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[resgostar]

I received an upgrade notice today.  I am reluctant to upgrade.  I did one upgrade and had to spend an inordinate amount of time reapplying my album art.  Your database does save album information but apparently not album art.  Are you ever going to create an upgrade that automatically restores album art exactly to the quality I had it before the upgrade? Otherwise too much hassle.

[JimH]

Album art should be preserved when you upgrade.  If not, you can restore a backup.  MC makes backups automatically.

[infa2000]

Hi. Bought the wrong MC24 upgrade license. I have Master but bought Windows. Can I change the upgrade to Windows or, if not, how do I reverse the Windows upgrade and get the Master license without being charged twice for Windows and a Master license?

[dtc]

I received an upgrade notice today.  I am reluctant to upgrade.  I did one upgrade and had to spend an inordinate amount of time reapplying my album art.  Your database does save album information but apparently not album art.  Are you ever going to create an upgrade that automatically restores album art exactly to the quality I had it before the upgrade? Otherwise too much hassle.

I would suggest copying all the cover art into the media files, assuming the type supports album art in the file. That avoids any issues with storing the album art in a MC folder.

[JimH]

Hi. Bought the wrong MC24 upgrade license. I have Master but bought Windows. Can I change the upgrade to Windows or, if not, how do I reverse the Windows upgrade and get the Master license without being charged twice for Windows and a Master license?

You have mail.

[resgostar]

Album art should be preserved when you upgrade.  If not, you can restore a backup.  MC makes backups automatically.

Thanks for your reply.  When I upgraded to Version 22 the album art did not show up.  I used the automatic MC backup data base but it only gave me back the music information not the album art when I launched it.  At the time I looked for information on this site and the conclusion by the various writers was that the MC automatic data base does not contain the previous album art that was downloaded so I was out of luck. In sum, my experience with upgrading does not bear out what you say above both with the upgrade and the automatic data base retrieval when it comes to album art.

[resgostar]

I would suggest copying all the cover art into the media files, assuming the type supports album art in the file. That avoids any issues with storing the album art in a MC folder.

Thank you for your reply.  I have wav files which I believe do not support copying the cover art into the media files.  Keeping my chosen album art seems to be a recurrent problem with media players when I upgrade or have too relaunch because of a computer issue.  I had the same problem with using Windows Media Player previously.  I can't believe to tell you how much time I spent re-configuring the appearance of my music library time and time again. I am hopeful there is ultimately a solution to this problem that is seamless.

[dtc]

Thank you for your reply.  I have wav files which I believe do not support copying the cover art into the media files.  Keeping my chosen album art seems to be a recurrent problem with media players when I upgrade or have too relaunch because of a computer issue.  I had the same problem with using Windows Media Player previously.  I can't believe to tell you how much time I spent re-configuring the appearance of my music library time and time again. I am hopeful there is ultimately a solution to this problem that is seamless.

One option would be to convert the files to uncompressed flac. You can do that with dBpoweramp. Uncompressed flac is basically a wav file with a flac header, including album art. dBpoweramp has a batch converter that will create the new files easily. You could also used compressed flac, but since you are using wav, you may not want to compress the files. 

If you go that route, you might want to copy the MC library tags to the files first. Not sure how well that works with wav files. You could also use MC to convert the files to flac (compressed) and copy all the tags to the flac files. If you want to go to uncompressed, you could then use dBpoweramp to convert the compressed flac to uncompressed flac.  You can try a few conversions to see how it goes. It might take a couple of tries to get the tags right.

[JimH]

One option would be to convert the files to uncompressed flac. You can do that with dBpoweramp. Uncompressed flac is basically a wav file with a flac header, including album art. dBpoweramp has a batch converter that will create the new files easily. You could also used compressed flac, but since you are using wav, you may not want to compress the files. 

Uncompressed FLAC isn't a great idea.  WAV would be as good for tagging and is more common than uncompressed FLAC.

On the other hand, ordinary (compressed) FLAC would be an excellent choice.  Much better than WAV or uncompressed FLAC.

I'll split this to a new thread.

[dtc]

Uncompressed FLAC isn't a great idea.  WAV would be as good for tagging and is more common than uncompressed FLAC.

On the other hand, ordinary (compressed) FLAC would be an excellent choice.  Much better than WAV or uncompressed FLAC.

I'll split this to a new thread.

What is wrong with uncompressed flac?

[dtc]

resgostar  - If you are OK with compressed files, then normal compressed flac is the  best solution. I suggested uncompressed flac because I assume that you used wav so to not compress the file. If you want to keep the file uncompressed, then uncompressed flac is an option. It is fully compatible with flac standards and allows for full flac tagging. If you are OK with compressing the file, then normal compressed flac is a good option.

[JimH]

Uncompressed FLAC is still an unusual format.  Compressed FLAC isn't.  There is no audible difference.

[JimH]

What is wrong with uncompressed flac?

It's a solution in search of a problem.

[RoderickGI]

To address the original issue and save a lot of work in converting files from WAV to whatever:

I received an upgrade notice today.  I am reluctant to upgrade.  I did one upgrade and had to spend an inordinate amount of time reapplying my album art.

24.0.5 (3/13/2018)
8. Changed: When upgrading from MC23 to MC24, the images in the cover art folder will be copied over from MC23.

24.0.8 (3/29/2018)
2. Fixed: Copying Cover Art folder from MC23 to MC24 during upgrade installation did not work.

Are you running MC23 now? If so, and if you have left the Cover Art folder in the default location, the upgrade process to the current MC24.0.30 should find all your existing Cover Art and copy it to the new Cover Art location for MC24.

If you have changed the Cover Art folder location, as defined in "Options > File Location > Cover Art", and you have placed it in a non-version specific location such as "M:\Cover Art" or similar, then MC24 will just continue to use that location after the upgrade.

Even if all the above fail or do not apply, fixing Cover Art between versions is extremely easy and does not require an inordinate amount of time. No reapplying is required. Just copy the folder;
"C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 23\Cover Art\" to "C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 24\Cover Art\".

EDIT: I see you are probably still on MC22 Resgostar. In that case, if the new functionality doesn't copy over the Cover Art folder for you, just copy the folder;
"C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 22\Cover Art\" to "C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 24\Cover Art\".



The Wiki article is quite good, and worth a read: https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Cover_Art

[dtc]

It's a solution in search of a problem.

It is a perfectly good solution to having an uncompressed file that can be tagged.

[JimH]

Using uncompressed files -- WAV or FLAC -- has no advantage, and can often lead to problems.

Please just use ordinary FLAC or any other lossless format.

[dtc]

Using uncompressed files -- WAV or FLAC -- has no advantage, and can often lead to problems.

Please just use ordinary FLAC or any other lossless format.

Some people believe using uncompressed files does have an advantage. I know you do not, but others do.

WAV files have problems because they were not designed to include tags.

I have never heard of problems with uncompressed flac. Can you point to examples of problems they cause?

[JimH]

Some people believe using uncompressed files does have an advantage. I know you do not, but others do.

Yes.  I do know that, but please don't expect us to chase every audiophile fantasy.  We adhere to the science of computer audio and we do our best to use it intelligently.

The original poster would be well served to convert the WAV files to FLAC, just not uncompressed FLAC.

[dtc]

Yes.  I do know that, but please don't expect us to chase every audiophile fantasy.  We adhere to the science of computer audio and we do our best to use it intelligently.

The original poster would be well served to convert the WAV files to FLAC, just not uncompressed FLAC.

Not asking you to chase anything. You already support playback of uncompressed flac, as does any program tha supports flac playback.    All I ask is that you recognize that it is a format that currently works for playback within MC and that some people may want to use it, even though you do not believe it a useful format. You can certainly make your opinion known, but when you say using uncompressed flac causes problems, you may be taking the argument too far.

Probably time to leave this issue along and return to the original issue if the OP wants to.

[resgostar]

To address the original issue and save a lot of work in converting files from WAV to whatever:

EDIT: I see you are probably still on MC22 Resgostar. In that case, if the new functionality doesn't copy over the Cover Art folder for you, just copy the folder;
"C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 22\Cover Art\" to "C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 24\Cover Art\".

The Wiki article is quite good, and worth a read: https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Cover_Art

Roderick, thank you for your advice and the referenced wiki.  You are right, I do not want to convert my files; I like the sound of wav.  My questions to you are as follows:

1) How do I ensure that all my album art in the JRiver interface is in my Windows album art folder?  Is there a way to do this before upgrading so that everything transfers?  As I recall, I have to manually add to the Windows album art folder;it does not happen automatically. So, chances are I may have forgotten to add certain cover art to the Windows folder that appears in the JRiver screen.

2) When you say copy from Version 22 to 24, I am not sure how to copy Windows album cover files into the interface of JRiver.  I know how to copy files within Windows, but not to another program like JRiver.  Can you explain how to do this?

Thanks.

[JimH]

If you upgrade from MC22 to MC24, everything should be done automatically.  Your old data and cover art will be used.

Just install MC24 and run it.

[resgostar]

If you upgrade from MC22 to MC24, everything should be done automatically.  Your old data and cover art will be used.

Just install MC24 and run it.

If it did not happen for me from Version 21 to 22, are you telling me that Version 24 is improved in this regard compared to 22 so that album art is now automatically transferred in Ver. 24?

[syndromeofadown]

By "cover art", are you referring to thumbnails that need rebuilt when upgrading to a new version? If so, you can rebuild them if you select 'rebuild thumbnails' in options.

[RoderickGI]

I'm with Jim on this:

If you upgrade from MC22 to MC24, everything should be done automatically.  Your old data and cover art will be used.

Just install MC24 and run it.

If it did not happen for me from Version 21 to 22, are you telling me that Version 24 is improved in this regard compared to 22 so that album art is now automatically transferred in Ver. 24?

Yes.

1) MC should find the MC22 Library, and find and copy across the MC22 Cover Art directory to MC24. Hence it should find all Cover Art, regardless of whether it is stored next to a file or in the Cover Art directory. If you really want to put a copy of all your Cover Art into the directory specified in MC settings, you can just select them all, right-click on one and select "Cover Art > Save Cover Art To External Location Specified In Options". Just be aware that this should not be necessary, it will take quite some time, and it will use up lots more disk space.

2) My suggestion above would only be required if MC fails to find the MC22 Cover Art directory, as I said. You would just copy the directory using Windows Explorer. You would not need to copy it into the JRiver interface at all. MC will find it automatically after the copy completes, if you do need to copy it.

However, as Jim said, just install MC24 and run it. MC should do all the work for you. Don't try to do anything special.