VLC displaying wrong album art

[michaelrizzo]

this worked for me when I tried it

http://forums.mp3tag.de/index.php?showtopic=12917

[nissimnanach]

In Linux (Mint), to delete the art cover cache:
1. Open a Terminal
2.

Code: Select all

cd /usr/lib/vlc/lua/meta/art sudo rm *.*

3. Check the settings on
Tools>Preferences>Interface>Album art download policy
Blessings of Na Nach,
Nissim

[superhipp7]

I HAVE THE ANTIDOTE!!!
1.go to folder options in windows explorer
2.go to the view tab
3. unselect hide system operational files
4. go to music folder with album art problem
5. delete the "folder" image
6. done!

[OonlyBonly]

I'm sorry, I like VLC but I've just run into this bug - and it is a bug, a big one. I can't believe this is still going on in 2013 with the latest version of the program.
Surely there must be a means for this to be resolved.
Silly bug wouldn't even let me correct the incorrect automatically downloaded, I've changed that!, cover art for correct art until after I found the directory and deleted the file.
Plus there simply has to be a simpler, more efficient method of storing the cover art.
Sorry for the rant but this reminds me very much of the Thunderbird -can't rename a directory to the same name but different case bug.

[randy_starkey]

And here we are in 2013 and the problem remains. Is this ever going to be fixed?? 3 years?? Sort of REALLY WEIRD now for a player of this popularity. I may switch though as it will throw my audio volunteers off track.

[wildsprite]

were now in May 2013 and this issue still isn't fixed? I don't get it even a crappy player like the one MS includes with windows shows art imbedded in the tracks, why doesnt VLC? why does VLC even download random art to begin with, most of it is horrible

[andrewgennings]

I hate to resurrect an old post, but there seems no resolution posted. Perhaps I can help, as I seem to be enjoying the reverse problem.

I had downloaded an FLV video off Youtube, then extracted out the MP3. I edited the MP3 so as to remove applause and other undesirable noise, which was of a live performance involving choral music and instruments played on-site (so, no canned music whose source could be derived from a database).

My MP3 tags were set so that I only set the Title, Author, and Album Title. Since the MP3 was derived from Youtube, my custom is to identify my downloaded/converted MP3's with the tag "Youtube: xxxxxxxx" where "xxxxxxxxx" is the Youtube "v" code, and I put the result in the Album Title field.

And wouldn't you know it? VLC managed to go out and swipe a random snapshot from the Youtube site and use that for the album title! The very video that my MP3 derived from!

I played around with the MP3 tags, but, it turns out that I accidentally stumbled unto a format which was fortuitous for me, and provides a lesson for you: set the Title, Artist, and Album Title properly, and you may get your album art set properly. As I was playing with the tag fields, I did not at all find it necessary to muck with the folders or permissions or anything of that sort. Changes took effect immediately, as long as I stopped the song and replayed it after making the changes.

(For me, it seems that VLC uses the strict syntax of "Youtube: xxxxx" to go out and find the video, and then, it grabs what appears to be a random snapshot of that video to use for the album art.)

[Steve_S]

I had the same problem and was able to fairly easily resolve it.

Go to C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\vlc\art\artistalbum\NAME OF ARTIST\NAME OF ALBUM The text in capitals is your username, artist name and album title

You will find a file in here named art.jpg. Delete this file and replace it with what you want displayed as the album art, rmember to rename your new file art.jpg

Good luck, it had been annoying me for weeks, now I am happy

Steve_S

[lordorih]

Hi guys, so here's how I just recently solved this damn problem:

Go to Tools > Preferences > Interface > (Tab) Playlist and Instances > Album Art Policy > (Set to) Manual Download Only.

Hope this helps everyone!

[bassmike]

well enough. now what's the process for loading album art from a file??? tks. M.

[persep]

superhipp7's post solved it for me. This also happens with Windows media Player and that's how I found the same solution but from here

[junaid saleem]

HERE YOU GO PEOPLES...:


Run the following command from the Run field in the Windows start menu: %appdata%\VLC\art. This will open an Explorer window with the contents of the cache folder.
Close VLC.
Delete everything in this folder.
Close the window and restart VLC.
Now you’ve got a clear cache.
I have simplified this a little bit by creating a batch file that I keep on my desktop. The contents of the batch file are as follows:
cd %appdata%\VLC\
RD art /s/q
md art

[Dan33185]

Just ran into this problem, really annoying. Any news on a fix? I tried searching "%appdata%\VLC\art", but that folder doesn't even exist on my computer.

[persep]

Just read my post here

[Dan33185]

Yeah, I already had it set like that, there's nothing there that should be causing this problem though.

[Niubbo]

Same problem, but deleting the /art/ folder doesn't help in my case.
The are some ways to display a different cover, from track with the same album?

Example, A and B have different covers, but they're in the same album. VLC recognize and save in /art/ only the first (A), displaying the same cover in the other track.(B)

[Nmredlink]

I also have this problem, with only 2 artists though. It displays the same album art for all of my Beatles tracks, but I have like 7 different albums. I don't think that the post Beatles album art should display over my Magical Mystery Tour tracks. The other problem is that the album art for another artist has noise over it; like television static over the thumbnail.

[Lyniaer]

VLC is picking up the album art from a file called "FOLDER.JPG". That file will be located wherever it's associated audio file is. Delete Folder.JPG to get the cone back or rename it or rename something else to Folder.JPG and that image will take over. This happens with certain *cough*acquired*cough* music files that have had their metadata removed.

[brbixxx]

Since it appears that multiple issues can cause this problem, I will attempt to recap/compile what others have stated up to now.

If the metadata of a given audio track contains no image, VLC searches for a substitute image. This file could come from a previously played track, or, as others in this thread have noted, from Google Images or elsewhere. In any case, the result is that the track you are playing displays the wrong cover art. You can address this problem by performing two related tasks.

1
Close VLC if it is currently open.
Run a search for "%appdata%\VLC\art", or go to file location
C:\ Users \ YOURUSERNAME \ AppData \ Roaming \VLC \art \ artistalbum/
This will bring up all the artists folders that VLC has cached.
If you would prefer for the track to display the VLC saftey cone icon, then delete everything in the artist album folder to clear out the cache.
If you would like to change the cover art VLC displays for this track, click on the folder of the artist, then the album.
Replace the image with one of your own.
Remember to rename the file “art.jpg”.

2
Open VLC.
Go to Tools / Preferences.
On the Interface tab, under Album art download policy, select Manual download only.
This should tell VLC to only get the album art from the track metadata.

[edw1n]

I found an easy solution to this problem.

1. Set folder options to show hidden files.

2. Open VLC and play a song that has the wrong cover art displayed.

3. From the Tools menu select Media Information.

4. Right click the picture in the bottom left corner of the dialog box.

5. Left click "Add cover art from file." You will be shown the name and location of the wrong image being used.

5. Delete the files shown. In my case it was AlbumSmallArt and FolderArt in the Music Folder.

[22-7ths]

Everyone seems to think it's pulling from %appdata%/VLC/art/* - end of story. Uh.. NO.

Yes it will do that, but if the art isn't available there are certain other defaults (apparently) it looks for:

I was also getting sick of seeing the same annoying album art for many things including streams and conversions.
To figure out where it was pulling this from, I used a program called Microsoft/Sysinternals "Process Monitor".

I ran a test conversion of a file at the same time I started monitoring the vlc.exe process.
Sure enough - the mysterious album art popped up.
Long story short there were 2 hidden jpg files called 'Folder.jpg' and 'AlbumArtSmall.jpg' in the root folder of the file I was working with. This is alluded to in previous posts.
(In this case my video file is located on my root T:\ folder). I am guessing that these files are probably remnants of Windows Media Player.. since they are hidden and were never cleaned up by WMP. (Go figure.)

Investigation & Resolution (Windows 7 x64) -
Prepping VLC conversion - looks fine so far:
http://i.imgur.com/LpnSbUT.png
Conversion starts - 'bad' album art shows up from somewhere..
http://i.imgur.com/yIApRZU.png
Investigating VLC file operations shows a 'Folder.jpg' being loaded from root directory of current drive with video file:


To show hidden system files, you have to show all system/hidden files in explorer settings:
http://i.imgur.com/RHAbdRu.png
(remember to re-enable this (check it again) once you have found/deleted the hidden JPG file. (Do not delete any other hidden system files!)

Once I had deleted the 'Folder.jpg' file, I then discovered it was also trying to load 'AlbumArtSmall.jpg' from same area (T:\ root folder in my case):


Once these 2 hidden JPG's were deleted, I no longer show this annoying album art in VLC.
VLC may in fact look for other files - but these were the two that forced displaying of the wrong media/album art in my case.

Hope this helps some in this thread.

[bensmith]

Since it appears that multiple issues can cause this problem, I will attempt to recap/compile what others have stated up to now.
2
Open VLC.
Go to Tools / Preferences.
On the Interface tab, under Album art download policy, select Manual download only.
This should tell VLC to only get the album art from the track metadata.

Apparently at some point the Album art download policy was removed from VLC. VLC Version 2.2.1 no longer has this option on the Interface section.

Running into the same problem of the album art not displaying correctly. If I have individual files (podcasts in my case) each with different "album artwork" but with the same "album name" (in my case podcast collection name) then the wrong album art is displayed after playing the first file. In other words, the album art from the first file played is the album art used for the rest of the files that have the same album name even though they have different album artwork embedded for each individual file. The workaround is to give each file a unique "album name", then each file's album artwork displays properly. Obviously this shouldn't be happening, VLC should (I would think) have the option to force pulling the album art from each file that has album art embedded rather than basing the album art on the first file played when the same album name is used for subsequent files.

[KHS]

I have just discovered this issue for the first time using v2.2.1 on Win7 64-bit.

Does it remain unsolved or is the solution on another post somewhere. It is hugely annoying not to have the option simply to display only embedded album art, not various guesses that apparently take precedence over the embedded art.

[mickrussom]

Everyone seems to think it's pulling from %appdata%/VLC/art/* - end of story. Uh.. NO.
...
Hope this helps some in this thread.

Thank you 100%. Thank you. This has helped me remove this vile cruft from my VLC and get my audio yellow cone back. Lord this was hard to find.