iTunes 12 can't delete artwork

It's also now impossible to delete one piece of artwork EASILY, when there are two pieces. Again, this was simple before. I keep both cover and label in artwork, but now if I want to change anything I have to cut the artwork I want to retain, then delete the unwanted artwork (as deleting highlighted artwork now deletes everything, unlike before), paste back the cut artwork and then paste in the new artwork, before dragging into the desired order. It's also much more time-consuming clicking to move through the input fields. All of this was simple before. Why change it?

To delete artwork, left click on the image and drag it to your desktop.

The image will still be in the iTunes Info Box but it is now highlighted in blue.

Click on the word 'Artwork' in the header tab.

Then press the backspace key.

To add art work, having selected the 'Artwork' tab, simply left click on the new image and drag it into the iTunes Info Box

if the image is from the web. Otherwise use the 'Add Artwork' option and select the image from

your computer.

Pain in the you know what, but it at least works.

Yeah, artwork management in 12 seems really messed-up.

I can delete and paste artwork, but I can't copy it. How do I copy artwork from one track to another? I'm sure this was possible pre-12.

Also, why can't I right-click and copy/delete/paste? Mostly I'm using the mouse only, then I have to keep reaching over and use the keyboard to do ctrl-v or backspace to paste or delete. I might be wrong, but I thought I remembered being able to right-click in previous versions?

Also why can't I manipulate art by selecting the little thumbnail in the top left of the get-info screen? Instead I have to keep clicking on the 'artwork' tab before I can do anything with the artwork. Plus there's no real feed-back to make it clear this window is active.

In every artwork-related way 12 seems inferior to previous versions of iTunes.

The iTunes 12 Get Info dialog lacks right-click context menus (at least for now) but it still accepts most standard keyboard shortcuts and drag & drop actions.

Delete Artwork

On the artwork tab of Get Into, tap the image in question, use Backspace or Ctrl+X. Delete doesn't work.

Or, tap the image at the top left of Get Info, this time use Backspace or Delete, it is Ctrl+X that doesn't work.

Add Artwork

Select artwork, press Ctrl+C to copy, tap the center of the Artwork tab, press Ctrl+V to paste.

Or, select artwork, press Ctrl+C to copy, tap the small image area at the top left, press Ctrl+V to paste.

Or, you can drag & drop to, or sometimes from, the same locations.

You can also copy artwork from the Get Info dialog to Windows Explorer with the keyboard shortcuts.

If the source image is on a web page right-click and use Copy Image rather than copy. (With Chrome I get a one pixel wraparound so tend to go for a temporary local copy anyway - not sure whose bug this is, but it isn't new.)

If you have multiple images embedded drag the one you want to be the primary artwork to the leftmost position.

Replace/Remove All Artwork

The top left image box can be used to add or delete art from multiple tracks. In either case all existing artwork in all tracks is replaced/removed.

Old Style Get Info Dialog

Select some items, right-click, hold down shift, then click Get Info from the context menu. (Use alt/option on a Mac)

tt2

Thanks, but...

(a) I want the right-click back, as it makes my arm ache to constantly have to switch back to the keyboard just to paste art! What was the point of removing it (the right-click, not my arm)?

(b) I don't see how one can copy art _from_ the get info screen. Ctrl-C doesn't seem to do anything,

(a) I'm just a fellow user. Tell it to iTunes Feedback.

(b) Get info > Artwork tab > Click on image > Press Ctrl+C. The image is now in the copy buffer. It can be pasted to your desktop, or a folder, or into an image editor in the usual way.

tt2

(a) Yeah, I realise that, wasn't sure where to report this stuff - guess will be taking a list of things over to there.

(b) This is another bit of weirdness - just clicking Ctrl-C like that doesn't do anything when I try it. Instead I have to grab the image from the get-info artwork tab and drag and drop it somewhere else (e.g. into a photo-editing program) and _then_ I can copy it. I can't Ctrl-c/Ctrl-v copy it into a photo-editor, but I _can_ drag-and-drop it into one.

So in this case the mouse works but the keyboard doesn't. iTunes clearly isn't a big fan of consistency.

Ctrl+C > Ctrl+V is working here for me with paint.net as the target. 😕

tt2

Strange - it refuses to work at all for me with either paint or paintshop pro. Anyway, can avoid the issue with your tip about holding down shift, thanks.

Okay so here's what I did to delete the artwork from my whole library.

Step 1: Go to Edit>Select all*

Step 2: Right click highlighted portion and click "Get Info", it should open right up to the details tab.

Step 3: Now staying in the details tab, click on the little square at the top left where the artwork is supposed to be (it shows a music note for me), and it'll highlight the edges of the square.

Step 4: Press delete on your keyboard, the square will now go completely gray.

Step 5: Click OK, it will prompt you with this message: Are you sure you want to change the artwork for multiple items?

Step 6: Once you click Yes it'll start going through all the songs that have artwork and delete all the artwork.

*If you're only selecting a specific group of songs, highlight those manually and continue onto Step 2.

I myself was quite confused and tried a lot of the solutions on the page but I was clicking on the wrong image to change it. When you click into 'Get Info' you don't even need to go into the 'Artwork' tab. You can click the image in the top left hand corner and it should become highlighted and you can delete this with the delete or backspace button. Just to reiterate you don't need to click into the 'Artwork' tab as this was confusing me because I was trying to highlight the image in the centre of the 'Get Info' tab and not the image in the top left hand corner of this tab.

Backspace worked; thanks for that. FWIW, why delete doesn't work and backspace does is one of the many things that make Apple products an exercise in futility.

I just found a way to delete artwork from single songs. Please be patient with my directions. Works in Version 12.0.1.26

First right click the song you wish to remove an artwork from and click "Get Info"

Next Click the tab "Artwork" (For this to work you have to have two pictures added for the artwork)

Left click the second artwork and drag it to the left of the current (active) artwork as if you were to reorder them

When you release, the second picture will now become active and be highlighted you can now press delete on your keyboard and it will remove.

Ive notice that this might not work if the song is currently playing. so change the song before. Hope this helps anyone.

Sorry in the last step press backspace not delete

I have found a method to delete the Album Artwork.

1. Select the song.

2. Right Click and Get Info.

3. Select Artwork.

4. Select the small Artwork next to the Song Title at the top, instead of the Artwork under the tab; it will highlight the Artwork.

5. Then just press Del.

Hope it helps.