iTunes freezes when adding movie artwork

tac22 · Apr 17, 2010

I've been ripping my dvd collection and putting it in to itunes. I just yesterday learned how to add the artwork.

But when i hit get info, then drag the picture in and it shows up, when i press the ok button it freezes for like 3 minutes, with beach ball and itunes not responding. Everything else on my system is fast. Just this one thing is slowing down my work.

If anybody has any recommendations. It would be appreciated.

b-rad g · Apr 20, 2011

I know this is old but figured it was better to revive than create a new thread.

I am having this same problem. iTunes runs fine but freezes with beachball for about 3-4 minutes after hitting OK when adding artwork to movies. My setup is '10 Mini 10.6.7 w/ 8GB RAM and latest iTunes update. My Library is on a 2.5 External HD USB powered.

Can anyone give me some help?

GGJstudios · Apr 21, 2011

It's because iTunes is busy finding and downloading artwork. Just give it time to finish. I prefer manually adding artwork that's higher quality than iTunes downloads, using sites like Album Art Exchange or using Google searches.

b-rad g · Apr 21, 2011

GGJstudios said:
It's because iTunes is busy finding and downloading artwork. Just give it time to finish. I prefer manually adding artwork that's higher quality than iTunes downloads, using sites like Album Art Exchange or using Google searches.

No I'm not telling iTunes to find ALL artwork. I am talking about putting artwork in manually as in "Get Info" and go to Artwork page and Paste it in. I usually use MetaX or Identify 2 but on occasion it won't find a movie cover. So I Google Image search find it and paste it in manually. Then when I hit OK is when I get the spinning beachball for a few minutes.

GGJstudios · Apr 21, 2011

b-rad g said:
No I'm not telling iTunes to find ALL artwork. I am talking about putting artwork in manually as in "Get Info" and go to Artwork page and Paste it in. I usually use MetaX or Identify 2 but on occasion it won't find a movie cover. So I Google Image search find it and paste it in manually. Then when I hit OK is when I get the spinning beachball for a few minutes.

Try repairing permissions.

Jolly Giant · Apr 21, 2011

also check if you have read & write permissions for your music folder. in the finder, right-click on it and get info. unlock the little padlock (you may have to enter your admin password) and change the permission settings. next, click on the little gear-shaped icon and apply to enclosed items like so

20100602-1g71tme88ggi87q5dmma91f4mt.png" alt="Screen shot 2010-06-02 at 6.15.04 PM

the important part is to apply to enclosed items !

b-rad g · Apr 21, 2011

GGJstudios said:
Try repairing permissions.

Jolly Giant said:
also check if you have read & write permissions for your music folder. in the finder, right-click on it and get info. unlock the little padlock (you may have to enter your admin password) and change the permission settings. next, click on the little gear-shaped icon and apply to enclosed items like so

Image

the important part is to apply to enclosed items !

Will do both of these when I get home today. Thanks so much guys for the replies.

Smoothness · Apr 21, 2011

Thanks so much, i knew there was a way to add pictures.

This makes choosing movies on the ipad much more pleasing.

b-rad g · Apr 21, 2011

No dice......Repaired Permissions and made sure I had Read/Write permission of my Music Folder. Went and changed a DVD cover for a movie and spinning beachball for about 3 minutes. Also had Activity Monitor open as I did this and it showed iTunes was Not Responding during the beachballing, but went back to normal after it finally "caught up".

Is there anything else I can try?

Jolly Giant · Apr 22, 2011

try removing iTunes completely (click here and follow the instructions), then reinstall it using the standalone installer from here: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/.

note this will not touch your media files, playlists, ratings, etc.

b-rad g · Apr 22, 2011

Jolly Giant said:
try removing iTunes completely (click here and follow the instructions), then reinstall it using the standalone installer from here: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/.

note this will not touch your media files, playlists, ratings, etc.

Will try this and report back. So this won't remove tags of movies or anything, correct? I should be able to install and hold option on first open and select library?

Jolly Giant · Apr 22, 2011

b-rad g said:
So this won't remove tags of movies or anything, correct?

correct.

this data (and more) is stored in the iTunes library file, which remains unaffected by reinstalling the iTunes application.

What are the iTunes library files ?

I should be able to install and hold option on first open and select library?

no need. you didn't move the library file to another location, right ?

when iTunes launches, it will look for the library file in the default location <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music/iTunes.

b-rad g · Apr 23, 2011

Jolly Giant said:
no need. you didn't move the library file to another location, right ?

when iTunes launches, it will look for the library file in the default location <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music/iTunes.

Well my library is on an external usb drive so it shouldn't remember that right.

Jolly Giant · Apr 23, 2011

b-rad g said:
Well my library is on an external usb drive so it shouldn't remember that right.

again, this data is stored in the library file.

as long as you don't change the setup or location of files/folders, rename the external holding your content, etc, reinstalling the iTunes app will have no impact on anything whatsoever.

b-rad g · Apr 23, 2011

Thanks you very much Jolly Giant!!! A reinstall of iTunes was just the trick. Other than a few General Preferences and holding Option to choose my library on first open everything is back to normal. Maybe even a little faster. Went to movies and put a new cover artwork on one of the movies and hit OK and it was instant!

maxpark3r · May 4, 2012

I've had this problem and I found that just dragging the movie to the desktop, deleting it in iTunes and then re-adding it works to get the artwork back.

red-angelz · May 29, 2012

patience is the key.

quote:
Turns out the solution is very simple patience. Apparently it takes a few MINUTES for the artwork to be added to an .mp4 file. By contrast it only takes a few seconds to add artwork to an .mov file.

http://judismith.wordpress.com/2007/09/09/itunes-crashes-when-i-add-artwork-to-an-imported-video/

it works for me

bruceleeroy · Aug 13, 2013

My Itunes has been running slowly and I want to uninstall and reinstall it but the above link from 2011 is for obvious reasons no longer applicable and I can't seem to find instructions on how to do it. Does anyone have a quick link?

phoenixsan · Aug 13, 2013

Not sure if.....

this can help but I got something like that when adding artwork for 3 GB worth of music.....Albeit in a Windows machine with limited RAM......

SantaRosa2.2 · Aug 13, 2013

I've had the same problem adding the artwork to movies but only when trying to have the artwork to movies on my NAS storage. Worked fine as long as I add the artwork first before transferring them to the wireless network storage.

iTunes freezes when adding movie artwork

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