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Kim Hill1 Author

Level 2

176 points

iTunes 11: No more album art preview for selected track??? :(

For me, iTunes 11 is much worse than iTunes 10.

You can no longer view album art by selecting a track in list view.

In list view, album art is invisible — the album art square in the lower left-hand corner is gone. So unless the track is playing, you can't see album art. This is terrible news for people who need list view, like DJs. People like me who rely on album art to remember what an album is, can no longer just click around and see the covers. This was a tremendous memory aid, which is now gone.

Now to see album covers, you have to either play the track, or switch to grid or artist list — which show either no tracks, or very few tracks.

Bummer.

Will the new iTunes 11 still work for power users?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Nov 29, 2012 2:11 PM

709 replies

Juhachi

Level 1

0 points

Nov 30, 2012 8:06 PM in response to Kim Hill1

I've been a loyal iTunes user for over 7 years now, but the loss of the album art preview in my playlists (without having to play the songs) is a travesty, plain and simple. I have almost 7,000 songs and I largely rely on album art to navigate some of my more larger playlists which have 10 or more albums and 100+ songs in them. Not to mention that I, shockingly, actually like looking at some of the album covers as the song plays, not just some dinky little square in the left of middle on the top, and the fact that clicking on that dinky square opens up a whole new window separate from the iTunes window itself is even more annoying, since I often have 6 or more programs/windows open at the same time; I don't need any more clutter!

Kim Hill1 Author

Level 2

176 points

Nov 30, 2012 8:15 PM in response to Juhachi

Juhachi, it's a huge loss for many of us.

And it's such a simple feature- no issues of patent encumbrance, or fat code. Just a little window. I'm guessing that there was some concern about the ambiguity of "selected" vs. "now playing," and the possibility that it would thus potentially be out of sync with the thumbnail at top. It's not squeaky clean, UI-concept-wise. But the price we've paid for the excision is far, far, too high. List view and playlist view usability takes a huge hit. And the idea that full-size cover art is gone entirely — unless the track is playing — is just bizarre.

We need an option in preferences.

Nov 30, 2012 8:31 PM in response to Kim Hill1

If they brought that feature back I'd consider itunes 11 a great success. Every mode looks great apart from song view and playlist view - the two most used views!!!

Revealed

Level 1

0 points

Nov 30, 2012 9:12 PM in response to Kim Hill1

This *****!! Apple please bring back the Coverflow Album Artwork that used to be so visible at the top. This is the first time that I've been so truley dissapointed in an Apple upgrade. Thsi Bites!! I sure hope they fix this real soon.

Nov 30, 2012 11:19 PM in response to Kim Hill1

iTunes 11 is a horrible, nonsensical regression... Apple removed - for NO apparent reason - much of the functionality that made the previous version great...

Apple FIX iTunes NOW...

😠😟

Dec 1, 2012 3:06 AM in response to Kim Hill1

yea apple, please put that thing back.. it was the most useful thing

mishas

Level 1

25 points

Dec 1, 2012 8:49 AM in response to Kim Hill1

Adding my voice to wanting album covers back in the corner... for shame

mitchb13

Level 1

0 points

Dec 1, 2012 12:38 PM in response to mishas

I made my own workaround. Basically just double-click the artwork to bring it up in a new window, then position it however you want. It's not like it was in iTunes10, but it's at least something.

-m

seakret

Level 1

4 points

Dec 1, 2012 12:45 PM in response to mitchb13

Not sure how your new window helps since you still can't see a selected track's art. Yes you can create a window for an track that is playing but not for one that is selected. Back to square one.

Seakret

Dec 1, 2012 12:49 PM in response to seakret

The main problem for everyone, including me, is that the list view is the most detailed. It's where you can see the most things about your entries at a glance. And yet there is no album graphic there to help your eye. It's really crippling since we are all used to having the album artwork in that view.

I always used the second icon (Album view?). That separate each album with dividing lines and you could have a cover showing even if there were only a couple of tracks.

The problem for everyone for whom clicking that image at the top is not good enough is that you can only see album art if you start playing a track. It feels so lame to have to actually start a track playing just to see the album cover art for identity purposes.

vidiat

Level 1

0 points

Dec 1, 2012 12:59 PM in response to Kim Hill1

Why did Apple completely kill album art preview in Songs view (list view) in iTunes 11?

In another screw-up, they still allow you to add multiple album art to a single track (right click a single track, select Get Info, select Artwork tab and drag and drop one or more images into window) but have no way to do this with more than one track at a time. If you select 2 or more tracks, the Artwork tab is not available. And there is still no way to access the multiple images you do add except through the very clumsly, non-user friendly method using Get Info...one track at a time!

I thought Apple was supposed to be "user friendly" and about the music!!

Apple...please return album art handling to the way it used to be in version 9...please?

Fabini

Level 1

131 points

Dec 1, 2012 1:02 PM in response to Kim Hill1

It's true, iTunes11 shows cover art differently, but it still displays cover art.

Click on the small album cover and get a bigger rendition.

Mouse over and get access to controls.

What disadvantage is this to previous versions?

Dec 1, 2012 1:08 PM in response to Kim Hill1

AGREE with so many on here!!!!!!!!

The album artwork is HUGE for me. Especially in organizing my music. For now playing, it's not that big a loss for me. But for adding new pictures, this is a MAJOR missing element. Well, adding pictures is easy in the Get Info section of each track, but in attaching MORE THAN ONE picture to each song, having the album artwork icon was PRICELESS!!!

Now it's gone. Why??? Instead of selecting multiple songs, and dragging an image over the artwork icon and copying, I now have to add to each song individually. Nightmare!!!

Kim Hill1 Author

Level 2

176 points

Dec 1, 2012 1:12 PM in response to Fabini

Fabini wrote:

It's true, iTunes11 shows cover art differently, but it still displays cover art.

Click on the small album cover and get a bigger rendition.

Mouse over and get access to controls.

What disadvantage is this to previous versions?

Fabini- I know that. It's amost useless to me- in no way a substitute for the art pane at lower left.

Above all- you can't use it except for the currently playing track. Huge difference. Plus, it's a separate window that will disappear as soon as you click on anything in front of it. You can't use it to see full-size art for anything but the currently playing track. You can't click around to see visuals for which albums a track belongs to.

For heavy-duty list-view and playlist-view users, its omission is a disaster.

Dec 1, 2012 1:13 PM in response to Fabini

You could do this in the previous version.

The problem with the new version is that if you select a track, you don't know if it has the artwork or not. If it's part of an album, the artwork will show up, even if only one track has the image. Additionally you can't just click on the track and then click on the image and see a larger view of the album artwork. Which is nice to do when just sifting through and looking at music.

Also, in adding more than one image to a track, this does NOTHING. Having this view helps not at all!

iTunes 11: No more album art preview for selected track??? :(