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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Posted on Nov 8, 2017 8:45 AM

I may have found a possible solution (well it worked for some of my missing artist photos in iTunes). I noticed that some of the artists with missing photos had an extra space after their name in iTunes.


So if you go into iTunes -

go to 'artists' under 'library' on the main page -

right click on an artist with a missing photo -

click 'artist info' -

look in the 'album artist' field -

see if there's an extra space at the end of their name -

if so, remove it and click 'ok'.


This has worked for me for most of the mainstream artists in my library, so has got rid of a fair number of those ugly microphone images.


Another point I've noticed is that changing the artist name slightly can determine whether iTunes will display a photo or not. For example 'The Bee Gees' in my library had a no photo even after removing the space. As this is a very mainstream artist, I thought to change the name album artist name to 'Bee Gees' and it worked bringing up an artist photo.


Good luck!

466 replies

Sep 28, 2016 8:51 PM in response to ParryDemetriou

Thanks Parry, this is a different issue - what this thread is about, in the main at least, is the disappearance of the Artist art that used to show in iTunes when using 'artist' view. The 'art' has now been replaced (sporadically at least) with a pinkish microphone graphic. Though some mention album art, it doesn't seem to be that most in this thread have experienced a problem with disappearing album art. Thanks though for the tip for those who weren't aware 🙂

Sep 29, 2016 9:16 AM in response to MichaelRT1972

Exactly. This affects my iTunes library on Windows 10 64-bit (iTunes 12.1.5.21). It appears that the auto 'artist picture' integration that Apple is trying to force upon us does not work. It works a little better in the artist view in the iOS 10 Music app, but there are still a lot of holes. Would it be too much trouble to make this an option (Allow Artist Pictures) or something?

Oct 1, 2016 10:10 AM in response to tnorris

Most of my music comes from the iTunes store and a very few artists are shown with a photo instead of this hideous microphone.

Previously, one of the album artwork was used to illustrate this artist view. It was far better!


And I didn't find a way to paste any picture (if you try to, the picture will replace the album artworks, instead of pasting it as the artist photo)

Oct 1, 2016 3:31 PM in response to tnorris

For those of us fed up with Apple's attitude to their customers - which is like it or lump it - and don't want to be told by some spotty geek in San Francisco how to organise their music collection, here are the alternatives:


http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/alternatives-itunes-5-best-free-music-players-mac-o s-x/


http://beebom.com/best-itunes-alternatives/


Also remember that Spotify, which is a much better service than Apple Music, can absorb your itunes library.


Free yourself.

Oct 2, 2016 9:29 AM in response to Girshon Rutstein

The common problem is that the Artist pictures, not the album covers, have disappeared. You should not have a problem with your album covers.


There is a specific control for missing album covers that can be used to refresh missing ones:

Control-click (right-click) on the space where the album cover should be and choose Get Album Artwork. This should fix the problem. If it does not work (it should if you have previously had the artwork but may not for a new CD), check the exact title of the album in the iTunes Store. Select all the album's tracks, then choose Edit->Get Info and check the title there; if it doesn't exactly match the store then update it to do so and try again (you ca always change it back once you've got the artwork).

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Artist Photos Missing in iTunes 12.5.1

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