[Impala]

Several discussions in different areas of the forum have mentioned a problem with album cover art not displaying on the (Mib3) Infotainment system. Often, this has been raised in topics which were opened to discuss other issues, so rather than go round finding and updating each of these different discussions, I thought it best to start a new topic specifically to present the findings of an extensive investigation carried out by Buddy1 and myself (Impala) over the past few weeks.

First, our conclusions;

1. This issue is not new or confined to VW cars.
2. The issue affects the latest VW Mib3 media players and has been reproduced on my 2019 R-Line (Mib2).
3. The issue can arise for a variety of reasons, which are now better understood and listed below.
4. Although the root cause(s) cannot be remedied, the effects can be mitigated or corrected by owners using a variety of methods and tools.

The main reasons for non-display of cover art which we identified are;

• Physically missing artwork images - affects any media player
• Artwork image dimensions too large for the VW media players - affects Mib2 and Mib3
• Artwork image files hidden by MS Windows don't display - affects Mib3

Much of this depends on the software used for ripping CDs, and MS Windows Media Player which is one of the most widely used media management tools, is one of the main sources for the above issues.

Physically missing art, often caused by a CD not being recognised during ripping or 'lost' when moving music between devices, can only be resolved by downloading images from Internet repositories (or finding the 'lost' art files). Details of how to do this, and sources or artwork, can be found in the web pages listed at the end of this post.

It is possible to fix the other issues manually using a mixture of software tools and MS Windows commands, such as the 'attrib' command referred to in another topic.

However, this can all be laborious and time consuming, so I have written a PoweShell script (RecoverArt) to bring it all together in one place. This is entirely self contained and does not require installation but unfortunately it is only for those with a Windows computer.

The script will search an entire music collection on local storage or removable media (SD card or USB stick), identify all albums without a cover art image file, extract images embedded in mp3/wma music tracks to Jpeg files, resize images to any specified dimension, and remove MS Windows hidden file attributes.

The script and instructions are in the attached RecoverArt.zip file. If anyone has any problems, or wants to provide feedback or suggestions, please feel free to do so. General points can be done via replies to this topic, but anyone with more specific issues can contact me by PM and we can arrange email follow up if required.

RecoverArt.zip has been superceded by a new version (see below)

Additional Resources

There is a vast amount of information on the internet about how to locate missing album art and various tools which can be used for embedding images into mp3 files. The following links give a good overview;

Tips & Tricks for Assigning Album Cover Art to your Music Library

Windows Media Player Album Cover Art Problem Fix Using MediaMonkey

https://captainrookie.com/how-to-embed-album-art-into-digital-audio-files/

https://lifehacker.com/find-and-embed-album-art-in-your-mp3-collection-397258

https://lifehacker.com/alpha-geek-whip-your-mp3-library-into-shape-part-ii-231476

Sources of Cover Art:

Search - MusicBrainz - Good quality images with several versions and in a few alternative dimensions

https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=77197031 - Good quality images, fewer versions

Google Advanced Image Search - Very variable quality, some obviously just scanned and misaligned

Library Management and MP3 Tag Editors:

MediaMonkey » Free Media Jukebox, Music Manager, CD Ripper & Converter - Comprehensive library management but layout and complexity may not appeal to all

Mp3tag - the universal Tag Editor (ID3v2, MP4, OGG, FLAC, ...) - An easy to use mp3 tag editor with a clean layout

 

[Impala]

I have made a minor change to reduce the length of script output during image resizing when there are lots of albums/images which don't require resizing and only a few which do.

I don't think people would want a long list of albums which weren't changed, so the process now only lists the albums with images which have been resized.

New zip file attached.

RecoverArt v1.0.1.zip has been superceded by a new version (see below)

 

[Ray Cathode]

Thanks for this - will be very useful. However, missing album art is something I have been lucky enough to avoid so far. I use dbpoweramp for copying in flac and it's not really possible to copy a cd without album art because a little window will popup at the bottom of the screen showing you the album art it has pulled from the web. If you don't like it you have the option of changing it before ripping. Also, If the art you wish to change it to is too big a file it will automatically resize it to something more appropriate.

I used to use sd cards in the car but now have usb drives instead and I have noticed that these do not play tracks in the same way as the sd drives. For example; say I want to make up a "best of" of my albums. So, I copy them to the usb stick, no particular order, and I copy loads of artists from A to Z. When I play them in the car it will play the two AC/DC I copied first, then two Beatles tracks and then Carrie Underwood and so on. It plays them in alphabetical order, which seems logical/reasonable enough but that's not how I want to listen to them.

The sd cards would play them in numerical order which is far better because, although it is still possible, the chances of the two songs from the same artist playing in succession can only happen if you have copied the same track number from different albums. Even then there's a workaround as you have the option of changing the track number.

I have not really had time to have an in-depth look at this because my car is in a garage about twenty minutes from my house - not as if I can just pop outside and try things out.

EDIT: Forgot to mention there is a "Favourites" I think you can select with each usb stick which will play the tracks in the order you choose. That's a bit of a faff but possibly a solution.

 

[Impala]

Hi 'Ray', you are absolutely right and there are lots of music collection management programs out there which are far better then Windows Media Player or, dare I say it, ITunes. Of course many just opt for the easy route of using what comes standard with a PC or iMac, while others may not want to fork out extra cash or try lots of dubious freeware that may leave all sorts of garbage on their systems. Personally I've only tried a couple but I wasn't greatly impressed byt the 'skins'.

As for your track selection/playback annoyance, I suspect this is more to do with the media player (ie Mib2 vs Mib3) rather than SD vs USB. Are all these tracks in one folder, or do you retain Artist and Album folders and then want to play entire albums in a particular order ? Have you tried creating your own playlist(s) and then copy the playlist files to the SD/USB ?

I think the Mib2 recognises playlists but I'd need to check again to see if it actually plays them !

 

[Ray Cathode]

The dbpoweramp is not free so I guess you pay for ongoing support and no rubbish is loaded on your pc when you install. I bought it quite a few years back as I wanted to rip all my cd's to a NAS and then stream them around the house using Sonos. Sonos Port now connected to NAS and hi-fi amp and additional Sonos speaker in kitchen. No more cd playing. Windows Media Player wasn't really an option as my pc hard drive is limited, WMA files are huge, and to stream using WMP/Sonos you had to leave your pc on. If it went to sleep then the music stopped.

That's why I chose the NAS. Ripping all my cd's was a chore but all done now plus I have them all backed up if the NAS dies - don't want to go through that again. It was then a simple matter of dragging either whole albums or tracks from albums to a card/usb. You could have your whole cd collection available to play in the car or (perish the thought) on your phone.

The file structure is Artist, Album and tracks. When I copy a track from an album it automatically copies the album art too, which is useful when compiling playlists.

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/

 

[Impala]

I have updated the RecoverArt script to v1.0.2 to fix a couple of minor issues and improve usability in some areas.

The main functional change is to check mp3/wma files for embedded cover art and determine image dimensions without extracting the images. This is done during the initial survey phase and details are added to the search summary to allow users to review image dimensions before deciding whether or not to extract the images to Jpeg files.

It should be noted that this is only done for albums which do not already have a cover art Jpeg file.

Full details can be found in the Change History within the script or the ReadMe file.

RecoverArt v1.0.2.zip has been superceded by a new version (see below)

 

[JoDicken]

having spend hours , with VW and the local dealer , it comes down to all the artwork needs to be *.png , its that simple

 

[Impala]

having spend hours , with VW and the local dealer , it comes down to all the artwork needs to be *.png , its that simple

The files can be .JPG .JPEG or .PNG but what is important is that they are not hidden/system files as happens on Windows. Converting .JPG files to .PNG (eg by 'editing' and saving as PNG) will remove the hidden/system attributes, which is probably what happened in your case as PNG format is not commonly used for album art.

 

[Neil M]

I've downloaded and saved to a folder called scripts. When run as a powershell the program finds and lists all the music folders, then says there is a fatal error and abruptly exits. This is a screen shot of the log file.
My music is on an SD card arranged as artist\album with a sub-folder for each album

 

[Impala]

I've downloaded and saved to a folder called scripts. When run as a powershell the program finds and lists all the music folders, then says there is a fatal error and abruptly exits. This is a screen shot of the log file.
My music is on an SD card arranged as artist\album with a sub-folder for each album

Hi @Neil M , sorry to hear you are having a problem running my script and I'll try to help you although this can be difficult when working remotely.

In order not to clutter this thread with lots of technical Q&As, I will send you a PM with my email address and some initial questions. Once we have resolved the issue, you or I can then post the relevant info in this thread.

 

[Neil M]

Hi @Neil M , sorry to hear you are having a problem running my script and I'll try to help you although this can be difficult when working remotely.

In order not to clutter this thread with lots of technical Q&As, I will send you a PM with my email address and some initialquestions. Once we have resolved the issue, you or I can then post the relevant info in this thread.

That would be great

 

[Impala]

That would be great

Hi @Neil M - I've sent you a PM so please check your 'Conversations' in the drop-down menu shown when you click/tap your Account Details icon on the bar at the top right of every (?) page.

 

[potace]

Hi @Impala
I’m looking for your RecoverArt script but can’t see where to download it. I’m probably doing something daft. Much appreciate any help, thanks.

 

[Impala]

Hi @potace - As you will see above, I recently updated the script in response to an issue raised by @Neil M

Unfortunately, the new forum hosting service does not allow ZIP files to be uploaded as attachments and I sent @Neil M the new script via a PM and I'm afraid I overlooked updating this thread. So apologies to you and to anyone else who has been looking for the script.

As I said, I've made a new zip file (v1.0.3) but to be able to upload it I've had to cheat by renaming the file to "RecoverArt v1.0.3.zip.pdf" (ie I added an extra .pdf extension) and attached it to this post.

Download it by right-clicking on the attachment icon below and select 'Save Link As ...' then rename the downloaded file by removing the ".pdf" extension and unzip as before.

 

[potace]

Hi @potace - As you will see above, I recently updated the script in response to an issue raised by @Neil M

Unfortunately, the new forum hosting service does not allow ZIP files to be uploaded as attachments and I sent @Neil M the new script via a PM and I'm afraid I overlooked updating this thread. So apologies to you and to anyone else who has been looking for the script.

As I said, I've made a new zip file (v1.0.3) but to be able to upload it I've had to cheat by renaming the file to "RecoverArt v1.0.3.zip.pdf" (ie I added an extra .pdf extension) and attached it to this post.

Download it by right-clicking on the attachment icon below and select 'Save Link As ...' then rename the downloaded file by removing the ".pdf" extension and unzip as before.

Many thanks @Impala for your response. Sadly, having followed your guidelines, I now have come upon the following error message;

File C:\Scripts\RecoverArt.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system. For more information, see about_Execution_Policies at https:/go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135170.
+ CategoryInfo : SecurityError: ) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnauthorizedAccess

I've had look at the suggested link in the error message but it's way beyond me. I'd appreciate any further help. Thanks Scott

 

[Impala]

@potace - the problem you have is due to MS Windows security settings. It is fairly simple to modify this to allow the script to run, but I don't think I've ever had to do this on my own PC. The following instructions should allow local scripts to run while at the same time will still protect your system from running remote scripts.

1. Click the Search icon at the bottom left of the Windows taskbar
2. Type 'Powershell' (without the quotes) in the search field and click on 'Run as Administrator' in the right-hand pane as highlighted in this screen-shot ...
   
   
3. When the Powershell window opens, type the following command and press Enter;
   

   Get-ExecutionPolicy -List

   
   
   Note the policy shown for LocalMachine (eg Restricted) as this will be used later to reset the execution policy ...
   
   
4. Now type the following command and press Enter;
   

   Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

   and enter Y when prompted to confirm ...
   
   
   
   
   
5. The RecoverArt script should now execute.
   
   
6. When you have finished using the script, you can restore the original execution policy by repeating the above steps, replacing the command at step 4 using the original policy noted in step 3, for example;
   

   Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Restricted

7. Finally, repeat step 3 and confirm the original policy is restored;
   

   Get-ExecutionPolicy -List

   
   

 

[Impala]

I've updated the Getting Started document to include the above ...

 

[potace]

Much appreciated and many thanks for your help!

 

[Impala]

Much appreciated and many thanks for your help!

Did it work, or have you not tried yet ?

 

[potace]

Did it work, or have you not tried yet ?

I have tried it but it threw up some errors which I will look into when I have the time. Thx