Can't see album art in Windows Explorer, pls help

[jk419]

Guys pls help i can't see any album art in my windows explorer. I've searched for this everywhere and did everything out there but my problem isn't solved. Someone pls help. There is no problem in viewing album art in windows media player or any other audio players.
Pls help

 

[xxxdannyxxx]

Hello jk419
You will need to show Hidden Protected Operating System Files to view the album art in explorer - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/394-hidden-files-folders-show-hide.html

Danny

 

[Arc]

Moreover, by any chance, have you got your thumbnail preview disabled ?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11738-thumbnail-previews-enable-disable.html

 

[jk419]

I've tried it both but no change.........
I want to see the album art embedded in the audio file in the thumbnail view not the album art.jpg.

 

[Arc]

Use Mp3tag - the universal Tag Editor .

Open a music folder in it ... select all tracks .... at the left bottom there is album art box - click it and choose the album art .jpg file , and then save the changes by ctrl+s .

Otherwise, place all the tracks of a particular album in a particular folder, place the album are picture in that folder, and rename it as "Folder.jpg", not anything else like album art.jpg.

 

[koolkat77]

make sure your folder options are set as attached (unchecked "always show icons - never thumbnails") capture1 and then check and select more options to be seen in Large icons as in capture2 hope this helps
View attachment 183491

View attachment 183492

 

[jk419]

the problem is still there...........i've tried everything. I'm have been using Mp3Tag for sometime, this problem with album art just started one day out of nowhere.
I can see the album art as in capture1 but when i enter the folder there is no art in thumbnail view - capture2

 

[koolkat77]

the problem is still there...........i've tried everything. I'm have been using Mp3Tag for sometime, this problem with album art just started one day out of nowhere.
I can see the album art as in capture1 but when i enter the folder there is no art in thumbnail view - capture2

get in the particular folder of the music you want & select them to be viewed in 'Tiles' as attached and see if it works?
edit : this is also supposed to work if you select them in thumbnail view

 

[dsperber]

Guys pls help i can't see any album art in my windows explorer. I've searched for this everywhere and did everything out there but my problem isn't solved. Someone pls help. There is no problem in viewing album art in windows media player or any other audio players.
Pls help

Just in passing, you might look at this other thread and discussion which went on earlier this year, also dealing specifically with the "loss of and corrupt album art cache".

It actually devolved from from the initial thread subject into a discussion and "how-to" of a terrific replacement for (or at least a "supplement" for, if you're psychologically married to) Windows Media Player and Windows Explorer... namely Jaangle.

In fact, the basic music playing, organizing, etc., capabilities of Explorer and WMP are quite limited. If you are a serious music collector and really get enjoyment out of being able to play music on your PC, view album art that you worked very hard to collect, etc., then you should at least look into something else besides Windows Explorer.

And I strongly recommend Jaangle.

(p.s. - imbedding album art inside the tags of music file tags will or should certainly "work", assuming software players that are capable of making use of that imbedded album art in ID3, FLAC, APE, WMV, etc., tag formats. And certainly MP3Tag can manage that imbedded art. But if your music collection is organized along "\artist\album" boundaries, you might seriously consider NOT imbedding the album art in each track from each album (which obviously duplicates the same album art JPG into each of those tracks) but rather use the "external album art" approach. This "external" approach places a single external JPG image file into that album's folder... with the JPG specifically named "cover.jpg". Virtually every software player ever written can understand the notion of external "cover.jpg" in an album folder and use it when playing any music file within that album folder which does not have its own imbedded internal album art in the tag for that music file. Just a suggestion, for saving space caused by duplicated album art... if you already organize by \Artist\Album.)

 

[Arc]

As a try, you may change the .mp3 file association from Winamp to Windows Media Player.

Right click on any .mp3 file > Properties . In the window, Change the "Opens With" option to WMP.

 

[jk419]

thanks for your replies........

 

[jk419]

but my problem isn't solved yet......

 

[dsperber]

but my problem isn't solved yet......

You're going to have to provide more information... like a screenshot of MP3Tag showing one of the "problem" MP3 files that isn't showing the cover art.

I just ran my own experiment (although I don't normally use Windows Explorer to manage or view my music collection). Works perfectly for me.

I do NOT use imbedded album art inside of the tags in my MP3/FLAC files, because there's no reason I can justify for the duplication of imbedded JPG art into each music file for the same album. So normally I would only have "cover.jpg" as an external album art file in the album folder and no imbedded art duplicated into each music file's in that same album folder. But I did just that in my experiment, to see what would result.

(1) Initially, Explorer showed only the "cover.jpg" thumbnail, and nothing for each MP3/FLAC file in that folder:

(2) Then I used MP3Tag to imbed the "cover.jpg" album art in that folder into EACH TAG (of each music file, MP3 and FLAC) in that folder. So now I had both imbedded album art in each tag, as well as the same "cover.jpg" album art in the folder. Results looked perfect:

Note that Windows Explorer does not support tags in (or even play) FLAC files, so they still appeared as having no art. But if I look at those files with MP3Tag the imbedded album art is there, since FLAC tags DO support imbedded art and MP3Tag does support FLAC tags completely.


So... this is obviously how things SHOULD work. Everything works perfectly, and Windows Explorer shows the imbedded album art inside of ID3 tags (for MP3 files) even if it doesn't show imbedded art inside of FLAC tags.

Now, looking at one of these MP3 files which currently has imbedded album art using MP3Tag, it looks like this. Do your files look the same, showing the imbedded art??

 

[dsperber]

I can see the album art as in capture1 but when i enter the folder there is no art in thumbnail view - capture2

The icons you show in your capture2 do not look like the icons for "music files". They look like the icons for "playlist files".

Are you sure you're looking at the correct folder, and that it has been populated properly with MP3 files and not M3U files??

See my own screenshot above, of my own folder containing MP3/FLAC files. Note the Winamp icon for the MP3 files... which is NOT the Winamp icon for M3U (playlist) files as yours shows.

Unfortunately your screenshots for capture1 and 2 chopped off the bottom of each icon, so I can't see the file names underneath nor can I see the folder names. That would have been very informative.

 

[aowald]

FIX!!

Okay, so I believe I've got a real fix for you. I've been dealing with a similar issue in Windows 7 for this same exact problem. Basically what I've come across is that something happened to the registration in Windows that altered the ability of these files to display thumbnails. The way I fixed this issue was to locate a resource online that would repair just the file extension with a registry hack.

For example, since I use Windows 7 and could not see thumbnails for some of my mp3 files, I went here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/19449-default-file-type-associations-restore.html

and pulled down the reg file that would re-establish default settings for mp3 files. After downloading and running the registry file, I rebooted and after logging back in to windows, I found that I could see all my mp3 files with the thumbnails properly in place. I'm actually having the same problem with AVIs as well. I'm going to try this method again to pull down the reg file for AVIs and get thumbnails back for these types of files as well.

I've got a good feeling this will do the job for you.

 

[jinuj27]

its simple open windows media player press ctrl+o

now you see a explorer to select music

go to mp3 containing folder & open it change view as large icon

(NB: open all mp3 folder and change the then go slowly top to bottom of folder)

 

[mangoh]

OP when I had a similar problem I followed this

 

[Scottyboy99]

OP, did you ever fix your issue? I have more or less the same problem whereby m4a thumbnails are not showing in explorer. These are iTunes music files. I see preview art on the folder but if I open the folder all the m4a tracks just have the default windows music icon. Strangely m4p protected files seem to be ok and displaying the art. The art is embedded because if I physically open iTunes or Windows Media Player to play one of these tracks the programs display the relevant album art. Also if I browse over Network from another computer I can see the thumbnail art. Would clearing the thumbnail cache be a good solution?

I might add this is on a new windows 10 pc (fresh factory install last week) that this is happening on. I know this is a windows 7 forum but I am struggling to find similar stories relating to 10.

Cheers,
Wayne

 

[Scottyboy99]

For benefit of others. I downloaded trial version of DbPowerAmp which seemed to restore the thumbnails, must have some built in m4a benefit. Clearing the thumbnail cache did not work.