Microsoft KB Archive/927717

= The Zune software cannot download album art =

Article ID: 927717

Article Last Modified on 4/25/2007

-

APPLIES TO


 * Zune software

-



SYMPTOMS
The Zune software cannot download album art for one or more albums in your library.

Note The Zune software uses an online database that contains media information, such as track names and album art, to download album cover art for tracks in your music library.



CAUSE
This behavior occurs if one or more of the following conditions are true:
 * You are not connected to the Internet when you copy (&quot;rip&quot;) music from a CD to your computer.
 * The online database does not contain the album art or media information for that particular CD.
 * The computer is configured to prevent you from downloading items such as album art from the Internet. Or you do not have the correct permissions to download items such as album art from the Internet.
 * You used a program other than the Zune software to copy the music from the CD.



THINGS TO TRY
 Add album art from the online database. Match the album in your library with an entry in the online database. If you find a match, the Zune software will download that album art to the computer.

Note When the Zune software downloads album art, the software also downloads other media information, such as the album name and the song titles.

Warning If you have manually edited the media information for an album in your library, the following procedure will replace your changes.

To download album art from the online database, follow these steps:  Verify that you are connected to the Internet. Start the Zune software. In the left pane of the Zune software window, click the View Music icon. Under Library, click Album. Find the album that you want to edit, right-click the album, and then click Change Album Info. If the correct album and artist information appears, click the album listing to update your Zune library.

Note It may take several minutes for your library to be updated.

If the correct album information does not appear, click Refine your search, and then follow the instructions to search again by using different search criteria.

If the correct album information appears but a generic music icon appears as the album art, the album art is not available for you to download. If this is the case, go to the next step.</li></ol> </li> Add the album art manually. If any of your albums are missing album art, you can manually add a picture of your choice to use as the album art. To do this, follow this steps: <ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;"> Find a picture that you want to use for album art. The picture can be on your computer or on a Web page. The picture must be in one of the following formats: <ul> BMP</li> GIF</li> JPEG</li> PNG</li> TIFF</li></ul> </li> Right-click the picture, and then click Copy.</li> In your Zune library, find the album for which you want to change or add art, right-click the album, and then click Paste Album Art.</li></ol>

Note When you add album art, the Zune software attaches a copy of the picture to each song that is included on the album. The software automatically scales the picture to the appropriate size and converts the picture to JPEG format. This process does not modify the original picture file.</li> Leave the album without art.</li></ol>

<div class="moreinformation_section">

MORE INFORMATION
When you add album art manually, the picture is embedded in the file. The Zune software will always display the embedded file as the album art. Art that you added manually will override any album art that the Zune software may have downloaded from the online database.

If you cannot manually add album art, verify that you have the correct permissions to modify the file. To do this, follow these steps:
 * 1) Right-click the file in the library, and then click Open File Location.
 * 2) In the folder that opens, right-click the file, click Properties, and then clear the Read-only check box.

If you want to embed a different picture for each song on an album, you can edit the track information for each individual song instead of using the Paste Album Art option to edit the art for the whole album. To do this, follow these steps:
 * 1) In the left pane of the Zune software window, click the View Music icon.
 * 2) Under Library, click Album.
 * 3) Find the album that you want to edit, right-click a song, and then click Edit Track Info.
 * 4) Click the Pictures tab, and then click Add.
 * 5) Locate the picture that you want to use, click the picture, and then click Open.
 * 6) Click OK.

Note You can add a picture of any size to a file, but we recommend that you only use small pictures for album art, such as 200 x 200 pixels. If you use large pictures, this will increase the size of the audio file and may cause problems for certain playback devices, such as some car stereos.

Keywords: kbtshoot kbzunesoftware kbexpertisebeginner kbpubtypekc kbzuneamericasportal kbhowto KB927717

-

[mailto:TECHNET@MICROSOFT.COM Send feedback to Microsoft]

© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.