Cover Flow does alpha channels -- almost!

Just for fun, inspired by the semi-transparent musical note default cover art, I tried adding some artwork (PICT with alpha channel) for some albums. It works! For example (one I think most people would recognize, even if it dates me somewhat): Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon cover. I knocked out all the black in Photoshop with an alpha channel, saved and added the pict.
Now when you scroll through, you see only the prism and light beams floating in mid-air; when it's the next or previous album, you see "through" it to the one below it; when it's the current album, it's against black anyway, so it looks correct.
But... disappointingly, I closed iTunes and reopened it, and drat! The alpha channel is not reloaded! It is in fact still there, which I proved by opening the album, info dialog, select artwork, past into Preview (New from Clipboard) and there it is. (For some reason, I could not get it directly back into Photoshop with the alpha channel, but by saving from Preview, it can then be reloaded.)
So, we're left with a tantalizing future feature for Cover Flow! Round, or other arbitrary shapes. Maybe 3-D objects somewhere down the line?
Dual 2Ghz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Using the sort field to try to force things together doesn't quite work, and certainly not when the album artist has more than one album with guests. I think you'll also find there are some enumeration issues in the album menu which may cause the wrong cover to be displayed as you progress through the library. See my recent post on Grouping Tracks Into Albums for a somewhat long, but hopefully comprehensive, exposition of the issues.
tt2

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My cover flow does not work on my 3rd gen 64 gb ipod touch

My cover flow does not work on my 3rd gen 64 gb ipod touch and neither does shake to shuffle.

Try:
- Reset the iOS device. Nothing will be lost
Reset iOS device: Hold down the On/Off button and the Home button at the same time for at
least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.
- Unsync all music and resync
- Reset all settings
Go to Settings > General > Reset and tap Reset All Settings.
All your preferences and settings are reset. Information (such as contacts and calendars) and media (such as songs and videos) aren’t affected.
- Restore from backup. See:
iOS: How to back up
- Restore to factory settings/new iOS device.
If still problem, make an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store since it appears you have a hardware problem.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar

Cover Flow does not update in full-screen mode

Following an upgrade to iTunes 10.5 (141) and Lion (10.7.2) - I've noticed that Cover Flow no longer updates to the current song in full-screen mode. It will return to, and remain frozen at the first song of the playlist until manually updated or I revert to non-full-screen mode.

I assume you are using a desktop shortcut to start Lightroom. Look at the properties for that shortcut. There should be an option to set it to "maximize".

Cover Flow does not show song title or scroll bar

Cover Flow only shows a distorted "box" instead of the song info and the scroll bar. Why is this?
VPR Matrix Windows XP

me too
I went to show off to a neighbor how cool it is and it was broken
no scroll bar ?
I re-installed 7.2 with no resolve

Inconsistent selection behavior when deleting files in Cover Flow

I love browsing through my pictures folder using Cover Flow. However, I've noticed that deleting a file by pressing Cmd-Delete produces inconsistent selection results. Sometimes Finder will select the next file down the list, and sometimes it will select no file at all. However, the Cover Flow portion of the window will always show the next file.
It is misleading when Cover Flow shows the next file, but the file selection pane shows no file selected. I often hit the down-arrow (or right-arrow) key, expecting to skip to the next file, but the first file in the folder gets selected, Cover Flow re-winds its view, and I have to re-find my last position.
There is also no way to select the current file by clicking on the Cover Flow preview currently showing. I have to click some other file and re-browse to the current file in order to sync up the two panes.
Is this a bug? Does Apple know about it?

As mentioned, cover flow does not change the basic Finder operation. Return allows editing the name and Cmd-O or Cmd-downarrow opens the item. It also functions similar to the list view, when you open a folder, the subfolders are added to the cover flow; they do not replace the cover flow icons.

Cover Flow DISABLED

OK after reading through these forums I'm starting to wonder if this is a blessing in disguise, but my cover flow does not engage EVER, no mater what I do. Any ideas? I can play the marble game just fine, and the shake to shuffle works fine, but turning the ipod sideways 90 degrees either direction does not engage cover flow. I cycled the power of the ipod (holding the play/pause button) I reset the ipod (turn the hold button on then off, hold the menu and center button keys till you see the apple logo) and I have restored the ipod as well (using itunes, hit the restore completely wiped ipod) put 2 albums back on and still no cover flow. I also do not get any rotation when watching video or podcasts. Has anyone found a way yet to turn cover flow off, cause maybe then I can turn it on, without trying to return this darn thing.....

ejkeebler wrote:
OK after reading through these forums I'm starting to wonder if this is a blessing in disguise, but my cover flow does not engage EVER, no mater what I do. Any ideas? I can play the marble game just fine, and the shake to shuffle works fine, but turning the ipod sideways 90 degrees either direction does not engage cover flow. I cycled the power of the ipod (holding the play/pause button) I reset the ipod (turn the hold button on then off, hold the menu and center button keys till you see the apple logo) and I have restored the ipod as well (using itunes, hit the restore completely wiped ipod) put 2 albums back on and still no cover flow. I also do not get any rotation when watching video or podcasts. Has anyone found a way yet to turn cover flow off, cause maybe then I can turn it on, without trying to return this darn thing.....
Wanna trade iPods?

Cover Flow Disappearing Act

I am using iTunes 10 for OSX 10.6.4. I have experiencing this since using some version of iTunes 9, I can't remember when it started. Cover Flow does not show up when I am in the main window of iTunes and viewing all music. If I switch to cover flow view, the song list simply starts to occupy the upper control bar (I wish I could post a screen cap, but thanks to Apple's posting board, that isn't possible). Its quite strange. The list is simply extended upward to the top of the window, obscuring any other controls above, though it is separated by a thicker line between where you would expect the list to begin. What's truly strange is that if I am not in the "all music" view and I am looking at a playlist, cover flow works fine. Its only in all music where it goes wrong.
What I am asking the experts who are reading this is whether I can just delete a Library settings file to reset all of iTunes view settings to fix this? I am desperate to fix this as seeing this list "upwardness" is frustrating me to no end. If anyone needs to actually have a picture of what I'm talking about I can e-mail it to you or whatever.
Thanks to all who take a look.

HI John,
Keep in mind you only need to repair permissions after any software updates or upgrades.
As for cover flow, try Safari Maintenance
Carolyn

Cover flow pixelation...probably a stupid question...

I recently bought a Nikon D90. The images are pristine, but I like to correct the color of every picture I shoot using Photoshop CS4, save the file, and then import the corrected image into Aperture.
My problem is that when I correct the color using AutoLevels in Photoshop, save the file, and then view the image in cover flow, the preview is smaller and very pixelated. I'm able to open the photo in Preview, but the cover flow preview's quality is horrible. This was never a problem with image files from any of my previous cameras.
I've tried to see the differences between the specs on the two files, but can't see any. I'd like to understand why this is before I start making changes to all of the files I shoot with the new camera. My hope is that I won't create a bigger problem once the files are in Aperture.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Holy cow! Hard to know where to begin. Let's see:
pete2864 wrote:
My problem is that when I correct the color using AutoLevels in Photoshop
Using Levels to correct the colors is like using a chain saw for brain surgery. Using Auto Levels is like operating that chain saw while wearing heavy boxing gloves.
You should learn how to use Curves or, these days, correct the colors in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw), usually a one click operation as long as you have one neutral area in your image (like a gray card).
Are you shooting raw or JPEGs? ACR can correct JPEGs too.
pete2864 wrote:
…and then view the image in cover flow, the preview is smaller and very pixelated.
I'm not sure what Cover Flow does. Sounds like it—whatever kind of Apple gimmick it is—is using an embedded preview.
What exact versions of Photoshop, the OS and ACR are you using?

Cover flow vs now playing

I've had my iPod touch for about a day now and in general I am impressed with the technology. Like others I use my iPod in the car and have contemplated cover flow landscape mode as the default orientation. However I've noticed that cover flow does not stay in sync with what's playing when the playing song leaves the album displayed onthe flow. Just tip it up and back to landscape and its play until the next album. You can guess how quickly it gets out of sync when it I'd on song shuffle.
Anyone else? Perhaps apple can fix this in the next code release. Along with loosening their tight controls on what we can do on the device.

I'm with you Mike. I'd love to be able to hit Shuffle Songs, sit my Touch in the little plastic cradle thingy, and have Cover Flow change when the song changes (just like it does in iTunes).
The album art stays in sync in portrait mode but you can't sit the Touch in the plastic cradle in portrait mode because the earphones jack is on the bottom.
I tried sitting it in the dock that came with my 4th Gen iPod and hooking the earphones into the line out jack but found that there was no way of controlling the volume (maybe I need a newer Dock?).
So at the moment I'm listening to Silverchair and looking at Jet. Hmmm.

Will apple release an update for the 7th gen nano to have cover flow?

i got the 7th gen nano for christmas since my old ipod broke in summer, and i love it loads, don't get me wrong, but i do miss cover flow, does anyone have any idea if/how likely it'll be for apple to release an update that could allow cover flow again?

No news yet up to now but i doubt it would be available anytime soon. cheers!

Problems with iTunes Cover Flow and Windows Vista

I just recently upgraded my computer to Windows Vista Home Premium (32-Bit). I preformed a clean install and every program I have tried so far (Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, Age of Empires 3, Halo: Combat Evolved, Microsoft Office XP, etc.) have worked fine, however, iTunes is having some problems (7.4.1.2). First, cover flow does not work right. It can get it to run, but it is super slow. It ran very smoothly on Windows XP, now on Vista it skips every over album cover and is very choppy. It seems like it is running at 3 FPS. Also, none of my videos will play in Quictime or iTunes. The strange thing is I can play the same videos in VLC and GOM and they work great. I just went to nVidia's web site and installed the latest drivers and my games runs fine so I don't think it is a driver issue but I am not sure.
Any advice I would appreciate,
Thanks
Message was edited by: Full-Throttle

Full-Throttle wrote:
I just recently upgraded my computer to Windows Vista Home Premium (32-Bit). I preformed a clean install and every program I have tried so far (Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, Age of Empires 3, Halo: Combat Evolved, Microsoft Office XP, etc.) have worked fine, however, iTunes is having some problems (7.4.1.2). First, cover flow does not work right. It can get it to run, but it is super slow. It ran very smoothly on Windows XP, now on Vista it skips every over album cover and is very choppy. It seems like it is running at 3 FPS. Also, none of my videos will play in Quictime or iTunes. The strange thing is I can play the same videos in VLC and GOM and they work great. I just went to nVidia's web site and installed the latest drivers and my games runs fine so I don't think it is a driver issue but I am not sure.
Well - you're not alone. I've got a very high-end video card (nVidia 8600 GTS OC), and am running Windows Vista Ultimate. Every aspect of 3D acceleration works great with my machine (World of Warcraft, Battlefield 2142, Half Life 2, Counterstrike: Source, etc.), except iTunes/Quicktime. I pretty much have the same issues: videos (all - .mov, .mp4) play absolutely horribly in both applications, and cover flow is slow/choppy at best. I think it's an iTunes/Vista issue that Apple has yet to touch, so I'm just waiting for January (I'll buy my first mac, a macbook pro, then), because for the first time in my life, I'll have an installation of iTunes that functions properly. I love iTunes. Just not on Windows machines. It leaves something to be desired.
Message was edited by: william.garrison

Does the cover flow work with ipad the fist one?

Help, i got a cover flow but i have an Ipad... the thing is it doesn´t work at all, why does it happens??

If you mean the Smart Cover, then no, it doesn't work/fit the first gen iPad, it's designed for use with the new version - the older iPad is slightly larger (height, width, and depth) and it doesn't have the magnets to keep the cover in place

ITunes 7.3.2: ArtWork does not match Images on Cover Flow View and iPod

Hello everyone, this is my first post, thanks in advance for any and all help.
I have loaded most of my music collection onto iTunes, and authorized it to get album artwork. It has only found about 60% of my cover art (I have a lot of international discs, etc.), and of what it does find maybe 60% is correct. So I have spent a lot of time adding artwork by either scanning in cover art or cutting and pasting from the web. I go to "Get Info" and check the artwork tab all the time to make sure that only artwork that is correct or that I have added is attached to each of my song files.
However, I have noticed that there is a significant amount of my song files that, when I use cover flow view, or when I play the songs on my video iPod, the artwork that is on the artwork pane and what appears on the cover flow view don't match. Or the artwork that is in the artwork pane (and the only artwork in the get info artwork section) and what shows up on my iPod, don't match up. It is, for an OCD completist like me, rather annoying.
As an example, I have a lot of compilation albums. I have probably 13 different albums by different artists but which all have the same name of "The Ultimate Collection". There are some tracks for each album where the artwork pane and the cover flow view artwork match, but not all of the tracks.
I selected "group compilations when browsing", but that doesn't help. I selected all the tracks from the same album and clicked yes to whether it is a compilation, and that didn't work.
Does anyone have a simple, QUICK solution for making the artwork I have put in the artwork pane override or force itself on the cover flow view? Horrible phrasing I know, but thank you in advance for your help!

I had the same problem when I updated to 7.3, but I was able to fix it.
As far as I can tell, itunes 7.3 sees all music files (in your user/itunes/music folder) with the extension .mpg as quicktime movies, not mp3's and itunes won't let you add a cover to them. The problem is that songs imported as mp3's by previous versions of iTunes were all given the extension .mpg and not .mp3 (at least on my machine). I was able to fix the problem by simply changing the .mpg to .mp3 for all of my songs. As soon as I did this, the album artwork showed up again.
You have a few options for how you change the extension. You can right click on every file in your itunes library and select "Show In Finder" to change the file extension, or if you have many songs to fix (I had 793) you can download 'A Better Finder Rename' (search for it at www.versiontracker.com, it costs $20 to change more than 10 files at a time) which will make the changes automatically. If you are cheap you can always set up an automator work-flow to get the job done.
Hope this helps

Artworks does not appear in List and Grid view, but in Cover Flow

Since a few days the Artwork does neither appear in the List and the Grid View nor in the Genius Mix. When I change to Cover Flow, I can see all Artwork. I see all Artwork also in the information tabs. I already upgraded to the last iTunes version 9.0.2 but without any effect. Restarting iTunes and my PC doesn't help at as well.
Does anybody have an idea what the problem is and how it can be solved?

Hi, welcome to Apple Discussions.
A completely blank Cover Flow can sometimes be a graphics driver problem but if Grid & List views have problems then it is probably a corrupted artwork cache. With iTunes closed rename the *Album Artwork* folder as *Album Artwork (OLD)*. Start iTunes and slowly scroll through your library in Grid mode. The cache will be rebuilt for all albums where there is embedded art. Albums that only had iTunes Store art will need to have new artwork downloaded. If all goes well delete the old artwork folder.
*How to find tracks without artwork*
To find all the tracks without artwork so that you can update them you can try http://www.stum.de/itunes-find-tracks-without-artwork/ for Windows or http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=trackswithoutartwork for Macs. Use Google, Amazon, Discogs etc. to locate relevant images. Ideally these should be square, 320x320 pixels or above and borderless to give the best results in the various menus.
tt2

Where does Safari save pix it uses for Cover Flow?

I am scrolling through Cover Flow in Safari 4.0 and I wanted to know where it saves the pictures I see in the previews. Is it saved in a Jpeg somewhere that I can access and view or some other format that I can't?
Thanks.

.DS_Store files only track where thing are positioned on your system; they aren't caching anything.
I would have said that too, since as far as I know Finder doesn't keep any thumbnail caches. But the fact is that the first time you open a folder full of images without built-in thumbnails in icon view it takes a noticeable amount of time for Finder to draw them, but in subsequent openings they do indeed seem to appear as quickly as if they did have thumbs. I did a bit of experimenting and deleted the .DS_Store file in such a folder, and Finder did have to redraw the thumbs when I opened the folder later, and recreated the .DS_Store file. However, the file just isn't big enough to be a thumbnail cache. I would guess it does include some sort of instruction to the Finder about thumbs, but doubt it includes any actual thumbnails.
However, in my case this speediness does NOT persist through a restart.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Cover Flow does alpha channels -- almost!

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