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[alancommike]

I'm doing some reorganization of my collection and I'm having problems keeping things together (in the MC sense .

How do I convert a folder.jpg structure to a structure where album art is embedded in the tracks? Once I do that, is there a way to go the other way, embedded to folder.jpg?

More details....

I do the folder.jpg Artist/Album thing. I want to copy a set of albums to a new directory structure, but "Library Tools -> Rename, Move & Copy Files..." doesn't keep folder.jpg with the tracks that it belongs with. So the idea is to convert my library to have embedded album art. Then I can restructure as I desire, even making collections that have album art associated with all the artists. After I'm done, I'd like to convert back to the folder.jpg for space savings.

I've done a few tests, but I can't seem to get it to do this.

Thanks,

   ...alan

[Alex B]

You don't need to embed the image files. It is possible, but writing the new file tags would make the procedure slower and unnecessarily alter the file tags. (To embed linked cover art, enable the "Also store image in the file's tag" option and do "Update Tags From Library". The image file will be stored in the tag if the file format supports embedding. To unembed you would need to do a few additional steps.)

The faster way is to change the cover art location option to "In a specified folder" and use the "Save Cover Art To External Location Specified In Options" tool for copying the image files and changing the cover art links accordingly (select the media files > right-click> Cover Art > Save Cover Art...). After that move the media files. Finally set the location option back to "Folder.jpg" and and use the "Save Cover Art..." tool again.

It is possible that some images would get exactly the same filename in the "specified folder" location and only the last image will survive. The filename uses the [Album Artist (auto)] - [Album] rule. This is not likely to happen, but if it happens you can fix the problem by copying the image manually.

[alancommike]

Thanks Alex.

That'll work if I was just make a few simple changes, but I have part of my library (the older stuff generally) that's poorly organized on disk and poorly tagged. So i'll be changing the tags, directory names, possibly even the names of the artists/albums. For example, I have a mix of First Name,Last Name and Last Name,First Name. Similar for some artists with 'The' and some without.

So, I think the best approach is to put the album art in the files, move things around, and then move it back out? I'd be happy to be talked out of doing this, but I'm concerned about losing the cover art. For the unembed, seems like I can use the "Save Cover Art to External Location" and then "Remove Cover Art". After that, I think a "Quick Find In File/Cover Art Directory" should get everything all setup back again. Any gotcha's?

Thanks,

   ...alan

[cncb]

So, I think the best approach is to put the album art in the files, move things around, and then move it back out? I'd be happy to be talked out of doing this, but I'm concerned about losing the cover art. For the unembed, seems like I can use the "Save Cover Art to External Location" and then "Remove Cover Art". After that, I think a "Quick Find In File/Cover Art Directory" should get everything all setup back again. Any gotcha's?

Make sure you untick the "Also store image in file's tag" option before the "Quick Find" if you don't want the images stored in the files again.  But since you will be embedding the images initially anyways, why not just keep them there?  They don't take up that much space and you won't risk losing them if you move the music files again later.

[Alex B]

That'll work if I was just make a few simple changes, but I have part of my library (the older stuff generally) that's poorly organized on disk and poorly tagged. So i'll be changing the tags, directory names, possibly even the names of the artists/albums. For example, I have a mix of First Name,Last Name and Last Name,First Name. Similar for some artists with 'The' and some without.

MC does not automatically alter a cover art link that points to a specified folder (i.e. to outside the media file's folder). An existing link remains unchanged and functionally valid even after tag changes and file moves. If you want to test this behavior you can monitor the cover art link by adding the Image File column to a list view.

So, I think the best approach is to put the album art in the files, move things around, and then move it back out? I'd be happy to be talked out of doing this, but I'm concerned about losing the cover art.[

To move it out with MC you will need to first do "Save Cover Art To External Location Specified In Options", then remove the embedded image (apply "Remove Cover Art" - without answering yes to the "delete also from disk" question), and finally link the externally stored image (Quick Find... should work).

You are free to decide which method to use.

[alancommike]

@cncb The only real reason I want to move the cover art out back out is for portable devices. We still have some old MP3 players that we use at the gym. They've been working for years and work very well for the gym, so I don't want to replace them with something with larger capacity that may or may not hold up.

I have the recipes now, I'll play around and see what's the best to do.

Thanks,

    ...alan