iPhone / iTouch art corruption and mixup NOTREP

[nohitter151]

This bug has already been reported several times:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... &sk=t&sd=a
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... &sk=t&sd=a
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 23#p188847

without any resolution, particularly because no one could determine the exact cause of the problem. I believe I have found that cause.

Using the iPhone for several months I never observed any problems with mixed up/corrupted artwork. During this time I synched only mp3 files to the device.

Recently I enabled auto-conversion with the rule "Incompatible, any, mp3 (vbr : v0)". I have several FLAC files which were to be converted & copied to my iPhone, which I had recently fully cleared (there was no music/videos etc. on the device at all).

Subsequent to this change and sync (to an empty 1st gen iPhone) I observed several artwork mixups and corruption. I believe that this was a direct result of using auto-conversion for the sync process. All of my art is stored in tags for both mp3 and flac files. Here are some screenshots to illustrate the exact problem:

An album (FLAC) in the MM library with correctly tagged art:


That same album with mixed artwork on the iPhone (if you click the thumbnail you can see both tracks are from the same artist and album):


Corruped art on the iPhone:




http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=5562
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EDIT: Well, to be sure I tried this again. Cleared iPhone, resynced with same settings as above, but this time I was sure not to open iTunes at any point during the sync. The art is all fine now, both for albums and in Coverflow.

I think that itunes may have caused the corruption the first time calculating volume leveling or gapless info or something.

[nohitter151]

Okay, so after I experienced this problem, I noticed that some of my art was still missing or mixed up in cover flow as above in the screenshots.

For those of you with this problem, here is how I completely solved it:

First open iTunes. Go to Edit | Preferences, 'Devices' Tab.
Check the option "Disable automatic syncing for iPhones and iPods".
Click OK, close iTunes.

Plug in your iPhone/Touch.
Open MM, go to Tools | Sync Device | Configure device.
Under the "Auto sync list" tab, uncheck all instances of any tracks (including Music, playlists, podcasts, and audiobooks) so that the bottom reads "0 file, 0 B, 0:00"
Hit OK. Go to Tools | Sync Device, and check "Auto-synchronize"
Then, go to Tools | Sync Device | Sync Device. This should remove all materials from your iPhone/Touch.
When that's done, remove the device and close MM.

Now, you need to clear your swap file. The instructions to do this differ by Operating System slightly, but here is how to do it in Windows 7. You should be able to find it following similar steps, or you can Google for exact instructions for your OS.
[Start] right click [Computer] click [Properties]
Click [Advanced System settings] on the left hand side
Click the [Advanced] tab and then click [Settings] under the [Performance] section
Then go to the "Advanced" tab and click the "Change" button
Uncheck "Automatically manage..." then click "No paging file" and hit the "Set" button.
OK out of all these boxes. Restart the computer.
Go back (following the steps above) but this time click "System managed size", the 'Set' button, and recheck "Automatically manage..."
OK out of all the boxes again.

Open MM and resync. Your art should all appear normally now.

[Blickbox]

Sorry, but album art corruption is not caused by conversions etc.
I just set up a new iPhone (2.2.1), then i transfered about 10-15 albums using right click folder --> sendt to --> iPhone. Result: Corrupted artwork. Alle files were completely regular MP3's.

For me Mediamonkey is completely useless for iPhones. I've tried three different devices, with different firmwares - artwork is always corrupted.

[rusty]

Very strange... and I simply cannot reproduce the problem at all, assuming iTunes is configured to not make any changes on the device.

[nohitter151]

Sorry, but album art corruption is not caused by conversions etc.
I just set up a new iPhone (2.2.1), then i transfered about 10-15 albums using right click folder --> sendt to --> iPhone. Result: Corrupted artwork. Alle files were completely regular MP3's.

For me Mediamonkey is completely useless for iPhones. I've tried three different devices, with different firmwares - artwork is always corrupted.

I did not say it was due to conversions. I said it was due to not having the right iTunes options:

I think that itunes may have caused the corruption the first time calculating volume leveling or gapless info or something.
...
First open iTunes. Go to Edit | Preferences, 'Devices' Tab.
Check the option "Disable automatic syncing for iPhones and iPods".
Click OK, close iTunes.

[telliott]

I have been fighting with corrupt artwork too. It has mostly fixed itself over the last few weeks except for the stray incorrect album art for an album but not all mixed up like it has been in the past. Most of my music is also auto converted from FLAC.

The one thing I am doing that may complicate things is daily updating podcasts via a regular playlist where I order new episodes manually and then auto sync it with the rest of the music on my iPod Touch. Podcasts generally have the correct art except where each episode has different art, there will be only one graphic for all episodes on the iPod. Also, several of my Doors albums, which I hadn't changed on the iPod, suddenly took on podcast art.

I think we need a separate command that checks and corrects art on the iPhone/iPod Touch. This could be done during auto sync or run by itself if a problem is noticed. The other day I had to remove art from a problem album, sync, add the art back and sync again to fix a problem with bad art.

Thanks,
Tim

[jest]

I think the problem are podcasts too:

http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 61#p204261

I've downloaded podcasts manually and synced via MM with no problems. Downloading through iTunes (either via wifi or USB) seems to cause problems. The way iTunes handles podcasts is really screwed up. I think it affects the database that manages the album art.

But try deleting your podcasts from your touch to see if that solves some problems.

[Bart D]

I confirm that with 2.2.1 firmware (ipod touch 1st gen) all artwork is corrupted. I upgraded yesterday. Before (on 1.5) everything went fine. Looks like it's back to the itunes crap again

[nohitter151]

I confirm that with 2.2.1 firmware (ipod touch 1st gen) all artwork is corrupted. I upgraded yesterday. Before (on 1.5) everything went fine. Looks like it's back to the itunes crap again

Did you try my suggestion on how to fix it?
--> http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 38#p202497

[Bart D]

I confirm that with 2.2.1 firmware (ipod touch 1st gen) all artwork is corrupted. I upgraded yesterday. Before (on 1.5) everything went fine. Looks like it's back to the itunes crap again

Did you try my suggestion on how to fix it?
--> http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 38#p202497

Yeah,

Tried disabling/enabling paging file exactly like you said, no joy unfortunately

Got them okay again with itunes

[ZeusII]

I usually have this problem the first time I sync my ipod after emptying its content. After this first bad sync, if I delete all the music and sync again it gets copied well. Afterwards, all the next "only changes" sync's have no artwork problems.

[Bart D]

I usually have this problem the first time I sync my ipod after emptying its content. After this first bad sync, if I delete all the music and sync again it gets copied well. Afterwards, all the next "only changes" sync's have no artwork problems.

Okay,

Tried it again. Unchecking the playlists didnt actually delete anything. I manually deleted the songs and playlists from the ipod and then resynced again, first tests seem to be working. Thanks guys, only had to work with itunes for one day .

[pnmcosta]

MM 3.1.0.1256 / iPod Classic v2.0.1 / Vista Ultimate

I'm syncing all audio (including podcasts) with MM, and am having the same art corruption issues.

I have iTunes setup as per the instructions above and I can successfully restore the iPod by clearing/re-sync with MM.

I do have to add movies using iTunes (can't wait for MM support!) and that seems the cause of my problems

Can anyone recommend a compatible tool (that will not cock-up MM artwork) that I can sync my movies with?

Thanks in advance,

[nohitter151]

Can anyone recommend a compatible tool (that will not cock-up MM artwork) that I can sync my movies with?

Thanks in advance,

I don't think there is another option. The official word is that you should use iTunes for movie/picture sync, and there are reports on the forum that other iPod compatible programs make the DB unreadable for MM.