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[andrewberg]

Some questions on storing album cover images into audio files:

1. To which audio file types can MC store ('embed') album cover images at all (except for mp3)?
2. If you haven't enabled the option 'Update tags when file info changes' previously, will MC still embed cover images to audio files that were already in the library (before the option was enabled)?

The reason is I want to sync my Android tablet with my favourite audio files but make sure they have cover art embedded to be displayed in my tablet's media player (which is VLC, as my device doesn't support MC for Android, sadly).

Thank you in advance!

[dtc]

To determine if the album art is in a file, you can check the tag Image File. It will say Inside File if the art is stored there. You can create a Smartlist that lists all files than Image File Is Not Inside File. That will list all the files that do not have the cover art embedded in the file.

To move the art into those files, just select all the files in the Smartlist and then right click to get Library Tools and then copy tags to files.  You might want to check a few first to be sure it is working properly.  If there a lot of them, it could take a while.

Once you have all the album art in the files, MC should automatically copy album art for new tracks into the files as long as you have Update Tags set. You can run your smartlist periodically to check and certainly before you copy files to your tablet.

[andrewberg]

To move the art into those files, just select all the files in the Smartlist and then right click to get Library Tools and then copy tags to files.

Thanks a lot for that. (I had figured out the option 'Copy tags to files' by now... ;-) Still a few problems:

You might want to check a few first to be sure it is working properly.  If there a lot of them, it could take a while.

Indeed, the first time I tried this on several albums at once, I ended up having duplicate files (curioulsy named "no change"... ;-), so I had rather not do it that way...

You can create a Smartlist that lists all files than Image File Is Not Inside File. That will list all the files that do not have the cover art embedded in the file.

I know that tag editor displays locations of cover art images via the field "Custom(Image)", but unfortunately the field 'Image' is not available in the search wizard to identify files missing embedded covers... Is there another workaround for that?

What disappoints me is that, even if the option 'Update tags when file info changes' is enabled, MC does not update audio files with cover images... Doing this manually on +400 albums just takes too long for me...

NB: The good mesage is, when it does, it works on all audio file types that support cover embedding... ;-)

[andrewberg]

Addition: The tag 'Image file' IS available for searching, but only after I change the program interface language to English... must be a translation glitch (that also prevents some search terms to be displayed in the wizard's tooltip on mouse hover)...

Anyway, as I didn' t want to take all day for the job, I have now tried the 'Copy tags to files' process on several files at once, and it seems to work out... (Only the status message disappears behind the main window after a few seconds, and the rotating hourglass takes over... ;-)

[andrewberg]

It should also be noted that, if the 'Copy tags to files' command is run on larger numbers of files (more than 1 album), the process makes MC almost crash -- the status dialog ('Updating files, #/xx') disappears behind MC's main window (as it does for some other tasks), MC reports no more activity to Windows (status in Taskmanager says 'inactive'), and the Windows 'App not responding' dialog offers to close the app (or wait til it responds, which it does after a while)...

Dear developers, please make these background tasks perform a bit more stable!!