Topic: Missing album art on music transferred to phone (Read 2531 times)

FL Guy · « **on:** April 11, 2019, 08:00:33 pm »

I transferred an album to an Android phone using the Send To command in MC 24. The music was transferred to the phone, but the album art seems to be missing.

Can someone tell me 1) how to fix the album art, and 2) how to transfer album(s) correctly using MC so that the album art is included?

~OHM~ · « **Reply #1 on:** April 11, 2019, 10:19:00 pm »

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Main_Page

Spike1000 · « **Reply #2 on:** April 12, 2019, 03:04:58 am »

I suspect the art is not embedded in the music file or it is embedded but in a format that the phone doesn't recognise.

If the art is in a separate file it may not have been sent to the phone with the 'Send To' command. Check the metadata in the source files to find out which.

Spike

RoderickGI · « **Reply #3 on:** April 12, 2019, 06:36:52 am »

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Sync_Handheld

Send To wouldn't send an external image to your phone. Just the music file. Using that method you would have to have the art embedded in the file, as Spike suggests. Sync Handheld can send the Cover Art file to the phone separately as "Folder.jpg".

FL Guy · « **Reply #4 on:** April 12, 2019, 09:39:22 am »

Thanks everyone for the replies and suggestions. I will try the Sync method, if and I can figure out how to do a partial sync, and will report the results here. (I've read the help text on the subject, and found it less than crystal clear for partial Syncs. Maybe I read it too fast, I'll go through it again.)

Fwiw, the help file (as I read it) seems to say that either Send To or Sync should work to transfer music - it doesn't mention this nuance re the album art.

FL Guy · « **Reply #5 on:** April 12, 2019, 10:12:25 am »

The good news: The Sync method did transfer the album art to the phone in a file called Folder.jpg, in the same folder as the music track files.

The bad news: The default Android music player doesn't recognize that as the album art for the album - even after restarting first the media player, and then the phone. Any other suggestions?

JimH · « **Reply #6 on:** April 12, 2019, 10:40:17 am »

Try embedding the cover art in the file.

FL Guy · « **Reply #7 on:** April 12, 2019, 05:20:10 pm »

I've just tried embedding the album art in the files (FLAC) as suggested using mp3tag, and syncing the album to the phone. The Play Music App still doesn't see the album art. So I tried another app - USB Audio Player, that app _does_ see the album art.

So it would seems that the album art information is now there in at least one form, but seems that it's not there in the place or format that the default Android music player Play Music is looking for.

I do use the Play Music app, so I would prefer to find a way to make files transferred with MC show the album art correctly in that player. Any additional ideas for how to make this work with the Play Music App?

JimH · « **Reply #8 on:** April 12, 2019, 05:24:59 pm »

Size of the image might also be a factor.

FL Guy · « **Reply #9 on:** April 12, 2019, 06:07:43 pm »

Hmmm... the album art file is shown as 106KB on the Windows side, and 125KB on the Android side after being transferred vi the Sync action in MC. Doesn't _seem_ unreasonable....

JimH · « **Reply #10 on:** April 12, 2019, 06:38:08 pm »

No, it doesn't. Is it a jpg file?

RoderickGI · « **Reply #11 on:** April 12, 2019, 09:54:54 pm »

Actually, the Send To method will send artwork files as well as tracks, if you open Options and change the settings to do that.

I don't know whether you followed the links in the Sync Handheld article, but if you did read the Handheld Sync Options Wiki article, you will see the setting "Enable album artwork support if possible" is explained. So with that selected, if a FLAC file is to be synced and it doesn't have embedded artwork, MC should try to embed the artwork before it syncs to the handheld device. I don't think it embeds it into the original file when that option is selected.

I find it best to use Playlists with the Handheld Sync function anyway.

What android phone do you have?

I have a Sony and using just its default "Music" app artwork is always displayed. But then I always embed artwork into my music files.

FL Guy · « **Reply #12 on:** April 13, 2019, 08:21:17 am »

Thanks again everyone for the suggestions. The album art file is a jpb (jpeg) file. The phone in question is a Samsung Galaxy S9+ running Android 9. I'm currently using (MC 24).

I did read the wiki related to syncing (what I was referring to calling the help file), although I hadn't fully explored the options portion - thanks for pointing that out.

I can't find the "Enable album artwork support if possible" described in the wiki in the version of MC I'm currently using (24). I do see "Save album art to Folder.jpg file a bit further down in the options.

Ah - I think I may have found the current location for the equivalent option in the version of MC I'm using - I see under Files and Locations / Cover Art / Also save image in file's tag. I'll try again with that set and will report the results.

JimH · « **Reply #13 on:** April 13, 2019, 08:24:33 am »

jpb? Try a jpg.

FL Guy · « **Reply #14 on:** April 13, 2019, 08:31:11 am »

You are right :-) jpb was a typo - my bad. The extension for the folder art image file is indeed jpg.

I just tried Sync again with the "Also save image in file's tag" option set. Still no luck with the default app (Play Music).

JimH · « **Reply #15 on:** April 13, 2019, 09:17:55 am »

I just tried Play Music on my Android phone. Cover art is displayed.

What is the phone? Android version? Mine is a Note 9 and it's running Android 9.

FL Guy · « **Reply #16 on:** April 13, 2019, 09:21:53 am »

The phone in question is a Samsung Galaxy S9+ running Android 9.

FL Guy · « **Reply #17 on:** April 13, 2019, 10:24:04 am »

Given that Sync does transfer the album art on another phone, it does sound like there is something unique to either the phone/OS (doesn't seem likely in this case), or the album art. I'm going to try ripping and syncing a CD which for which the files are not yet on the phone (the last attempt was with a purchased hi-res download - I forget where at the moment), and see how that works.

FL Guy · « **Reply #18 on:** April 13, 2019, 11:08:06 am »

Hmmm.. same result with a CD ripped using MC. Album art shows in MC, but not on the phone. The file Folder.jpg does get created on the phone, but apparently that's not enough, so the issue might be related to embedding the album art as was suggested before.

Since it works for others (thanks for checking that), there must be another option I haven't set correctly yet, or I'm there's something else I'm doing wrong. I'll go back to the Sync options in the wiki. Any other suggestions would be welcome.

FL Guy · « **Reply #19 on:** April 13, 2019, 03:59:19 pm »

I also tried checking Tools / Option/ Handheld / Conversions / Audio / Cover Art / Add to tags - same result

FL Guy · « **Reply #20 on:** April 13, 2019, 05:06:18 pm »

Fyi, if I transfer the albums using Media Monkey, the Play Music app does see the album art correctly. So there seems to be some difference in how MC (v24) handles the album art and/or transfers the files.

FL Guy · « **Reply #21 on:** April 13, 2019, 06:56:33 pm »

In case it helps, running Album Art Grabber on the phone can fix the album art which is displayed for the album. Of course, that's not exactly a practical solution, as it must be run for each album and I have LOTs of albums, but maybe that can suggests what exactly needs to be set in order for the album art to be recognized correctly by the default music app.

~OHM~ · « **Reply #22 on:** April 13, 2019, 08:06:54 pm »

spend the 5 bucks and use JRemote in the app store!

RoderickGI · « **Reply #23 on:** April 13, 2019, 08:28:38 pm »

JRemote is a possibility, but does it download files to the phone? Also, I hear the Android version isn't as polished as the iOS version.

FL Guy, when you look at one of the audio files in MC, using the tag window, does it say that the image file is "Inside File" with dimensions and size in KB. Or does it point to an external image file?

I can't explain why the "Enable album artwork support if possible" option doesn't appear. I know the options can change for different device types (hard drive or memory card, vs Android phone), but it shows up in MC25 for my Sony Xperia ZX Premium, Android 9. I can't see any change in the Release Notes that would indicate that was added since MC24. I didn't look very hard though. Perhaps have a look: https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Release_Notes

I'm thinking maybe there must be a setting in Android, or "Play Music", regarding Cover Art. Can't say what it might be though. Most Apps use art if it is embedded in the file, by default.

~OHM~ · « **Reply #24 on:** April 13, 2019, 09:08:49 pm »

Quote from: RoderickGI on April 13, 2019, 08:28:38 pm

JRemote is a possibility, but does it download files to the phone? Also, I hear the Android version isn't as polished as the iOS version.

no file download, I hook it up to cd player in the car and off I go. no ios here but android is very nice, can even view lyrics. tho I do use on a tablet (much bigger screen) album art is beautiful....in the process of getting much larger art. 1050x1050 high res

FL Guy · « **Reply #25 on:** April 14, 2019, 11:19:09 am »

I'm not against trying JRemote, however when I download music to the phone, I don't want it to be limited to it working correctly with only a single app. In particular I do hope & expect it to work correctly (including album art) with the default Android music app.

So I don't see JRemote as the solution to this issue. I would like to figure out whether there is a way to MC to handle album art in a way that is compatible with the default player, and I appreciate the help toward getting that to work. I may check JRemote out though - thanks for the upvote on that :-).

When I look at an album of music tracks (FLAC) for which album art is not displayed correctly in the default Android app after Syncing using MC, I do see that the tag says "inside file (300x300 - 12.9 KB)". So apparently it's not due to that alone.

I do see that the ""Enable album artwork support if possible" option is present if I select a USB hard drive, but is not present, when I select the S9+. That doesn't seem right (imho), and it does seems likely that's at least part of the issue that I'm having. So for now I'm trying another tool (mp3tag, MediaMonkey, etc.) to embed the album art in the file/tag if it is not already).

Using this method (another app + MC), I've been able to get a couple of albums to correctly display album art in the default (Play Music) app on the phone after being transferred using MC, however I've discovered an Album where the cover art seems to be "inside the file", but this still doesn't fix the issue - even after deleting the thumbs DB in the Android internal storage, and forcing it to be rebuilt.

I'm going to see if I can find an mp3 editor for android which allows me to actually see the tag values (as opposed to automatically updating them) to see if I can spot what's missing. It might be a couple days though - I've spent WAY more time trying to get this to work than planned, and need to focus on some other things for a bit. I am curious (and a bit stubborn :-) though, so I'll likely come back to this at some point to try to figure out what's going on. If I do, I'll post what I learn here.

(Btw just fyi in case anyone else tries to use MC to transfer files in a similar scenario, I also noticed that MC defaults to a slightly different folder structure than I had on in the music folder on this phone. That's not a problem of course, but until I noticed that, I had a duplicate copy of the albums I was testing with, which confused the issued the issue until I removed the original/duplicate files).

Thanks again for the suggestions.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: Missing album art on music transferred to phone (Read 2531 times)