iTunes/Apple Music Not Showing Album Artwork? How to Fix (2024)

Whether on your Mac or mobile device, listening to music has long been an essential feature on Apple devices. With the Apple Music subscription service, it’s easier to download and consume more media. But from the cloud to your device, album artwork sometimes goes missing. When this occurs, there are a few tips you can try to get them back.

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• How to Create Custom Music Widgets on Your iPhone and iPad
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• How to Authorize a Computer on iTunes
• How to Play Music on Your Apple Watch
• How to Use the Music App’s Artwork Feature
• Amplify Your Apple Music Experience With These Top Shortcuts

Using iTunes on Mac

In this first step, you’ll learn how to reset album artwork for albums in iTunes.

1. On Mac, open the Music app.
2. UnderLibrary, choose Albums on the left side of the screen.

Get Album Artwork

Start by asking iTunes or the Music app to source the correct album artwork. Press control + your trackpad simultaneously over the place you want to get album artwork for. Then, select Get Album Artwork.

Repeat manually for every album in your collection that is missing artwork. This solution doesn’t always work, especially for singles and incomplete albums that you might have purchased years ago.

You can also selectFile > Library > Get Album Artworkif you’re missing a lot of artwork. This step also plays an important role below.

Start Playing a Song

Album artwork in iTunes or Apple Music often returns after you begin playing a song on an album where there is a problem. Simply tap the play button and everything should hopefully be as it was before.

Rebuild Your Music Library

Sometimes, you may have issues seeing everything in your Apple Music library. This can often occur after a major macOS update, but it is possible to fix the problem.

It’s possible to rebuild your Music library based on a previous version. Here’s how to do it:

1. Close the Music app and go to Finder.
2. Search for “Previous Libraries” in the search bar and click on the folder when it appears.
3. Double-click on one of your old music libraries. Wait a few seconds and the Music app should reopen with the content that was in this library.

Manually Add the Artwork

It’s also possible to manually add your album artwork from the web. Here’s how to do that:

1. Search for the album online and download the appropriate artwork to your computer.
2. In Apple Music, go to the album and tap control + trackpad on your keyboard.
3. Select Get Info.
4. Choose Album.
5. Click Add Artwork.
6. Import the artwork you downloaded from Google.

The artwork added will eventually make its way across all of your iCloud-enabled devices.

Regardless of the solution you choose, give it time. Each of the options mentioned above sometimes takes a few minutes to complete. You may also want to reboot your computer after trying any of the solutions; sometimes that little step does the trick.

If you notice that the Add Artwork button is gray, it’s likely because the Music app can’t locate your song file. In these instances, you’ll often see a pop-up beforehand.

Getting Back Album Artwork on Your iPhone

While it’s common to try and retrieve album artwork on a Mac, you can attempt similar things from your iPhone. Here are the steps you should follow to try and solve the issue.

1. Go into the Settings app on your iPhone and tap Music.
2. From there, turn off Sync Library.
3. Tap Turn Off to confirm. This prompt will appear in a pop-up message.

After waiting a few seconds, turn on iCloud Music Library again. Then, go into the Music app and see if the issue has been resolved.

Offload or Delete the Music App

You can also try deleting or offloading the Music app, before redownloading it again from the App Store.

1. Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
2. Look for the Music app. Many users will find it easier to use the search bar.
3. SelectOffload App orDelete App.
4. Confirm your decision when the pop-up window appears.
5. Reinstall the Music app once the deletion process has been completed.

Odds and Ends

There are a few other things you can try to restore album covers in iTunes or Apple Music, including:

Stay Updated

First, be sure you’re using the newest version of macOS and iOS on your devices. On Mac, click on the Apple icon at the top right of your device. From there, select About This Mac. Click on the Software Update button and follow the directions if an update is available to download and install.

To update iOS, tap on the Settings app on your Home screen. Next, select General. From there, tap Software Update and follow the instructions.

Contact Apple

Still having problems? You should contact Apple iTunes support, and hopefully, they can resolve your issue quickly.

As you can see, there are numerous ways to add missing artwork to your iTunes or Apple Music collection. Your best bet is to start on iTunes and trying some of the would-be solutions there first. If none of those solutions work, move onto our iPhone suggestions.

Reader Tips

• Always make your album cover 400 x 400 pixels. No more problems ever. Replace your existing album covers with 400 x400s.
• My iTunes library had all the album covers but they woudn’t download on my phone, so I removed the album from my phone and synchronised my iPhone again… and the album covers were there. 🙂
• Before you try any of this, simply try to turn off any AirPlay Speakers that are connected. (use the Doo Dah beside the volume control at the top). Now try adding artwork, it worked for me.

Struggling to See Your Album Artwork in iTunes or Apple Music? Try These Tips!

While you can listen to music without artwork, let’s be honest — it’s much more engaging if we see the album artwork. You may not see the album artwork on some songs for a multitude of reasons, such as issues with syncing your tracks and needing to download them from the web. Luckily, it’s usually quite easy to solve this issue.

Hopefully, these tips have helped you get your album artwork back on iTunes and Apple Music. If anything worked for you that we haven’t mentioned, feel free to let us know in the comments section.