Please can someone help - I have broken MusicBee

[BrianDamage]

I have been running MusicBee happily for years but the other day I lost me setup.
I have gradually pieced something back together but he last thing I did was attempt to change the skin and it threw up the following message.

https://imgur.com/vxI4oFd


I have little experience dealing with issues with MusicBee because I haven't had anyand I would love some help.
I do have Avast running but it hasn't been an issue before, but setting compatibility to Windows 8 didn't work.
I love MusicBee and I am bereft - please send positivity and (if possible) some simple steps to dig me out.
Thanks in advance.

(I am being forced to spell Tomato incorrectly be the verification box).

[psychoadept]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

What version of MusicBee are you using (Help > About)?

[sveakul]

Try going into the MusicBee "Skins" folder and deleting the skin you switched to when you got the startup error.  Then MusicBee should start using its default skin, if that indeed was the problem.

[BrianDamage]

Thanks for your help. I have upgraded to 3.4.7586 as part of a trial and error attempt to get things working again, and I can now launch the program. I will be careful about swapping skins as that was quite traumatic.
I seem to have lost a fair bit of artwork, Can I ask what options you use to save artwork? I have tried various options (save to folder, link to an organised copy etc) but some seem to replace the artwork not just with the album I am editing bit on other albums too. I want to avoid this. Any tips.

Thanks again.

[psychoadept]

I seem to have lost a fair bit of artwork, Can I ask what options you use to save artwork? I have tried various options (save to folder, link to an organised copy etc) but some seem to replace the artwork not just with the album I am editing bit on other albums too. I want to avoid this. Any tips.

There are some tips on that here: https://musicbee.fandom.com/wiki/FAQ#When_I_add_artwork_to_an_album.2C_the_artwork_shows_up_on_ALL_my_albums._Help.21

The key thing is don't use folder.jpg or cover.jpg if you can help it. Embed it and/or organize your music in folders with the artwork for each album.

[BrianDamage]

Thanks, that's really helpful. On reflection the issue was most common in, for example, collections of singles where I wanted different covers for different songs. That's really helped me see the logic of different options. I will embed in future. Is there a downside? Sluggishness?

[phred]

I will embed in future. Is there a downside? Sluggishness?

No downsides in 'playability' but you'll see a slightly larger file size once the artwork is embedded. Not really enough to worry about unless you're running tight on storage space.

Testing right now with a 640x640 jpg at 64kb, the file went from 5.19mb to 5.22mb.