How do I get full album art on my lock screen?

The lock screen on a phone displays useful information and graphics when the device is locked or sleeping. For many users, customizing the lock screen with album artwork or photos is an important way to personalize their device and make it their own.

Full album artwork displayed on the lock screen places the focus on whichever song or playlist the user is currently listening to. Album art is the graphic image that accompanies a music recording. It originated as cover art enclosed with vinyl records, but has since evolved to include digital images associated with music tracks and playlists.

Showcasing full album artwork on the lock screen provides an aesthetically pleasing way to identify what you are listening to without having to wake or unlock the device. It allows users to appreciate the album art and gives the lock screen a more customized look and feel.

Understanding Lock Screens

A lock screen is a graphical user interface displayed by devices like smartphones, tablets, and computers to prevent unauthorized access when the device is locked (YourDictionary). The lock screen shows up when the device first wakes before unlocking it, usually requiring some kind of authentication like a password, PIN, or biometrics to get past it (Techopedia).

The main purpose of a lock screen is to protect the user’s privacy and data by adding a layer of security. It prevents unwanted access if the device is lost, stolen, or accessed by someone else. The lock screen hides private information from view and ensures only the authorized user can get into the device (Merriam-Webster).

Lock screens first emerged on mobile devices like smartphones. But the feature has expanded to other devices like laptops and desktop computers as well, especially with touchscreen capabilities. Lock screens provide quick access to basic functions like notifications, messages, date/time, without unlocking the full device.

Enabling Full Album Art

The ability to show full album artwork on the lock screen used to be a standard feature in Android, but it was removed in recent versions. However, there are still a few ways to enable this on certain devices or with third party apps.

On Samsung devices running One UI 2.0 and higher, you can enable full screen album art through the lock screen settings. Go to Settings > Lock Screen > Album Art and toggle on “Show music information.” This will make album artwork take up the entire lock screen when music is playing [1].

For other Android devices, you’ll need to use a third party lock screen app. A popular option is Music Lockscreen by JunoApps, which can be downloaded from the Play Store. Once installed, it takes over your lock screen and automatically displays album art from your currently playing music [2]. You can customize the layout and amount of info shown.

So in summary, Samsung users can enable full album artwork through built-in settings, while other devices need third party apps. This brings back the music-focused lock screen that was common on older Android versions.

Customizing per App

If you use different music apps, you may want to set custom album art for each one rather than having the same image across all apps. Here are steps to set different lock screen artwork depending on the music player:

• Open Settings and go to the music app you want to customize.
• Look for options related to “Lock Screen” or “Now Playing.”
• Toggle on the setting to enable custom album artwork for that app.
• Repeat this process for each music app you use.

This will make sure that the album art shown on your lock screen matches the currently playing music app. So if you switch between Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music etc, the artwork will update automatically based on which one is active.

Some apps may allow choosing between showing the album cover, artist image, playlist image, or even a solid color. Pick whatever lock screen experience you prefer for each app.

Third Party Lock Screens

Android allows the use of third party lock screen apps that offer much more customization than the stock lock screen. These apps give you granular control over the look, feel, and functionality of your lock screen.

Some popular and highly customizable Android lock screen replacement apps include:

• AcDisplay – Offers customizable themes, quick access to notifications, and various lock screen widgets.
• Hi Locker – Provides thousands of free themes and HD wallpapers to fully customize the visual style of your lock screen.
• Solo Locker – Allows setting interactive wallpapers and configuring custom shortcuts for easy access to apps and contacts.
• Floatify – Gives options like changing font styles and sizes for the clock widget and notifications.

These third party lock screen services give you granular control to customize the look, content, shortcuts, and functionality well beyond what the stock Android lock screen offers.

Wallpaper Services

Many popular wallpaper apps such as Music Wallpaper and Diffuse Live Wallpaper allow setting the album art from your music library as your wallpaper dynamically. These apps listen to the music playback on your device and automatically update the wallpaper artwork to match.

Auto-Updating Artwork

Keeping your lock screen album art up-to-date can require some extra steps depending on your device and OS version. By default, most devices do not automatically refresh the artwork when a new song starts playing. However, there are a few ways to enable auto-updating artwork.

If you are running macOS Mojave or later, you can enable background artwork refreshing in the Now Playing widget settings. This will allow the artwork to update automatically when a new song starts playing. For iOS devices, some third party lock screen apps like Ampache have features to auto-refresh artwork as new songs begin.

If your device does not support auto-updating natively, you may need to manually refresh by swiping down on the lock screen when a song changes. Or look into third party lock screen customization apps that offer dynamic artwork updating.

Troubleshooting

Common issues with album art not showing properly include music metadata being out of date and caching issues with artwork that needs to be refreshed. Here are some fixes for common album art issues on your lock screen:

Double check that the music and album artwork metadata is up to date in your player app and streaming service. Sometimes new artworks are not reflected in older music files even after an album is updated with newer art. Manually refreshing the music library files or re-downloading the album tracks can help.

Clear the artwork cache from your lock screen or music player app to force a refresh of the album images. Systems that dynamically load artwork like streaming platforms can sometimes get stuck showing the wrong images. Resetting the cache makes the apps re-pull the proper art. Additional details on clearing artwork caches can be found at https://community.roonlabs.com/t/album-art-not-showing/169253.

If the issues persist, check if your Android OS and lock screen apps are fully up-to-date. Updates sometimes address artwork issues and it’s worth ensuring your system has the latest improvements and fixes.

Customization Options

There are several ways to customize the look and layout of the lock screen with full album art. Using Magisk modules like Addon Features for Pixel Devices, you can enable options to tweak the positioning, style, and size of the artwork.

For example, you can set the artwork to fill the entire lock screen background or contain it within a frame. There are sizing options to scale the artwork up or down as desired. You can also tweak the blur effect, darkness, and transparency of the background art.

In terms of layout, the addon allows choosing the vertical positioning and horizontal alignment of the artwork. This allows centering it precisely or offsetting towards a side. There are further custom clocks and widget options to complement the background art.

Beyond Magisk modules, some third-party lock screen apps like KLCK also provide advanced customization of background artwork styling and layout options. With full access to customize colors, fonts, positioning, and more, you can create a tailored lock screen suited to your personal taste.

5. Conclusion

Using your device’s native lock screen customization options or third party apps, you can enable full album artwork to display as your lock screen background. This creates a visually appealing and personalized lock screen that updates automatically.

In summary, first enable full album art in your music app’s settings if the option is available. Then go to your device display settings to allow media art as the lock screen wallpaper source. You may need to toggle some additional permissions. This will make your current playing song’s album art show on the lock screen whenever music is playing.

As a final tip, explore supplementary lock screen customization settings to refine the appearance further to your liking. Consider utilizing wallpaper services or third party lock screen apps for more controls. With all the personalization now possible, your device’s lock screen can become an ever-changing canvas showcasing your music selections.