So the other day I was doing some massive reorganization/tagging work with my iTunes library. So much, in fact, that when I went to update my 30GB iPod it practically needed to reload the entire device.  Normally this is not a big problem, but this particular day I didn’t have the time to let the full sync run (it’s USB1, don’t ask) - I was heading out the door. Instead, I gave it a good 30 minutes before cancelling the sync and ejecting the iPod.

During my commute, it wasn’t long before I noticed the the album artwork displayed on my iPod did not match up to the currently playing song. Thinking I must have really messed up something in iTunes, I was relieved to find all was tickety-boo there when I got home.

Simple fix right? We’ll just let iTunes do its magic and properly sync the iPod, no matter how long it takes. Afraid not! Surely I won’t have to wipe the entire iPod harddrive to properly link the artwork. I was in luck, and as I’m not the only idiot out there, here’s the fix.

  1. Plug in your iPod and launch iTunes
  2. In the iPod tab (iTunes 7 here), click the Preferences tab.
  3. Near the bottom, deselect Display album artwork on your iPod.
  4. Your iPod will update – removing all the artwork stored on it. This could take a minute or so.
  5. Again, navigate to the iPod Preferences. This time select Display album artwork on your iPod.
  6. Again, your iPod will update, this time correctly linking the artwork with the songs/albums.