[?] [1471] Folder/Cover Image in File Folder Not Always Selected for Display

[JimD]

Update 28 September:

It appears that v4.11.1471 27.09.2024 (running on a different device and updated today) finds and displays a cover image named Folder.jpg in the file folder. So perhaps that problem (#1 below) is not a problem after all.

Earlier versions of Windows automatically created a hidden system file named "folder.jpg" in the directory of a music album, as a very low-resolution thumbnail of the album cover. Perhaps Android music players intentionally avoid this. I recall that Neutron did not select a cover image named folder.jpg or Folder.jpg, which is why I always try to remember to use Folder1.jpg (but sometimes forget).

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Original message:

My music albums typically have a "Folder1.jpg" image in the folder. In my settings for "Album Arts" I have "Find in the folder" checked and "Find in tags" unchecked. (I am using v4.11.1467 08.09.2024.)

However, in a few albums I have forgotten to rename Folder.jpg to Folder1.jpg. In those cases, AIMP for Android does not seem to find Folder.jpg and instead displays a default blank image.

This happens both in the "Albums" section of "My Music" and also in the playlist that I create. If I rename the image from Folder.jpg to Folder1.jpg and then clear cache and restart AIMP and update content, the image is still not found.

Problem #1: Why is Folder.jpg not selected as the album cover? Apparently any other name for the image will work, since I sometimes have also Folder2.jpg as the back cover, and AIMP seems to select that for the front cover (apparently sorting by name and taking the last one).

Problem #2: When I rename Folder.jpg to Folder1.jpg, AIMP does not automatically find it, even after clearing cache, restarting and refreshing. If I delete the album and download again from cloud storage, then AIMP will usually find it after clearing cache and restarting, but not always (as if it still "remembers" some previous state for that album).

Problem #3: I cannot find a way to manually select Folder1.jpg from the album folder once I have renamed the file. In the "Albums" section I see "Set custom thumbnail", but it does not show Folder1.jpg from the folder. Instead, I have to scroll through many hundreds or even thousands of images from my device, sorted by date. Within a playlist, there appears to be no way at all to manually change the blank image.

[Artem]

Problem #1: Why is Folder.jpg not selected as the album cover? Apparently any other name for the image will work, since I sometimes have also Folder2.jpg as the back cover, and AIMP seems to select that for the front cover (apparently sorting by name and taking the last one).

AIMP has only one limitation for the images: it does not display images from the Download folder.

Problem #2: When I rename Folder.jpg to Folder1.jpg, AIMP does not automatically find it, even after clearing cache, restarting and refreshing. If I delete the album and download again from cloud storage, then AIMP will usually find it after clearing cache and restarting, but not always (as if it still "remembers" some previous state for that album).

Do you rename the files while the app is running?

Problem #3: I cannot find a way to manually select Folder1.jpg from the album folder once I have renamed the file. In the "Albums" section I see "Set custom thumbnail", but it does not show Folder1.jpg from the folder. Instead, I have to scroll through many hundreds or even thousands of images from my device, sorted by date. Within a playlist, there appears to be no way at all to manually change the blank image.

The "Set custom thumbnail" invokes a system image picker. So, if it does not display the file, it seems like something goes wrong with the file system. This would also explain why AIMP does not see this file.

[Artem]

Anyway, refer to the "About" dialog of the app, and check the "enable logging" option. Restart the app. Now, reproduce an issue and send the log file to me. Please, report to me a approximate time when issue was happened.

[JimD]

Thank you for your responses to each item, Artem. And also thanks for such a fine product for Android and Windows, which I have used for many years.

To keep it simple, I will respond here only to #1: Album cover art not found in file folder when the image is named Folder.jpg. If the image has any other name, such as Folder1.jpg, it is found and then displayed as the album cover.

Today I have tested by downloading into my local "Music" folder an album with a cover image named Folder.jpg. It is an album that has never been on this device (in recent times anyway).

When I do a fresh start of AIMP for Android (v4.11.1471 27.09.2024), the album is found and listed in the "Albums" section. I can also create a playlist. In both cases I can play the album, but the cover art is not displayed, only the default blank image. Even if I exit the app, clear recent apps, clear app cache, and restart the app, only the blank image is displayed. If I "Set custom thumbnail", the file Folder.jpg is not listed.

I have done a Google search and find many references to problems with Windows (prior to 11) interfering with album art by creating a system thumbnail named folder.jpg (overwriting any Folder.jpg that the user may have put in the album folder). I suspect that Android file management APIs simply ignore any files with that name, and this is why AIMP doesn't find and select it for the album cover.

So, let's just consider my problem to be "understood" now and close this problem report. The solution is to never use Folder.jpg as the file name for album art.

[Artem]

I suspect that Android file management APIs simply ignore any files with that name, and this is why AIMP doesn't find and select it for the album cover.

Yes, it seems like system's file selector interprets this file like system or hidden.
But in the app, the file listed and displayed correctly.

[JimD]

Thank you.

I should emphasize that this is not a big problem for me, since it only happens if I download an older album that still has Folder.jpg and I forget to rename it. It can always be fixed by renaming it and taking proper steps to refresh. I don't think it's worth any effort on your part to investigate further.

In any case, I'll include my latest observations below based on some more systematic testing, since some other users might report "odd" behavior of cover images:

I have a Motorola phone running Android 13 and AIMP v4.11.1471 27.09.2024. My music folders are on internal storage. Cover art named Folder.jpg is correctly found and displayed under "Albums". However, if I select "Set custom thumbnail" for that album, the image is not shown in the list of photos. If I exit the app, rename to Folder1.jpg, and restart, then "Set custom thumbnail" shows the image in the list of photos.

I have a Samsung tablet running Android 14 and the same version of AIMP as the phone above. However, my music folders are on an SD card. Cover art named Folder.jpg is not found and therefore not displayed under "Albums". Also, if I select "Set custom thumbnail" for that album, the image is not shown in the list of photos. If I exit the app, rename to Folder1.jpg, and restart, then "Set custom thumbnail" shows the image in the list of photos. But the album still shows a blank image, which can be fixed by running "Update content".

In summary, Folder.jpg is found and displayed when the album is on internal storage, but it does not appear in the image list (Android 13). But Folder.jpg is not found (and is not in the image list) when the album is on an SD card (Android 14).

Perhaps Android 15 handles this better since the Windows "misuse" of folder.jpg is even further in the past and Android doesn't need to filter it out any longer.

[Artem]

Perhaps Android 15 handles this better since the Windows "misuse" of folder.jpg is even further in the past and Android doesn't need to filter it out any longer.

No, I afraid the filtering may depends from the firmware.

Update:
I've found the filtering code that may affect to a image chooser:
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/cd92588/media/java/android/media/MediaScanner.java

But it should not affected to album art caching by the player, because the player has it own media scanner implementation

[JimD]

I regret that my problem report became so deeply involved into Android, when it seems to be simply an AIMP issue.

I should have made my initial problem report simpler: Why does "Folder.jpg" not get selected as the cover image for the album in the Android version of AIMP? If I rename it to any other name (e.g., "Folder1.jpg"), it gets selected correctly.

In Settings, under Album Arts, I have "Find in the folder" turned on. The other settings there are turned off. I am using the latest version of AIMP on all the devices, along with Android 13 or 14, depending on the device.

Other music players, such as PowerAmp and Neutron, find "Folder.jpg" and use it as the cover image for the album. They have always done this correctly as far back as I remember.

[Artem]

I have no idea, sorry. No one of my devices has this issue, so I cannot investigate it by myself. On AIMP side, I've no filtering except the "Download" folder (AIMP does not show any album artwork from this folder).

[JimD]

Thanks for the reply. Please close this issue. It's not a serious problem for me, as I mentioned earlier, since I usually remember to rename the file. In earlier years Amazon and Google Play Music would always add a file Folder.jpg to albums downloaded from their site. I don't think music albums can be downloaded from them any more, so it's a non-issue going forward.

[Я Гриша!]

I have no idea, sorry. No one of my devices has this issue, so I cannot investigate it by myself. On AIMP side, I've no filtering except the "Download" folder (AIMP does not show any album artwork from this folder).

Я словил на своей стороне. Проблема правда повторяется однократно.
Из установок активен только чекбокс "искать в папке".

Первый раз я закинул обложку с именем Folder.jpg в папку с аудиозаписями в которых в тегах не прописан альбом - тут обложка сразу подхватилась из папки.
Второй раз я закинул обложку в папку где у меня сборник группы ABBA - обложка не появилась ни в Медиатеке, ни при проигрывании песен.
Подумал что не видит из-за вшитой обложки которая отключена - удалил из одной песни обложку - не помогло.
Зашёл в настройки обнулить кэш - вроде не помогло.
Зашёл в медиатеку и потянул жестом обновление - сработало, обложки появились.

Последовательность могу путать, по этому прилагаю лог 1.

Перед отправкой решил повторить на видео, так у меня вообще не отобразилась обложка в двух папках. Хотя проделывал вроде тоже самое, но с ABB-ой как-то удалось, а тут и переименование не помогло...
Видео - https://disk.yandex.ru/i/b6ME9rN3JGawfQ Плюс лог 2 во вложении.

Сборка: v4.12.1509

[Artem]

Зашёл в настройки обнулить кэш - вроде не помогло.
Зашёл в медиатеку и потянул жестом обновление - сработало, обложки появились.

В настройках обновления есть опция "перечитать обложки альбомов". После манипуляций с файловой системой лучше пользоваться ей, т.к. у фонотеки есть еще in-memory кэш, что используется при отображении

[Я Гриша!]

В настройках обновления есть опция "перечитать обложки альбомов". После манипуляций с файловой системой лучше пользоваться ей, т.к. у фонотеки есть еще in-memory кэш, что используется при отображении

Увы, данная опция не помогает.

Ещё одна запись, тут обложка отобразилась - https://disk.yandex.ru/i/u-31eoINNiKSmg
Полагаю, может быть связано с тем, что тут одна папка с альбомом, а не как в предыдущих, где родительская папка содержит дочерние папки с альбомами.

[Artem]

Увы, данная опция не помогает

Так ты ее и не использовал в этом видео.

[Artem]

Вот сборка, попробуй:
https://disk.yandex.ru/d/2IfAziY1FGXC3w