Album artwork no longer coming through - Xperia S

[AliWonder]

Can anyone tell me WHY there is never any album artwork any more when I copy albums across to my Xperia S? I am SO sick of looking at those stupid 'blank LP' covers; when there is perfectly good album artwork showing in iTunes, AND in  the useless 'Sony Bridge for Mac', when I synch the album from there. I've tried the 'Android transfer' app'; that doesn't work either. It's been happening for a while now, though I always used to get the artwork. The only time I get artwork now is if it's an MP3 I've downloaded, rather than a CD I've bought. Can anyone tell me what's happened; is there something I need to update?

[AliWonder]

Question for David L; have you had any response from the Development crew? I HAVE the latest version; it's useless, and getting worse than ever. It totally jams up my whole computer every time it opens; internet browsers & other programs become unusable; I get that spinning beach ball & nothing works.

And it STILL does not download album artwork. The solution above from uliwooly is helpful; but I cannot go through this process every single time I copy one CD onto the phone! There is no way of 'updating album info' just for one album; so every single time I add a new CD to the phone; as usual it comes through with no artwork; so I have to do 'Download Music info, & it goes through looking for the info for EVERY SINGLE ALBUM on the phone; even where the album info is all there. It takes for ever.

AND - very annoyingly - I just copied two albums onto the phone - both with artwork clearly showing in iTunes - I went through the whole 'Download music info' process; and the artwork is STILL NOT THERE for either of these albums.

AND, sometimes it simply does not work at all; I click on an album; click 'synch' - & it just sits there; does NOTHING at all. I'm getting SO tired of this .....

Please Sony; WHEN are you going to fix/update this piece of junk; or produce something that actually WORKS with a Mac??

[David_L]

Hi AliWonder,

I'm sorry, but I don't have an answer for you yet. I will talk to them again and let you know as soon as I have an answer.

Again, I am sorry I cannot help you right now.

Best Regards,

David

[David_L]

Hi AliWonder,

For the album artwork not working, this may be a solution:

- Go to Sony Bridge for Mac->Preferences

- Make sure "If a music file does not contain album art:" is set to "Add album art during transfer"

This option was included in version 3.3.

If this doesn't help, please get back to me.

As for the problems with Bridge slowing down your computer, that is being looked into. If you could answer the following questions that would be helpful.

1. If you wait for a few minutes without doing anything, will BfM system usage go down?

2. If you switch to the main phone screen (in the left menu, select the entry with your phone name) and wait for a few minutes. Will BfM system usage go down?

3. Does the problem still exist if the phone is disconnected?

4. If iTunes and/or iPhoto is running in the background, does it help to quit iTunes and/or iPhoto and wait a few minutes?

5. Do you use iTunes match?

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

Best Regards,

David

[AliWonder]

'Preferences' does not exist in the Sony Bridge I have - where is it? I have version 3.3 installed; I even searched for an update, but when I tried to install it, it told me I have a newer version installed already. Please see screenshots showing the screen & the 'info'.

Re. your other questions; I do not have iTunes OR 'iPhoto' running in the background; I do not even USE iPhoto - which is another one of the many, many problems with this piece of junk; it is incapable of transfering photos from any of the folders where my photos are actually stored (I'm a professional photographer; I would not dream of using rubbish like 'iPhoto'). There is an option called 'my folders' on the left, but if I try to access the folders where my photos, documents etc are stored, it is incapable of showing the contents or allowing me to transfer any of it to the phone. I have to pointlessly move images into iphoto just to get them onto the phone, & documents have to be either bluetoothed, or sent to myself in an email & then downloaded from an email. There is no way of getting them into the phone otherwise.

The back-up does not work either; it tells me every time that it's failed. I have to back-up into an ancient lap-top with Windows XP on.

Really it is THE most useless piece of software I have ever come across; it barely does anything!

[David_L]

Hi,

Please check my screenshots below for the settings option:

You have the latest version of Bridge, so you don't have to update.

What file format are the pictures that you're trying to import from "My folders" in?

Do you get an error when you're trying to back-up the phone? If so, could you provide me with error logs?

Below is how to get error logs from Bridge:

1. In BfM, hold the "alt" key down while selecting the "Phone" menu. Select "Clear logs" to remove all old logs and get a clean start

2. Reproduce the problem you're having, whether it's connecting the phone, importing photos, doing backup...

3. In BfM, hold the "alt" key down while selecting the "Phone" menu. Select "Export logs"

4. On the computers desktop there should now be a file named "SonyBridgeForMacLogs_[date].zip

5. PM that file to me or post the contents here

Best Regards,

David

[AliWonder]

Thanks - ok I have set the preferences to 'add album art'. I tried to test if this works by deleting one of the recently uploaded albums from the phone, thinking I would re-upload it to see if the artwork comes through. But now look at the screenshot - the artwork has now totally vanished from about HALF of the albums in Sony Bridge - including the one I was going to upload - yet ALL of these albums have artwork in iTunes! This shot just shows a few; there are far more that actually HAD artwork before, & now it's gone.

The issue with the computer freezing up happens whether the phone is connected or not; I just had to completely quit Sony Bridge just to stop the spinning beach ball so I could access this web page; otherwise normally when it's open every other program pretty much seizes up; it's awful.

I'll deal with the back-up issue another time; I'd like to get these other major issues osrted out first.

[David_L]

Hi,

I may have misunderstood if the artwork still didn't show up on your phone, or just no longer in Bridge.

Anyways, the way the album artwork supposedly works is by gathering the artwork from a database. When you enable the artwork option, the artwork is added to the actual file. Therefore the artwork might disappear from Bridge, but when you synchronize the albums they will appear on your phone. However, I will contact the development crew and ask them just to be sure.

Thank you, I will forward your additional notes about the memory issues.

Best Regards,

David

[AliWonder]

Thanks. I tried uploading the album again, & the artwork did NOT come through to the phone, even though it did eventually appear in Bridge.

The thing is useless; better to delete it & get somebody competent to design some different software for you!

[David_L]

Hi,

Ok, I will forward this issue. Thank you for your feedback.

Best Regards,

David

[AliWonder]

REPLY TO DAVID L: Please can you inform the developers that this useless piece of junk simply DOES NOT WORK: Once AGAIN it  has completely failed in doing the most basic simple task - copying ONE album onto my phone... This happens all the time; it takes about 20 minutes to slowly grind into action & manage to display the music on my computer; then it takes another 20 minutes just to copy ONE album; tells me it has done it, but the album is NOT ON THE PHONE!! Really this is causing me HOURS of stress and anger; WHY can you not simply develop some software that WORKS? It cannot be that difficult, surely?