Originally Posted by
BatonJokeSnake
Hello all,
I have done a little more research and found that Asset does not serve the original quality 'folder.jpg' when a download/sync is carried out - it serves a tiny 24kb file. At the time I didn't use embedded artwork in my files so my various control points were falling back to this low quality image. This explains why my downloaded/synced artwork looked so awful - it was awfully small and awfully compressed and there was no embed to display instead.
As a workaround, I am now using embedded artwork. Performance is fine although my files are slightly bigger. Even with embedded artwork I can still see a low quality 'folder.jpg' for every album I have synced in my iOS Files app.
Mystery solved.