Album Art

[garotapi]

Translated from French via "Reverso"

Hello everyone,
And especially to our host

I cannot understand why:
Today, I come for a little trouble. When I display the library "Local Library" all my covers are no longer displayed, although they were displayed for a while, and are recognized if you click on them to play the corresponding albums or to open the view "file info".   
As follows:



Is there a way to fix this? A setting that I would not have made, or to repair in a future version of Wacup?
I also admit that it may come from my PC configuration, but I would be surprised. In case, I put it back below.

For memo, my config:
Wacup version: Big Bento with big buttons
Windows10pro
CM: MSI MPG X570 GAMING PLUS
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
CM memory: DDR4 PNY 2x8Go
Sound cards:
   NVIDIA High Definition Audio
   Realtek high definition audio
   USB audio device
   NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)
   Logitech G432 Gaming Headset
Playback devices
   Realtek Digital Output (Realtek Audio)   (default)
   Speakers (Realtek Audio)
   Speakers (Logitech G432 Gaming Headset)
Recording device
   Microphone (Logitech G432 Gaming Headset)

PS: I forgot to say, I currently have a pretty huge music db (855Go 200 days of listening)

Thank you in advance who can help


Bonjour à tous,
Et plus particulièrement à notre hôte
Aujourd'hui, je viens pour un petit souci. Quand j'affiche la bibliothèque "Local Library" toutes mes pochettes ne s'affichent plus toutes, bien qu'elles se furent affichées un moment, et qu'elles soient reconnues si on clique sur celles-ci pour jouer les albums correspondants ou pour ouvrir la vue "infos du fichier". 
Y aurait-il moyen de remédier à cela ? Un réglage à effectuer que je n'aurais pas fait, ou à réparer dans une prochaine version de Wacup ?
J'admets aussi que cela puisse provenir de ma configuration PC, mais cela m'étonnerait. Au cas où, je la remets ci-dessous.

Pour mémo, ma config :
Version Wacup : Big Bento avec gros boutons
Windows10pro
CM: MSI MPG X570 GAMING PLUS
Processeur: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Graphiques: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
Mémoire CM: DDR4 PNY 2x8Go
Cartes son:
   NVIDIA High Definition Audio
   Realtek High Definition Audio
   Périphérique audio USB
   NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)
   Logitech G432 Gaming Headset
Périphériques de play-back
   Realtek Digital Output (Realtek Audio)   (par défaut)
   Haut-parleurs (Realtek Audio)
   Haut-parleurs (Logitech G432 Gaming Headset)
Périphérique d'enregistrement
   Microphone (Logitech G432 Gaming Headset)

PS: J'oubliais de dire, j'ai actuellement une db de musique assez énorme (855Go 200 jours d'écoute)

Merci d'avance à qui pourra aider.

[Aminifu]

You can try refreshing the metadata in your library. There is a button (with 3 lines on it) to the right of the Search bar. Click on this button to get a menu of options. One of them is the option to "Refresh metadata for all view item(s)".

[garotapi]

Translated from English by Reverso

Hello and thank you for your answer, Aminifu.
Unfortunately, I practice the maneuver regularly without real success.

For memo, I use for my tags the MP3tag software which is extremely useful to reprint large quantities of music tracks. I also have a fairly large music database, in MP3 of different bitrates (from 50 to 320 Kbit/s) and in Flac.

Currently, some 87923 files in 6606 folders.

The cooling behaviour is quite strange. I keep refreshing, but the covers do not update. On the other hand, if I add a supplement to the name of the album, the refresh automatically without calling the command, and the cover appears.

However, I noticed that for some of the songs no longer displayed with their Album Art, they had simply lost the tag of the cover, while they had been marked previously (the visualization of the cover was done in the first place).
And indeed, during the re-registration of these tags, I could see that other songs lose their display of the Album Art.

As if the memory attributed to the tags of the covers were insufficient. But here, not being a developer or coder, I’m talking about an
impression.
I mention it because indeed, I have already encountered on another software (architecture, this time) a memory problem attributed to the files that had to be corrected by changing this attribution in one of the configuration files of the software. Maybe this could put on a trail...

I hope that despite the language barrier, I am quite understandable.

Thank you for your help.
Garotapi


Traduit du français par Reverso
Bonjour et merci pour ta réponse, Aminifu.
Malheureusement, je pratique la manœuvre régulièrement sans réel succès.
Pour mémo, j'utilise pour mes tags le logiciel MP3tag qui est extrêmement pratique pour retaguer de grosses quantités de morceaux musicaux. J'ai aussi une base de données musicale assez imposante, en MP3 de différents bitrates (de 50 à 320 Kbit/s) et en Flac.
Actuellement, quelque 87923 fichiers répartis dans 6606 dossiers.
Le comportement du rafraichissement est assez étrange. J'ai beau rafraichir, les pochettes ne se mettent pas à jour. Par contre, si je rajoute un complément au nom de l'album, le rafraichissement de fait automatiquement sans que j'appelle la commande, et la pochette apparait.
Cependant, j'ai remarqué que pour certains des morceaux n'étant plus affichés avec leur Album Art, ceux-ci avaient tout simplement perdu le tag de la pochette, alors qu'ils avaient bien été précédemment marqués (la visualisation de la pochette se faisait alors bien en premier lieu).
Et effectivement, lors de la réinscription de ces tags, j'ai pu constater que d'autres morceaux perdent à leur tour l'affichage de l'Album Art.
Comme si la mémoire attribuée aux tags des pochettes était insuffisante. Mais là, n'étant pas développeur ni codeur, je ne parle que d'une impression.
J'en parle parce qu'effectivement, j'ai déjà rencontré sur un autre logiciel (d'architecture, cette fois) un problème de mémoire attribuée aux fichiers que l'on devait corriger par la modification de cette attribution dans un des fichiers de configuration du logiciel. Peut-être cela pourrait-il mettre sur une piste...
J'espère que malgré la barrière de la langue, je me montre assez compréhensible.
Merci pour toute aide apportée.
Garotapi

[Aminifu]

Maybe your album art cache is partially corrupted and the previously saved covers can no longer be read. There are 2 more things you can try.

In the WACUP Preferences General - Album Art - Reading tab select the "Less aggressive ..." option in the "Caching Options" box. In the WACUP Preferences Media Library - Local Library - Maintenance tab select the "Clear views album art cache..." command. Due to the size of your library, this will take some time to repopulate your album art cache. If you play files for less than 2 hours at a time, it will probably take several sessions.

Good luck.

How do you associate your covers with your files, internal (embed) or external (separate image files)? I have a relatively small library (6693) of mp3s. I embed my covers in each file. I sometimes use the same cover in more than one file. Mp3tag can be used for this.

[garotapi]

Well, I come back here, after trying the first proposed solution.
First of all (foremost ?, Firstly ?), I want to thank you, Aminifu, for your help.
It looks a little better.  But still, as soon as I think I’m done (with the bad thing that the library cursor has an unfortunate tendency to go up whenever I make a change), and check everything by scrolling up and down the entire library, page by page, there are still albums without covers.

Perhaps there are other settings that I would have mistakenly, for this, I put a capture of the options of the album art:



To answer your questions Aminifu, I do not understand what you mean by "internal (embed) or external (separate image files)". My images are usually in the same folder as the music files, sometimes in a nearby folder inside the music files folder, and sometimes, but rarely, there is no visible file even when activating hidden files. But I still find these files with MP3tag. Is that what you’re talking about (see images provided below)?

I have been using MP3tag systematically for years to tag or re-tag my music files, for all the benefits that this software can bring.

PS: I forgot, it’s a certainty now, the covers can only appear in the library if I also edit the name of the album

Most common :



More rarely :



Very rarely :

[garotapi]

Second post following from me, to tell you where I am in my wanderings

Well, all my covers seem to be in place stably. On the other hand, if I scroll page by page the local library, there is another phenomenon, visible on the capture below.
This happens around the 200 pages of the "local library" and it is not that my files are not found, this time, since the file icon is not colored as it should be when it is. There is only one thing to do when this problem occurs, and that is to restart Wacup to retrieve the images. To avoid this problem, it seems to me that scrolling several pages at once and quickly allows you to get to the bottom of the list without losing the image. I think that there is still room to work on improving Wacup, because I really feel like taking it to the limits of its musical DB capabilities.
The concern is that I have no certainty.

214e pages scrolling:



(yes, I counted them, to know about where it could happen)

216e pages scrolling:



And it’s like that all the way down the list

[Aminifu]

Sorry that I can not write in French.

The format of mp3 and flac audio files use internal metadata tags within the files themselves to provide information about the files. For example, there maybe a title tag containing the name of the song, an artist tag containing the name of the artist performing the song, an album tag containing the name of the album the song is on, and so on. There can be a cover art tag that contains an image of the album cover. This is the tag used when a cover art image is embedded in the file. These metadata tags must be added manually or by tagging apps (such as Mp3tag) which can look for information on the internet and add them automatically.

WACUP is able to read this cover art tag from within the audio file itself. If you use the tag panel in Mp3tag, it can show the embedded cover art in a selected file, if it has one.

It appears that most of your files do not have (internal) cover art images embedded within the files themselves.

WACUP is also able to use cover art image files that are separate (external) from the audio files. These separate files must have a name and format that WACUP will recognize. The WACUP Preferences General - Album Art - Reading tab options lists the various ways these files may be named. I suggest you use the jpg format and the same naming option (such as "cover" or "folder") for these files. Disable the naming options that are not being used (especially the option for "Embedded art ...), to keep WACUP from wasting time looking for names (and embedded cover art images) that would not be available. From your screenshot, you have all the options enabled. That will cause WACUP to waste time and may cause confusion if you have multiple files with valid names in the same folder.

WACUP assumes that the album folder structure is being used to store audio files (meaning that all the audio files in a folder came from the same album). Therefore, you should use 1 cover art image file per folder of audio files. All the audio files in the folder will use this same cover art image. Do not put these "cover.jpg" or "folder.jpg" files in WACUP monitored folders that do not contain audio files.

I hope you understand what I wrote above. As I stated earlier, all the files in my library currently contain embedded cover art, so I do not have recent direct experience using external cover art image files. Also, since all my audio files contain their own cover art images, I do not use the album folder structure to store my audio files.

[garotapi]

Hello everyone,

Hello Aminifu, and a big THANK YOU!!

The digital translation into French is perfectly clear.

And although I already know in practice the elements that you describe to me, I understand much better how they work.
So indeed, as I have different types of covers, integrated and external, in different formats (jpg; png; Webth...), and under different names (folder; cover; Album Art; sometimes a very specific name), and all this sometimes stored in the source folder of the album, sometimes in a parent or child file of that file, I understand much better why my concerns. And indeed, with all these disparities, I am obliged to check almost everything on the setting tab so that all the covers eventually appear.
It remains for me, now that my covers are stabilized and all present, to unify my tags to make the database faster. It will take time, to make album by album, but it will only be good for the operation of Wacup, and the PC.

To do this, foremost, I must remove all the superfluous files contained in my music album folders.
Then, i need to put the covers in the source folders.

For the name, I will opt for "folder" knowing that it is under this name that the covers are extracted by MP3tag.

For the format, I will have to rename the.webp and .png to .jpg.  For trying, I know that this is doable without making the file unreadable. Maybe for some, I should use an image editor, but well, I’ll see that later.

With MP3tag, indeed, I did not realize that I had "integrated" files since the software finds and displays them without problem. Well, I don’t have a lot. But I was recently surprised when I found this folder without cover that I used for my last image of the previous post. It is thanks to you that I understood how this was done. On the other hand, I still do not understand how we can technically make it "integrated", perhaps by editing directly the tab "Album Art" of "Info File"? The obvious advantage is not to risk separating the album cover from the songs. But that’s another story.

Here I am with something to keep me busy for next winter.

In any case, I am reassured about the operation of my Wacup

Have a great day!
Garotapi.

                                                                                       



Bonjour tous,
Bonjour Aminifu, et un grand MERCI !!
La traduction numérique en français est parfaitement claire.
Et bien que je connaisse déjà en pratique les éléments que tu me décris, j'en comprends bien mieux le fonctionnement.
Alors effectivement, comme j'ai différents types de pochettes, intégrées et externes, sous différents formats (jpg; png; Webth...), et sous différents noms (folder; cover ; Album Art ; parfois un nom très spécifique), et tout ceci rangés parfois dans le dossier source de l'album, parfois dans un dossier parent ou enfant de ce dossier, je comprends bien mieux le pourquoi de mes soucis. Et effectivement, avec toutes ces disparités, je suis bien obligé de quasiment tout cocher sur l'onglet de réglage pour que toutes les pochettes finissent par s'afficher.
To do this, first of all, I must remove all the superfluous files contained in my music album folders.
Il me reste donc, maintenant que mes pochettes sont stabilisées et toutes présentes, à unifier mes tags pour rendre la base de donnée plus véloce. Cela va prendre du temps, à faire album par album, mais ce ne sera que bon pour le fonctionnement de Wacup, et du PC.
Tout d'abord, je dois mettre les pochettes dans les dossiers sources.
Pour le nom, je vais opter pour "folder" sachant que c'est sous ce nom que les pochettes sont extraites par MP3tag.
Pour le format, je vais avoir à renommer les.webp et les .png en .jpg.  Pour avoir essayé, je sais que cela est faisable sans rendre le fichier illisible. Peut-être que pour certains, je devrais utiliser un éditeur d'image, mais bon, je verrai ça dans un second temps.
Avec MP3tag, effectivement, je ne me rendais pas compte que j'avais des fichiers "intégrés" puisque le logiciel les trouve et les affichent sans problème. Bon, je n'en ai pas énormément. Mais j'en ai eu dernièrement la surprise quand j'ai trouvé ce dossier sans pochette que j'ai utilisé pour ma dernière image du post précédent. C'est d'ailleurs grâce à toi que j'ai compris comment cela se faisait. Par contre, je n'ai toujours pas compris comment on arrive à le rendre "intégré", mais ça... c'est une autre histoire
En tout cas, me voilà rassuré sur le fonctionnement de mon Wacup.
Une excellent journée à tous!
Garotapi.

[Aminifu]

With MP3tag, indeed, I did not realize that I had "integrated" files since the software finds and displays them without problem. Well, I don’t have a lot. But I was recently surprised when I found this folder without cover that I used for my last image of the previous post. It is thanks to you that I understood how this was done. On the other hand, I still do not understand how we can technically make it "integrated", perhaps by editing directly the tab "Album Art" of "Info File"? The obvious advantage is not to risk separating the album cover from the songs. But that’s another story.

Here I am with something to keep me busy for next winter.
In any case, I am reassured about the operation of my Wacup

I'm happy I was able to help you.

I'm not sure what you mean by "integrated". I assume you're referring to embedded.

When you have separate image files, you can use the album art tab in WACUP's Info File dialog to embed them in audio files that support this kind of tag.

Read the help information in Mp3tag, if you want to use Mp3tag to do this for image files you already have. Or, if you want to use Mp3tag to search the internet for image files and embed them.

Working slowly and carefully, it did take me a few months to find and embed images in all my mp3 files. For variety, I did not always use album cover images. Sometimes I used pictures of the artist or other things related to the song.

This (https://www.albumartexchange.com/) is a great site for finding good quality album cover image files. The files are free and without an overprint ad on the images, if you register with a valid email address

Have fun!   

[garotapi]

Well, well:)

Well, Aminifu, I really appreciate this exchange. It is really nice to find people who know what they are talking about, and who can explain things in a perfectly understandable way. This is different from a lot of French forums.

I hope to be able to do the same, and be as consistent.

"Integrated"... Yes, it is indeed Internal "embed" file you mentioned above. This is what I get in the translator for "embed".  Yes, if the translator translates from French to English the word "integrate", I get "integrate; incorporate; include". In French, all these words have about the same meaning. This to say that I was talking about "internal/ internal" files. ,

And yes, now I am sure, these files correspond to the representative image that I posted above, where I asked (in red on the image;) ), because at that time I did not yet fully understand the difference between "internal (embed) file" and "external file".

In one case, the file is not seen in the music folder, it only exists in the "info file" of the music file. In a sense, it is even more virtual than its external double. Both, internal and external, carry the same information.  In the other case, the external file exists in the music album folder (music folder). In this case, if the files are moved, the image will no longer appear in the playback software (Wacup).

So, I come to the fact that I just discovered on MP3tag, which I use for years (a good fifteen, if not more). A discovery that seems very important to me. This is what I tested earlier, and which I explain below.

Then I come to the fact that I just discovered on MP3tag, which I use for years (a good dozen, if not more). A discovery that seems very important to me. This is what I tested earlier, and which I explain below.

MP3tag, in fact, does not only link an external image to a music file, but integrates, embed, actually the image to the info file. Important because after processing, external image files can be deleted without losing view of the cover.

Clearly, with a help file and patch notes in English or German, it is not easy for me to read and understand how it works. So it turns out that my knowledge of MP3tag was acquired through trial and error and experimentation with the software. Which is not really a bad thing, and which makes me discover it even today.

Which leads me to think that maybe, the problem that Wacup is facing with my "local library" is the multiplication of identical files, and makes a file choice decision even more complicated than the disparity on all the names and extensions of the image files of the set, especially if they are located in the source folders of the music files.

This, I think of the total blocking of my display of covers that forces me to restart Wacup, if I slowly scroll through the list of the local library.

So finally, I will have to clean my music folders of any Image files there by deleting them to make a better display velocity in Wacup.

See you soon for new discoveries and exchanges on Wacup
                                                                           
                                                                                                                         I’m Happy!
                   
                                                                                                                           

[dro]

Preferences -> General -> Album Art -> Reading tab -> that shows the reading order of albumart from files (top to bottom). The local library view will show & if needed cache the albumart for the first item that's internally found as the first item of the album (it's not done in a determined order i.e. it could match on track 5 or track 2 or track 1, etc) which is then used for the album. There is some attempt to look at other items against the 'album' to find an appropriate image but as a defined fallback image has been specified in the albumart reading preferences then that image will always be used for any of the image look-ups being attempted if there's not a result.

[Aminifu]

Hi garotapi,

I see above that dro finally had time to respond to this thread. He is usually very good at quickly responding to most posted messages (and things he is told about via other ways). He is doing this (developing WACUP and managing this website) all by himself. He is a former developer for Winamp and is fully devoted to improving WACUP.

Yes, as you noted, help files are often not very helpful. Trial and error working with apps is often the best way to learn what they do. But you must be careful and make good notes, because "trial and error" can really screw things up! I suggest you don't stop with the first thing that seems to work. Keep looking for other, and maybe better, ways to handle things.  I'm retired with plenty of time to "play" with stuff and using this approach is fun for me.   

WACUP users use different ways handle album cover images. This is why dro has provided so many ways to provide support. Having multiple options is both the "good and bad" of working with WACUP. I like doing things "my way", instead of being forced to use a single "so called" standard. You will eventually find a method that works well for you.

Have a great weekend.

FUN FACTS:
When using WACUP, right-click on everything. This will often result in a pop-up menu providing additional commands associated with the thing clicked on.

dro likes using the keyboard instead of "point & click" with a mouse. So, there are keyboard shortcuts provided for most commands. Don't ask me what they all are, someone else will have to provide that info. I'm mostly a "point & click" type user. dro has also provided a way for users to create their own custom keyboard shortcuts.   

Similar to Winamp, the things WACUP can do can be expanded by using plug-ins. Many of the plug-ins developed for Winamp will work with WACUP. dro is often willing to work with the popular ones that don't (when possible), to get them working.

[garotapi]

Hello everyone,

Sorry it took me a while to answer, I was away for two days.

Thank you, Dro, for the clarification. It will be very useful.
I have new curiosities not on Wacup, but on my music files. But this will be the subject of a new post.
I have some proposals to make also on the development of Wacup, I do not know if anyone has already proposed, and if so, what decisions were taken, so it may be that I seem to repeat things already seen.

Aminifu, no worries to have, because I had enough browsed the forum and because Dro had already answered me on another post, I knew that he was our host on the forum, and the developer of Wacup.

After, yes, of course, when apprehending a new software, even in French, I always tend to test a little everything that falls under the mouse cursor. Here, the difficulty is still and always the language, but as Dro already talked about it and had already answered me on why, the Winamp translations were gone on a certain update of Wacup,I would know to be patient, or I would learn to deal with. Even in English, Wacup is really the closest thing I expect from a music player. Well, it is true that it remains perfectible, but there is a time for everything, and each thing in its own time.

Any test operation I perform is done almost always under backup, so that I can go back and not put my files at risk. I learned this as soon as I started using computers, in the early 2000s. This did not prevent me from losing data... by accident or haste. I blame myself in these cases.

Any test operation I perform is done almost always under backup, so that I can go back and not put my files in danger. I learned this as soon as I started using computers, in the early 2000s. But that didn’t stop me from losing data... by accident or haste. I only blame myself in those cases.

As for the use of shortcuts, I often use a mixed keyboard/ mouse to work, this for all the software I use, I find it really practical. I start with an exclusive mouse to integrate keyboard shortcuts gradually as needed. This allows me to learn them by heart in a lasting way.

I myself will be retiring soon, but I am no longer working because of a physical inability to work since 2019... I blew my 6th decade already a few years ago.

So I also have time to get into everything that interests me.

Thanks again for everything.

Garotapi.

Bonjour à tous,
Désolé pour avoir mis un peu de temps à répondre, je m'étais absenté deux jours.
Merci à toi Dro, pour les précisions apportées. Elles vont m'être fort utiles.
J'ai eu de nouvelles curiosités non pas sur Wacup, mais sur mes fichiers musicaux. Mais cela fera l'objet d'un nouveau post.
J'ai quelques propositions à faire aussi sur le développement de Wacup, je ne sais si quelqu'un aura déjà proposé, et le cas échéant, quelles en furent les décisions prises, donc il se pourra que je semble répéter des choses déjà vu.
Aminifu, pas d'inquiétude à avoir, pour avoir suffisamment parcouru le forum et parce que Dro m'avait déjà répondu sur un autre post, je savais qu'il était notre hôte sur le forum, et le développeur de Wacup.
Après, oui, bien sûr, lors de l'appréhension d'un nouveau logiciel, même en français, j'ai toujours tendance à tester un peu tout ce qui tombe sous le curseur de la souris. Ici, la difficulté reste encore et toujours la langue, mais comme Dro en a déjà parlé et m'avait d'ailleurs déjà répondu sur le pourquoi, les traductions Winamp avaient disparu sur une certaine mise à jour de Wacup,je saurais être patient, ou j'apprendrais à faire avec. Même en anglais, Wacup est vraiment ce qu'il y a de plus proche de ce que j'attends d'un lecteur de musique. Bon, il vrai que cela reste perfectible, mais il y a un temps pour tout, et chaque chose en son temps.
Toute opération de test que j'effectue se fait pratiquement et quasiment toujours sous sauvegarde, de façon à pouvoir revenir en arrière, et ne pas mettre mes fichiers en péril. J'ai appris cela dès que je me suis mis à l'informatique, au tout début des années 2000. Ce qui ne m'a pas empêché cependant de perdre des données... par accident ou précipitation. Je ne m'en prends qu'à moi-m^me, dans ces cas-là.
Quant à l'utilisation des raccourcis, j'utilise souvent un mixte clavier/souris pour travailler, ce pour tous les logiciels que j'utilise, je trouve cela vraiment pratique. Je commence par un exclusif souris pour intégrer des raccourcis claviers petit à petit au fil des besoins. Cela me permet de les apprendre par cœur de manière durable.
Je suis moi-même bientôt à la retraite, mais je ne travaille plus à cause d'une incapacité physique à travailler depuis 2019... j'ai soufflé ma 6e décennie il y a déjà quelques années.
Encore merci pour tout.
J'ai donc aussi du temps pour me mettre à fond dans tout ce qui m'intéresse.
Garotapi