MP3 players are now everywhere. Today it is common for people to have MP3 songs on smartphones too, but users often don't know how to manage the images related to these songs. Sometimes they appear, sometimes they don't. This article will explain in a simple way how to manage the images related to your music collection using iTunes to have its cover attached to each song.
Steps
Step 1. Find all the music on your MP3 player that has NO picture associated with it
You will find that some songs already have an image associated with them, while others do not, and this depends on the source and format of the file.
Step 2. Create a new folder on the desktop
Step 3. Connect your smartphone or MP3 player to your computer and find the songs you want to attach an image to
Usually, when you connect a device to your computer, a window appears asking you what you want to do. In this case select "Open device to view files". If the pop-up does not appear, open "My Computer" and select the device in the list of removable devices.
Step 4. Select all the songs that are missing images and move them to the new folder you created on your desktop (this will create a copy of the songs on your device)
Step 5. Once all the songs have been copied, open iTunes and create a new playlist (selecting "File" and then "New Playlist")
Step 6. Now select all the songs contained in your new folder and drag them to this new playlist within iTunes
Step 7. Start attaching images
Now that you have this list of songs in iTunes you can start adding images. You can do it song by song or album by album.
- Select a song and click on it with the right mouse button.
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Select "Information" and then click on the "Illustration" tab. If the song already has an illustration you will see it here, otherwise click on "Add" to be able to attach any image present on your computer.
Remember that if you don't already have the image on your computer (usually this is the case) you will need to find it first, and the best way to do this is to search the internet
Attach Artwork to MP3 Music Tracks Step 8 Step 8. Select "My Computer" and then "Pictures"
Right click and select "New Folder". Call it "My Illustrations".
Attach Artwork to MP3 Music Tracks Step 9 Step 9. After creating this folder, search the internet for the images you need
You can find them for example on www.amazonmp3.com or through Google Images. Once you have found the images you want to attach, click on them with the right mouse button, select "Save image as" and save it in the new folder you created in the "Images" folder. Now you can go back to iTunes, click on "Add" and select it, thus attaching it to the song.
Attach Artwork to MP3 Music Tracks Step 10 Step 10. Remember that making these changes in iTunes will also change the original mp3 files
This means that the songs you copied to the desktop at the beginning of this guide will also be changed. After making all the necessary changes, you just need to copy the songs from the folder on the desktop to the mp3 player. A window will appear informing you that there are already files with those names on the device. Select "Replace" to have the old files with no images replaced by the new files with attached illustrations.
Attach Artwork to MP3 Music Tracks Step 11 Step 11. You are done
Don't worry if it takes a while for your mp3 player to start recognizing file changes, it's a common thing (especially with smartphones) and has to do with the device's processor.
Advice
- After selecting all the songs, if you right-click and select "Info", iTunes may ask you if you are sure you want to edit information about multiple files at the same time. If this happens, click "Yes".
- When you want to change the artwork of an entire album, you have to select all the songs at the same time. You can do this by holding down the "Ctrl" key on your keyboard while selecting each song.
- The window that appears will contain a lot of information, but you don't have to worry about anything other than the small white box in the lower right corner that says "Illustration". You just have to click on it twice, select the image you want from the "My illustrations" folder and click OK.
