Universally fix/re-embed embedded album art?

Question

Hi I recently tried adding my music collection to XBMC and was (re)incensed when I saw that yet another program didn't recognize more than 50% of the album art in my collection (I have had this problem with multiple programs).

The program that seems to recognize the most is foobar2k (which is a relief as it is my die hard fav, not only because it recognizes album art) but most other programs are pretty hit or miss. Windows Media Player (so so), (now) XBMC, my preferred Android media player (PowerAMP) and the list goes on.

My collection is a mix of ogg/mp3/flac files and by far the majority of the non-recognized albums/art are in the ogg files (though not all) followed by FLAC and MP3s don't seem to be particularly problematic.

The two taggers I use the most are mp3tagger and jaikoz which have been invaluable for me in terms of polishing my collection with the obvious exception of album art.

So, my questions are: #1 Given the above info does anyone else have similar problems and #2 (and most important) Does anyone out there know of anyway to batch fix this embedded album art issue?

Any thoughts/solutions would really be appreciated!

Cheers,

-Gaiko

PS I am hoping to avoid iTunes if possible

Answer 1

So, you want to fix embedded album covers by exporting and re-importing them? Here we go:

MP3tag has a rarely used feature called Actions which is designed for such tasks.

Export cover to file

Exports the cover art from the tag of the file to the relative or absolute filename specified by the format string. You can use placeholders like %artist% and %album% in the format string.

Remove fields

This action type removes the fields entered in the edit field (e.g. COMMENT;PICTURE). Removing embedded cover art. Please use PICTURE as field name if you want to remove cover art from the tags.

Import cover from file

Imports the cover art specified by the absolute or relative filename into the tag of the file. You can use placeholders like %artist% or %album%.

In your case, you want to

2. Export all embedded covers to file
   • Open mp3tag and insert all your music files
   • Select all files and go to Menu bar » Actions » Actions (quick)
   • Choose Export cover to file
   • Enter %_filename% as format string for image filename
     You get a nonsense message but all covers are exported to their respective folders
3. Delete all embedded covers
   • Select all files and go to Menu bar » Actions » Actions (quick)
   • Choose Remove fields
   • Enter PICTURE as fields to remove
     Don't be confused if you look at Windows Explorer after it. He doesn't update the file covers.
     You have to copy (not renaming) a file to check the successful removal.
4. Re-Import all file covers
   • Select all files and go to Menu bar » Actions » Actions (quick)
   • Choose Import cover to file
   • Enter %_filename%.jpg as format string for image filename

Got some errors on the last step? Thought so. Me too. I realized that some embedded pictures are saved as .PNGs rather than .JPGs. Ok, back to the import dialog and enter %_filename%.png for our second import try. This time, all .PNGs are imported