iTunes won't apply album art
 

I've got a problem with one album in iTunes (Alison Krauss - Everytime You Say Goodbye). I keep applying the album art to it, and it won't stick. I've tried selecting all the tracks together and dragging the art to the info box, or I've dragged the artwork to the box at the lower left of iTunes and they won't apply. If tried dragging just a random photo off my hard drive, and that won't stick either. What is going on?

I don't have this happening with any other songs on my drive.

What format is this album in? MP3, AAC, AIF, ALE, etc.?

If you look in /Users/yourusername/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Alison Krauss/Everytime You Say Goodbye/ at the individual files (assuming you have your music in the default location--if not, look at the files at wherever you put them), and you Get Info (command-I) on the files, what does it report under Ownership & Permissions?

Trevor

These files are mp3's and they're actually on a Windows machine. The properties of the files are not read-only, hidden, or protected files. They have the same properties. I've tried deleting them from iTunes, and starting over. None of these songs want to have any album art added, although I can change the title, file name etc.

I just ran into this same problem... one CD won't take art. No clue why, all my thousands of others work great. Any ideas? The artwork tab is GREYED OUT on the get info tabs. So is video.. if that means anything.

For what it's worth, 100% of the time I had this problem it turned out to be what trevor suggested: the file was owned by another user.

R.

I have set the permissions manually with terminal ... no change to the greyed out artwork tab. I can add other tag info, even lyrics... not art.

There is a menu option to update ID3 tags, that might help. Maybe...

Workaround
 

I don't know what the actual problem is, but here's how I worked around it. I had several files that wouldn't accept Artwork. To fix it, I selected the problematic files, ctrl+click'ed (right click for Windows) and selected "Convert Selection to MP3." After that process was done, I removed the old .mp3's and added the blessed iTunes ones and everything stuck. Good Luck w/ yours. :)

Got It!
 

Ok, I had this issue with an mp3 so I converted it to AAC and the issue resolved. So, just convert it to the alternate file type.

hey there,
I'm having the same issue and was hoping someone had a fix. All the tips from above do not work. Here is one interesting fact...when I paste or attach the image into the white space for the album slot under the "get info" tab the pasted album cover actually shows up like as if it has been attached. Only when I exit the "get info" window and got back to the itunes library the album cover disappears.
I am ripping all of my cds to .wav files and most of the album art is retieved by itunes itself. It almost appears that no album art can be attached to any album that itunes does not sell....even if done manually.

Any more ideas??
thanks

I don't think that iTunes is able to embed album art in .wav files (this is what happens when you add artwork via the 'Get Info...' pane. I'm not sure if this is a limitation of iTunes, or the .wav file format. The album art that iTunes downloads automatically is not embedded in the music files.

The other lossless codecs (AIFF and Apple Lossless) do support embedded artwork.

Hey, thanks for responding but i don't think that is the reason.....why I say that is because I have ripped about 16 albums already in .wav files and only 3 won't take the art.......the rest allowed itunes to find it perfectly......weird

What is the format of the art that won't stick? Can't say this is truly important but there has to be a reason and let's eliminate the possibilities ....

I am importing in .wav format. Here is what seems to be happening. If Itunes sells the album on itunes then it attaches the album art when I rip it in wav format. If they do not sell the album then there is no album art and I can't find a way to add it....(no artwork tab for wav files) ......however, if I rip the same cd in one of apples formats then I am able to go to the artwork tab and add the album art. The reason I am using wav is because my receiver will play wav via USB without itunes if I want and also both Windows and Apple play wav files. Any ideas?
Thanks

It is the reason. :D

The album art which iTunes is attaching to songs sold on iTunes is downloaded automatically and not embedded in the file itself. Album art obtained automatically is stored separately in your iTunes' music folder (in a sub-folder called 'Downloaded Artwork' if I remember correctly).

Try throwing AIFF files at your receiver - it might understand those too. And everyone's favourite Microsoft product should as well. :p

Got it...thanks. I appreciate your help. I think my issue was I was tying to find a file format that both itunes, apple tv, my pioneer receiver and windows media player would all play in the most lossless format available......wav seemed to be the only format......but with a lot of limitations also...
thanks again,

Here is what I have learned about iTunes artwork using wav files.

1.) You must have the album name and artist name typed exactly as iTunes has it in their database. If they have a spelling error, you must use the error. The artist Pink uses an exclamation point for the "i". Therefore you must use an exclamation point for the "i". If the main artist has a collaborator in the artist field for that song, you will have to remove the collaborator for that song.

2.) if the album is a compilation, you should uncheck it as iTunes will not load the artwork on a compilation album.

3.) If this still does not work, then convert one song from that album into an ACC, Apple lossless or AIFF file. Then go to any album artwork website and see if you can find the artwork for that album there. If so, copy the artwork and paste it into the ACC, Apple lossless or AIFF file. You will not see the artwork for the wav file in the Now Playing section of iTunes. However, if you switch to Cover Flow, the artwork you pasted in will show up for the wav file in Cover Flow.

4.) An alternative to this is to change the album name to something else pertaining to that artist that is in the database. Then in sort album, insert the actual name of the album so when you do a search for that album, you will find it.

Hope this helps.

Artwork Solution
 

I had a similar issue where I could add the artwork and see it on the Info tab but not in the main iTunes screen. It was a compilation album and the problem centered around having another compilation album with the same title in my library. The fix is to add the artist info in the Album Artist field and the correct artwork will appear in the main itunes window.

WAV and Apple Lossless
 

This solves the WAV problem. I successfully downloaded artwork for a couple off Dylan Bootleg Series albums, with horrendously long album names no less! (Damn iTunes for not allowing Cut/Paste of album names from the store.)

Apple Lossless works flawlessly, as it allows embedded artwork as previously noted. I had a Black Sabbath album converted to WAV not in the iTunes store, so no album artwork. :( I then reconverted to m4a (Apple Lossless), and XLD -- the conversion program -- got the album artwork, embedded it, and when I loaded it into iTunes, it was all there. I also had the fully correct artist name and album name fields automatically set as well.

-Pie

You won't be able to change the itunes album artwork if the music file for that song isn't an mp3 :P

Not sure what you are saying here. Apple Lossless (.m4a) works just fine. And Apple Lossless handles high bit-rate files (eg 24/96), which is nice too.

The only drawback is that if you stream, a lot of STBs like the PS3 and (I believe) Popcorn Hour cannot handle M4A. They typically require WAV. So far the only solution for WAV is if the album is in the iTunes store, or you use a program that hijacks the connection to iTunes and allows you to substitute artwork when it's not found.

-Pie