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Album art not shown in finder

Embedded album art in audio files is not shown in finder since I upgraded to ML (worked fine in SL).

Other peaple report a solution of the problem with elimination of Voice Memos. But in my case this is not evident because I do not have Voice Memos.


Does somebody know the solution of the problem?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Dec 7, 2012 7:05 AM

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Posted on Mar 25, 2017 8:28 PM

I was having an issue with some thumbnails not showing in finder for random albums that I added to iTunes. I confirmed the artwork was embedded in the file and spent a few days searching the forums, but not finding any easy fixes. Then while in Finder, I stumbled onto a fix that has work for all of my files that wouldn't show thumbnails in Finder.


Go to Finder and while in the folder for the album that's not showing artwork in the thumbnails, select "Show View Options" and adjust the "Icon Size" slider to a larger size. I select the 104 x 104 notch on the slider. The icons refresh and show the artwork as the thumbnail. You can reduce the size of the icons after the artwork appears and finder will continue to show the artwork as the thumbnail, as log as you don't go too small.

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Mar 25, 2017 8:28 PM in response to Litabel

I was having an issue with some thumbnails not showing in finder for random albums that I added to iTunes. I confirmed the artwork was embedded in the file and spent a few days searching the forums, but not finding any easy fixes. Then while in Finder, I stumbled onto a fix that has work for all of my files that wouldn't show thumbnails in Finder.


Go to Finder and while in the folder for the album that's not showing artwork in the thumbnails, select "Show View Options" and adjust the "Icon Size" slider to a larger size. I select the 104 x 104 notch on the slider. The icons refresh and show the artwork as the thumbnail. You can reduce the size of the icons after the artwork appears and finder will continue to show the artwork as the thumbnail, as log as you don't go too small.

Dec 7, 2012 7:37 AM in response to Litabel

First, this is a long lasting and complicated issue. Long lasting, because all versions of iTunes/Finder had this behavior. Complicated, because you have to do a lot of work.


You should be aware that:

1. Adding covers with iTunes to audio files (e.g. MP3) doesn't mean they will embedded into this file. It depends of how you do this.

2. Files which show a cover in iTunes, not necessarily have a cover embedded in the file.

3. You have to crosscheck whether a file really contains a cover. This will not work always with the finder. The finder shows you sometimes a cover and sometimes it does not, especially on shares with foreign file system (e.g. SMB shares).

4. Install a separate application for tagging and crosscheck purposes.


You will be suprised how many files do not have a cover embedded.

Dec 7, 2012 7:55 AM in response to Litabel

If you go to the Music folder in iTunes folder (look in iTunes Preferences Advaced Tab, where to find that folder), and click an Artist Folder and the the Subfolder if the songs are even deeper, and when you see the songs, you see which one has the Art embedded. Some albums have it embedded in all the songs some don't. But if even one song in the album has embedded artwork, the whole album will display this in iTunes. If none has, there will be no artwork in the iTunes on the album. You can add artwork yourself by getinfo on one song of the album and in the Artwork Tab you can add the artwork.

Dec 7, 2012 8:13 AM in response to Lexiepex

Sorry LexSchellings, but you did not understand my problem in detail.


My problem is that FINDER cannot show up the artwork. So, EVERY file in my music folder does not show up album art! And every other application (Player X, Player Y, Player Z, Tagger X etc. ) is showing the album art.


Please beleave: Album art IS embedded in my AIFF-Files!

Dec 7, 2012 9:32 AM in response to Litabel

You could do a test: Open iTunes and look at the meta data of an album or a single file. Drag the cover from the meta data dialog to desktop, iTunes file generate a file on desktop. After that, delete the cover in this album/file and click OK, so that iTunes will write to the file. Open the meta data dialog for that file again and drag the cover from the desktop back to the cover field and click ok. iTunes should write again to the file. Now check in Finder whether the file will indicated with cover art. If not change the size of the file icons with the little slider on the bottom of Finders windows.

Dec 16, 2012 7:50 AM in response to Litabel

I have a part of a solution:

(But it's only for people who know how to handle iTunes libraries!!!)

Open a new user account.

Make a new iTunes library called 'itunes' nothing else.

Import some files with embedded album art.

Drag such a file back to desktop and you should see the icon of album art. Everything is like it should be.


Now copy this itunes library to your user account of origin.

Rename your old iTunes library different from 'itunes' e.g. 'itunesorigin'

Open iTunes and point it to the imported library 'itunes'

Drag one file of itunes to desktop, now miraculosly all audiofiles in all of your itunes libraries should show up album art IN FINDER and preview and quicklook. It is like that in my case!


Unfortunately this is not stable. As soon as I open my old library 'itunesorigin' the problem starts up again. All files who were opened in a finder window or dragged to desktop have lost the icon of album art. I can fixit by openimg the new library 'itunes' but again it will not be stable. 😠


I hope one of you geniuses may know more with this information?

Mar 21, 2013 5:00 AM in response to Litabel

After hours struggling with this issue I finally found a solution (my setup is iTunes 10.7, OSX 10.8.3):

(But my workaround is only for people who know how to handle iTunes libraries!!! And backup first!!)


Open a new user account on your mac.

Generate a new iTunes library called 'itunes', no other name!

Import some files with embedded album art.

Drag such a file back to desktop and you should see the icon of album art.

Everything is like it should be.

Now copy this new itunes library to your user account of origin.

But first rename your old iTunes library different from 'itunes' e.g. 'itunesorigin'

Open the new iTunes and drag one file to desktop, now miraculosly all audiofiles in all of your itunes libraries should show up album art IN FINDER including preview and quicklook.

But this state is not stable. As soon as you open the old 'itunesorigin' the problem starts up again.


So, the next steps are:

Open the new iTunes and in preferences select the media folder of 'itunesorigin'. OK, say no to 'collate data'. Close iTunes.

Now copy and replace from 'itunesorigin' to the new iTunes the following files:

iTunes Library Extras.itdb

iTunes Library Genius.itdb

iTunes Library.itl

iTunes Library.xml

Open the new iTunes and it should look like the old 'iTunesorigin' with all your playlists etc..

Close again.

Move the media folder from 'iTunesorigin to the new iTunes folder (replace).

Open new iTunes and select in preferences the new location of the media folder.

Now you should have the file iTunes Music Library.xml instead of iTunes Library.xml.

(iTunes Music Library.xml is the default if you have multiple libraries)


Done! For me its stable and I am happy. Your iTunes folder should look like this picture:

User uploaded file

Album art not shown in finder

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