iTunes Album Artwork

[johannarg]

Hello all, I have searched through the forums but haven't found anything, apoogize if this has been discussed already.

A couple of days ago, a lot of artwork is not showing up on iTunes. Some of them have the artwork if I check Get Info, some don't. I have renamed the Album Artwork folder to OLD, so a new one would be created and hopefully solve the issue, but it hasn't.

My music resides on an external HDD and I use NAS with my MacBook Pro. Because of slowness issues, I followed advice on a thread here, and moved some of the main files (xml, artwork, etc.) to the Mac's SSD. It did somewhat improve playback time. Not sure if this issue had to do with what is now happening.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Partron22]

How long have you been using iTunes? Some of the changes Apple's made over the years have not been album art friendly. There are several threads on what sound to be exactly the sort of trouble you are seeing.

 

[johannarg]

How long have you been using iTunes? Some of the changes Apple's made over the years have not been album art friendly. There are several threads on what sound to be exactly the sort of trouble you are seeing.

Partron, thanks so much for responding! Have been using iTunes since 2009, I have seen this behavior before but never with so many albums and if fixed itself shortly after, not happening this time. I have gone through some of the threads but the suggestions haven't yielded results so far. E.g., playing first track to get all artwork for that album back. Do you have a specific thread or suggestion that you could send over? Thanks again!

 

[Partron22]

Have been using iTunes since 2009, I have seen this behavior before but never with so many albums

So iTunes 8 may have built the iTunes Media folder structure.
This thread: Help! iTunes consolidation describes how I got my artwork stable again after updating to iTunes 9.
What does your media folder look like?
If it's not modern, iTunes 12 may be having trouble finding art inside it.
The solution as described is painful, but for me, it's only had to be done once, an now artwork is stable.

 

[johannarg]

So iTunes 8 may have built the iTunes Media folder structure.
This thread: Help! iTunes consolidation describes how I got my artwork stable again after updating to iTunes 9.
What does your media folder look like?
If it's not modern, iTunes 12 may be having trouble finding art inside it.
The solution as described is painful, but for me, it's only had to be done once, an now artwork is stable.

Thank you! I will definitely go through the thread and follow instructions, will do a complete backup of the iTunes folder first.

This is what the iTunes folder looks like on my external HDD, which is where it is pointing at from the iTunes preferences.

This is what the iTunes folder on my Macbook SSD containing XML, etc. Placed here to gain performance speed, per advice on a thread of this forum. The Album Artwork OLD folder was intended so iTunes would create a new one and hopefully solve the issue, but it did not.

Does anything look wrong before I get on with your suggested thread instructions?

 

[Partron22]

Is that first image your Music folder? "Album Artwork OLD" doesn't belong in there. Also you have two copies of "Album Artwork OLD" which can't be right.

Do not start anything until you are all backed up. The process is a long slog, and you do not want to lose more than you already have.

 

[johannarg]

Is that first image your Music folder? "Album Artwork OLD" doesn't belong in there. Also you have two copies of "Album Artwork OLD" which can't be right.

Do not start anything until you are all backed up. The process is a long slog, and you do not want to lose more than you already have.

Yes it is. After I moved those five files and folders (XML, Artwork etc.) from my external HDD to the Mac's SSD, and changed the iTunes media location back to my external HDD, at some point iTunes changed it to the Music folder on the Mac, so I changed it back. Maybe at some point that Album Artwork folder created itself again, I renamed it to OLD so iTunes would hopefully rebuild and fix the missing artwork but it did not. You think I should delete that one? It should only reside with the XML files, correct? That would be on my SSD. The OLD folder on my SSD I renamed from Album Artwork with the same purpose, to no avail as well. I wonder if any of those renamed folders has what I need to fix this? Seems unlikely from what you tell me you had to do and the fact that renaming and automatic recreation of them hasn't helped. Thanks again for the feedback and patience!

 

[johannarg]

Yes it is. After I moved those five files and folders (XML, Artwork etc.) from my external HDD to the Mac's SSD, and changed the iTunes media location back to my external HDD, at some point iTunes changed it to the Music folder on the Mac, so I changed it back. Maybe at some point that Album Artwork folder created itself again, I renamed it to OLD so iTunes would hopefully rebuild and fix the missing artwork but it did not. You think I should delete that one? It should only reside with the XML files, correct? That would be on my SSD. The OLD folder on my SSD I renamed from Album Artwork with the same purpose, to no avail as well. I wonder if any of those renamed folders has what I need to fix this? Seems unlikely from what you tell me you had to do and the fact that renaming and automatic recreation of them hasn't helped. Thanks again for the feedback and patience!

Partron22, I was about to backup my library in order to do the procedure later, and noticed what could be the issue. On my external HDD where the music resides, some artist folders are directly located under the iTunes folder, those are as a matter of fact the albums with artwork not showing up. The rest of the folders are within the iTunes folder, but on a subfolder called iTunes Music. My iTunes Preferences for media folder are now pointing to iTunes, and it looks they should be pointing to its subfolder iTunes Music? Should I re add the "stray" ones to iTunes by dragging and later deleting them from the iTunes folder, or how would you go about it?

 

[Partron22]

...Should I re add the "stray" ones to iTunes by dragging....

Never been in that situation.
However, if I was, I'd try deleting all the strays from iTunes (they'll get saved in the trash). Making sure the folders directly located under the iTunes folder are either eliminated, or moved elsewhere, then re-add to iTunes and hope for the best.
This is dicey stuff, so be certain you've got backups made before continuing, whichever way you go.

 

[johannarg]

Never been in that situation.
However, if I was, I'd try deleting all the strays from iTunes (they'll get saved in the trash). Making sure the folders directly located under the iTunes folder are either eliminated, or moved elsewhere, then re-add to iTunes and hope for the best.
This is dicey stuff, so be certain you've got backups made before continuing, whichever way you go.

Thanks Partron, I just noticed one more thing. I chose one album with no show artwork and saw one track was on the iTunes folder, the rest under iTunes Music. As soon as I selected Get Info, the song automatically moves to iTunes folder, removed from iTunes Music. I assume that is because of the Preferences media path. So I need to make sure that all music goes to the iTunes Music folder again. I will first do a complete backup as is, then move the stray folders, then open iTunes and change the media location to iTunes Music, where the vast majority of the folders are.

 

[johannarg]

Thanks Partron, I just noticed one more thing. I chose one album with no show artwork and saw one track was on the iTunes folder, the rest under iTunes Music. As soon as I selected Get Info, the song automatically moves to iTunes folder, removed from iTunes Music. I assume that is because of the Preferences media path. So I need to make sure that all music goes to the iTunes Music folder again. I will first do a complete backup as is, then move the stray folders, then open iTunes and change the media location to iTunes Music, where the vast majority of the folders are.

I moved all folders to the iTunes Music folder but it partially solved the issue. Some tracks have the artwork embedded but don't show up on any view except Get Info, some don't even show up there. I have a hunch this started when I moved the iTunes library files to my SSD to gain performance, as suggested on a thread here. Do you think it could be related? I now have several Album Artwork folders which I renamed to OLD in case I needed to use them, but I don't know if replacing the one created today with an old one will help. Maybe I should move all the library files back to the external HDD where they always resided, along with the music files?