Windows Phone: Zune Artist Background Image Issue [Solved]

After a day of rigorous research on the internet, I finally came up with a solution regarding the background image of Zune on Windows Phone Mango. Just give you an idea on the issue, some of us, who are using Windows Phone got some issue regarding the awesomeness of Zune. There should be an artist background image on Zune while you are playing or browsing their songs just like what you can see on the image below.

So, the problem is the background image is not showing. Yes, the album art is showing but not the artist background image. So here are the steps I made to resolve this awesomeness problem.

The following step may or may not work for you but most likely if you will follow every steps you will get a great result.

First, you need:

1. a Windows Live ID with U.S. location - if you don't know if you're Windows Live ID location is in U.S. just log in to live.com then check your profile and go to Your Contact Info. Change it to U.S. if not.

or

2. You can make a Windows Live ID for Zune and set your location to U.S.

I think the problem here lies within the Marketplace. Not all your the album or artist information are available in some country.

Changing the location on your default Windows Live ID on your Windows Phone may take some time, mine takes 22 hours to reflect on my account. As you know you cannot change the Windows Live ID you are using on your Windows Phone unless you will reset it (Android phone user's knows about it). Also, make sure that your Window Phone default location is in set to United States (go to Settings>Region+Language).

After that, sign in on Zune on your PC using the same Windows Live ID you are using on your Windows Phone. I recommend doing it, after you successfully change your location on Windows Live ID and Phone. You should know that you successfully changed your location on your Windows Live ID once you get a notification on your ME hub on your phone under What's New (it should say "changed location to United States).

One more thing, if the artist background image are already present on your Zune on your PC you will be successful but if not, try manually update the album info or go to Settings>Software>Metadata and Ratings>Media Info and make sure to tick Automatically retrieve and update album art and metadata and replace all media information. You can let your Zune on your PC open for hours for it download the necessary information needed.

Sync your phone as normal. Now check if artist image background is showing up on your phone if not proceed to next step. If yes, good but well, some artist dont show up their background. This maybe depending on the information of the artist stored in the Marketplace.

If not:

1. On your Zune on your PC and while your phone is connected, go to Settings>Phone>Sync Options under Device Options click Erace all Content then after Forget this Phone. This will erase all your songs and videos media information on your phone.
2. Disconnect and reconnect your phone from your PC so you can start syncing up your songs and video as well as its media information.


Most likely, that should be it, that solves my problem so if you still getting the same problem, I think there is something you missed on the step or requirements to solve this issue. Just to point out, having a Windows Live ID that is U.S location is one of the key to solve this issue.

Update 1: Account Settings in Live