Cover art of ALAC files not showing up in Mac Finder

[Apple-Fan]

Dear All,

I need help with the following issue:

I am using dbPoweramp CD Ripper to rip my CDs to ALAC, as I am a Mac User. The files are stored on a Synology NAS drive, connected to my Mac. I started this project some days ago and have ripped about 50 CDs with no issues so far, incl. cover art showing up in the finder, as well as in iTunes, Roon and Sonos. My settings in the CD ripper are, that cover art should be embedded in the files and, in addition, also saved as folder.jpg in the specific folder of that album. So far, so good.

Today, out of a sudden, I realised, that in most cases (however, strangely not in all cases) the cover art is not any longer showing up in the mac finder. But the cover art is still there when I open Roon, or iTunes, or Sonos, only in the finder the cover art is missing. This happened really overnight, without changing anything to my settings. When I select one of the files in the finder, and go by right clicking on services - edit tags with DBPoweramp, I can see, that the cover is there and embedded. Same result also when I open perfectTunes. So the cover art seems to be correctly embedded and should be visible in the mac finder, as it worked all the days before.

I would understand, that my mac would have a problem, if I would go for a non-Apple compatible format like FLAC, but I have converted to ALAC exactly for this reason, so I am really confused what I am doing wrong and why it worked correctly over the last couple of days.

Anyone here with an explanation for this strange behaviour and hopefully an idea, how I could solve this problem? Thanks!

[Spoon]

Re: Cover art of ALAC files not showing up in Mac Finder

Try copying some of the files to the local hdd, does the art show?

[Apple-Fan]

Re: Cover art of ALAC files not showing up in Mac Finder

Hi Spoon,

Thanks for your reply.

I copied 2 LPs from the Source (Synology NAS) to the local HDD of my Mac Mini. In order to check any differences in behaviour, I picked one album, where the cover art is currently still visible on the Synology NAS, and one album, where overnight all cover art disappeared on the Synology. After copying to the local hdd, none of the copied files of both albums show the cover art in the mac finder (but still in iTunes, Roon and Sonos). When I make the check with right click and editing tags with dBPoweramp or perfectTunes, the embedded cover art shows up, so it seems to be there. And, as already outlined, as an Apple user, I haven chosen ALAC as my preferred file, so I don't understand, why the mac finder has problems in showing the cover art.
Is this a bug on Apple side, or what is it, that I am doing wrong?

Thank you.

[Spoon]

Re: Cover art of ALAC files not showing up in Mac Finder

It is a bug on Apples side, the files which used to show art which have not been touched do not any longer when copied locally.

[Apple-Fan]

Re: Cover art of ALAC files not showing up in Mac Finder

hmmm, but why did it work, when I started my project a few weeks ago and all 50 albums showed cover art in the finder? Only from one day to the other (without copying them to the local hard drive), I realised this issue. So now, when scrolling through my files in the mac finder (the files are stored on a NAS drive, which is connected to my mac), I have 3 different ways of "cover art" behaviour:
1) albums, where all tracks still show embedded cover art
2) albums, where most tracks show embedded cover art, but a few not (and I have no clue what's the rationale behind)
3) albums, where none of the track shows embedded cover art (but the cover art is definitely embedded)

is this behaviour known to apple? and does it make any difference, when I would use AIFF instead of ALAC?
Secondly, if this problem cannot be solved by myself, then there is no argument for using ALAC instead of FLAC, correct? My main point here was, that when I pick ALAC, I would also see the cover art in the mac finder, so I thought...
Really appreciate further input/help in order to understand this strange behaviour. Are there any other mac users in this forum, who also store their library on a NAS or external drive with same issue with the mac finder?

Thanks again!

[Spoon]

Re: Cover art of ALAC files not showing up in Mac Finder

Apple like Windows will have a database of cover art, the fact of copying a file somewhere else means it is not taken from the database, all ALAC files (try downloading one from the internet) are likely not to show art in finder now, why I only Apple know, perhaps a system update, perhaps find if the cache can be cleared.

[Apple-Fan]

Re: Cover art of ALAC files not showing up in Mac Finder

Thank you.

This means for me, when I continue with my project as I did before, then all is good as long as dbpoweramp and also perfect tunes prove that the cover art is embedded, right?
And, knowing that obviously Apple has here a problem, I would appreciate your advice on the format: would you go for ALAC or FLAC then? I am using Roon and Sonos and both to my knowledge can work with FLAC. Only iTunes would then be my "problem"....

Thank you!

[Dat Ei]

Re: Cover art of ALAC files not showing up in Mac Finder

Only iTunes would then be my "problem"....

No matter, which way you'll go, iTunes will be your problem. SCNR...

I've fiddled with iTunes for many years, cause this was the way Apple wanted me to transport music files on to my iPod. The day I've sold my iPod I've uninstalled iTunes immediately.


Dat Ei

[Apple-Fan]

Re: Cover art of ALAC files not showing up in Mac Finder

I agree! This is why I am already using Roon and Sonos more than iTunes, and I am willing to learn, how to get my music on my iphone, without the need of iTunes. However, this new issue drives me crazy, as I don't understand, why apple's mac finder is not able to show cover art in their own standard ALAC format...?

[garym]

Re: Cover art of ALAC files not showing up in Mac Finder

I agree! This is why I am already using Roon and Sonos more than iTunes, and I am willing to learn, how to get my music on my iphone, without the need of iTunes. However, this new issue drives me crazy, as I don't understand, why apple's mac finder is not able to show cover art in their own standard ALAC format...?

I easily transfer my music, including FLAC files if I want, to my iPhone and iPad using TuneFusion (a dbpa companion product) and running foobar2000 mobile on my iPhone and iPad. iTunes not needed at all.

[Apple-Fan]

Re: Cover art of ALAC files not showing up in Mac Finder

Does TuneFusion work with Apple as well? I have no Windows in my home....

[Spoon]

Re: Cover art of ALAC files not showing up in Mac Finder

Windows only.