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Local file playlists won't form a thumnail image

Local file playlists won't form a thumnail image

Everytime I make a playlist consisting of local files, the playlist only displays a blank image instead of the usual 4 cover one. I'm running latest version of Spotify on Windows 7.

I've attached an image to explain it better.

http://i.imgur.com/DTMV7fa.png

 

 

1.png

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8 Replies

It can take a while to update but usually it will display covers from the first four tracks eventually.

I made two playlists the 1st of May, both consisting of local files. Neither of them have gotten a cover image yet. Any suggestions on what to do?

 

Attached an image.

http://i.imgur.com/XreGB36.png

 

2.png

Bump

Sorry, I missed the "local files" bit. If you're not seeing album covers. I hope you're sitting comfortably  :

 

  • First make sure that all the tracks in your playlist contain cover art in the ID3 tag. You can use any of the free tagging programmes such as mp3tagger to check this.
  • Next, select the files in the Local Files tab, right click and unlink to disconnect them from the spotify database - they'll all appear greyed-out, which is fine.
  • With all the tracks still selected, add them to a new playlist from a right mouse click.
  • You can now delete the original playlist and rename the new one. Hopefully you will see a cover.

 

As far as I can make out, its to do with the way spotify tries to link local files to music in its database and, if the first four tracks are not in the database, you won't see a cover but the above steps get around this.

 

I've now tried this with multiple different albums which all had album covers in their ID3 tags and were all disconnected.

 

It still won't work.

Strange. I actually went through those steps when I noticed a couple of my local file playlists had no playlist cover and it worked. Maybe @Rollo_ will have some ideas. Other than that, you can get in touch with spotify using the contact form and they may have some other suggestions.

 

 

Generally, if an local file is linked to a streamed track, the artwork will display.  Somtimes it can get linked to the same or similar track title from a different album, or even a different artist completely.  I've seen it.  To get a local file to properly link to a streamed file, you may have to edit the title or other fields, they usually have to match exactly, and easiest to do this within the local files list.  Right Click and Edit Info.

 

I've found some files that will not link to streaming tracks no matter how closely the titles are, and this is usually the case with linked tracks,  The ones with the little chain link icon after then that are on another album.   Try not to confuse this with linking local with streaming, this is a little different.  Confusing, I know.

 

Your best bet is to just unlink all your local files.  I've never seen artwork NOT display when the files are tagged properly.  You may want to look to see what tags are included, id3v1 or id3v2, that may make a difference, I alway use both.

 

However, I don't think I've ever seen Spotify use an UNLINKED local file's embedded cover art to form a playlist thumbnail.

 

 

It is a LOT easier to do this using old versions 0.8.3 or 0.8.5, Where you can actually see the artwork in the playlists and local file lists.

Thanks @Rollo_ 🙂

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