Level 1

74 points

Artist Artwork is missing in iTunes 12.5

Hey everyone,

First off I am running iTunes 12.5.1 and iOS 10.0.1 on my Macbook Air and iPhone SE respectively.

In previous versions of both iTunes and iOS, iTunes has automatically added Artist artwork to my music collection. No, not Album artwork. Artist artwork.

Above you can see the artist Passenger has a blank artwork, whereas Pete Murray has the artist artwork

Both artists have all of their albums with the correct names and correct artwork, but the only difference between the two is that i have purchased one of Pete Murray's albums. So why has Passenger's disappeared? How can I add it again?

Thank you for all your help,

Grant

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), null

Posted on Sep 13, 2016 5:19 PM

Top-ranking reply

jonny_thunder

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Nov 8, 2017 8:59 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!

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208 replies

Oct 5, 2016 4:00 PM in response to Granto102

You may be right, and I will say I suppose it is their right, although i'm not sure they are in the business of acting as police for the music or media industry at large, or that they ought to be. Transition or not, I agree, options should be provided, along with communication about what is changing in updates. This trend for producers of software to update with vague statements about improvements/bug fixes etc is frustrating indeed - we buy the devices and pay (in the main I suppose) for the software that comes therein, and we should have some right to control the way in which it works to suit OUR needs, not theirs.

Granto102 Author

Level 1

74 points

Oct 5, 2016 4:03 PM in response to MichaelRT1972

EDIT: To MichaelRT1972

As I'm the OP, I've received the emails for both of your posts (The rant you uploaded) Did Apple remove your comment? Because i surely hadn't touched it. I wouldn't have known about it unless for the emails.

If they did delete it, it's showing me they're seeing what we're saying! Also, I think it's quite unfair that they remove your personal opinion. How else would they get genuine feedback if they were to ignore/remove the negative responses?

Grant.

Actually Michael, you can email me at grant.brown.99 @icloud .com (remove spaces of course) And I can keep you updated/discuss it.

Granto102 Author

Level 1

74 points

Oct 5, 2016 4:16 PM in response to MichaelRT1972

I completely agree, I think that Apple need to be much more transparent with their updates and changes. I can understand that some things may pose security threats (such as describing how an update with the app store works for example) but I am struggling to think of how telling us about the artist artwork would pose any security threats. Then again, I'm not a security technician. I'm a motor mechanic.

I think that if Apple were to be more transparent with how their software works and the changes they make, not only would their customers be more informed and more educated on the changes, but also people like ourselves could report issues/bugs/inconveniences such as this much more quickly.

I think this is rapidly turning from a bug to an intentional change, and moreso a marketing technique to convince people to subscribe to premium services.

As always, I could be wrong

Grant.

Oct 5, 2016 4:24 PM in response to Granto102

Couple of things... first, I don't want their cheesy artist pics. A good portion of the time they are wrong. Just let me specify one album cover from my library for the artist artwork.

Secondly, as to the issue of encouraging purchases (either downloads or streaming), I won't pay a red cent for lossy music files. Apple could make a TON of money off me if they would simply offer lossless files for sale. I don't attempt to appreciate fine art in wireframe; I don't listen to lossy compressed music. It really is that simple.

I guess this post will probably be deleted too. I wonder if Apple could remake that original Super Bowl ad ("Think Different") with a straight face today.

Oct 5, 2016 4:29 PM in response to mikefromnewberg

Has anyone tried to go back to the previous iTunes version?

It should be possible to do with TimeMachine.

Granto102 Author

Level 1

74 points

Oct 5, 2016 4:30 PM in response to mikefromnewberg

Seems so far that they're happy enough to keep your post. I find it a bit tasteless that they're filtering what's said.

I don't mind their music files, although i do agree with you on something. If they're going to either take away the artist artworks or get the artwork wrong, they should give us an option of manually setting it. Like what was mentioned earlier, the idea of having an "Add Album Artwork" button and an "Add Artist Artwork" button would work a treat and be very welcome.

Grant.

Oct 5, 2016 4:33 PM in response to Granto102

This is indicative of the mommy complex, this absurd need to control everything.

Sometimes the hand-holding is useful, sometimes it is not. Remember Jony Ive boasting about how many man-hours they spent 'rounding corners' in icons and creating a faint font that almost no-one could read?

I will never forget walking into a TV edit suite years ago and seeing the editors reacting to an update of an editing program that turned out to be a completely new program. No one asked for it, no one was consulted. It was just handed to them fait accompli. And they had to learn how to use the new program on the job, on the air. It was horrible.

This is just the latest example. It might not bother some people but it bothers me. I have a huge library and previously there was never any need to put on my glasses when I wanted to find an artist. Now I do.

At least they 'allow' the forums. I am sure the interns have by-now reported to their managers that at least some people are peeved about the Microphone of Death. Whether they care, or will do something about it, that is another question.

Oct 5, 2016 4:41 PM in response to cfibanez1

Failed!

"“iTunes” can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by OS X."

Aaaarrggghh!!!!

Oct 5, 2016 4:46 PM in response to cfibanez1

Success!

Had to use "Show Package Contents" and could replace the "Contents" folder.

Now I am back to iTunes 12.4.3 and my artist artwork is also back!

Yeah!

Oct 5, 2016 4:54 PM in response to cfibanez1

There is a post here: Re: How do i downgrade from iTunes 12.4 that also details how to get rid of this latest version, i followed these instructions and it worked fine, but dependency of course is a recent backup of your library... i've also learnt you need to turn off ALL the auto update options or it goes off and updates itself in the background (sneaky thing)...

Who knows what the motivation is, to be honest I don't really care at this point, I just want my music to be accessible, simply to use and to be user friendly to use. Is that too much to ask.

Oct 5, 2016 6:10 PM in response to cfibanez1

i "updated" the wife's MacBook Pro when I saw this huge pink microphone art work bug. Needless to save I have avoided "updating" either my MP and MBP. If Apple ever fixes this, then I'll update. If not ill stay where I am as it has ruined usability. I will never pay for this feature nor get sucked into the iCloud scam for that matter

I still have an iPad 4 retina running iOS 6 that I refuse to update and it performs as well as my Air 2 with IOS 9.3. Also still looks a lot cooler like Steve Jobs wanted it to and not like the candy iOS Ivey and cook foolishly made since IOS 7. Oh yes, and to the other forum emailers, Apple regularly deletes negative comments as this is a controlled forum policed by Apple devotees that drink the Koolaid.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Oct 5, 2016 6:12 PM in response to Forgotten Rebel

Are you in contact with Steve? or is that a just a guess?

Oct 5, 2016 6:13 PM in response to Csound1

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Oct 5, 2016 6:15 PM in response to Forgotten Rebel

You tell us how he wanted it like you know him. So, was that just a guess.

Oct 5, 2016 6:21 PM in response to Csound1

One word, skeuomorphic. Look it up and you might learn something about where Jobs wanted Apple to be and where instead Ivey and cook took it. Personally IO7 and beyond looks like a way to colourful candy screen that attracts 12 year old girls but if that's what you want, you got it!

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Artist Artwork is missing in iTunes 12.5