Solutions for Album Art Problems

[gracer]

I'm new here, had my zen 3 months and just had a problem so searched here. I don't see an apprecation thread but OMG I have leartnt so many tricks and been helped so much today, thnks. So now am trying to do this, read pretty much the whole thread but I'm lost.
So my zen has all my album art in picture folders, i expected them to show up when i played the music but they never did so meh, I lived with it, are they linked somehow though? I never could figureit out. I am now trying mp3 tag etc to embed but just wonder if you can embed more than one pic, ie front and back of an album which would be good for concert albums so you can see all the relevant info as well as a pic?
cheers

[CrowdAds]

[ZenChick]

There's no way to manually link photos to songs in that manner. Some sync managers like WMP use a trick to add a "album.jpg" to each music folder and links it within the ZVM's database, but your best bet is to embed the art into each song's ID3 tag.

You can add more than one image to the tag; however, the ZVM will only display one of them (and I couldn't even tell you which one. I assume "User Specified" or "Album Cover (front)" would be used, in that order of precedence).

[ambar_bs]

Originally Posted by ZenChick

There's no way to manually link photos to songs in that manner.

I don't know! but it's kind of working well for me
these are the steps:
Such a hassle to do, wish there was some other way or program to search google and add art automatically. But anyways, heres how you do it...

1. Make sure you are connected and running the Creative Media Explorer and click "Browse Files".

2. Find your folder will all of your music. Open it.

3. Right click any blank area within a folder that contains MP3's, and click "Album".

4. Next, a split screen should show up with album(s) at the top with a generic unknown album art displayed.

5. Drag and drop images to each album.

Hope this helps. Im sure there are other ways to do it using WMP but this is the simplest. (but not the fastest)

courtesy: http://forums.creative.com/creativel...cending&page=1

These steps never worked for me before.But suddenly i had the luck after installing WMP11 and installing this patch http://us.creative.com/support/downl...pe=0&x=24&y=16(application #5)
thanks again !

[gracer]

Sweet, I got one artists complete works tagged with pictures through that mptag, and they show up on my zen
I kinda expected them to be full screen like wallpaper though but I just got little thumbnails beside the info, still happy but is it possible to bring them up bigger?
And I'm struggling with changing names in that mp3tag, I got the picture part on the left sussed but on the right side where it says artist/title I can't type anything in, I must be missing something?
cheers guys

[gracer]

Oh, I forgot to say, even though the pics are embedded now they still come up in a seperate folder in the picture files on my zen, I thought I would avoid that?

[ZenChick]

Any chance you've got a folder full of these pics on your PC that whatever you're using to sync is "seeing" the folder and syncing it as part of your photo library?

[gracer]

I don't think so, I set the WMP ( i think I have 11 but not sure how to tell) to only sync from the 'my music' folder on my pc, but then it wouldn't sync anyway, just says 'unable to sync at this time try again later' so I manually added the album files I'd just tagged with pics and the pics automatically showed up in photos on my zen as well, anyway I just deleted from there and they still show up when I play the songs, so all good Thanks.

[ZenChick]

o.O

That's... Pretty... Weird!

Glad you got it working though. That's all that matters.

[zj96sc]

is there any way to just completely turn off album art? mine is all kinds of screwed up and i dont really care about having it at all....


thanks
paul

[Baines93]

sorry if i havnt fond this, but i couldnt read 14 pages.

im having album art problems GRRR.

I have recently edited all my music's tags (25gb's) and have now completed it. i have been doing it on media monkey, and also putting in ALL the album art embedded into the tags.

previously i have synced with Creative MS, Media Monkey, and tried WMP 11.
After finishing my tags, i synced a few tracks just to try it, with media monkey, I could see NO album art, although my tags were correct .
Next i deleted all the tracks i had synec with MM. i then synced a few with C MS, the album art again did not show up. I have not tried WMP 11 yet, i will update. But any help would be appreciated.

I have the 30gb model, with the latest firmware...
Mediasouce is at 5.20.15

ALSO: when playing a track with embedded AA in wmp11 the Album Art comes up in a little box, so its working, i just cant make it work on the Zen.

Again any help would be appreciated. Thankyou

[Almoxil]

Hello,

Syncing tracks using different apps may cause the album art to not display. I just tried copying two new albums to my ZV:M using Windows Explorer (drag'n'drop), but the album art didn't show (I've loaded all other stuff using MediaMonkey). After syncing the same albums from MediaMonkey, the album art displays just fine.

Regards.

[ZenChick]

You must reformat your player any time you change sync managers, otherwise problems will happen - especially with album art.

[Baines93]

ok, well i formated it in recovery, then re-synced so tracks, and i still see no album art under Now Playing. Do i have to turn it on some where? What else can i try? is i because CMS is old? (or is it?) the thing is i see it under wmp when i play it........ i will reformat and start a fresh with MM, i have used it to sync before, but i didnt format the player before so it wouldnt have worked anyway.

[Baines93]

i reformated, and reset in the hole, then synced a few with MM, and it worked!

Im now in the process of syncing everything with MM, I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!

Thanks All! Your Forums Are Great

[ZenChick]

Glad you got it working.

[Baines93]

About formating when changing sync manager, would it be ok , now after syncing music with media monkey, to sync some vids with explorer "drag N drop" because i only have the free version of MM :..(

Thanks in advance

[Baines93]

oh well after playing around i found out that CMS doesnt support album art, even after formatting my zen. Media monkey GOLD doesnt sync vids/pics, but does support album art. Syncing music with media monkey, then syncing videos with drag n drop (explorer), then syncing a new track with new album art with Media monkey, the album art is not visible.... proving that you can only use one Sync Manager.

so i have to use only one sync manager, but CMS doesnt support album art, and Media monkey (even gold) doesnt support syncing videos, and a combination of the two stops album art working when you sync a new song.... What software does anyone else reccommend which syncs music, videos, and photos, and supports album art??

I know wmp 11 does all of this but i personally (not usless with computers) find it hard to use, and it auto-fills my library with music i dont necceserily want to sync.......

So again, What software does anyone else reccommend which syncs music, videos, and photos, and supports album art??

I love my Zen, but im having problems finding software that does it all, and properly.

[ZenChick]

If you have WMP11 installed, have you downloaded and installed the update patch for Media Explorer? This may solve your album art problems with MediaSource.

Drag-and-drop via Windows Explorer does not count as a separate sync manager, so it should not be interfering with album art.

I'm also assuming you have the latest firmware on your player.

[Baines93]

thanks zen chick, i installed the patch , and all AA is working now. and im only using one sync manager....

some wasnt working at first, but thats cus media monkey was picking up the covers in the directory of the album, but when i deleted all my album art jpg's in my music partition, then cleared th library, and then rescanned them in, added them in with amazon.co.uk, then synced them, and it was all there on every track i played on random. then i went to town polishing it with toothpaste then brasso, then silvo, and took all the scratches out that were on it wen i brought it second hand, and now im waiting for my best skin ever to come, but untill it comes, my ZVM is in a little baggie away from the dust n stuff lol. Thanks ZenChick!

[Jeffy3]

How do you find this patch?