Dragging & Dropping Album Artwork in iTunes?

Question

Level 1

18 points

Dragging & Dropping Album Artwork in iTunes?

I've been using iTunes for 13 years and never had this issue before (I recently upgraded to iTunes 12.9 and Mac OS Mojave). I can normally drag and drop a jpeg image into the album artwork icon, or add the artwork through the song info properties menu. I just added a standard 320kbps mp3 file to iTunes (with readable and writable permissions), the same as the hundreds of files I had used before. However, when dragging or dropping the jpeg, or adding the artwork image through the "Song Info" properties of the track, I am unable to do so. Anyone have any clue what I'm doing wrong? It's driving me bonkers! Tried restarting iTunes and the Mac but still having same issue. Once again the file is 320kbps mp3 and the permissions seem to be fine.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

MacBook Pro, iOS 12.0.1

Posted on Oct 12, 2018 12:31 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

278,179 points

Oct 12, 2018 1:49 PM in response to Fsquire

Perhaps you should double-check the permissions.

Use Get Info on the main iTunes folder. Click the lock at the bottom right to make changes. Make sure that locked isn't ticked and that your own account has read & write access, then use the gear icon to apply the permissions to enclosed items and confirm.

Repeat with the media folder if it isn't a subfolder of the iTunes folder.

tt2

Reply

Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

278,179 points

Oct 12, 2018 1:32 PM in response to Fsquire

Yes, start by selecting one file and using File > Convert > Convert ID3 Tags... > v2.3 and then see if you can add artwork to that one track. Assuming that works select the rest of the recent import and repeat.

tt2

Reply

Answer 3

Fsquire Author

Level 1

18 points

Oct 12, 2018 2:09 PM in response to turingtest2

So, the only work around I was able to find was that I took the m4a file with the artwork and used an online encoder to convert the file back to 320kbps mp3 which kept its artwork (previously converting the file from m4a to mp3 in itunes lost the artwork) . Opened the converted file back in itunes and WALA!, mp3 320 file with the artwork finally there (incidentally has a v.2.3 id tag). But what a pain in the arse to get to. Hope I don't experience this problem again.

Regardless tt2, thanks for all of your help!

Reply

Answer 4

turingtest2

Level 10

278,179 points

Oct 12, 2018 2:05 PM in response to Fsquire

Select one of the tracks, copy it, paste into the Automatically Add to iTunes folder. Will the new copy that appears in the library take an image?

tt2

Reply

Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

278,179 points

Oct 12, 2018 12:44 PM in response to Fsquire

Look at the file tab of the selected song in iTunes > Get Info (CMD+I). What format is the tag in? See Multiple tags (MP3 files only) for an obscure issue that is just potentially relevant.

tt2

Reply

Answer 6

Fsquire Author

Level 1

18 points

Oct 12, 2018 1:22 PM in response to turingtest2

Interesting you should ask tt2, under properties , it lists "id3 tag" as "v2.4" and "encoded with" as "Lavf56.40.101", two items ("id3 tag" and "encoded with") that are not present in my past mp3 files that permit adding artwork.

Reply

Answer 7

turingtest2

Level 10

278,179 points

Oct 12, 2018 2:12 PM in response to Fsquire

You're welcome. 🙂

You should be able to get iTunes to convert straight from 320k mp3 to 320k mp3 which might reduce the transcoding losses over your current method.

tt2

Reply

Answer 8

Fsquire Author

Level 1

18 points

Oct 12, 2018 1:27 PM in response to turingtest2

So in reading the multiple ID thread, are you saying that itunes may have issues with the fact that its a v2.4 ID tag? Is there any way to convert just the one file to a v2.3 or other without converting my whole library and losing all my tags and prior artwork in the process?

Reply

Answer 9

Fsquire Author

Level 1

18 points

Oct 12, 2018 1:46 PM in response to turingtest2

Just tried converting ID tags to "v2.2", "v2.3", and then "none" and each time tried adding artwork but would not work. Only thing that worked is when I clicked "create AAC version" of the file. That allowed me to drag and drop the artwork, but I don't want a 256kbps aac file with artwork, I want a 320kbps mp3 file with artwork. This is very frustrating.

Reply