What am I missing about MP3 file's cover art handling?

[trejder]

It seems that I a missing something obvious, because the way how MP3 file's covers are now handled by VLC for Windows is counter-intuitive.

In details:

1. When I change existing cover art or upload new in place of empty, the "Save Metadata" button does not appear. You cannot change just cover art for MP3 file. You must always change cover art + something in actual metadata. Only then the "Save Metadata" button does appear. Why?

2. When I open any file that includes cover art, VLC stores a copy of this art in cache (%APPDATA%\vlc\art). When I change the cover, it is updated in file BUT NOT in cache. As an effect every other MP3 player shows current cover while the same file opened in VLC always shows some old / cached art. Why?

3. There is absolutely no way to remove cover art. No button or context menu option. It is very important to have such feature, because some programs (i.e. Audacity) cannot open MP3 file after VLC modifies it (by adding cover) and claims that file is invalid. Any 3rd party program (like Winamp) must be used to remove cover art in order to make it readable by i.e Audacity again.

Can someone explain me what am I missing, if the above is by design? If not then should I rise this as a bugs?

[Hitchhiker]

Download this free tool: https://www.mp3tag.de/en/

[trejder]

Giving an advice of downloading some other software while someone reports a clear bugs or mis-behaviours doesn't seems to be the right choice, right?

[Lotesdelere]

Known issue:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=156241
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=157082
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=156362

That's why we suggest to use another dedicated software as a workaround while awaiting for a fix.

[trejder]

Still... You're linking to a forum posts, not to Trac tickets. Are there any tickets created? Are developers of VLC aware of this?

All three links talks about the same -- not saving data after clicking "Save Metadata" in 3.0.12. This particular functionality works just fine here (3.0.16), so maybe it was fixed.

What about other reported bugs? That "Save Metadata" button does not appear when you change the cover art. And that local cache is not updated after changed cover art. Is this known / handled somewhere? Or should I create a new Trac tickets for this?

[Lotesdelere]

Are there any tickets created? Are developers of VLC aware of this?

No idea. We have very little feedback from the devs, they are quite silent.

This particular functionality works just fine here (3.0.16), so maybe it was fixed.

No idea either. It doesn't appear in the changelog so who knows..? Not the end user for sure.

should I create a new Trac tickets for this?

Yes, you should.

[trejder]

1. When I upload or download new cover art, the "Save Metadata" button does not appear: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues/14928

2. When I change the cover, it is updated in file BUT NOT in cache: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues/25933

3. There is absolutely no way to remove cover art: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues/25935

4. Cover art is stored in cache per author, album etc., but not per title: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues/25934