'Default' Album art problem

[nattfoedd]

Hi
I found a post with this issue but everyone seemed to be determined to misunderstand the issue so the thread owner gave up.

The problem is everytime I play a song that is not associated with any album art, a default one pops up (A clash album I don't even like =P).

To clearify;
I open John Petrucci - Glasgow Kiss (in flac, copied to an empty folder). The album art bar shows this Clash album. I open another file (in fact on another drive) and it shows the same clash album.
The only time this doesn't occur is when the file I play has got album art explicitly associated with it.

What is wrong?

[Batter Pudding]

Turn on Hidden Files in explorer and make sure there isn't an old image file sitting there.

Explorer Tools Menu, select Folder Options, View page.

Put a tick on "Show Hidden files and Folders"

And (maybe) clear the tick on "Hide protected operating system files"

Now check what hidden files are lurking in that folder. (I assume that other thread gave you the list of file names that Winamp looks for)

I expect you have a rogue "album.jpg" in there.

And remember - Winamp prefers you to have an organised folder tree and not one big heap of tracks.

[nattfoedd]

As I said, the file was copied to an empty folder for testing (New Folder (1)) if you like. I always show hidden files and my music library is organized as Studio/Live -> Artist -> Album -> Files
There is no file in the folder except the Petrucci song and there is no image file in the winamp root folder.

[Batter Pudding]

When you have that file in a folder on it's own, what happens when you look at the "View File Info" from the right click Winamp menu? Does this show the image file on the artwork page?

[Batter Pudding]

Grab something like MP3tag ( http://www.mp3tag.de/en/ ) and have a look at what it thinks the file is doing. This will let you confirm, independent of Winamp, that it is not the MP3 file causing the problem.

[nattfoedd]

First of all; It's not a problem with the mp3 since it applies to every single mp3 file without associated album art.

I now realized that the problem seems to occur when the file is placed in a subfolder to "My recieved files". There was a file in that folder that had the clash album art. I tried removing the file but it didn't solve anything. Also, it seems wierd to me that it would steal from another audio file which isn't even in the same subfolder. I'll keep the audio files away from any subfolders to my recieved files and return again if the problem remains.
Thanks for trying, bbl!

[Batter Pudding]

The suggestions I am making so far may sound simple, but I am only doing that to eliminate those areas. I don't want that to come over as if I am implying you are daft, I just needed the silly questions out of the way first.

It is interesting to see that you have found a pattern though. It could be XP? (you haven't mentioned which OS) is doing one of its "special folders" tricks on things in the "My Recieved Files".

If you build up your Music Collection in "My Music" or another folder tree, does this look like it is an answer?

And was that Clash Image labled with something generic like folder.jpg? Looks like it could be Winamp climbing the tree back up to find an over-all image. I didn't think there was a "default artist image"... but maybe that is what is going on?


I assume you have already seen this list of the way Winamp makes its art decisions? This mentions nothing about climbing up the folder tree.
1. Embedded art in the tags of the files
2. %album%.jpg/png/gif/bmp in the containing folder (where %album% is the exact name of the Album)
3. An .nfo file with the exact same file name as an image file in the containing folder
4. cover.jpg/png/gif/bmp
5. folder.jpg/png/gif/bmp

[Batter Pudding]

BTW - you said you always show hidden files. Does that include the Hidden SYSTEM files? Windows hides its WMP11 image files as SYSTEM HIDDEN and not just plain old HIDDEN files.

This may be of interest to you...

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=281591

[nattfoedd]

Batter Pudding; I presumed an album art image wouldn't copy itself from the mp3 to an external file and mark itself as a "protected system file" because that wouldn't be anything but stupidity. HOWEVER, I tried it for the sake of good procedure and cause I thought I'd really try your suggestions. Imagine my surprise when I found 4 copies of the image with different album-related names, appearently created by windows media player. I removed them and it seems the problem is now gone. These coudn't be seen with just regular hidden files setting.

I wish to thank Microsoft for programming shitty software behaviour making me go though all this suffering =P
I also wish to thank you guys for helping me and making me try the system files setting! You are gold. I can now listen to music with peace in my heart.

/nattfoedd

[nattfoedd]

Also, I will never listen to a clash album again. XD

[Batter Pudding]

Now don't blame The Clash. ARF!!

Yeah, MS do make some odd decisions about hiding art for a music player. Hidden files are logical as they treat their users as idiots. But Hidden System file? Yeah - I agree with you. No logic at all.

Great you have now spotted them all.