Album Artwork Folder Question

Hello.
I have iTunes set to have all of my music files on an external harddrive. I also use Backup to backup my iTunes settings to my Dot Mac account. I've noticed that I am routinely running out of space on my backup folder and decided to see what was going on. I discovered the "Album Artwork" folder on my local harddrive and realized that it was over 300 MB in size and that this was the problem.
I have searched through the forum and saw that people recommended using Doug's "Embed Artwork" AppleScript. Before I install the script I just wanted to find out if after running it the files in the "Album Artwork" folder will be deleted or if I will have to delete them manually after running the script.
Thanks.
PowerBook G4/1.67GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

You can use the script from Doug, but if you're tight on space, that won't help in your situation.
Instead of only one picture for an entire album, a picture will be embedded in every track of that album.
Every track with embedded artwork will increase in size, consuming a lot more space in total than a picture stored in the 'Album Artwork' folder.
Once the picture is embedded in all associated files, iTunes should remove the one in the 'Download' folder, but in my experience doesn't always do that.
You might also take a look inside the 'Album Artwork' folder.
The 'Download' folder contains the artwork downloaded from the 'iTunes Store'.
The 'Local' folder contains the pictures which are used for the 'Cover Flow' feature. These are duplicates of other pictures and stored there for quick access. This folder can be much larger in size than the 'Download' folder. and does not need a backup in my opinion.
If you delete the 'Download' folder, iTunes will create a new one on the next run and store pictures in it again when using 'Cover Flow'.
If you try this, you will notice that it behaves rather sluggish the first time (when you have a lot of embedded artwork), because it has to get all pictures from the music files. iTunes then stores a copy in the 'Local' folder for quick access.
M
17' iMac 800 MHz, 768 MB RAM, 200 GB HD, DL burner Mac OS X (10.4.8) iTunes 7.0.2

Similar Messages

Can I merge or combine 2 "album artwork" folders? I have saved music onto an external server from 2 computers but the artwork that I have manually imported remains in the default folder in the music/itunes/album artwork folder on the respective PCs. Thx

Can I merge or combine 2 "album artwork" folders? I have saved music onto an external server from 2 computers but the artwork that I have manually imported remains in the default folder in the music/itunes/"album artwork" folder on their respective PCs.
i.e. artwork uploaded on one PC won't apppear on the other PC because it is saved locally...
I'm confident that i won't beable to just merge the 2 because thy'll have the same folder names.
On the same note: can I have iTunes create these files on the external server/Hard drive also so that either computer can use them at the same time?
(like I have my library- can the other files be saved remotely)
Thx

i'm using iTunes 10 BTW

The unbelieveable size of my album artwork folder...

I have 38,386 songs in my library of music...granted, that's a lot of music. Why, however, is my album artwork folder 11.3GB and have 62,837 files? can anyone help me understand how this folder has grown so large? what have i done? thanks for any and all help.

Annoying isn't it? I think it is down to a weird interaction with the copy buffer. Try saving the file locally and then copying and pasting the resulting file into iTunes. A few more steps but you should find that it is reliable.
tt2

Moving Album Artwork Folder

I keep all of my music on an external hard drive, I have recently have been adding the album artwork to my music. I move the album art folder to my external, but the album art folder keeps reappearing on my computer's internal drive, I want it to only be on my external. Essentially I would like to know if there's a way to relocate the album art folder just like the way you can relocate the iTunes music folder.
Thanks

You can't - it's hard coded into iTunes, as far as I can tell.

Album Artwork message question

I'm in the process of uploading many CDs to iTunes and I selected the "Do not show this message again" button on the Artwork for "Artist - Album" could not be found. I cannot see where to re-enable this. Is this possible?
Thanks in Advance

A number of these messages that can be turned off cannot be turned on again except by deleting your preference files, I assume this is one of them.
Deleting the preference files takes ALL your preferences back to their default values, so watch out if you have set any special preferences.
You don't say which operating system you are using, but assuming it is windows, the following articles about something else contain instructions for removing the preference files:
XP version
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1421
Vista version
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305491
Look under the heading *Remove iTunes Preference files*

ITunes and Album Artwork question on Mac with two users

Hey everyone, I have what I hope is a pretty simple question. Right now, on my iMac, I have 2 user accounts, one for me and one for my wife. I wanted us to be able to share all of our music, so when I was setting up the computer, I put the iTunes Music Library in a /User/Shared/Music directory. Then, inside iTunes, for both users, I pointed to this new library. Everything here works great. When I add a song under 1 user, I just have to go to Add to Library under the other user and the songs are added. Works fine.
My main question is about the album artwork. I recently spent a lot of time under my user account going through and making sure I have all of the album artwork for every song we have in our library. I never thought about checking this on my wife's account, but when I did I realized that all of the stuff I added is not there. Anyway, I did some checking and found out that the album artwork is stored in each users Music directory. I did some reading on the web, and what I did was move my album artwork folder to the /Users/Shared/ directory, then created a symbolic link in my user directory to the shared folder. I did the same in my wife's account. I thought this would do the trick but it hasn't changed anything. Can anyone help me out here? Thanks so much for your time.

The artwork is stored in Music/iTunes/Artwork.
iTunes handles everything in that folder when iTunes adds it to the database.
This info is maintained in the iTunes library file in the iTunes folder.
iTunes will not do anything by copying or pointing to the artwork folder in your folder.
Unless you are both using the same iTunes library file, you will need to get your own artwork.
I put the iTunes Music Library
Do you mean the iTunes music folder?
Here's a way to do what you want.
Move your *iTunes folder* to the shared directory.
Open iTunes holding Option and select *Choose existing library*.
Select the iTunes library file in the Shared directory.
Everything should work fine.
Quit iTunes.
Move the *iTunes music folder* from /User/Shared/Music directory into the *iTunes folder* you moved into the Shared directory.
Start iTunes. Everything should work.
Quit iTunes.
Log into your wife's account.
Start iTunes holding the Option key, select *Choose existing library* and select the *iTunes library file* in the iTunes folder you moved into the Shared directory.
Everything should be there including all artwork.
Each user needs to quit iTunes before the other user can open it.
Shouldn't be a problem since you are using the same computer.

What exactly does the folder "Album Artwork" contain/do?

In the iTunes Library folder is a sub-folder called "Album Artwork". I am wondering what this folder is actually for? Does it save the actual artwork? It only contains itc files, so how would this work? If this is true, why are artworks not embedded in the actual song file?
As you can see , I am confused and would greatly appreciate any input!
Thanks!

3.5Gb??? How big is your library? My entire Album Artwork folder is less than 1% of the size of my iTunes Music folder. If yours is significantly larger then perhaps the artwork folder contains the remnants of multiple libraries. Each of the Download and Cache folders contains a single folder with the same GUID which is connected to my Library. A new library would have a new GUID so presumably a different set of folders. If you have more that one set of folders of this type then delete those which are inactive. Alternatively wipe the entire lot and rebuild it from your embedded art or the store.
"Unembedding" art isn't simple as there is no way to manually link to the download folder. If iTunes doesn't find a match you are limited to embedding art that you paste in and you can't get iTunes to look for store art if the file already has some, so you run the risk of throwing away what you have and having to find it again just to see if iTunes can do it for you.
tt2

Advanced Album Artwork issues

Is it possible to add ADDITIONAL artwork to MULTIPLE files? I see how to add an additional cover etc to a single file, but i cannot seem to get it to work with more than one at once, as it overwrites the previous artwork on all files.
For a single song, this is done by opening the songs info, and clicking the add button (which is slow and requires browsing to the image). If you try to just drag the file into the window, it overwrites whatever image is already in there. Is this supposed to happen? Furthermore, on some songs, regardless of which method i use, and regardless of if i have the previous picture selected or de-selected, it overwrites it. How can i notify apple of this? I found a contact customer service button but all of its subjects are related to other things. Am i doing something wrong?

{quote}Is it possible to add ADDITIONAL artwork to MULTIPLE files?{quote}
Yes. Instead of doing "Get info" on the songs, do this:
1. From the "View" menu, select "Show Artwork"
2. If the text above the artwork window reads "Now Playing", click the text once to change it to "Selected Item"
3. Select all the tracks you want to add artwork to.
4. Drag the picture into the artwork window. This artwork will be added; it won't overwrite existing artwork.
{quote}also, another question that just came up. i realized that artwork automatically downloaded by iTunes from the store is NOT embedded into the song file's tag. Since this is the case, where are the downloaded covers stored on the computer?{quote}
You are correct -- it is not embedded in the tag. I suppose they did this to save space, because typically you only need one copy of the artwork on your hard drive for a whole album.
The artwork is stored in your iTunes Music folder (by default it is My Documents\My Music\iTunes) in the "Album Artwork" folder. However, these are stored in an proprietary format. Some image viewers will open the files, but not all.
You can save the image to a file by simply dragging the artwork from the artwork window to any Windows Explorer window (including the Desktop).
For multiple files, you can use a java program jpegextractor to extract the images
http://schmidt.devlib.org/software/jpeg-extractor.html
Or if you can program, you can use the iTunes COM interface to save the artwork to a file.
EDIT:
If you want to embed the iTMS artwork into the ID3 tag, you can use a program I wrote to do it. Go here:
http://home.comcast.net/~teridon73/itunesscripts/index.html
and click the download button. Extract the ZIP (teridonsitunesscripts.zip) somewhere, and run "teridonsitunesscripts.exe".
In the window that appears, select "itunesinsertartwork" and click "Run Selected Script".
A new cmd prompt window will appear, listing all your playlists. Select the Library playlist by typing "1" (or, if for some reason you only want to do some tracks, choose another playlist) and hit enter. The program will automatically embed iTMS artwork into the ID3 tag.
The forum TOS requires me to say: "I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link" because I have a paypal donation link on my webpage, but the program is free (donation totally optional)
HTH,
Rob
Message was edited by: Robert Jacobson1

Album Artwork : no

everytime i start itunes the 'itunes setup assistant' asks me to download album artwork. i always click cancel, but it keeps asking.
1. is there some way to stop this question?
2. is there some way to get rid of all the artwork i already have?
3. can i just delete the Album Artwork folder in the the itunes folder?
i have looked in preferences, but nothing seems to apply.

Quit iTunes.
Go to C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes and delete iTunes.pref and iTunesPref.xml.
Restart the computer and start iTunes. It should go once thru the setup assistant and that's it.
Quit iTunes and restart it.
Did it pop up?

Sharing album artwork with fast user switching and soft links

We have 4 users, 4 iPods, 4 sets of playlists. Each has their own account. All the music lives on an external drive and each iTunes is set to store its music in the same shared folder. That all works fine.
Now we're getting into album artwork, and I want to share that too. I found a posting somewhere that suggested a soft link from /Users/Me/Music/iTunes/Album Artwork -> /Volumes/BigDrive/iTunes Artwork. I did that with one user and it worked fine - copied Album Artwork folder and set soft link and voila, all the art. I also set all permissions to allow r/w from everyone.
But when I set the soft link from 2nd user, iTunes shows no art. I can browse all the art files fine from that users Finder.
Thanks for any help!
mac mini Mac OS X (10.4.9) iTunes 7.1.1

And just like that I may have found the solution! IT suddenly occured to me that one of the settings that got changed when we imported my wife's profile was a change to the sleep settings. Previously, I had had my iMac set to never go to sleep, since it shares our media with the rest of the house and runs eyeTV to record TV shows and such. For a little while after my wife's account was imported the settings to changes so that the computer would go to sleep after 15 minutes. I'm not totally sure why, but I think having that set up somehow meant that when we switched accounts my other account just "went to sleep" and therefore stopped sharing the iTunes library. After I noticed the change and switched the computer back to "never" for sleep the problem seems to have stopped.
So perhaps check your sleep settings? That seems to be the only change I can think of that got things working correclty for me. I'll keep digging though and see if I can find any more helpful info. Good luck!

Is there a way to get rid of Album Artwork?

I know people like having the album artwork on their iPod, but I actually don't want it on mine at all. There used to be an option to tell iTunes to not load it at all, but now it seems they want me to have it whether I want it or not.
Is there a way to get rid of all the album artwork? The only way I've found has been to go through each individual song and delete the artwork. I'd rather not have to do it one by one if I can help it.
I even tried deleting the album artwork folder and iTunes just recreated it again. It may be something most people want, but I don't.

It's not about the art, actually. It's about the space on the screen. The pic takes up a lot of good 'real estate' and it usually pushes the song, artist album over to where the text runs off the screen. Long song titles scroll but albums don't.
Another plus (of not having the art) is if I click the center button through to see track position, rating, lyrics, etc then it's one less click I have to go through.

Album artwork does not appear in album list or grid

I added album artwork (did get info then copy and paste) and it shows up fine in cover flow but does not appear in album list or grid view.
What am I doing wrong? Artwork files were scanned from album covers that I have.

Your album artwork cache may be corrupt. Provided most, if not all, of your artwork is embedded you can simply delete the Album Artwork folder that you will find inside your main iTunes folder and then scroll slowly through the library in Grid/Albums mode to rebuild it. Any images that were "downloaded" rather than embedded will need to be reacquired.
Threre are separate folders for the downloaded and cached images, but I've always gone for a complete rebuild so I don't know it would work to delete just the cached folder.
tt2

Where is iTunes storing my album artwork?

Running:
OS X 10.9 Mavericks
iTunes 11.1.3
All of my 500+ albums in iTunes have artwork, however my Album Artwork folder on my mac is empty and has no photos.
I've looked in iTunes media and all other files and I can't find it anywhere.
(I want to select it as a folder to share with my Apple TV and use it as a screensaver)
Is there anyway I can trace the file location to find out where iTunes is storing all of my artwork?

westkestrel wrote:
I've looked in Album Artwork and it says there are no photos there. (I even searched in each individual folder within it and it is empty)
If they are stored there, they are encrypted anyway, so you would not be able to use them.
When looking through the idividual song files under itunes I can't find anything that isn't in an audio format. There are no jpegs, png, etc.
They are actually embedded in the song files. To get at it, right-click the track in the library, Get Info, go to the Artwork tab, and you should see it. You can do a Copy from there.

Unable to print album artwork, though it is in iTunes

Hello,
I have iTunes 8.0.2.
I purchased an album from the iTunes store, removing it immediately from the 'Purchased' list for reasons I won't bore you with. I burned a CD and then went to print the artwork, to find that it came up blank in the preview. I checked in the 'Music' list, in artwork display mode, and the album is, indeed, there, with the correct listing and graphics. However, perhaps due to my having disrupted the cohesion of the album in some other way, whilst all others display 'Play album' when hovered over, this one shows up 'Play Selected'.
Can anyone tell me what I've done and how to correct it?
Many thanks,
Alpha

CDs don't contain artwork so you wouldn't find any connected with the files that were burned. When you download music from the iTunes Store a proprietary format artwork file for the tracks you download is placed into the Album Artwork folder inside your iTunes folder. That's why you can see artwork against the original file(s) in iTunes and not against the files on the CD. You should be able to print a CD insert for the album using the tracks in iTunes. Highlight the album tracks and go to Edit>Print>CD Jewel Case Insert, choose the style of insert you want from the Theme menu.

How do I combime 2 Album Artwork folders

Hi,
I have moved my itunes library to my external hard drive but when I add Album Artwork it still goes to my old Album Artwork folder on my computer.
How can I merge the folders so all my Album Artwork is on my external drive and stop if from saving to my computer drive again?
I'm using itunes 11.3.1 on a macbook pro.
Thanks in advance,
milo909.

Deleting tracks that are embedded in the song files is easy. Select a group of files, right-click on them, select Get Info from the contextual menu. On the window that appears, there will be an empty artwork square. Select the checkbox next to it, then click OK.
Newer versions of iTunes also store album artwork outside the individual tracks, in a separate folder. I don't know how to safely remove those.

Album Artwork Folder Question

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