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      06-14-2016, 01:22 AM   #1
MASHCT
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Missing Album Art

This is definitely a first world problem...

I've noticed that some album art doesn't display for music I've copied from my iTunes library to a USB thumb-drive - even though album art exists & is displayed in iTunes & on my iPod.

I have no idea why this happens, but it's annoying. (#struggleisreal)

My butt-dyno tells me this fix adds at least 21 WHP. That will jump to 28WHP if you use images of carbon fiber for all of your album art work. (It's lighter, you know...)

I have no idea why this fix works, but it does. I didn't even know it would work. I was just trying anything because goddammit, Led Zeppelin album art should freakin' display, right?!?!

This even worked for esoteric stuff for which iTunes didn't have or Gracenote doesn't find album art. It also worked to fix incorrect album art assigned by iTunes.

The fix...

You're gonna be updating the album artwork in iTunes, then replacing the album's folder on your USB drive with the updated iTunes media library folder. Do not use the "Get Album Artwork" function - you'll be using the "Get Info" / "Add Album Artwork" function. (I tried "Get Album Artwork" and it didn't always work.)

You can use the album art image stored in the album's iTunes folder, or use search engine/Wikipedia to find the album image you want to use. (Save it to your computer.)

Open iTunes, album view. Select the album for which you need to update the album art - EVEN IF album arts already exists. Select all of the tracks so they're highlighted. Right-click & select "Get Info".

Select the "Artwork" tab. Click the "Add album artwork" button. If an image is already displayed you will be replacing it with the new file, even if it's the same image. Nav to the folder where the desired album art image is stored & select it. iTunes will update the artwork assigned to each song.

After you update the album art, copy the folder from your iTunes media folder to the USB drive.

Voy-oh-lay - your missing or incorrect album art will now appear on your display with the image you want. You'll immediately notice how much faster your car is, and grin at the realization that this fix is way cheaper than a cold air intake. I don't know if this gets you any points for your Dinan badge, though.

And yes, Virginia, you can use any image you want. Imagine the fun you could have with lookie-loos peering into your car to view your snazzy display.

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      06-14-2016, 12:44 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MASH65 View Post
iTunes


Just use Mp3tag and skip all those steps. With that program you literally just open the files you wish to update, highlight the relevant files and drag 'n drop the appropriate image for the album, update any other metadata that's bugged and save. You don't even have to save the album image to your computer. It's real easy to use and it works with all types of audio files and types of metadata formats.

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      06-14-2016, 05:54 PM   #3
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Thanks for this. I had no idea there even was such a program, I just used iTunes functionality.

But at least it's another option/fix for anyone interested.

Jim

[QUOTE=Beartato;20101715]

Just use Mp3tag and skip all those steps. With that program you literally just open the files you wish to update, highlight the relevant files and drag 'n drop the appropriate image for the album, update any other metadata that's bugged and save. You don't even have to save the album image to your computer. It's real easy to use and it works with all types of audio files and types of metadata formats.
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      06-14-2016, 08:13 PM   #4
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I've figured out that the problem is that MP3s with album art larger than 1000x1000 pixels will not show on the iDrive screen. Also I reckon that it won't show if the album art is stored in a separate file; it needs to be embedded in the MP3's metadata.
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      06-15-2016, 07:10 AM   #5
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I should have posted that, too. I made sure all of the art I added was no bigger than 500x500. They show up perfectly clear & vibrant as the original image.

Good catch!!

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Originally Posted by Gabrola View Post
I've figured out that the problem is that MP3s with album art larger than 1000x1000 pixels will not show on the iDrive screen. Also I reckon that it won't show if the album art is stored in a separate file; it needs to be embedded in the MP3's metadata.
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      06-15-2016, 08:14 AM   #6
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On a similar note, I had a situation where album art would not appear if I left the headunit in Media mode and turned the car off long enough for it to go to sleep but less than about 8 hours. In that situation, no album covers would display until (a) the car was off in excess of ~8 hours or (b) I forced a reboot of the HU.

A recent software update to the car appears to have resolved the issue.
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      06-15-2016, 12:41 PM   #7
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Just wanted to throw this one out there, if you pop in a CD and the album doesn't show any metadata you can click over to the right once and select "Album information" the system will try to find the album info, including album art. It works pretty good, I haven't ran into an issue where it hasn't found the metadata.

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      06-15-2016, 05:28 PM   #8
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I want to say thanks to all the folks posting additional help for everybody. I saw a few posts here & there about missing album art, but not too much on how to fix it.

Hopefully, this thread is helping some other people out there.
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      06-27-2016, 01:44 AM   #9
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Great thread but one question from a newbie

I ran into this myself and was curious on the reason some album art doesn't show up.

How do you overwrite files on the built in hd? When I go to copy the files it states already copied and won't let me update the file to the embedded album art.
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      06-27-2016, 04:04 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael415 View Post
I ran into this myself and was curious on the reason some album art doesn't show up.

How do you overwrite files on the built in hd? When I go to copy the files it states already copied and won't let me update the file to the embedded album art.
I just erase everything and recopy the full set.
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      06-27-2016, 05:54 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zooks527 View Post
I just erase everything and recopy the full set.
I tried this, too, but it didn't always work for me. Was starting to tick me off. I figured out that sometimes, I had to re-add the artwork to get it to appear & stay there.

#struggleisreal
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      06-29-2016, 11:14 PM   #12
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After some testing I found that the album art should not extend beyond 1000 pixels in any direction. So the largest size accepted by the system is 1000x1000.
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      06-30-2016, 07:09 PM   #13
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Good to know about the 1k limit. I did notice it will play FLAC files, not that the HK system does them much justice.
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      12-20-2018, 08:37 AM   #14
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So I found something weird. I added some more music to my collection. Instead of dumping just the new songs in the iPod I erased everything and dumped the entire collection again. Side effects include missing album art in the car's display. Whaaaaa?

Before, ALL album art would display. Now, some artwork displays but most do not. Here's the stranger thing - it's not due to album art file inconsistencies. See below:

Artwork that IS displayed in-car
500 x 500 @ 96 DPI
1000 x 1000 @ 72 DPI
1000 x 1000 @ 96 DPI
1000 x 1000 @ 100 DPI

Artwork that IS NOT displayed in-car
736 x 736 @ 96 DPI
800 x 800 @ 300 DPI
900 x 900 @ 96 DPI
1000 x 1000 @ 300 DPI
1500 x 1500 @ 96 DPI

All artwork has been embedded in their respective files and have a 24-bit color depth. There seems to be no specific configuration that works or doesn't work for the car's display. If 1000 pixels squared at 96 DPI graphics works, there should be no reason 900 pixels squared @ 96 DPI graphics doesn't work.

But maybe I need fresh eyes on this.
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      05-28-2019, 06:09 PM   #15
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No Album Art

When using bluetooth and my Samsung S7 Edge in my 4Runner, all of the album art is displayed. When using bluetooth and same phone in my '14 m235i, no album cover is displayed. I cycled through about 20 songs, none displayed in the m235i, all displayed in the 4Runner.

What do you all think is the issue? I doubt it is a matter of size because some of the 20 I just randomly selected are probably not too big.

How do I view the size metatags for the songs on my phone?

Could it be something else?
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      05-31-2019, 11:27 AM   #16
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Album art over bluetooth for Android phones does not work with BMW's iDrive system. Period. Nothing you can do on iDrive 4 (which is what you likely have).
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      04-23-2023, 06:09 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike240i View Post
So I found something weird. I added some more music to my collection. Instead of dumping just the new songs in the iPod I erased everything and dumped the entire collection again. Side effects include missing album art in the car's display. Whaaaaa?

Before, ALL album art would display. Now, some artwork displays but most do not. Here's the stranger thing - it's not due to album art file inconsistencies. See below:

Artwork that IS displayed in-car
500 x 500 @ 96 DPI
1000 x 1000 @ 72 DPI
1000 x 1000 @ 96 DPI
1000 x 1000 @ 100 DPI

Artwork that IS NOT displayed in-car
736 x 736 @ 96 DPI
800 x 800 @ 300 DPI
900 x 900 @ 96 DPI
1000 x 1000 @ 300 DPI
1500 x 1500 @ 96 DPI

All artwork has been embedded in their respective files and have a 24-bit color depth. There seems to be no specific configuration that works or doesn't work for the car's display. If 1000 pixels squared at 96 DPI graphics works, there should be no reason 900 pixels squared @ 96 DPI graphics doesn't work.

But maybe I need fresh eyes on this.
Sorry for waking up an old topic, but perhaps somebody will find this useful. Big thanks to @Mike240i who has cracked the code!

This was the single most useful comment on the entire internet. After a bit of tinkering, I can confirm that embedded album art in FLAC files will definitely show as long as the picture used is .jpg or .png 500x500 at 96 dpi. 100% success rate so far. I seriously don't understand how can DPI affect the handling of the file by the NBT system, but it does somehow.

Also confirming that if the album art is put in the same folder as audio files and named "folder.jpg", it will show in the player. (haven't tried with .png files, but there is strong chance they would work as well, since they do when embedded in FLAC files).

For anyone who'd be wondering (like I did) why does your BMW sometimes show a different album art image than what you've embedded in the file, it's because it loads the cover image from Gracenote database that's pre-loaded in the NBT system - hence it won't show album art for music that's newer than the currently installed version of the database. Speaking of which, if anyone has the up-to-date Gracenote files for NBT (Europe) and is willing to provide them, please hit me up. Looks like my DB hasn't been updated since the car left the factory in late 2013.

Cheers!
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