getmusicbee.com
Support => Questions => Topic started by: captain_paranoia on July 05, 2017, 11:55:04 PM
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MB does a great job of finding quality artwork, but, although it replaces the artwork shown in the browser, I can't seem to find a way to get it to write the artwork to the folder containing the album.
In preferences/tag(1), I have the option 'copy picture to folder.jpg' set.
In the 'Search...' dialogue box, I have the 'link the picture to this music track' and 'save to folder.jpg' options set.
When I hit 'Okay', the image in the browser updates, and the timestamp of the original folder.jpg file gets updated to the current time, but the image file is not replaced.
If I delete the existing 'folder.jpg' before doing the search, it writes the new image file to the correct folder.
The original 'folder'jpg' files are not write-protected.
So it looks like it's touching the file, but not overwriting it, but must be updating a cover art database somewhere (it's not in the Artist or Soundtrack image folders).
Does anyone know how I can make MB overwrite the existing image?
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Try with v3.1 to see if it makes any differences.
If not, do you mean the image file itself that's not changed or displayed cover image in MB?
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The image file doesn't change (although its timestamp does).
The cover art displayed in MB does change.
I meant to say; I'm running 3.0.6335
I'll give 3.1 a go.
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are you doing this with the currently playing track?
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> are you doing this with the currently playing track?
No. I'm using either the Music browser or the Music Explorer browser, with album art view selected, selecting entire albums, and updating artwork that is poor quality.
I wouldn't try applying artwork to a single track, as that's an obvious cause of confusion (track vs album), and I want to change the artwork on every track of an album.
I was quite pleased with myself, changing the artwork on quite a few albums. It all looked lovely until I went in to the album folders, and found the artwork hadn't changed... I'd like the artwork to propagate to my Twonky media server, too.
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Looks like the bug's already fixed if you're using the latest v3.1:
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=21135.msg124964#msg124964
If it persists, file a bug report.
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3.1 patched doesn't seem to have fixed it. I'll file a bug report. Not tonight, though...
Thanks.
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So you're not using the tag editor for updating the cover but do it directly from the main panel in album cover view with an album selected?
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> So you're not using the tag editor for updating the cover but do it directly from the main panel in album cover view with an album selected?
Yes. Right-click menu on an album cover offers the command 'Search Internet for Picture'. I select the picture I'd like to use, set the options to save to the file, and hit 'Save' or 'Apply' (I think; not at my MB computer at the moment). I use this option rather than the more general 'Get metadata from the internet' (or whatever it is called...), because the metadata is already correct in most cases; all I want to do is get better cover art.
It updates the cover art displayed (and presumably, therefore, the database, because I can't find a cover art folder in the installation), and touches the existing folder.jpg image in the album directory.
If there is no existing folder.jpg image (e.g. if I delete it first), it saves the new image.
The first time I did it, I was half expecting to see a warning dialogue appear, to say folder.jpg existed. But no dialogue appeared.
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i am not able to reproduce this issue. Can you send me a link to a zip of your settings file (help/ support/ view settings).
Also let me know how the existing artwork that is being replaced is stored eg. embedded in the music file, folder.jpg etc. You can check by editing a file in the tag editor/ click the Artwork tab and then click "Save As"
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Back at my MB PC for more experimentation.
Using the tag editor (Edit/Artwork), if I see more than one image, then it will not save the new image, but it does touch the file date. This is the behaviour I observed above.
If I delete the duplicate image(s), then it saves the image & updates the displayed image, i.e. the expected behaviour.
MB doesn't inicate where the artwork is coming from (unlike MediaMonkey,which says if it's from file or tag). I assume MB is showing images stored in file and tag, and I'm deleting the tag image.
So it looks like it's the multiple image sources that are causing the confusion.
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Your comments suggest to me you havent read my instructions. I wont spend any more time on this
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Hi, Steven,
Sorry if you think I'm wasting your time.
Which instructions should I read? If you mean those in the post above my last, then I started writing my last reply before you replied; our posts overlapped.
> Also let me know how the existing artwork that is being replaced is stored eg. embedded in the music file, folder.jpg etc. You can check by editing a file in the tag editor/ click the Artwork tab and then click "Save As"
I don't see a 'Save As'. I do see a 'Save To' button. Is that what you mean? If so, then, in the case of both images shown in the artwork tag editor, the 'Save To' dialogue has the following radio buttons ticked:
'link the picture to this music track'
'save to folder.jpg'
[edit: ah; no they don't; the non-primary image is 'link to an organised copy of the picture (folder,jpg)']
I do not have the 'embed the picture in the music file' radio button ticked.
I've enabled the 'embed picture in the music file' option, and that makes no differentce to the behaviour; the existing artwork file is still touched, but the file is not overwritten. But the the difference is that the displayed image does not change.
The consistent behaviour that does allow the file to be overwritten is for me to delete the second (non-primary) image in the artwork editor before doing the internet search and save.
I hope this is useful.
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I was able to replicate the reported behavior. But I'm not sure it's a bug.
in the case of both images shown in the artwork tag editor, the 'Save To' dialogue has the following radio buttons ticked:
'link the picture to this music track'
'save to folder.jpg'
[edit: ah; no they don't; the non-primary image is 'link to an organised copy of the picture (folder,jpg)']
The problem is your file is linked to the same image file twice. To replicate this, I saved the first image as folder.jpg and add the same image as second artwork with "link to an organised copy of the picture (folder.jpg)" option. Then MB only updates the timestamp of folder.jpg when using search internet for picture command. Why did you organize your artwork that way with duplicate images? Is that something MediaMonkey did?
The consistent behaviour that does allow the file to be overwritten is for me to delete the second (non-primary) image in the artwork editor before doing the internet search and save.
Yep, I noticed the same thing and it looks like the only solution. Hope that can sort out the issue for you.
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> I was able to replicate the reported behavior. But I'm not sure it's a bug.
Thanks. I wasn't sure it was a bug, either, which is why I posted in the Questions forum. But the touching of the artwork does seem to suggest MB is trying to do something to the folder.jpg file; maybe it's saving the existing artwork again?
> The problem is your file is linked to the same image file twice. To replicate this, I saved the first image as folder.jpg and add the same image as second artwork with "link to an organised copy of the picture (folder.jpg)" option. Then MB only updates the timestamp of folder.jpg when using search internet for picture command. Why did you organize your artwork that way with duplicate images? Is that something MediaMonkey did?
I don't think so; in MM, I always use a link to the 'folder.jpg' artwork. I don't have images stored as tags in the files (at least, that's my intentions...). MM's artwork editor doesn't show more than one image, unless there really are multiple images (e.g. front and back artwork).
It may be my misunderstanding of MB options; I want MB to save to folder.jpg, and I then want it to link to that image. I originally had the option to 'link to an organised copy (folder.jpg)', but the 'organised' bit, and the ability to create path names from metadata tags seemed to suggest that was meant to put artwork in some parallel directory structure. So I changed the options to 'save to folder.jpg', since that seemed a more direct way of storing the artwork in the album folder. I assumed that saving to the folder would also make a link to that image. Maybe that assumption is wrong, and all it does is save the image, and nothing else (i.e. doesn't change any artwork associations).
Since I want to save any downloaded artwork to folder.jpg, and link to that image to the music files, rather than embed artwork, can you suggest what the most appropriate options would be? And if there's a way to automatically get rid of the duplicates in the MB database (a re-scan after changing the options, perhaps?). Or I could just delete the database and start again.
Thanks.
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Yeah I know you didn't and don't want to embed artwork to files. I'm only talking about links.
What I don't get is why some of your files show duplicate "links" - primary image linked to folder.jpg and secondary image linked to the same file but using "link to an organised copy of the picture (folder.jpg)" option - while other files show only a single link.
Is that the result of your saving artwork in that way using MB, or MB just shows it (duplicate links) without your saving?
One more question. MB's default option is "link to an organised copy of the picture (cover.jpg)". Did you change cover.jpg to folder.jpg in that option or just MB shows it that way?
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I just tried again. Select multiple files, search internet for picture, and save it both to folder.jpg and "link to an organised copy of the picture (folder.jpg)". But it never creates duplicate links. Only one link for primary image. With that artwork saved, I tried it one more time with the same image. Again it doesn't create duplicate link for secondary image. So I don't understand how you got that duplicate links.
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> So I don't understand how you got that duplicate links.
No, I don't either...
I'm replacing some of the low-quality artwork I had previously collected. So all I have done is get MB to scan my media source directories, and import them into its library. When I have changed the artwork storage settings, I have run the re-scan process. But almost every image I edit, I find duplicate links.
Are there any options to artwork scanning during library import? I've had a pretty thorough look through all the configuration options, but couldn't see anything specific, but it's possible I've missed something, or misunderstood what the setting means.
> Select multiple files, search internet for picture, and save it both to folder.jpg and "link to an organised copy of the picture (folder.jpg)".
I may have only ever selected one of those options (thinking they were mutually exclusive).
What I will probably do is delete the database and start again. I'll just start with a small section of my library, and figure out how MB works, and then when I've got to grips with MB, I'll import my entire library. I should have known better, as that is the advice I generally give for new users of MM; create a 'test library', ideally with a sacrificial set of media, so that any mistakes that are made whilst learning to use the tool don't damage your media (I've got backups, of course...). All tools have a learning curve, especially when they are as sophisticated as the likes of MB. I'm still very much on the curve.
Thanks again for your help.
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Looks like there's such a functionality:
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=746.0
But personally I've always used a single embedded artwork, so I have no experience with that setup.
Let me know how it worked out for you after you're done with your experiment.
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Well, after an artwork re-scan, all the duplicate images seem to have vanished, leaving all albums with artwork to 'link to an organised copy'.
I had left the config setting to 'save as folder.jpg', so, when I saved artwork that didn't have an image, it left it as 'save to...'. Replacing existing artwork did a 'link to...'.
Changing the config setting to 'link to...' does as expected, and saves using 'link to...'.
I think I've got to the bottom of what controls I should use, but I'm still not sure how I managed to get all those duplicates. Maybe I must have had both 'save to...' and 'link to...' options set when I did the first import, and setting just one option and re-scanning artwork has fixed the dual image problem, which, in turn, has allowed the file to be saved. Though I'm not sure why it wasn't able to save the file, and why it touched the file.
MM allows you to add a number of artworks. My original ripping and scanning process created 'folder.jpg' and 'rear_cover.jpg' images in the album folder (with master artwork in an Artwork subdir, and rip report and track listings squirrelled away into a Riplog folder), and MM found and added both of those automatically during import, and made folder.jpg the default image. I never really found a way to select, oher than editing to change priority.
I may create a new, small test library to investigate the import behaviour.
Until then, thanks again for your assistance.
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Glad to hear you sorted it out!
I think the linked thread in my previous post has something to do with creating the double links. I'm not sure the functionality is still maintained but the thread shows Steven actually implemented it to help a user make links to multiple artwork at once just by scanning.
Well, if you don't have the issue any more, you don't have to experiment unless you want to. Just see how it goes updating covers for your files.
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> Well, if you don't have the issue any more, you don't have to experiment unless you want to.
I like to get to the bottom of problems, and share any solutions I find. The whole point of user forums, really...
I've tried creating test libraries with the three obvious combinations of artwork settings:
- copy picture to folder.jpg
- copy picture to same folder as music and name as folder.jpg
- both the above
None of these test libraries resulted in multiiple artwork images being detected.
So, sadly, in this case I haven't got to the bottom of how I ended up with multiple artworks.
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Adding multiple artwork links by rescanning is working as Steven described as I just tried successfully but only with different image files like cover.jpg & folder.jpg.
With only one folder.jpg I wasn't able to reproduce it either with whatever combinations of options and steps. So your case will remain a mystery.