# Album art on my car stereo--the option exists, but it never works **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 25, 2024, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204 "2024-10-25T14:05:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/1 "2024-10-25T14:05:10Z")
I’ve got a 2017 Toyota Camry, and while looking through the various options in the stereo, I see there’s one for ‘album art’. But I’ve got it turned on, and it doesn’t seem to ever work when I play music from my phone. I know all those files _do_ have the album art, as they show on the phone. So what does this option do, since it doesn’t seem to do the obvious? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/2 "2024-10-25T14:08:01Z")
Are you looking for an answer other than ‘it doesn’t work on your car’? The feature itself certainly works, but there’s something going on with your radio. Also, are we talking about AM/FM or XM/Sirius? ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/3 "2024-10-25T14:20:29Z")
No, I’m talking about music either streamed from my phone or a CD. Although it doesn’t work with AM/FM either, but I pretty much never listen to those. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/4 "2024-10-25T14:23:15Z")
By any chance, does it work when the car (presuming it’s an automatic transmission) is in Park? [**CLICK ME!**](https://support.toyota.com/s/article/Why-cant-I-see-Album-9809?language=en_US) ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/5 "2024-10-25T14:30:56Z")
Where did you get your music files from? I have two main sources - either I’ve ripped them myself from CD or vinyl, then used a tool like mp3tag to attach the album art. Or I’ve purchased and downloaded from Amazon. None of my Amazon mp3 downloads display album art in my 2018 RAV4, but my homebrew mp3s display album art just fine. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/6 "2024-10-25T14:37:50Z")
They’re from all over–ripped CDs, purchased from Amazon, you name it. I’ve yet to see a single one of them display artwork. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/7 "2024-10-25T14:38:34Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > By any chance, does it work when the car (presuming it’s an automatic transmission) is in Park? It does not work in park, or any other gear. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/8 "2024-10-25T14:42:37Z")
Ok, then yeah I don’t know. When it happens to me it’s definitely the Amazon files that don’t display. I assume they encode the album art in a way that some music players don’t recognize. It sounds like your “display album art” option is like the “use DST” option on my car’s clock - there’s a checkbox, but it doesn’t actually do anything. ---
**Author:** ![mattgg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@mattgg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mattgg)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/9 "2024-10-25T14:56:21Z")
The audio system in my 2016 Mazda 3 shows album art for mp3 files it plays from an SD card. The files are organized into folders, one per album, and each folder contains a file named folder.jpg which contains the album art. Album art is not displayed when my son plays music from his phone via bluetooth. Maybe your system works the same way. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/10 "2024-10-25T15:05:14Z")
Could be, I’ll test that out when I have a chance. Not a huge deal really, I was more curious why there’s an option that seems to do nothing. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/11 "2024-10-25T17:42:24Z")
My iTunes album art became completely scrambled a couple of versions back, so it would not surprise me if the album art feature does not work when sending music to a secondary device. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/12 "2024-10-31T20:03:08Z")
Mine works only if connected directly from the phone to one of the cars usb ports. It does not work via a bluetooth connection. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/13 "2024-10-31T20:28:23Z")
Does it work with CDs or any other kind of media? ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/14 "2024-11-01T02:21:33Z")
No. CD player does no artwork or artist or track names. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/15 "2024-11-01T03:29:03Z")
On a computer, if the album art files are not already there, it downloads them via the internet. Are you sure the files are really there and your phone isn’t just connecting to the internet? ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/16 "2024-11-01T06:24:22Z")
Part of the problem is that there are a multitude of ways that the audio gets from a device onto a car stereo. If it is coming from a phone it might only be going via a basic Bluetooth audio only profile, which doesn’t support album art. So the Bluetooth connection only contains the audio stream as it plays. Then there is no notion of anything other than a stream of audio samples. Bluetooth is a dumpster fire of a mess. Exactly which profile is supported and whether it works as hoped for is a crap shoot. Red Book CDs (ie the basic commercial ones sold in the 80’s onwards) mostly never contained album art, although there were additions to the standard so that they could. Same with artist and track names. Storage devices holding mp3 audio files can include album art along with the audio, but there is no requirement that they do. Some car players will recognise the art files and display them. So a USB stick or SD drive with mp3s, if properly built, might reasonably be expected to work. A car audio player that can play a CD of mp3s sees the CD as a file system of mp3s in the same way it sees a USB or SD card. A phone that virtualises it’s contents as a file system visible over a USB connection could make album art available, but that depends on the choices made by the phone manufacturer. Depends if it has the artwork. There are systems that make a file system look like a CD stacker to the car audio system. So you select from a large number of virtual CDs, and play tracks from them. Each playlist on the file system appears as a “CD”. These are hopefully a thing of the past, but older systems probably still persist. Horrid mess. Eventually you are expected to upgrade to Car Play or Android Auto. Which mostly work. Mostly. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/17 "2024-11-01T09:38:26Z")
I get album art when occasionally listening to FM in my car, but no album art when Bluetoothing from my phone. I figured it has something to do with Bluetooth. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/18 "2024-11-01T12:27:37Z")
My old 2015 Sonata would display art when I played mp3 files off of a USB drive… sort of. Some tracks would work, some wouldn’t and some would be all pixelated. Even when it was files I personally added the art to and thus controlled the album art file size, dimensions and art file format, it was still a dice roll which songs actually worked. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/19 "2024-11-01T12:31:33Z")
This all sounds like it’s going to be a hassle no matter what I do, and it’s not important enough to spend any significant amount of time on. I’ll get around to testing a usb drive one day more because I’m curious than anything else. I had seen the option while browsing the menu for something else and found it odd that it didn’t appear to do anything. Appreciate everyone’s input though, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2024, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204/20 "2024-11-05T06:58:50Z")
Couple options here: 1. If playing off an old iPod or direct from a USB stick, the mp3 files can have embedded metadata including album art. This is something you’d need to do manually, but there is also software to automatically attach this. 2. You’re playing music via Bluetooth from phone. I’m not certain you can send album art this way. 3. You are playing with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay through a wired USB connection or a wireless connection. I’m not certain about the Camry, but know that in 2017 this feature was not standard for many Toyotas, so you would have had to add this after the fact. And if you’re not sure, you probably don’t have it. This method would easily retrieve the album art, usually through some service like Spotify. 4. CD data is often carried though Gracenote MusicID, other services might use their features too. You might not have this for CDs. I assume the car’s option suppresses any art if you turn it off, but does nothing if art doesn’t exist. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/album-art-on-my-car-stereo-the-option-exists-but-it-never-works/1009204.md?page=2)