Question: Need Help with Cover Art Not Being Displayed on the Aurender N10 Music Server

I’m in the process of ripping cd’s into my N100H using EAC with the external flac compressor. I created five sub directories (with [brackets] around the name) in the Aurender hdd under top directory MUSIC1 and moved my files into them. (This matched the NAS folder names).

I then later condensed the five sub directories into two on my NAS and did the same on the Aurender hard drive. After that, a couple of album covers disappeared and I re-ripped the disks, transferred it over and the cover art came back. Maybe this affected some kind of a coded lookup function in the metadata that was dependent on the old directory file names.

This has not affected files downloaded from Linn or HDtracks, which also were moved around. I am using a PC and not a Mac.

sbank, You are correct & I was wrong (sorry).  I now know that iTunes does NOT store the album cover art with the song but hides it in another encrypted folder. The explains why my album transfer to the Aurender did NOT display the album cover art. And, yes, I agree, as you stated, Aurender is not responsible since Apple decided to not imbed the album cover art in every song/file in iTunes, like just about every other piece of music software does.

After additional research, I found a custom Script created by Doug Adams that runs in iTunes and saves the album art to the song folder as a JPG file. My dealer technical person reviewed the Script and we decided to run it. Please follow Doug's detailed install instructions carefully since you have to make the Script available in iTunes to run it.   The cost is $1.99 and you pay after you install the Script.  We checked the results and every album that had album cover art now had a JPG file associated with that song (in the correct folder). I was very happy BUT!!!!!

I deleted my albums on the Aurender and transferred my updated hard drive albums with JPG files included and guess what. Again, I STILL HAD NO album cover art. I could not believe it.

I doubled checked everything and discovered the Aurender did not transfer my JPG files to its library. My dealer person not available. Yes, I was frustrated but I did not give up. It had to be something simple in the transfer process that I missed. I spoke to Aurender Support and was told the JPG files HAVE to be named “Folder.JPG".  I immediately tested it on one album and it worked. I then discovered that I used the wrong Script to save my album art. IF YOU ARE USING the Aurender, you have to USE the Save Album Art as folder.jpg v3.4 Script (see below).

"Save Album Art as folder.jpg v3.4"

"OS X 10.8 or later only. This script will export the artwork of the selected tracks or tracks in the selected playlist as a JPEG image file named folder.jpg to the folder which contains each selected track's file--presumably the track's Album folder. Many third-party music players and systems (Sonos, for example) may look for a "folder.jpg" here to use as display artwork. If multiple album tracks are selected, the script will make sure only one image file per Album is exported".

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=savealbumartjpeg

And, the good news is, my album cover art is now displayed perfectly on my iPad. I hope my above explanation helps other people using the Aurender Music Server to get their album cover art displayed. Please contact me if you have any questions.

hgeifman,
Well done!!! Really glad that Doug's scripts did the trick. Many on the computeraudiophile forum have recommended Dougscripts for many situations. 
Your detailed instruction in your last post will be beneficial to many former iTunes users who buy other servers than Aurender as well. The issue will likely be the same for most types of servers.
Enjoy your Aurender.  I'm jealous! Cheers,
Spencer

Spencer,  Thanks.  My Aurender N10 Music Server is a welcomed addition to my system. The ability to switch back and forth between Tidal and my stored albums in the App is now a very easy process (one mouse click). The Aurender iPAD app is much easier to use than my MAC Book Pro computer.   It was also very easy to install and setup. My system sounds more open, more natural, clearer, better base and I am happy I purchased the unit.

Yes, the addition of a music sever in a system is a little more complicated but the instructions I provided above should get you started. Actually, it is not that difficult to transfer the music to the Aurender. You attach your external drive to the Aurender and it copies everything over. The problem is that iTunes DOES NOT make it easy to get the album cover art. However, this is not a problem if you are using J River since it includes the album cover art in the song folder (please verify & check the JPG file naming). However, if you are using iTunes, you install and run the "Save Album Art as folder.jpg v3.4” script ($1.99) and the cover problem is solved.

Please remember that if some of your albums do NOT have cover art, you have to manually add the metadata. I plan on starting this process shortly. You Google the album name, find the image and copy and paste to the Aurender song folder. The Aurender iPAD app is much easier to use if your albums have cover art. I am looking for an automated process to do this but I do not think it is available.

As you probably know, setting up a MAC or PC computer has its own set of complications. The only problem is the you are using iTunes and not J River. In any case, the $1.99 script solves the iTunes JPG problem. The Aurender image files MUST BE CODED as Folder.JPG and included in the same folder as the album songs. The "Save Album Art as folder.jpg v3.4” script handles this.  cheers.

Here's a free album art downloader that creates a folder.jpg correctly.

Album Art Downloader