VLC displaying wrong album art

[sparrow_blaise]

Hi there folks

I have good news/FIX

AS YOU KNOW
THIS NO LONGER WORKS/IS PRESENT
"On the Interface tab, under Album art download policy, select Manual download only."

BUT

THIS IS THE NEW SOLUTION

1. Step: delete everything from this folder "%appdata%/VLC/art/"
2. Step: Go to Tools > Preferences > Interface > (Tab) Privacy/Network Interaction > (untick the box) Allow metadata network access.
3. Step: Save

PS: It would be so much nicer if these folks from the VideoLan fixed this issue permanently/once for all
BUT
for now this worked for me

Enjoy

[Brackenbrack]

Just wanted to say that I didn't have an art folder in my vlc roaming settings, but I did have the offending hidden files and deleted them both. Just to be doubly clear, in the folder where my media are, I had to UNCHECK the box next to "Hide protected operating system files" to see and delete them. All is well now and thanks. So if you have this problem, don't give up hope, that was an easy fix for me, I already had retrieving file information turned off.

Folder.jpg
AlbumArtSmall.jpg

They were both the same jpg, only one was, errr, smaller.

[aitte]

Hi guys, found a solution accidentally:

Instead of selecting albums/tracks from the file explorer from inside the VLC playlist, simply use windows explorer and select all the tracks you want to play and drag them into the playlist, this way individual track cover art is displayed correctly even if the tracks are from same album.

[didactic314]

Here's probably a welcome, 100% works every time solution:
turn-off your wi-fi!
Seems odd, right? However, after delving into the code in VLC's folder in Program Files regarding album artwork and metadata, I discovered that VLC obtains its random album artwork and names by referencing images from certain websites! I caught VideoLan red-handed in the code obtaining random images and metadata from online sources... So after entering airplane mode, I was able to play my CD without any of VLC's scripted interference....

now the question is.... why? Why did VideoLan write this into the code?

sparrow_blaise figured out a way in the Preferences to disable the "metadata network access;" this is another probably better long-term solution, however...

Yet, my work justifies why both solutions affect the problem.

[MelvinDoucet]

Hi,

I've signed up on this forum just so I can share my solution to this annoying problem for Windows 10.

1. open Folder Options;

2. In 'View' tab uncheck 'Hide protected operating system files' (for your own safety, check that again after this whole process is done);

3. Go to your Music folder, search 'folder' and 'albumartsmall', delete folder.jpg and albumartsmall.jpg.

4. Enjoy.

[lukpac]

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)

This still seems to be an issue. I have an album that has different cover art for each side. The first time I play a file from the album, the art for that file is displayed. However, subsequently playing a file from a different side results in the art for the first file being displayed. The art from the first file is stored in:

%appdata%\vlc\art\artistalbum\[artist]\[album]\art.jpg

I can delete that file, and VLC will load whatever the correct image is the next time I play a file from the album, but the problem remains.

Why isn't there a way to tell VLC to use the actual art from the file instead of the cache it creates for the entire album?

[dshfoto]

I just wanted to suppress the album art altogether so I went to .cache/vlc/art in the home directory, and deleted the files. Then cd back to the the vlc directory and "sudo chmod 555 art" This seems to work on Fedora 25 and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Now just the cone appears.

[DarkPhoenixII]

Hi there, I have found the solution to what I think the problem was.

When you try to tie a specific album art to a specific song it does not work, and all your other tracks have the same album art BECAUSE it is tied to a specific album, not song.

Thus when writing the metadata for the song include the name of the song rather then album if you want that specific album art to be tied to that song.

to see which album art is tied to which album open the Run field in the Windows start menu: %appdata%\VLC\art

you will see which art is tied to which album and can correct your self.

or simply just don't add the album name in the song metadata and that should also work
I hope this helps good luck.

[SDM71]

Hi there, I have found the solution to what I think the problem was.

When you try to tie a specific album art to a specific song it does not work, and all your other tracks have the same album art BECAUSE it is tied to a specific album, not song.

Thus when writing the metadata for the song include the name of the song rather then album if you want that specific album art to be tied to that song.

to see which album art is tied to which album open the Run field in the Windows start menu: %appdata%\VLC\art

you will see which art is tied to which album and can correct your self.

or simply just don't add the album name in the song metadata and that should also work
I hope this helps good luck.

Using the song title instead of the album title, as well as using it as the song title, is a workaround that doesn't work for me. We need a way to prevent vlc writing to %appdata%\VLC\art at all.

[SDM71]

Additionally VLC only seems to be able to "remember" one album cover per album title. If songs with the same album have different cover arts, VLC displays only one single art for all of them (usually the first it finds in alphabetical order).

I am no coder but wouldnt it be possible to have VLC read the album art directly and individually from and for every file, instead of it creating a folder for every album?

6 years later, this is STILL the nub of the problem.

[SDM71]

So after a brief test of blocking all access to VLC/art in Windows, I discovered something else:

VLC won't use the embedded art at all. If it can't extract it and write it to VLC/art/artistalbum, then it'll just be the cone.

It looks like after 6 years, all that's left is a series of workarounds, from which we all need to choose our own, personal, "least-worst" option.

[perzaklie]

Here it is, May 6, 2018 and the problem still persists. I have Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. I have tried every single workaround listed in this forum and NONE work. Some strange album art still shows at the beginning of EVERY video I play with VLC. This album is not on my PC, never has been, and I've never even heard of the artist before in my life. All the references to album art folders and files do not exist on my PC. VLC Metadata access is unchecked. My question is this, Since this problem has persisted for over 7 years, why can't it be fixed? I support financially every open source program on my PC. We will not have an effective open source community without support but I am having a problem justifying the support to VLC if some simple problem like this cannot be corrected. I am not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination but I cannot believe the solution can be that difficult. What do we as a user community, have to do to get this corrected? Can/will a person with authority within VLC please respond to the public? Do we not deserve an answer?

[n3pla2000]

My problem is two fold. I even tried adding "fingerprints" to the mp3 to correct this... But my problem is worse, Why I have two instances where bands used the name previously used by another band. "Copperhead" was a band that released music and albums in the early 70's, and had a self-titled album called "Copperhead". The years later in 1992, another band also used the name "Copperhead", and they too released a self-titled album called "Copperhead"!!! You see this was NOT the only time this happened two other bands had a similar issue. There were two bands called "The Arrows" one was from Canada, and the other was from the United Kingdom! VLC should ALWAYS pull the album art from the mp3, flac, or what ever... I can edit those files to include album art, ID3 tags can retain that data without ever needing to connect to the internet. I can see VLC asking internet site for album art IF there is none in the music file, but to do so otherwise??? Also if two files are in the same directory and same album name and artist name, then they could possibly use the same album art, while not the correct thing it is better than assuming all songs with the same album name use the same album art. How many "Greatest Hits" albums have been released (often by the same band), if not one for ANY band with a little longevity!!! Let's get real what if the internet is down? No cover art? No using metadata in the IDtags is the smartest thing to do. why have a database for cover art when the file already contains it? PLEASE VideoLan fix this problem.

[BaumschulenElrik]

I really don't know if this is still of interrest, but if you have trouble with faulty coverart I recommend doing the following. It does not fix vlc's issue but enables you to use your own coverart.

1. go to preferences -> Interface -> untick "allow network access for metadata"

2. go to your %appdata%/vlc folder and delete all preexisting/faulty coverart

3. place a .jpg image in your albums directory called "cover.jpg"
This image is going to be displayed everytime you use vlc to play one of the audiofiles inside the directory. If you don't place an own image, the vlc cone is going to be displayed.

[perzaklie]

Ok, thank you. I really am not interested in album art. As a matter of fact, I prefer not to have it at all. I followed your suggestion to locate coverart and there is none there. I created a blank black jpg image and placed it there. I will watch and see what happens in the future. Actually I just tried it and nothing happens now but the VLC cone.

My problem is/was this one strange album art pops up from time to time on totally unrelated media playback. I cannot locate the stranger, if I could I would delete it. The album referenced on the art is not on my PC nor is any media by the artist. I have no idea where it came from.

[Quilvis]

This might be a solution:

As previously suggested,

"Tools > Preferences > Interface > (Tab) Privacy/Network Interaction > (untick the box) Allow metadata network access."

Also, what I did was, take out all the songs in a particular folder (in Windows) and put them in a new one. The album art didn't come back!

I think VLC sees a particular Windows folder with songs in it, and treats it as an "album"

[perzaklie]

Thanks. First suggestion I did first off. Didn't change a thing.

I have hundreds of folders. The art that VLC is displaying is for an artist and song I've never heard of and is not on my PC anywhere. I have searched for jpg, gif, png and tiff files less than 100k and it is not found.

Interestingly, sometimes it appears every time I open a song then for a month or two won't appear then starts appearing again! I have decided that my PC is haunted by the ghost of this album. Somewhere, sometime in history, I must have offended this album and it is getting revenge by irritating me!

[Quilvis]

Hi perzaklie,

I have to update and say, that it's still a problem!

[mkapex1]

hello all I know this is a month an a half old thread. however. this isnt a vlc problem as I started to notice this also on windows media player. in your downloads folders if you click view and go to options, change folder and search options. go to the view tab, and uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). you will then notice in downloads the album arts as folder.jpg and albumartsmall.jpeg you want to delete both of these then reapply Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). and restart your media player.

if the file is not there go to local disk and search folder.jpg

[unidan]

Hi, if you want to delete them, you can find them in %appdata%/VLC/ folder.

[oldProgrammer]

As long as there is the directory "vlc/art" there is an excellent chance for wrong album art, and I waste time ere I start VLC deleting everything there (and on starting VLC wastes time setting up a directory for every file in my playlist). There is no reason for that directory if album art is found amongst the sound file s metadata, and only if one checks "Allow metadata network access", is there reason, and that is a bad idea. Furthermore, if there are metadata in the sound file with no picture, the best conclusion is that no picture is to be associated with the sound file—but I have in this case no objection to "Folder.jpg" if I control it (sometimes when I use WMP that is randomly changed). As far as I am concerned, there is no reason to fetch any picture from the 'Net unless the file has no metadata AT ALL.
I have found a curious bug in 2.2.3, that if in ID3 APIC follows empty WOAR, WOAF, WOAS (which, by the way, violates the ID3 rules), VLC ignores the APIC, although no other metadata that it handles. I believe that some versions of WMP put such empty frames into the ID3 section.

[oldProgrammer]

I found a new problem in my 2.2.3 under Windows, that if in an M3U file the full soundfilename is followed by space, the file is played, but the metadata are not shown, as if one process read the filename for playing, and another for the metadata. Considering the great lack of punctuation in an M3U file, I consider dropping the space for playing the bug, not keeping the space and not finding the metadata.

[kozna]

funny thread, assuming (you) did all the other solutions go to:
tools>show all settings>interface>main interfaces>Qt>uncheck display background cone or art.
restart vlc
i tried all the solutions in the thread + this and it worked.

[jfhenault]

Hi there folks

I have good news/FIX

AS YOU KNOW
THIS NO LONGER WORKS/IS PRESENT
"On the Interface tab, under Album art download policy, select Manual download only."

BUT

THIS IS THE NEW SOLUTION

1. Step: delete everything from this folder "%appdata%/VLC/art/"
2. Step: Go to Tools > Preferences > Interface > (Tab) Privacy/Network Interaction > (untick the box) Allow metadata network access.
3. Step: Save

PS: It would be so much nicer if these folks from the VideoLan fixed this issue permanently/once for all
BUT
for now this worked for me

Enjoy

Thank you so much!!

[davidrmoran]

Can you or anyone give full correct Win10 path? I am not finding

"%appdata%/VLC/art/"

and the frontslashes make me think this is linux

I have only

C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC

and no art folder ...

tyvm!