iTunes Artwork not appearing on iPod/iPhone
Users have been reporting that their album artwork corresponding to their music in iTunes is not showing up on their iPhones and iPods. In most cases iTunes is displaying the artwork correctly, but when the users' devices are synced, the artwork does not
Apple Support Discussions user imranus describes:
"I am using an iPhone with 2.2 software. My MP3s have album art pasted in the artwork space iTunes provides or found by iTunes itself or iTunes store artwork. When I sync my songs to the iPhone, not a single one of them shows up with artwork!!! I have no idea why. Even when I click the music tab in iTunes to show what's stored in my phone, the info shows that the artwork is present. So why doesn't it show up on the phone?"MacRumors forum user downingp has similar issues:
"The weird problem I am having is some of the album artwork, from the artists whose name I changed, is not showing up on my iPod and iPhone. All the artwork shows up on iTunes without a problem, but there are a few albums that don't show up on my iPod and iPhone. I have tried retagging the albums with the artwork again, but it just won't transfer over.Possible fixes
When I look at where the files are stored on my external hard drive, it seems like it is always the first song that doesn't show the artwork like the other songs do."
Use iTunes' built-in ability to fetch album artwork for your current iTunes Library. Select the songs you are missing artwork for. In the iTunes menu bar, click "Advanced," then "Get Album Artwork." Once iTunes has retrieved the artwork, sync your iPhone or iPod as usual.
You can also use third-party programs such as Cover Scout to help you find album artwork for your iTunes music.
MacRumors forum user nomad01 tried the above without it resolving the issue, but came up with a solution that did work:
"However, unticking the 'show album artwork on my iPod' box, syncing the iPod to remove all album artwork (quicker than it sounds), and then ticking this box and updating the iPod again seems to have fixed it."Several other users confirm nomad01's suggestion as working for them. Should that not work for you, other solutions are available but may require more user legwork.
MacRumors forum user PDX NTV relays a solution:
"I found that affected albums were ones where I had pasted artwork into a track or two, but not every track of an album. So I tried copying artwork from Get Info of a track that had it, selected all tracks of that album, and pasted the art into that Get Info's artwork space. When I synced, the artwork transferred to my iPod. Whew!If you are experiencing this issue on an iPhone:
This is a slightly painful process, but I learned my lesson that from here on out, paste the artwork at the album level, not in an individual track to let iTunes populate the entire album with the art--because it doesn't."
1.Try resetting the device by holding the sleep button and the home button at the same time until the screen goes blank and the Apple logo appears.
2. Uncheck any music you have synced to your iPhone and press the Sync button. This will erase all the music you have on your iPhone. Next, check the music you would like to sync and apply the changes.
3. Restore your iPhone from your backup.
4. Restore your iPhone as a new phone. Note: this will erase text messages, settings, and other data.
Resources
Read this MacRumors user forum describing issues with iTunes artwork not syncing.
Read another MacRumors user forum describing issues with iTunes artwork not syncing.
Read this Apple Support Discussions thread regarding issues with iTunes artwork not syncing.
Informative article from RedEye on how to add artwork to your iTunes content.
Experiencing problems? Have feedback? Let us know!
Resources