Missing artwork but not quite?

[DJSamhein]

Hi,

I have a bunch of albums (I notice when they show up in the random playlists) that don't have an album cover. If I check their properties, the artwork tab is empty. If I check the windows folder, windows also doesn't show artwork.
However, when I check the "Unknown Artwork" node under "Files to Edit" they don't show up.

If I then select the album and just check "Apply to all selected files", it will update the files and then it starts showing on "Unknown Artwork".

This makes me feel like there's some issue with the database itself (maybe pointing to some artwork that doesn't exist?). I save the artwork in the tags, btw, not in a file in the folder.

Mostly, I just want to know how I can make them show up in "Unknown Artwork" so I can fix them. It's annoying to know I have files with it missing and not being able to identify them until they randomly show up (and if I'm actually looking at the player at that time).

I use the "Tagging inconsistencies" addon and it also doesn't show any album missing artwork, so I'm guessing the issue is the same.

Any tips on how to proceed?
Thanks in advance.

[IanRTaylorUK]

Consider using the Magic Nodes add-on for Media Monkey 4.

This will show the Cover Storage (Image File / Tag) and Cover Type (Front / Media Label / Back ...)

I have found it best to have ALL albums and their tracks to have just ONE Front Cover JPEG.

AND

For the Album Cover to be available as a tag AND an image file. Worst case is when the "artwork" is "Not Specified" as being something (Front / Back / Media Label....) Even if it is not the Front Cover, I would set it to be the Front Cover (or go find the front cover)!

So ideally - under the Cover Storage node, you will want the number of Tagged Files to equal Image Files that also equals the library size! Under the Cover Type, you will want the Cover Front files to ideally be twice the size of the library with a very low (possibly zero) Not Specified.

By all means keep other images / artwork (i.e. not the Front Cover) in the album folder but don't assign them within Properties / Artwork (at least until you get this sorted).

Another approach is to use a "Tiled" View with "Show Art" enabled e.g. The Album sub-node of the Music node. You can literally scroll through your library and check the artwork. Allow a few seconds for images to load before passing judgement!!! It might be that the image file is large OR there is significant number of tracks.

[DJSamhein]

I don't really like Magic Nodes. It always takes half a minute to resolve anything during which time MM is totally frozen (and often windows as well).
Anyway, I did install it just to see what would happen. Made a basic Test\<Cover Type> node. It showed only one "Cover (front)" node and all of the files were in there, including the ones that don't have album art. Then did the same for <Cover Storage> Just to make sure, same result. Only one "Tag" node

All of my files are tagged with a single image and always as "Cover (front)". I use the "Tagging Inconsistencies" addon to make sure of that when adding new stuff.

I'm pretty sure it's something related to the MM DB. It seems like MM thinks the artwork is there, except it isn't. And since Magic Nodes uses the DB as well, the results are the same.

Like I said, if I edit the album and check the "Apply to all selected files" option, it will update all files and then MM shows it under "Unknown artwork". So it should be something in the DB that is making MM think the artwork is there when it isn't.

[IanRTaylorUK]

If you suspect the database is a problem, then I would do the following (checking the album artwork at each step).

1). Take a back-up of the MM.DB
2). Rescan all the folders used in the library
3). Use the database maintain option

[DJSamhein]

Tried it, didn't work. I rescanned everything, but MM still thinks they have artwork.
I regularly do the maintain DB option (everytime I add new stuff), but did it anyway and still didn't fix it.

Honestly, I just want to identify which files are in this situation so I can fix their artwork. I don't even mind if I have to download some SQL editor for sqlite (which I think is what MM uses). But I have no idea what could be causing this.

[IanRTaylorUK]

https://sqlitebrowser.org/ will allow you to view the backup MM.DB

https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/Covers_table

https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/DeviceTracks_table

https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/Database_Structure

[DJSamhein]

I couldn't really get to a conclusion. I installed it and ran the query:

Code: Select all

select a.Artist, al.Album, s.SongTitle,c.*,d.*
from Artists a
inner join ArtistsAlbums aa on aa.IDArtist=a.ID
inner join Albums al on aa.IDAlbum=al.ID
inner join songs s on s.IDAlbum=al.ID
inner join Covers c on c.IDSong=s.ID
left join DeviceTracks d on d.IDTrack=s.ID
left join Devices de on de.ID=d.IDDevice
where a.Artist like 'Estradasphere'
order by a.Artist,al.Album,s.TrackNumber

It returned this information (doesn't copy properly with spacings, so might be hard to figure out what is what):

Code: Select all

Artist	Album	SongTitle	ID	IDSong	CoverOrder	CoverPath	CoverStorage	CoverDescription	CoverType	PictureType	ID	IDDevice	IDTrack	DevicePath	Rating	PlayCount	UploadTime	Status	Converted	PreModified	Bitrate	SampleRate	Channels	IsVBR	ACSettHash
Estradasphere	Quadropus	Mekapses Yitonisa	162387	32000	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Quadropus	Dubway	162388	32001	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Quadropus	King Krab Battle	162389	32002	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Quadropus	Speck	162390	32003	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Quadropus	Hardball	162391	32004	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Quadropus	A Car Ride In Idealistic Ethiopia (Part 1)	162392	32005	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Quadropus	Crystal Blue	162393	32006	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Quadropus	Jungle Warfare	162394	32007	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Quadropus	Bodyslam	162395	32008	0		0		3	image/jpeg	3190140	3	32008	iPod_Control\Music\F08\Estr.mp3	100	6	43735.8647695833	1	0	0	192000	44100		0	
Estradasphere	Quadropus	At Least We'd Have Today	162396	32009	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	Buck Fever	214653	31984	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	The Dapper Bandits	214654	31985	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	214655	31986	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	Crag Lake	214656	31987	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	Meteorite Showers	214657	31988	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	The Bounty Hunter	214658	31989	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	Super Buck II	214659	31990	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	Millennium Child	214660	31991	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	Trampoline Klan	214661	31992	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	Burnt Corpse	214662	31993	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	Rise N' Shine (Epic Doobie Nightmare #1)	214663	31994	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	Bride Of The Buck	214664	31995	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	A Very Intense Battle	214665	31996	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	Green Hill	214666	31997	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	Feed Your Mama's Meter (Remix 2001)	214667	31998	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Buck Fever	What Deers May Come	214668	31999	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	It's Understood	Hunger Strike	293353	31972	0		0		3	image/jpeg	3190141	3	31972	iPod_Control\Music\F22\Estr.mp3	100	3	43735.8647790394	1	0	0	128000	44100		0	
Estradasphere	It's Understood	Cloud Land	293350	31973	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	It's Understood	The Transformation	293360	31974	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	It's Understood	Danse Of Tosho And Slavi / Randy's Desert Adventure	293351	31975	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	It's Understood	The Trials And Tribulations Of Parking On Your Front Lawn	293361	31976	0		0		3	image/jpeg	3190143	3	31976	iPod_Control\Music\F26\Estr.mp3	100	5	43735.8647860301	1	0	0	128000	44100		0	
Estradasphere	It's Understood	The Princes Of Xibalba: The Princes	293358	31977	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	It's Understood	The Princes Of Xibalba: Los Días Sin Días	293357	31978	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	It's Understood	The Princes Of Xibalba: XQuiQ	293359	31979	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	It's Understood	The Princes Of Xibalba: Hunnahpu And Xbalanque	293356	31980	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	It's Understood	Spreading The Disease	293355	31981	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	It's Understood	Planet Sparkle / Court Yard Battle 1	293354	31982	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	It's Understood	D♭ Hell	293352	31983	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Passion For Life	Dissatisfactual Contraband	200495	94868	0		0		3	image/jpeg	3591161	104	94868	Music\Estradasphere\Passion For Life\01 Estradasphere - Dissatisfactual Contraband.mp3	-1	3	45857.5920181482	1	0	0	246512	44100		1	
Estradasphere	Passion For Life	Feed Your Mama's Meter	200496	94869	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Passion For Life	Planet Sparkle	200497	94870	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Passion For Life	Bat Cave	200498	94871	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Passion For Life	Hora Bucharestu Vs. Narodno Kolo (Gypsy Medley)	200499	94872	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Passion For Life	Tugboat	200500	94873	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Passion For Life	The Jailing Of Whoolilicious!	200501	94874	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Passion For Life	Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye / The Red Chowder Trenchcoat Conspiracy	200502	94875	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Passion For Life	Graze-A-Holic	200503	94876	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Passion For Life	Danse Of Tosho & Slavi / Randy's Desert Adventure	200504	94877	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Passion For Life	Elderly Normal Samurai Tortoises	200505	94878	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Passion For Life	Boss III	200506	94879	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Passion For Life	D-Flat Hell	200507	94880	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Passion For Life	Body Slam (Lounge Version)	200508	94881	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Palace Of Mirrors	Title	220887	32010	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Palace Of Mirrors	Palace Of Mirrors	220878	32011	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Palace Of Mirrors	A Corporate Merger	220875	32012	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Palace Of Mirrors	The Terrible Beautypower Of Meow	220884	32013	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Palace Of Mirrors	Colossal Risk	220876	32014	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Palace Of Mirrors	The Unfolding Pause On The Threshold	220885	32015	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Palace Of Mirrors	Smuggled Mutation	220881	32016	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Palace Of Mirrors	Six Hands	220880	32017	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Palace Of Mirrors	The Debutante	220882	32018	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Palace Of Mirrors	Flower Garden Of An Evil Man	220877	32019	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Palace Of Mirrors	Those Who Know...	220886	32020	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	Palace Of Mirrors	Palace Of Mirrors (Reprise)	220879	32021	0		0		3	image/jpeg	3190142	3	32021	iPod_Control\Music\F21\Estr.mp3	-1	0	43735.8647836806	1	0	0	192000	44100		0	
Estradasphere	Palace Of Mirrors	The Return	220883	32022	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Title	279018	94905	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	4 Hands	279030	94895	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	The Pegasus Vault	279019	94906	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	American Tough	279050	94896	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	The Return (Unplugged)	279020	94907	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	A Van For A Mystery	279049	94897	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Rendezvous	279021	94908	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Star Slyderz (Theme)	279053	94898	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Some Semblance	279022	94909	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Circuit Malfunction	279048	94899	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Alterna-Meow Intro (A=432 hZ)	279040	94910	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Smuggled Mutation (Cimbalom Mix)	279052	94900	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Neither Hide Nor Hair	279024	94911	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	The Return (Live)	279036	94901	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Report To Deck	279025	94912	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Ems (1998)	279051	94902	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Flower Garden (Midi Demo)	279038	94903	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Faceoff: Advocate Vs. Accuser	279041	94913	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Merry X-Mas Blobby	279039	94904	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Judgement Tunnel	279042	94914	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	Unicorns And Rainbows (Single Version)	279043	94915	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Pegasus Vault	The Pegasus Vault (Reprise)	279044	94916	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	233714	94824	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	Crag Lake	233701	94825	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	Millennium Child (Live)	233706	94826	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	The Dapper Bandits	233711	94827	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	The Ventriloquist Choir	233715	94828	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	Mikapses Yitonisa	233705	94829	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	Burnt Corpse	233700	94830	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	Rise 'N Shine (Edn#1)	233707	94831	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	Disco Time	233702	94832	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	A Tune By F. F. C.	233698	94833	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	The Princes Of Xibalba	233713	94834	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	The Penguin	233712	94835	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	Techno In The Style Of Burning Man	233710	94836	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	Some Turkish Song	233709	94837	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	Aunt Nellies Love Gravy	233699	94838	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	Medley #3	233704	94839	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	Some Irish Song	233708	94840	0		0		3	image/jpeg															
Estradasphere	The Silent Elk Of Yesterday	Hungerstrike (Ending)	233703	94841	0		0		3	image/jpeg															

From this I could get no useful information. All albums have artwork except for "The Pegasus Vault". I see nothing distinctive in them that could pinpoint to an issue. The Covers table has the same info for all tracks, and the DevicesTracks/Devices only has info for some tracks, all of which have art, but some albums don't have any info and still have art as well.

Maybe I need a different query? I noticed that the Year field in the Albums table is empty, but the tag has a value, so I assume that is being stored somewhere else. So that could be the case for the artwork as well.

EDIT: It would help to know what the query is that MM uses to identify cases for the "Unknown artwork" node.

[IanRTaylorUK]

https://octoberclub-my.sharepoint.com/: ... A?e=vScKLL

This is my "Covers" table (using MMW5) with about 99% artwork OK in MMW5 / MMW4 and MMA.

[DJSamhein]

I don't have a PictureDataHash column. That is for MM5 and I'm using MM4.
I'm guessing MM4 stores that data somewhere else, but I can't really figure out where (much like the Album date).

This means that each track does have a corresponding entry on the Covers, but for some reason some of them won't have the cover and MM4 doesn't realize it.

[DJSamhein]

As a followup: I installed a portable version and I scanned my entire database (which took a really long time). This version does show the files missing the artwork.

So I'm guessing there's something wrong with the DB or with however MM4 is caching this.

[IanRTaylorUK]

So if you were to take the MM.DB from your original database and put a copy in the location of the portable database then run the portable, what might this tell you?

Perhaps take a backup of the portable database MM.DB first!

As I am sure you are aware, some user data only exists in the MM.DB.

[DJSamhein]

When I did that, the "Unknown Artwork" was now empty. So it really is something in the MM.db.
I then restored the portable DB, re-scanned the library and now the "Unknown Artwork" node only shows the Estradasphere album as missing, which is correct because I fixed the other ones last night on the "proper" MM.

I left that album without it on purpose so I could identify what the issue is and how I can search for it in the future.
So it definitely is something in the MM.db file that is causing MM to think it has artwork when it doesn't. But I can't really figure out where it gets that info from with MM4.

[IanRTaylorUK]

Sometimes, I have found it useful to remove files from the database (but NOT from the hard drive), then check they are not present in the library. You might even want to do a Database Backup / Maintainence routine...

A fresh scan will add them BUT any information in the database NOT stored in tags would be lost!

It might be worth considering this as an approach / test.

Seems like you are making progress.

[DJSamhein]

At this point I've pretty much pinpointed that the issue is somewhere in the MM.db file. I just can't figure out how MM4 stores the artwork there.
It would be helpful if someone from their team would chime in and let me know where to look.

[DJSamhein]

After some more debugging the issue, I've figured out that in the portable DB the songs don't have a corresponding Covers entry.

Which means that I only need to figure out how MM loads the blob from this table (it's likely pointing to a non-existent or empty blob). But this info doesn't appear to be in any of the tables. So I'm guessing they store it somewhere else? Maybe an external file or something? Though I can't really find one.