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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

Reply
37 replies

Nov 4, 2012 9:39 AM in response to Stuart Pollack

Here's a link


MP3 icon no longer displays artwork in...: Apple Support Communities


Here's the relevant text


Here is the email I received from apple bug peeps after I submitted:


"After further investigation it has been determined that this is a known issue, which is currently being investigated by engineering. This issue has been filed in our bug database under the original Bug ID# 8116422. The original bug number being used to track this duplicate issue can be found in the State column, in this format: Duplicate/OrigBug#.



Thank you for submitting this bug report. We truly appreciate your assistance in helping us discover and isolate bugs.



Best Regards,



Darin Marshall

Developer Support

Apple Worldwide Developer Relations"

Nov 4, 2012 11:18 AM in response to Stuart Pollack

Ok. After some more research, I believe I have found the answer on another discussion thread. It appears that, at least in my case, the issue of non-displaying music file artwork icons in Finder is linked to another apparent "bug" - that of the iTunes artwork not appearing in the Screen Saver preferences. I checked on my computer and indeed I have this problem, too (but didn't realize it since I don't use that particular Screen Saver).


Someone found that the solution to the iTunes Artwork Screen Saver issue was to identify and delete all Voice Memo files in iTunes, then quit iTunes, and finally, restart iTunes. I tried this to see what would happen (I had about 8 Voice Memo files in iTunes from a few years ago). In an instant, without any reindexing, both problems were gone! Not only did the iTunes artwork reappear in the Screen Saver, but all of the iTunes music files (e.g., mp3's) now properly display the artwork icons. Truly amazing. I would have never guessed this and I'm not even sure why it caused the issue in the first place. Kudos to SjSmith001, who stumbled onto this solution (even if inadvertent)!


I actually was able to add the voice memos back to iTunes, and everything still works.


I hope this helps others frustrated by the same issue.

Nov 10, 2012 2:21 AM in response to Stuart Pollack

Stuart Pollack wrote:


Someone found that the solution to the iTunes Artwork Screen Saver issue was to identify and delete all Voice Memo files in iTunes, then quit iTunes, and finally, restart iTunes. I tried this to see what would happen (I had about 8 Voice Memo files in iTunes from a few years ago). In an instant, without any reindexing, both problems were gone! Not only did the iTunes artwork reappear in the Screen Saver, but all of the iTunes music files (e.g., mp3's) now properly display the artwork icons. Truly amazing. I would have never guessed this and I'm not even sure why it caused the issue in the first place. Kudos to SjSmith001, who stumbled onto this solution (even if inadvertent)!


I actually was able to add the voice memos back to iTunes, and everything still works.


I hope this helps others frustrated by the same issue.


Well, I read this and tried to delete Voice Memos but, maybe, I deleted the wrong ones as the problem was still there. So I duplicated the iTunes folder to do some tests and deleted all non "music relateed" contents (from within iTunes itself) and covers were back on Finder AND iTunes screensaver, but then I found that moving from samba mount to afp mount (I have a NAS Synology DS209) some MP3s still link to the smb mount and had a gray ! on left side.

At this time I copied back the original library (with iPhone apps and everything else), covers disappeared again from Finder and SS stopped working, then I started a "one-by-one" check for all files (Apple, a fast way to SHOW lost files would be really appreciated) so I come to an album titled as my iPhone's name with two tracks (two copies of the same track)...as I deleted the whole "Iphone album" with voice memos a background Finder window refreshed and showed covers!!!


So, this looks like a Voice Memos related problem for me!

Nov 10, 2012 5:46 AM in response to Rigido

Moving iTunes Library

I have move my itunes library many time and the best way to do it is to go to

iTunes -> Preference -> advanced -> Media folder location

set it to the new location

then go to iTunes File Menu -> Library -> Organize Library and then select "consolidate files"

if you have the both option "Copy files to itunes media folder" and "Keep Media folder organize" selected

itunes will then copy all files to the new location


NAS

I used to have my itunes library on a NAS with a unix files format and I had many problems. First one was accentuated characters. I have a lot's of french song with é,è,à,î etc, the could not be wroted as filename on the NAS and it created problems. I swith to a Mac formatted drive on a shared drive through AFP and the problem are gone, and I still have access from any location to my library without changing one thing to my setup and iTunes open the drive itself wherever if I am at home or outside.


Show Lost Files

Since I am on a mac formatted drive and I moved my library from itunes, I never lost a file, and I have over 30K :-) but I do used a lot of AppleScript for many thing, I take them on Doug's Applescript for iTunes

there one called Missing in Action MIA :-)

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=listmias

You have put the script in a newly created Script folder inside the iTunes folder in your library and activated Apple script menu in AppleScript's preference.


Hope it help.

Nov 10, 2012 10:26 AM in response to Franco Borgo

Hi Franco,

thank you for your tips but:


Moving iTunes Library

In that way iTunes will put library files, iPhone apps and other stuffs on the (i.e.) NAS "Music" folder.
I prefer to let iTunes use the local disk for all its stuffs and not to check "Copy files to itunes media folder" and "Keep Media folder organize" options, so all and just audio files stay on the NAS and I organize the library by myslef (folder structure and file names).


NAS

Latest Synology firmwares support EXT4 filesystems and I have no issues with "extended" chars:

-rwxrwxrwx 1 rigido staff 5444958 9 Nov 01:12 09 Lappi (Lapland) - Erämaajärvi.mp3

-rwxrwxrwx 1 rigido staff 3182717 9 Nov 01:10 10 Witchdrums.mp3

-rwxrwxrwx 1 rigido staff 7736409 9 Nov 01:12 11 This Moment Is Eternity.mp3

-rwxrwxrwx 1 rigido staff 6454289 9 Nov 01:12 12 Etiäinen.mp3

I just had to decide the protocol to use for mounting, still not sure AFP is the best one to use.


Show Lost Files

That's a great tip! 😀


Thank you.

Nov 10, 2012 11:14 PM in response to virgil-Lynwood

Worked for me too. Thakns for the tip. I was sweating for a bit since it didn't work for me at first.


I had a "Voice Memos" playlist and I deleted that, rebooted iTunes and no luck. I rebooted my Mac and still nothing.


As it turns out I had duplicates of my voice memos and some with bad links that were not in the Voice Memos playlist that I deleted. I found these by selecting "Voice Memos" under the Genres section in the Column Browser. I deleted all of these files (duplicates and bad links included), rebooted iTunes and voila. It worked like a charm. I don't know how many hours I spent looking for a solution. Thanks for the tip!

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

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