Ever wondered how some of your mp3 files show up with the album art icon instead of the standard mp3 icon, when browsing through the mp3 collection on hard disk? Also, does the cover image appear at the background when playing an mp3 file using Windows Media Player or any other music player?
Thumbnail image of the mp3 files as seen in Windows Explorer.
The thumbnail image can come from JPG album art images (super-hidden) within that folder, or from pictures embedded into each mp3 file. If you need to remove the mp3 album art/images for some reason, first configure Windows Explorer to show hidden and protected Operating System files. Use these steps:
Press WinKey + R to launch the Run dialog. Type control folders and hit {ENTER}
Click the View tab
Enable Show hidden files, folders, and drives
Uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)
Click OK.
Open the folder that contains the mp3 album, and delete the AlbumArt_{GUID}_Large.jpg, AlbumArt_{GUID}_Small.jpg and Folder.jpg images.
Album art still appears?
If the album art still appears for an mp3 file or album, that could be coming from the pictures embedded into the mp3 file, and you need an ID3 tag editor to remove them. There are several freeware products available; I used Mp3tag.
Browse and locate the mp3 file. Right-click on the image and click Remove cover. Do this for every image.
That should remove all the album art images from the mp3 file.
Note that using Mp3Tag, you can also add additional album art images or change the "picture type" (cf. Picture Types at ID3.org) for the image that’s already embedded onto the mp3 file. Here are the options available.
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OK, it’s great advice, but I need to see these album arts in Windows Explorer. My problem is that my music (all my MP3s) have a cover art in their tags, but the explorer don’t show them. This problem is only with my MP3s, all other file types are fine. Can somebody help me?
Thanks, I love to find solutions that do the trick right upon the first hit!
Thanks! I’ve been looking forever for how to remove those annoying albumarts.
Worked really well and easy too :)
I am using the MP3Tag but still the album art cover is not showing for some files. It still exists. And some files, though I delete the image, it still remains there. What do i do?
Great advice bro! This is the best tutorial I found about this subject.
thanks alot bro..you made it..God bless
great bro! Thank you very much
Perfect! Finally got rid of those annoying covers that didn’t match the album. Also, great recommend on the idtag editor.
AWESOME! Thanks.
thank you!