[Q] Embedded mp3 covers disappaered - Xperia Arc General

I did have over 2000 tracks on my SE Arc, all showing the embedded cover-art, that is included in the mp3.
But all of a sudden, those cover-images are not visible any more. I'm using the standard media player of SE.
I saw in the forum that the same thing also happened with previous xepria-models, but i could not find a real solution: emptying the cache f.ex. etc. did not work.
So i might re-copy all of them: but the same thing may happen again ... :-(
Any idea what might have caused this, as there were visible for at least two/three weeks ?
Kind Regards,
Paul

Have the cover images been stripped from the files or is the media player simply not reading them?
Because the two are very different problems.
If it's the latter, then I'd personally say look for a different media player.
There are a number of them on the market that are superior to stock apps, such as WinAmp and and PowerAMP.

Well I ran into this same problem. It worked fine on my X10 using Sailing Media sync from my Mac (iTunes) to my X10. When I synced to the Arc about 20% of the album covers came across. I then deleted all the music and installed "iSyncr for Mac" (paid version but very cheap) on my Arc. I then synced the music and about 75% of the album art came across. App was way easier to use than Sailing Media sync (which was installed on my Mac)
I then installed "cover art downloader" (free app) . It found most of the rest with the general overall scan. Any remaining ones I could search for the album or artist and it would show a bunch of selections and I found them all.
Actually this worked pretty well overall.

Thanks.
The cover is still present in the mp3: SE did not remove it.
Using another program (Player Pro trial), it works perfectly.
Disappointed nevertheless: SE creates a multimedia telephone, but their app is not even able to show embedded mop3 covers. So i have to reorganize all, with other android app's. What is the added value of SE in all that ?!
I also deleted all music and recopied the mp3-files top the phone, but it still does not show any mp3 cover: so something must have changed, because it worked before...

Well, methinks that it's the Android player issue actually. Sony Ericsson did not include their wonderful Mediascape this time =(
They only added an infinity button onto the Anndroid music player.
When I was owning Rachael, Mediascape was da bomb. Though not all my embedded album arts were shown, but at least it had a 80% rate of display, unlike the 20% rate now.
And worse, initially the player couldn't read my 2,000+ wma files, only displaying a few measley mp3 files (c'mon... I got myself a 32gb card cos I trust Sony to host a good media player, right?).
Did abit of googling, realized it's the android version that's affecting it.
Only solution was to installed PowerAmp, and it displayed 60% of my albumarts, and my wma files could be played. Though some were omitted from the listings under 'artists', 'albums' etc.
Seems after installing that, the droid player could read wma files as well (but albumart visibility is still 20% -_-)
I'm no IT expert, but my guess is a wma plugin was not included into the Arc?
I don't know what Sony Ericsson is doing, abandoning such a great software they created for Rachael, leaving this new, sexy model media-crippled.
Personally, I don't like to install another music player when I have 1 in my phone, for space reasons, but the droid music player is too disappointing.
If you do a google, the albumart issue exists in all droid phones.

I remember having the same issue, it was caused by loss of the sdcard/Android/com.android.providers.media directory, which stores the cache of album art, and which I accidentally deleted. At least I think it was this directory, because I deleted the whole sdcard/Android directory.
Media player refused to re-create the cache, for some reason. I fixed the issue by renaming the folder with my music from 'Music' to 'music', after this media player rebuilt the cache.
Hope this helps.

Related

AARRGHH! 1.5 HOURS to finally get all of my Album Art on the Xperia??*RANT*

No matter if I used media sync with Windows media, or my iTunes interface program....I would only get about a 1/4 of the album art to load and show up.
Even using mp3 tag the Xperia wouldn't see but maybe 1/2 the albums.
So I had to sit there and "update album info" over and over on the PC's windows media player. Each time it may or may not grab album art, or it may only grab a little bit of info, or it may or may not create the folder.jpg file.
So I ended up having to open both sets of folder and transfer the folder.jpg for every album one by 'effing one.
I am just complaining so sorry for the b*tch fest. I know others here feel my pain so it is good to complain to people who can sympathize.
BUT GOOD LAWD can't Microsoft improve such a simple, stupid function?
Pants isn't it...
At least it's the windows side rather than the mobile side that's at fault for a change.
I tend to find the album art on amazon, (the mp3 off the USA site has decent cover art) and drag it to the cover in WMP. Is a bit quicker.
FWIW there's a PPC prog to do this automatically, it's not perfect and can get a bit confused.
adn on the pc this post might help..
http://lifehacker.com/software/albu...ary-into-shape-part-ii-+-album-art-231476.php
i didnt find it too hard, i just use itune to grab the album art, and copy the entire itune folder over to the storage card, all album arts showed up fine
I have tried different apps (Windows Media Player, iTunes, Tag & Rename, Winamp and so on) and I have found one app with perfect handling of album art: Easy CD-DA Extractor. It adds album art perfectly within the ID-tag and the file. No problems with "folder.jpg" and such things.
It works perfect on my Xperia X1 with Pocket Player and OggVorbis. And I have tried MP3 and AAC with it without any problems. Even album art and eAAC+ works perfect both on X1 with Pocket Player and my Nokia E90 (who has strict requirements regarding album art, other apps canĀ“t add them correctly but Easy CD-DA Extractor can).
Try that app and be happy.
I tagged mine in the latest version of mp3 tag. It embeds them and they worked fine, for some reason media monkey and the previous version of mp3 tag couldn't do it so they would appear in the media panel (or my ps3)...
Shame about media monkey, its a really nice media management software...
WMP, Mortplayer and S2p all fine,but media panel(orig or pubba prog) only see similar to urs...1/4.
My music is on SD and synced directly from MP11..
Any solutions?
NZtechfreak said:
I tagged mine in the latest version of mp3 tag. It embeds them and they worked fine, for some reason media monkey and the previous version of mp3 tag couldn't do it so they would appear in the media panel (or my ps3)...
Shame about media monkey, its a really nice media management software...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
??? I can't comment on the phone, but I use Media Monkey to tag my MP3 with text info and album art, and it shows up on the PS3 fine... Maybe it's a setting somewhere? I just use the defaults for adding album art in MM.
I only use MP3Tag to label the filenames; I find MM allows me to tag more info to an MP3 than MP3Tag does.
media monkey works for me too - I can see album art in wmp, core player, tf3d and media panel.
I guess it is all depend on how the images are stored and referenced on your PC? some players just read folder.jpg, others look at the id3 tags instead, if you make sure you have all bases covered, ie tags point to folder.jpg it should work
Your problem is not with the Xperia then, your subject title is misleading. Use tagscanner to apply the album art, works on every file.
mp3tag
Same, I use mp3 tag, because I have 4 monitors I just sit there with amazon on one, mp3 tag on another, xperia on another and my music folder on another. Drag the art from amazon to mp3 tag, use the music folder to drag the stuff i want to change to mp3 tag, then when done drag it all to xperia.
I gave up trying to get automatic album art a long time ago, I do it all myself for old music, anything I download normally has the art embedded and when I'm ripping CDs i never seem to have a problem with art.
But I guess not everyone is legit

Problems with the included HTC Music Player

The included HTC Music Player (latest stock TMOUSA ROM) seems to have serious problems with its database.
Of course there are other options--such as the included Windows Media Player, and freeware solutions as TCPMP, commercial music players, etc.
But I like the HTC Music Player, how it plays from your home screen.
I like what happens when one turns the phone landscape, and sees a shuffle of album covers. Is that a gimmick? Yes, but I like it. Kind of fun to choose an album that way, like shuffling through CDs at home, rather than from a list like in WMP.
Yet, the app seems to have serious problems with its database. Although I have tons of music on it (more than 10 GB, all on the storage card), sometimes it cannot see any music at all.
Sometimes it shows no cover art (which is especially crucial for that album shuffle view), although the cover art is embedded in each song, and if one looks at the .vin file that HTCMP put in the folder, the cover art is there too, put there by the app. But somehow, it often doesn't read it. I do the "download cover art" thing, it shows a connection to Gracenote, but some albums never display their cover art, although it is already right there embedded in each song on the album.
What is going on with this app and its database?
Ia there any fix for it?
Is HTC aware of the problem, and working on a fix?
------------------------
While discussing the HTC Music Player, one other thing I am curious about. The phone also includes an HTC Video Player, in the windows folder, but with no link in the start menu to it, so most people will never discover it. (They do call that video player, though, to play the included "Transformers" movies, rather than WMP.) Why did they include their own video player, yet not even have a start menu item for it? Does it have any advantage over WMP for playing video?
me said:
The included HTC Music Player (latest stock TMOUSA ROM) seems to have serious problems with its database.
Of course there are other options--such as the included Windows Media Player, and freeware solutions as TCPMP, commercial music players, etc.
But I like the HTC Music Player, how it plays from your home screen.
I like what happens when one turns the phone landscape, and sees a shuffle of album covers. Is that a gimmick? Yes, but I like it. Kind of fun to choose an album that way, like shuffling through CDs at home, rather than from a list like in WMP.
Yet, the app seems to have serious problems with its database. Although I have tons of music on it (more than 10 GB, all on the storage card), sometimes it cannot see any music at all.
Sometimes it shows no cover art (which is especially crucial for that album shuffle view), although the cover art is embedded in each song, and if one looks at the .vin file that HTCMP put in the folder, the cover art is there too, put there by the app. But somehow, it often doesn't read it. I do the "download cover art" thing, it shows a connection to Gracenote, but some albums never display their cover art, although it is already right there embedded in each song on the album.
What is going on with this app and its database?
Ia there any fix for it?
Is HTC aware of the problem, and working on a fix?
------------------------
While discussing the HTC Music Player, one other thing I am curious about. The phone also includes an HTC Video Player, in the windows folder, but with no link in the start menu to it, so most people will never discover it. (They do call that video player, though, to play the included "Transformers" movies, rather than WMP.) Why did they include their own video player, yet not even have a start menu item for it? Does it have any advantage over WMP for playing video?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as the data base goes it has a problem reading large amounts of music. Still on the stock SD card? Is HTC aware of this.....Most likely as it has been a prob from the start, is there a fix....not that I have found. The video player works from the albums tab as it pics up the movies and displays them in that tab.
zelendel said:
As far as the data base goes it has a problem reading large amounts of music. Still on the stock SD card? Is HTC aware of this.....Most likely as it has been a prob from the start, is there a fix....not that I have found. The video player works from the albums tab as it pics up the movies and displays them in that tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I use the stock 16GB SD card. Why? Is there a problem with that?
It is unfortunate, since that album art landscape thing is so cool, yet the HTC Music Player does not see the cover art of many albums, although it itself has created the .vin file in each folder, which is a renamed .jpg of the correct art.
And sometimes it cannot find any music!
I sure wish there would be a fix.
No registry fix or anything, that will help it?
me said:
Yes, I use the stock 16GB SD card. Why? Is there a problem with that?
It is unfortunate, since that album art landscape thing is so cool, yet the HTC Music Player does not see the cover art of many albums, although it itself has created the .vin file in each folder, which is a renamed .jpg of the correct art.
And sometimes it cannot find any music!
I sure wish there would be a fix.
No registry fix or anything, that will help it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No there really isnt a prob with the stock SD card except it is a class 2 card so it reads and writes slowly, alot of my issues were fixed when I got a 16gb class 6 off ebay. Make sure all your music is in this format, Artist\album. the album art is handled my the id3 tags so make sure those are all set right. there should be 5 .jpg files in each album folder. I have uploaded a folder with the album jpeg files for you to compare yours to so hope it helps
Thanks. I am downloading your 7z file, and will take a look at it. I have only seen one .jpg in each album folder, which the HTC audio database renames to .vin extension.
Most of the time, that ,jpg is the correct album art for that album. Funny thing is, even so, with many albums the cover art does not display.
I have found a solution (in another thread here) to the problem of when one opens the HTC Music Player, go landscape to see all the albums, and it says something like "no music found", then starts a long search for your music.
It seems like the app forgets its databse every time you reboot the phone. Then when you start the music app, and click anything needing access to the library, it then starts searching for your music to put in the db.
If you add a link to the audio manager file (something like audiomanager_en.exe (in the Windows folder) to your \Windows\Startup folder, that will make it recreate the database on startup, so it will be ready when you want to play some music.
Seems an unnecessary waste of memory and boot time though, to have to do that. You don't need to do that with WMP. It remembers its database, and is there and ready when you use it. If you have added music, you can click rebuild library, and it will then rebuild it. But it does not need to rebuild after every reboot.
Makes me think of stopping the use of the HTC music player altogether, and just use WMP or alternatives like TCPMP and Mort. (Although the latter two don't use library at all, don't know why, just files and play lists.)
But there are nice things about the HTC Music Player--its integration into Sense, and that cool landscape cover art thing. I just wish they would fix the bugs, and get it working properly! (Anyone know if HTC will issue an update for the music player?)
zelendel said:
No there really isnt a prob with the stock SD card except it is a class 2 card so it reads and writes slowly, alot of my issues were fixed when I got a 16gb class 6 off ebay. Make sure all your music is in this format, Artist\album. the album art is handled my the id3 tags so make sure those are all set right. there should be 5 .jpg files in each album folder. I have uploaded a folder with the album jpeg files for you to compare yours to so hope it helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just looked at your .7z file. As you say, there are five album art .jpgs inside that folder.
It makes me wonder--what phone are you using? I think your HTC Music Player is different than mine.
The Music Player on my phone only creates one .jpg cover art file inside each of all my music folders, including those that work in showing cover art, and those that don't. (I guess it looks at the art embedded in the music file tags, and extracts the cover art in a separate file. It is a .jpg file, but renamed with the extension .vin.
Five cover art files, as exists in your folder, is non-existent on the TMOUSA HD2.
Funny thing too---In albums that do not show the cover art in the music player app, the .vin file the app created inside the album's folder--is still usually the correct album cover art. So the app can read the cover art embedded in the music files, creates its one folder ,jpg renamed .vin for the art, but still does not display it in the app.
Hey HTC, fix this app!
I wonder if it might have something to do with the resolution of the cover art?
While it might be able to read all cover art, and make the corresponding .vin (.jpg) file of it in the folder, the app only displays cover art that is in a certain pixel resolution, or a certain range of resolutions?
Could that be why some cover art displays, and others do not?
Anyone know?
I was using the HD 2. I copied the folders from my music file on my pc to my phone. so that may be the reason for the extra image files. but as it always showed the album art I left them there
HTC audio manager shuffle problem
Hi Guys,
This old issue is still unsolved on the last update 3.14, and it is really driving me crazy.
Have you been able to solve it?
Have anyone tried the latest OBOE 1.18 files?
Brgds

Mediascape

Why do some albums not show in mediascape (and can therfore not be played) despite showing on the SD card and through the computer link up?
Help
Are they in an obscure folder? or are they a non-supported file format????
Neither.
A two disc set and disc two shows but disc 1 does not. No apparent differences between them either. Spooky
Well, for my experience, I managed to assign 90% of my 1700+ songs with a program called Media Monkey.
The album arts are embedded, not linked.
I even took the trouble to clear cache and restart the phone everytime I transfer. But then seems like only around 40% or so arts could be displayed.
I don't think the picture proportion is a problem, cos some of my album arts are Japanese singles (in the 90s and early 2000, Japanese liked to have singles in mini CD form, and their covers were tall designs).
I've exhausted ideas too. Hope someone can enlighten us.
And oh yeah, I tested the songs from the phone by playing through Wondows Media Player. The album arts are definitely there.
I found that Mediascape did some weird things on my phone as well. Some albums show the correct album art, some don't....some albums are duplicates. I have gone in and checked the SD card to make sure everything is tagged properly and all....but still no fix. I downloaded Museek from the market place and only use that to listen to music.
Timescape and Mediascape are useless in my opinion
Yep, just checked with a file manager and the files are there and they will play using the manager but do not register in Mediascape. All tags appear ok.
Weird.

Best way to copy music to phone

Does anyone have any suggested techniques for copying MP3 or WMA files to the phone (SD or Internal memory)?
What I've discovered is that synching with Media Player will transfer over these hidden files (album art, desktop.ini, and folder.jpg). These hidden files seem to mess with the way the Sense music player is picking up the music and what ends up happening is that in the music players details view, it does indeed break up the artists and the albums etc. HOWEVER, in the default view (the one that shows the album covers) it doesn't know what to do and only shows you the album cover of the particular album you are listening too. There's no way to get to the other album without going into the details menu and selecting it from there.
Whew - SO, all that being said; what I found is that if I delete the album art, desktop.ini and folder.jpg files BEFORE manually dragging and dropping the music over to the phone it seems to resolve the problem.
So is there a more streamlined approach to doing this?
Explorer
yatman60 said:
Does anyone have any suggested techniques for copying MP3 or WMA files to the phone (SD or Internal memory)?
What I've discovered is that synching with Media Player will transfer over these hidden files (album art, desktop.ini, and folder.jpg). These hidden files seem to mess with the way the Sense music player is picking up the music and what ends up happening is that in the music players details view, it does indeed break up the artists and the albums etc. HOWEVER, in the default view (the one that shows the album covers) it doesn't know what to do and only shows you the album cover of the particular album you are listening too. There's no way to get to the other album without going into the details menu and selecting it from there.
Whew - SO, all that being said; what I found is that if I delete the album art, desktop.ini and folder.jpg files BEFORE manually dragging and dropping the music over to the phone it seems to resolve the problem.
So is there a more streamlined approach to doing this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Put your INC in DISK DRIVE mode and copy your files to the SD card using Windows Explorer. You can also take out the SD card, put it in a reader, plug that into your PC's card reader, and put the files there via Windows Explorer.
Of course, all this presupposes that your MP3 files are correct (e.g., their ID3 tags are correct; and the album art was already integrated).
I use Tunesync, there're also isyncr, doubletwist, websharing....
The thing I like about these sync software is that they put your music in a playlist, which all the players can see.
First thing I would do is ditch the default android player though and stay away from Music PlayerPro too (just a skinned default player-same options same problems).
I am using bTunes, I think it's already abandon by the developer, but since it works and I already paid for it so might as well.
I recommend Mort Player if you don't look at it too much, Man!..that UI is just plain Ugly.
DoubleTwist is great. It also syncs your videos as well. Best part is it only syncs what you want. You create playlists and it syncs based on their contents
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Thanks...
Thanks for the info everyone. I guess the bottom line is that music software on Android is still in infancy stages with a lot of options but nothing that really just stands out. I hate to admit it but looks like Apple has a (+) in this department for now. My Incredible is a filler phone to hold me over until with WINMO7 stuff starts to hit Verizon so just looking for the best combinations of software on this thing.
I'm totally new to Android but I would have thought that the folks over at Google would have taken the media experience a little more seriously and spent some time on those aspects out of the box.
yatman60 said:
Thanks for the info everyone. I guess the bottom line is that music software on Android is still in infancy stages with a lot of options but nothing that really just stands out. I hate to admit it but looks like Apple has a (+) in this department for now. My Incredible is a filler phone to hold me over until with WINMO7 stuff starts to hit Verizon so just looking for the best combinations of software on this thing.
I'm totally new to Android but I would have thought that the folks over at Google would have taken the media experience a little more seriously and spent some time on those aspects out of the box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google was doing fine, 2.1 was solid. It uses up battery like there's no tomorrow, but solid.
2.2 seem like it's coded by 5 year olds... in Mongolia...using Vtech's Vsmile system....during recess. Maybe that's why the battery last longer, nothing works. Could be a way to make us pay for third-party apps (free enterprise at work).
Bus, now that's just plan 'ol funny. Educational (for me) at the same time.
I use the free version of Media Monkey on my Win XP desktop and Meridian on my Dinc. Then I sync playlists (like I used to on my iPhone 3G). Works like a champ.
The iPhone is far superior in the music catagory (dsp, organization, genius) but u have to keep inmind it stemed from an ipod. That said the closest ive come to it is boomboxoid but its terribly slow and often unresponsive. Which is why i primarily use pandora now...an ipod like music player is the app i want most!
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
gimini said:
The iPhone is far superior in the music catagory (dsp, organization, genius) but u have to keep inmind it stemed from an ipod. That said the closest ive come to it is boomboxoid but its terribly slow and often unresponsive. Which is why i primarily use pandora now...an ipod like music player is the app i want most!
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've mentioned bTunes above. It's the exact replica of the iPhone/iPod player.

Media file tags

I took my PAYG Samsung Galaxy S II back to O2 (UK) for a refund today, after 2 days of use. Love the speed, thinness, screen quality and size. TouchWiz is dire - but can be replaced with Launcher Pro. I could not live with the fact that most of my music files came up with <unknown artist> and no cover art. I use DoubleTwist to synchronise (after a fashion!) iTunes playlists to my Android devices. The same music files that appear correctly on the Nexus S and the Xoom would not show the artist/cover art information on the SGS2. So I know the files are tagged correctly. I also tried a direct copy of music files from my iMac to the SGS2, but same issue. Tried the stock music app as well as DoubleTwist and the Samsung Music hub - the media details were missing whatever the player.
I have spent many hours getting my media files correctly tagged and cannot live with a device that ignores all my hard work. May seem a small point and I can't understand how this could happen.
Has anyone else experienced the same problem and is there a cure?
Did you try PowerAmp? That works perfectly fine...that scans all the tags and brings up the details. I never use the stock music player cos it's not that good imo.
Everything else sucks compared to PowerAmp.
I think Doubletwist was your problem, I've seen another user at Androidforums who had the same thing, his files were fine when he just sideloaded them.
NZtechfreak said:
I think Doubletwist was your problem, I've seen another user at Androidforums who had the same thing, his files were fine when he just sideloaded them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree DoubleTwist is far from ideal, but it has worked OK to move music to the Nexus S and the Xoom - with all information complete. I also tried side-loading an album that showed with no artist information or cover art after the DoubleTwist sync and it made no difference. PowerAmp may be a good player on the device, but does it handle music transfer (from a Mac), as I need to move music in an iTunes playlist to my phones - too cumbersome to move files individually.
im using FLAC files with winamp and had no real issues, tho i did notice this morning that some tracks arent in the correct order but id have to check my tagging before i make assumtions
other than that not had one problem with them, you sure you didnt really want to take your phone back anyway seems a small matter to return such a nice phone for when it can probably be fixed
I'm not an iTunes user, so I don't know what the other softwares are, but I am aware there are several other options you could try to sync across from iTunes. Maybe give some others a try?
Found the following thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1062137&highlight=media
Seems that the SGS2 does not recognise artists (and presumably cover art) tags if the file is in M4a format. That would explain why some of my files were OK and others not. Most of my iTunes library is in M4a format, purchased from iTunes. Way too much work to convert everything to MP3 and no reason why this popular format is not supported, as it is supported on every other Android phone (including my Samsung Nexus S).
It was me that started that thread and I still have not found a solution, which is annoying, hopefully someone smarter than me will find an answer!
Just seams an odd thing as no other phone I've ever had has had this problem! And I'm not going to convert all my music either! Maybe someone will get the stock music app working?
It is really strange as I tried the Samsung Music Hub, the stock music player and DoubleTwist and they all could not read the tags. So it must be something that Samsung has done to the file format on this particular phone. I doubt it is an application fault, so it is up to Samsung to acknowledge and fix this oddity. I returned mine and will now wait for the HTC Sensation.

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