Bug - album art in folder not working correctly

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
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Server Version#: 1.23.4.4805
Player Version#: 1.33.0.2444-a220eae4

I am meticulously tagging my flac collection and have the cover art in each folder called “front.jpg”. Any other images i put in a folder called Artwork. I have made sure there is no folder called “scans” and that there are no spurious picture files in the same directory as the flacs.

I have various versions of the same album. To avoid confusion with the scanner I make sure the album title is unique in both the title tag and the actual music folder. E.g three versions of the same album with three unique titles. Each have unique cover art to reflect the release in same folder as the flacs.

Title tags:
Iron Maiden - Killers (LP US 1981)
Iron Maiden - Killers
Iron Maiden - Killers (1998)

In some cases the scanner uses the correct image for one album then the same image for all the similar releases. Like it has worked out that I technically have the album several times. In other cases it doesn’t even show an image at all. In the best case…I get the same image three times for my example. What I do no get is the correct artwork for each found album.

I am using Plex Music as the scanner and agent
Prefer local meta data is ticked
Album art is set to local files only

Any help is appreciated. I am using the Raspberry Pi Arm7 build.

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I don’t think “front.jpg” is one of the filenames that Plex looks for. Try “cover.jpg.”

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Ironically, i started out with cover.jpg but had so many images missing I tired front.jpg. Then I just realised that most of the images being shown aren’t from my collection despite choosing “local files only”.

I have renamed them all to cover.jpg and it’s working differently but not better. Now I have even more albums with just a black square despite a cover.jpg being present in the root folder for the album.

4

Are the linux permissions on the jpg files the same as the music tracks?

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It’s on a mount NTFS disc and I tried just for kicks setting the directory to 777 and doing a refresh meta data but it makes no difference.

6

I think i know the problem. Some of the covers are actually PNG format with JPG extension. Seems to be the problem. THanks for your help.

1 Like
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Ah! Never would have thought of that one. Glad you found it.

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Actually, not sure this is the problem at all. Looking at the Windows client and the Plexamp client different pictures are missing for different albums. I have deleted and reimported the library and I get different missing pictures each time. If I go to the server folder and just rename the file and rename it back again and do a meta refresh on the album placeholder then the image reappears. If I do a total meta refresh on the artist then pictures are disappearing again. There is something not right.

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Tested the same folder via samba on my Windows machine and it’s the same problem.

10

Hmm, I don’t know. You might want to gather the log files and post them so one of the ninjas can have a look.

If you’re not sure how to get the logs, check this page:

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Not really keen on posting logs to a public forum to be honest. And judging by forum requests and issues it can take years before these things are picked up.

I have examined the server logs and the database. The log files indicate the the cover art is found and applied correctly. The database has a thumbnail entry for each album so it looks like the database is OK.

The problem seems to be when sending this information to a client. I have tested Plexamp mobile, the local browser and the Kodi addon and they all fail to show the same thumbnails. This primarily seems to be an issue for albums with similar titles but I don’t understand why. The titles are stored correctly in the database.

If I make a change to the album image and click refresh they cover will appear. But as soon as I removed the library and add it again the same thumbnails are failing.

I have tested Emby and Jellyfin and the thumbnails work exactly as expected.

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I came to the forum to post about my bug and it seems to be the same as yours. I’ve got two music folders

R.E.M/Accelerate
R.E.M/Accelerate DVD

The second folder is bonus tracks from a DVD. The scanner recognizes both as the album Accelerate which is fine. However, no matter how many times I fix it, one of the album’s art always shows up as a black square. I’m using Plex for Windows, current release.

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This is exactly the same problem, yes. It doesn’t matter which server or what client. There must be some faulty logic in how the images are reported to the client from the server.

Since I was a new user and primarily wanted Plex for organising my music I got a full refund and moved to Emby. I don’t have the patience to sit out and wait for a fix (if it ever comes) for something so fundamental as displaying the correct cover art in a folder. There’s too many issues with Plex that have tickets from years back that still aren’t resolved. I also have a feeling that as this platform becomes more commericialised with vested interests that the future is going to be full of frustration for many users. There’s already a few things that “used to be enabled in Plex” that no longer aren’t.

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