with artwork. I tried deleting the com.apple.finder.plist and com.apple.desktop.plist as well as the com.apple.finder and com.apple.iTunes cache folders, with no improvement. I also note, though not sure if related, occassional "ghost" icons on my desktop and some random finder windows (esp. shortcuts).

This is not a major deal for me, since the icons work in iTunes (and get synced properly to my iPhone/iPad), but I would like to know what is going on and how to remedy it, since it clearly is improper behavior (based on comparison to my wife's computer, which is running the same OS). I know other threads have addressed this issue, but reading though them has not provided a solution for me.

Thanks!

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Nov 4, 2012 9:30 AM

37 replies

twiz718

Level 1

0 points

Nov 30, 2012 12:32 PM in response to Hersco

Does the song in iTunes show artwork if you Cmd-I when highlighting it?

If it does, right click the song and "Show in finder"

Hersco

Level 2

324 points

Nov 30, 2012 3:06 PM in response to twiz718

twiz718 wrote:

Does the song in iTunes show artwork if you Cmd-I when highlighting it?

If it does, right click the song and "Show in finder"

Yes, all songs show Artwork in Get Info. Right click - Show in Finder reveals only generic icons. I have also tried the Applescript, Re-embed Artwork on some songs, which did not help.

twiz718

Level 1

0 points

Nov 30, 2012 3:09 PM in response to Hersco

Yeah, I resolved my issue by removing the Voice memos from both the playlist & Deleting the playlist as well as searching for Genre "Voice memo" in my Music collection. It seemed to be duplicated.

Hersco

Level 2

324 points

Nov 30, 2012 3:18 PM in response to twiz718

I wish I could say the same. A search for "Voice Memo" in Music yielded no results.

twiz718

Level 1

0 points

Nov 30, 2012 3:23 PM in response to Hersco

did you enable the "Genre" column right click the columns...

Hersco

Level 2

324 points

Nov 30, 2012 3:32 PM in response to twiz718

twiz718 wrote:

did you enable the "Genre" column right click the columns...

Yes, The Genre column is showing. There is no Voice Memo Genre remaining in iTunes.

Nov 30, 2012 3:36 PM in response to Hersco

Voice Memo is not really a Genre; it is a Media Kind. Try making a new smart playlist and have as the sole criterion Media Kind IS Voice Memo. See if you find any that way.

Hersco

Level 2

324 points

Nov 30, 2012 3:43 PM in response to Stuart Pollack

Stuart Pollack wrote:

Voice Memo is not really a Genre; it is a Media Kind. Try making a new smart playlist and have as the sole criterion Media Kind IS Voice Memo. See if you find any that way.

I appreciate the suggestions. Smart Playlist (Media Kind is Voice Memo) is empty.

twiz718

Level 1

0 points

Nov 30, 2012 3:50 PM in response to Hersco

okay, smart playlist does not matter. It has to be gone from your library. If it indeed is gone from the top left (Music) list by "Genre" (scroll down to letter V) then I dont know what it can be for you.

Post what your OS version, iTunes version and setup is.

Do you have your ~/Music/iTunes directory pointing to another drive? Is your iTunes configured to load your library from a different location?

Did the Finder images use to work before?

What iTunes version are you on?

Hersco

Level 2

324 points

Nov 30, 2012 4:05 PM in response to twiz718

I'm running iTunes 11.0, OS X 10.8.2 on a 2010 Mac Pro. My ~/Music/iTunes folder is on a separate internal drive from my Boot Drive. I tried re-pointing iTunes to that folder. That didn't help, either.

Hersco

Level 2

324 points

Nov 30, 2012 4:36 PM in response to Hersco

I forgot to add that I'm certain that the FInder images used to appear when I was running iTunes 10 in Snow Leopard. My first awareness of this issue came with the update to iTunes 11 (yesterday). It is certainly possible that the problem started when I upgraded to Mountain Lion, about a month ago, but I never checked it at that time.

Dec 1, 2012 4:09 PM in response to Stuart Pollack

I also resolved my issue by removing the Voice memos from the iTunes library deleting the playlist - THANK YOU! Strange why that bug exists.

HOWEVER: I wanted to make sure I keep my voice memo's so I did NOT move them to the trash.

They still exist on my drive. Sure enough my screensaver worked with the iTunes library again.

My only issue now is that the names of all my voice memos is gone, but at least I have them on the hard drive.

Dec 5, 2012 7:46 AM in response to 6StringChris

I have the same issue in Mountain Lion, however I do not have any voice memos. I only have four albums I purchased from iTunes. The iTunes artwork shows up ok in iTunes, but does not show in Finder and I get an error in the iTunes Artwork Screensaver saying none of my songs have album art. These are albums I purchased from iTunes.

I don't know when the problem started because it used to work. Maybe when I upgraded to iTunes 11.

I have tried everything I could find, including creating a new iTunes library and letting it redownload my purchases.

Apple support is as usual next to useless. Next step, format and reinstall OS!

Dec 7, 2012 8:52 AM in response to bulletproof.

Just a quick update.

This morning I formatted my MacBook and reinstalled OS X Mountain Lion from scratch. I then applied any system updates that were available and installed iTunes 11. I let iTunes download all my songs from the cloud and *drum roll* --- SAME EXACT ISSUE! Generic icons in Finder for my music and the album screensaver says none of my albums have artwork. 😮

twiz718

Level 1

0 points

Dec 7, 2012 9:02 AM in response to bulletproof.

Allegedly, Apple is aware of this issue and is looking to release a patch shortly to correct this amongst other issues.

Source: http://www.maxconsole.com/news/IOS/iTunes-11-patch-incoming-RKLS00000017937.html

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Generic mp3 icons in Lion - still an issue...