sachnish
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: iTunes sets random track and album artwork when I add files

Hey! I have iTunes 12.3.2 for Macbook Pro and I have a problem with artwork.

 

Whenever I add files to iTunes in new playlists, I end up getting automatically added artwork. Often, iTunes add the first pages of  random PDF files as artwork to tracks which is so weird?!??!! Like, I see it in the tracklist for that playlist, right beside the track title to its left.

 

However, when I actually open 'Get Info' for that song, there's no actual artwork there under the 'Artwork' title! It's confusing because I can see these pdf file pages popping as artwork in the actual playlist but I have no way to remove them (so as to have no artwork for that track) unless I physically add a new photo as artwork for that track under 'Get Info'.

 

What do I do?

 

(P.S. - I tried running an AppleScript to remove artwork for the selected files - didn't work. I further ran another one which would list all tracks with no artwork out of the ones I selected - all these tracks with pdf files as the 'apparent' artwork showed up. It's 4 am and I'm so tired of this ****.)

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), null

Posted on Mar 10, 2016 2:26 PM

by Pmintz25,Solvedanswer
Pmintz25 Pmintz25
Level 4 (1,700 points)
A:

Yeah I see what you're saying. You could take a screen shot or create a completely blank image (maybe an all white image), then select all of the songs that are missing artwork and press Command-I, or right click and press "Get Info."

 

It will warn you about getting info for multiple items, just click Edit Items. Now set all of these to have that blank image you created. At least this way you don't have that default image showing up all of the time. You can select a large group of songs clicking a song, and then hold Shift while clicking another song. This will select all of the songs in between the first the second songs you clicked. If you accidentally select a song you don't want to edit, you can hold Command while you are clicking songs to select/deselect single songs.

 

Lastly, you can click iTunes > Preferences > Store > Share details about your library with Apple. This may help get the correct information from iTunes in the future since Apple is always adding new artists and music to their collection.

 

Best of luck!

Posted on Mar 11, 2016 10:21 AM

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sachnish

Q: iTunes sets random track and album artwork when I add files

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Pmintz25,

    Pmintz25 Pmintz25 Mar 10, 2016 2:31 PM in response to sachnish
    Level 4 (1,700 points)
    Mar 10, 2016 2:31 PM in response to sachnish

    With iTunes open, click File > Library > Get Album Artwork.

     

    Doesn't seem like iTunes is getting the correct information, or any at all.

     

    Check iTunes > Preferences > Store > Check "Automatically download album artwork"

  • by sachnish,

    sachnish sachnish Mar 10, 2016 10:28 PM in response to Pmintz25
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 10, 2016 10:28 PM in response to Pmintz25

    This worked for the files which have the requisite metadata filled in. But I have thousands of files in my library (from questionable sources) that have no 'Album' name filled in. So this didn't entirely solve my problem. Ultimately, this is what parts of my library ended up looking like:

     

    Screen Shot 2016-03-11 at 11.54.05 AM.png

    I really just want a way to get rid of those pdf pseudo-artworks. I'm fine with having none at this point, knowing that it would be a humongous task to accomplish getting art for all tracks. Just those pdf thingies are pretty annoying.

  • by Pmintz25,Solvedanswer

    Pmintz25 Pmintz25 Mar 11, 2016 10:21 AM in response to sachnish
    Level 4 (1,700 points)
    Mar 11, 2016 10:21 AM in response to sachnish

    Yeah I see what you're saying. You could take a screen shot or create a completely blank image (maybe an all white image), then select all of the songs that are missing artwork and press Command-I, or right click and press "Get Info."

     

    It will warn you about getting info for multiple items, just click Edit Items. Now set all of these to have that blank image you created. At least this way you don't have that default image showing up all of the time. You can select a large group of songs clicking a song, and then hold Shift while clicking another song. This will select all of the songs in between the first the second songs you clicked. If you accidentally select a song you don't want to edit, you can hold Command while you are clicking songs to select/deselect single songs.

     

    Lastly, you can click iTunes > Preferences > Store > Share details about your library with Apple. This may help get the correct information from iTunes in the future since Apple is always adding new artists and music to their collection.

     

    Best of luck!

  • by sachnish,

    sachnish sachnish Mar 11, 2016 10:29 AM in response to Pmintz25
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 11, 2016 10:29 AM in response to Pmintz25

    No wait it didn't work. The pdf artworks stayed the same. Only the ones that had no initial artwork changed to the white one I selected.Screen Shot 2016-03-11 at 11.58.23 PM.png

  • by Pmintz25,

    Pmintz25 Pmintz25 Mar 11, 2016 10:36 AM in response to sachnish
    Level 4 (1,700 points)
    Mar 11, 2016 10:36 AM in response to sachnish

    That does not make sense...I have never seen that type of "pdf" image within iTunes.

     

    Are the problem files songs? When you get info on one of these songs, does it show the pdf image or is the artwork blank?

  • by Pmintz25,

    Pmintz25 Pmintz25 Mar 11, 2016 10:48 AM in response to sachnish
    Level 4 (1,700 points)
    Mar 11, 2016 10:48 AM in response to sachnish

    We should try deleting the Album Artwork cache. The only time I've seen odd artwork like this is when iTunes made a mistake while importing.

     

    To delete the cache, first quit iTunes completely by clicking iTunes > Quit iTunes.

     

    Open Finder, then click Go > Go to folder > Copy and paste the text below by triple clicking, then click Go:

     

    ~/Music/iTunes/Album Artwork

     

    Put the Cache folder you see into the trash, then empty the trash. Open iTunes again. Note that it will probably be laggy since iTunes is rebuilding that Cache. Eventually it will be normal again. I hope that helps

     

    If this doesn't help, leave some feedback for iTunes and hopefully this issue will get resolved:

     

    http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

  • by sachnish,

    sachnish sachnish Mar 11, 2016 12:35 PM in response to Pmintz25
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 11, 2016 12:35 PM in response to Pmintz25

    Yes, the problem files are songs. When I get info on them, under artwork, it displays the all white image I chose. Even in Finder, I see the all white image I chose as the Artwork on its icon. But in the playlist, it displays the pdf file beside the song title.

     

    I tried deleting the Album Art cache - I also tried deleting my iTunes library and then adding music back. I get the same results.

  • by Pmintz25,

    Pmintz25 Pmintz25 Mar 11, 2016 1:18 PM in response to sachnish
    Level 4 (1,700 points)
    Mar 11, 2016 1:18 PM in response to sachnish

    Ok. This could be a long shot, but try reindexing Spotlight. If Spotlight is not viewing your files correctly, it could be giving iTunes incorrect file information.

     

    Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes - Apple Support

     

    During Step 4, add your entire hard drive (Macintosh HD), then remove in Step 6

     

    The only other thing I can think of is testing this in a new user account. Create a new Admin user in System Preferences > Users and Groups, then sign into the new user and try adding the problem songs into iTunes and see what happens. Since iTunes libraries are user specific, I'm wondering if your user is causing the problem. We should be able to test this theory by adding the same files to another iTunes library.

     

    Sadly, I am starting to run out of ideas.

  • by Pmintz25,

    Pmintz25 Pmintz25 Mar 11, 2016 1:22 PM in response to sachnish
    Level 4 (1,700 points)
    Mar 11, 2016 1:22 PM in response to sachnish

    If you go to My Music, do the images show normally? Is this issue ONLY while in the Playlists view?

     

    If you don't see art in My Music, click Songs (or Albums, Artists, etc...) in the top right, then click Show Artwork