Windows 7: Music cover art missing from the file icons! HELP!

In my music folder I have a lot of music that I have spent a ton of time editing the mp3 tag info and adding cover art, so that when I open my music folder I can browse my music by cover art. I usually have the icons displayed in large icons and arranged by artists. Its beautiful to open up my music folder and have it loaded with cover art.

But now I have a problem! over 90% of the music icons are not displaying the cover art. The cover art is still attached to the mp3 and it will show up in windows media player when I play the song but it does not display in the folder. All I see now is a bunch of music notes for icons.

The only thing that I have done to my computer recently is install a couple of mp3 editing software programs to make 30 second music clips to use for ringtones on my phone. Thats when I noticed the problem with my cover art. And windows did an update but I dont think the update is the problem.

Does anyone have any idea what I did or how I can fix this? plz help!

If the album art files themselves are still in the folders, all you can do is drag&drop the album art again. Include the folders you want into the WMP12 library and then just drag&drop the album art...

The album art is not actually in the music folder it is attached to the mp3 files. So when I open the music folder I should see a album art picture for every music file icon, but it is only displays the typical music note icon instead.

Go to Organize -> Folder Options -> View -> uncheck the option "Hide protected operating system files" -> you'll be prompted with a "are you sure", click OK, then apply and OK. Now you should see the album art image files in the folder.

if you are wanting all the info embedded into the MP3s themselves :

Im unsure if WMP12 will acually write the album art into the MP3 itself, or simply use hidden JPEGS. It very well may, perhaps others know for sure.
Never used it for organizing my MP3's ... sorry

there are alternatives if it does not.
I do know, something like Media Monkey will write the album artwork into each MP3, as well as lyrics and any other info you want embedded. it has excellent editing abilities for MP3s

And WMP12 will read this info. without issue

there may be other apps that do the same, but this is the ony Im familiar with.

Well... it still didn't work. I really appreciate the advice. I attached a screen shot of my music folder after I unchecked the "Hide protected operating system files" It showed some of the album art but it didn't actually fix the problem. look at the screen shot and you will see. Most of the album art is still not showing.

In the screen shot I played one of the songs so you could see that the album art is still properly attached to the mp3 file, as well as the song title, artist, track #, and other info, because WMP12 is still reading this info without a problem. the album art should be displayed on the icon, as well at the bottom left corner of the screen shot where I circled it (see the attached screen shot)... But its not.

One thing to remember is that not all the album art is missing for the icons, but about 90% of them are. Weird huh?

I'm sure my problem has something to do with the mp3 editing software I installed previously, that's when I noticed the problem. I have uninstalled all those programs, but nothing changed.

DID you try drag&dropping the album art in the WMP library again? I had the same issue: The icon in the explorer doesn't show the album art, but WMP does. Using drag&drop again worked for me; if it didin't, I'd just delete the album art completely and add it again.

@ Wishmaster: WMP12 writes the album art into the MP3, AND then stores the .jpg files into the folder for folders views

thanks!! i wasnt sure if it did

If I remember correctly, WMP11 only stored the .jpg files into the folders, and didn't embed the art. So if WMP12 is now embedding, that is an improvement. WMP11 stopped cooperating with me on my old XP machine so I just uninstalled it in frustration, but it seems WMP12 is a better program overall.

Of course it is