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

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

knghifi, Thanks.  As I described above, I finished manually updating my album cover art on my Aurender. I connected my MAC Book Pro computer to my Aurender and found my stored albums under etc (Finder, Go, Connect to Server, type in IP address, user name and password).

I checked each album and for those albums missing an image, I Googled the album name plus "CD Image". In most cases, I found the album cover art I needed (if not, I added more words to the search) . I then moved the image to the desktop and changed the file name to "Folder.jpg". I then moved the Folder.jpg file to the last song on the list so that it was included as the next line item. The average time was around 2-4 minutes per album and I did not have that many to do. I checked my iPad and all my album cover art was displayed correctly. I know that "Album Art Downloader" (described above)  is a more automated way to do this but I felt more comfortable doing it manually.

The process is vey easy but it takes some time depending on the number of albums. Please NOTE that if you are using iTunes, you should first download the Extract to Folder.jpg Script from Doug Scripts (Cost is $1.99). This script is recommended since it stores the album image in the correct location and includes the correct name (Folder.jpg) for handling by the Aurender.  

I also installed two AC mains duplex: 20A, Cryogenically treated, Rhodium plated contacts wall plugs.  And, yes, much to my surprise, they made a noticable difference.  The system is more quiet, less background noise and I heard it immediately.  These Rhodium plated contacts wall plugs are recommended ($47 each).  I purchased them from James Romeyn (see link below).

I also purchased his “Pure Grid POWer” Outlet Strip/AC Mains Extender ($429).  This unit has 4 Cryogenically treated, Rhodium plated contacts wall plugs (same as above) and I use it for my two mono amplifiers and my DAC. My Aurender Server is plugged direct into the Rhodium plated contacts wall plug.  This is electrical power with no surge protection or power conditioning.  It is just like plugging my amplifier and DAC direct into the wall plug.  The Pure Grid POWer” AC outlet extender is also recommended. See link below.

http://jamesromeyn.com/#/home-audio-gear/

I backed up my Aurender files to my LaCie hard drive & also to my Seagate hard drive. I spent too much time building my album database so I backed it up twice.  

Hi
I got an N100H on Audiogon and am having some of the same issues you were.  First, regarding artwork, I've got all the artwork for 1700+ albums now embedded in the appropriate music files (thanks to BlissHQ), but only a handful of images actually display.  As I read the instructions on the Aurender website, the Aurender app looks first for "front" and "back" but will continue looking for other tags until something comes up. Evidently, I've either misconstrued the Aurender instructions, or the fact is that each and every one of the .jpg's now embedded in my music files needs to be renamed "front.jpg".  Ouch.  I have looked at the AppleScript you recommended, but am a bit confused as to how it works.  If it operates through iTunes, then it will rename the jpg's in the encrypted iTunes artwork file, which can't really help if the jpg's that Aurender reads are embedded in the music files.  Could you help me understand how it helped in your case?

Secondly, the Aurender seems convinced that my USB drive is the same (in terms of contents) as the internal HDD.  This is perplexing... The external USB drive has 1700 albums mostly AIFF.  The internal drive has 946 albums, all m4a (ALAC) files.  The weird thing is that the Aurender correctly identifies the external drive by name, but seems not to identify the contents properly, instead displaying the exact same files as are on the Aurender's internal drive.

I've not found Aurender help to be very useful in part because it's only via email as far as I can tell and in part because of the time difference between here and Korea.  Any advice you (or other forum participants) could offer would be hugely appreciated.
Best S