Artist Photos Missing in iTunes 12.5.1

I've noticed a few artist photos are missing since upgrading to 12.5.1. Any ideas on how to fix or refresh? They are mainstream artists, nothing obscure.

Posted on Sep 13, 2016 10:07 AM

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466 replies

Mar 4, 2018 9:07 AM in response to tnorris

Apple has done this on purpose, just like they broke the ability to view lyrics on the phone on purpose. Apple has intentionally broken things like this in iTunes to get you to buy their music subscription. If you purchase the music subscription through apple you will notice that artist thumbnails work, and you can magically view lyrics for music you subscribed to. The reason Apple isn’t fixing this is because they intentionally broke it so you’ll give up on your own music library and buy their subscription plan. Go ahead and call Apple like I did, and I promise you in the support call they will suggest you buy the music subscription plan.

Mar 7, 2018 8:40 AM in response to turingtest2

I must admit haven't looked at this topic for a couple of years.

its sad to see that Apple can be bothered to sort this issue.


I'm due to buy a new computer and phone but looks like they've lost me.


I couldn't really care what their reason is, whether its because we want to upload our own CDs to iTunes, or the file format, the reason is irrelevant. It's the fact that it shows they do not really care about their customers experience at all.


If it is because we have uploaded CDs etc what gives them the right to presume they are not legitimate, they are not the police.


I now run Spotify in my car for this precise reason, so in effect they are just losing revenue through their own, arrogant, stupidity.


People don't need this kind of interference and hassle in their lives, they move on to better things.


So its the end of apple road for me, it may seem trivial to some , but when you have spent years building a music collection, you don't deserve to have it trashed by some faceless company that really doesn't care.


My rant is over


Happy days folks, there is always sunshine somewhere else in the world of music.

Mar 4, 2018 11:39 AM in response to scottmoore_seattle2

Although I would agree that their people are trained to support and sell their products, your suggestions (without proof) are inaccurate. I personally have the Family Apple Music subscription and all these things are broken for me as well. Your speculation is inaccurate. Before making such inflammatory posts you should first research the facts. The facts are is this error has always been inconsistent and no one pattern that people have speculated has been the culprit. I have Apple Music Subscription, over 11,000 i-Tunes purchased songs, and I have these issues on min Macbook Pro, Iphone X and iPad Pro. Furthermore which lyrics and artists photos that display are different on each platform

Jan 11, 2017 10:08 AM in response to tusaoulesapple

Everytime a new iTunes released I am looking all the known bugs to check what they fixed this time. Now the Artist icon is a huge bug with still no answer and except that there are more issues to talk about. If you import every day music and specifically discographies, you might have duplicate artists on artists view. Check screenshot below.


User uploaded file


To fix that you need to rename all songs with Album Arist: Various Artists for example to Various Artists1. Then you'll have 1 only Artists name Various Artists. Now, some of my Various Artists had an Artist icon from one of the artists included in compilations, that is crazy. When I renamed it the icon was gone.


After reading this thread I checked again for icons on Artists view and I find out that I have some duplicate Artists, but the name is exactly, no mistyped spaces on - or anything else.


User uploaded file


I triple checked and I dont have icons only from the Purchased music and from what I see that is a huge bug. Let's hope iTunes 13 is fixed from all these.

Jan 25, 2017 10:57 AM in response to tnorris

Im to having this issue for month now. At least i think i found the logic behind the pattern what artist shows up with a cover:


Some artists have a "custom" page in the itunes store:

User uploaded file


in my collection these will show up with a cover:

User uploaded file


those without an cover:

User uploaded file


just got the default page within the itunes store:

User uploaded file



So i am guessing Apple is just taking their own artist cover from the store if available, otherwise we will get this pretty pink monster 😟

Sometimes the cover in Itunes will match those in the store, in some case not.


Maybe someone can verify this. I aware that this is no soloution, but it explains the behavior of Itunes. btw: im running Win10 and Itunes 12.5.5.5


Greetings

Volker

Jan 27, 2017 6:02 PM in response to Strunki

Seems that this issue is not an issue after all. Apple is taking pictures from the Apple Music artist icon. Here is an example for the band Cilver


This is what it looks like on my Artist view

User uploaded file


and this is where the icon is taken from


User uploaded file


Here is another example with Creed

User uploaded file

User uploaded file


The strange thing is that I cannot find Daft Punk on Apple Music, but even the picture on artist view is there but it's not the same.


User uploaded file

User uploaded file

Any ideas?

Sep 20, 2016 9:56 AM in response to tnorris

I know people like to rant and rave but I honestly think this was an oversight. They are trying to merge commonality with the iPhone and I think they only tested downloaded music and not ripped music. The developers probably don't rip music on their development machines. They need to be more thorough in their testing but I am sure they will fix this if we just take the time to submit Feedback. Use the feedback assistant if you are Beta Tester if not:


The problem only seems to be related to Ripped Music and some rare older artists.


The only way this will get fixed is if enough people report it


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

Apr 21, 2017 10:03 AM in response to tnorris

I have the same problem and have found that there are a number of reasons why no artwork is downloaded.


  1. If the Artist in Apple Store has no Artist Photo - then the mic graphic remains.
  2. if the artist name is not exactly as in the apple store - then the mic graphic remains. So a good example is Pink vs P!nk.
  3. If the Album Name is not exact - then the mic graphic remains. I am not 100% sure but it may also be cap sensitive.
  4. the 'The" issue. Some Artists and Albums in the past have the "the' after the name. in the latest versions of iTunes is expects the "the" to be at the front of the string. for example "The Gap Band" finds the Artist Photo, "Gap Band, The" does not.

By correcting all of the above, I have got most of my Artist Photos back. However, there remain a few exceptions.


If the Artist Information in the Apple Store has a flash graphic rather than a simple photo. The mic graphic remains.
eg. Lady Gaga, Paul Weller, Robert Plant. etc etc as you say major artists!


Like most people, I fail to see why the Apple Store can't have photos for all Artists - or - Default the graphic to the first Album artwork for that Artist?. Amazon and Spotify don't have any problems in this regard!

Jan 8, 2017 1:51 AM in response to Girshon Rutstein

Do they even test these things before releasing to the public? It's crazy!! Unfortunately, most mainstream music apps are taking this approach, Google Music and Amazon Music apps have the exact same issue. If this is the approach they are taking there should at least be a setting to ask wether we actually want the artist artwork pulling from there servers/database. Personally, I would rather just have the album artwork as it has been for years. I actually really like the music app, but I won't use it until this gets resolved, which looks unlikely. So, in the meantime I've been using "Cesium Music Player" which doesn't have any ugly microphone images.


Hopefully Apple read these posts and do listen to there customers and get this resolved in future updates.

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Artist Photos Missing in iTunes 12.5.1

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