I’ll tell you what I did, but be careful to test the procedure carefully with a small number of files to be sure it works for you.
Read this carefully before you start – do not test while you are reading this – you must understand what is going to happen before you start.
First, set up the options to have the images stored in the tags. Note: this option only fixes the behavior going forward, it does not change any existing tracks.
There is a tag called Image File. While not required, I suggest you customize your detail view to show this. If the value in this tag is “Inside File”, the image is stored within the file. If it shows a directory name, that is where it is looking to get the image file (this second part I’m going by memory on – all my tags are inside the file).
Right click in the detail view, go to Image, then to Quick Find in File/Cover Art Directory. What this does is get the cover art, from the directory in your options, and updates the tag Image File. The problem is, I do not think it embeds the file if you already have a value in this field. There is another option in this same area: Go to Image, then go to Remove Cover Art. This will clear anything in that tag, you can then do the update referenced above.
Here are my steps - There are a couple of things to watch out for. DO A BACKUP BEFORE YOU DO THIS.
1) Make sure the option the option to keep the images in the files is set up before you start.
2) Make sure you have properly set the option on where to store the over art – this is the directory that MC will use to do the quick find of cover art. If you have changed this over time, it may appear to work OK, but after you remove cover art, it may not find the cover art again because it is s stored in a variety of directories that do not match your options.
3) If you cover art is spread out, I would consolidate it in the location you have defined in step 2) above.
4) Remove Cover Art - (do not allow it to delete the disk files)
5) Quick Find in File/Cover Art Directory
You should now be done.