Album art-preserving transfer to Windows Media Player 11 / Media Center
Edition: how to save your folder.jpg.


 

I have found that WMP11 destroys the album art of the folder only when
WMP recognises it as a new addition to the library. The main problem is that
it replaces folder.jpg with its own ugly/wrong versions. I want to use
my new MCE machine, and I want the transfer to be as time-efficient as
possible (having +3000 albums), and I – and not the computer – choose my
album art!

 

If anyone knows of a better workaround, please tell me!

 

 

My workaround for “album art-preserving transfer” of a large music
collection to my new WMP11/MCE machine is as follows:

 

   1. Keep the original version of your entire music collection in a
      separate folder. Let’s call this original collection the
      “Ur-collection”. Don't ever let WMP/MCE touch this one. Better
      yet, keep it on a separate machine. In any case, you cannot use
      the My Music folder for the Ur-collection.

 

   2. Preparations before starting “album art-preserving transfer” of
      your music collection to a WMP11/MCE system:

 

         1. Get a tag-utility. I think Tag&Rename is the best one. Learn
            how to use the utility!
         2. Get a mass-renaming utility, I use Bulk Rename Utility.
            (There are probably better ones, but this one works for me).
            Learn how to use it!

 

   3. Structure your music in folders, preferably artist/album/song. Use
      T&R to tag the mp3s AND download a folder.jpg file to every album
      folder AND embed album art in every song. Sometimes I embed
      individual jpegs for individual songs, but mostly I embed the
      folder.jpg for all songs in the album. I use nice, big images - the sky is the limit. Start
      with groups on “A”, then “B” and so on.

 

   4. This is tedious work, so we don't want to do it twice – don’t let
      WMP destroy it - don't let WMP touch the Ur-collection! Ever.

 

   5. When you feel you can’t take any more / are finished / have
      reached the letter “B” of your collection:

 

   6. Use the mass renaming utility to rename the folder.jpgs that you
      have now worked with to something else, for example wmpfooler.jpg.
      (Later you will change wmpfooler.jpg back to folder.jpg). This
      mass renaming should only take some seconds.

 

   7. Start WMP on the target computer. It will instantly start
      monitoring for additions in the My Music folder.

 

   8. Tell your computer(s) to show both “hidden” and “system” files.

 

   9. Copy the folders from the Ur-collection that you have now worked
      with to My Music folder. You can in real time see how WMP creates
      a small Folder.jpg (remember it’s both hidden and a system file).
      Usually WMP also creates files named AlbumArtSmallxxxxxxx.jpg. The
      art for Folder.jpg is randomly chosen from the embedded artwork.
      However, WMP cannot destroy the embedded artwork. This unwanted 
      process does take some time.

 

  10. When WMP is through, use the mass rename utility on the folders that you 
      have now copied to My Music. (You can drag the folders to Bulk Rename
      Utility and it works with subdirectories). Mass rename Folder.jpg
      to albumarse.jpg. Be sure that you only rename the Folder.jpgs of the
      folders that are new to the library.

 

  11. Right click My Music and search it for “albumar”. When all
      albumarses and AlbumArtSmalls have been found, delete them.

 

  12. Use the mass rename utility to rename all wmpfooler.jpg to
      folder.jpg in My Music. Remember also to rename wmpfooler.jpg to
      folder.jpg in the Ur-collection.

 

  13. Now the album art should work fine in WMP and MCE. Even large (2
      MB) jpgs work! And it seems that WMP does not attack the
      folder.jpg or introduce albumartsmalls in the folders that are
      already present in the library.

 

  14. However, we cannot trust the WMP/MCE $oftware, so always keep the
      Ur-collection.

 

If anyone knows of a better workaround, please tell me.

e-mail:

ormioga and then gmail.com

Good luck!


Björn

 since 6 Jan 2007.
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