Skip to content

Scanning and artwork

  • Supported formats: MP3, FLAC, WAV, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Opus and M4A (AAC or ALAC).
  • Rescans only read tags from new or changed files. Files moved or renamed within a library keep their tracks (same name and size, or same size and modification time).
  • If every known file disappears at once, the scan refuses to clear the library: that is usually an unmounted drive.
  • Cover art, in order of preference:
  • An image named cover, folder, front or album (.jpg, .jpeg, .png, .webp) in the album's folder or the folder above it (for CD1/CD2 layouts), as long as no other album's tracks are in that folder. A shared folder of many albums uses step 2.
  • A picture embedded in one of the album's first tracks.
  • MusicBrainz, by the MusicBrainz ids in the tags (as written by Picard) or by album and artist name, then the Cover Art Archive. The album's MusicBrainz id is stored, so later lookups use it instead of searching again.
  • Artist photos, in order of preference (found in the scan's last step):
  • An artist.jpg (.png, .webp) in the artist's own folder, or a folder.jpg in a folder of theirs without audio of its own (in an album's folder, folder.jpg is the cover), as Plex, Jellyfin and Kodi lay them out. A folder holding several artists' music is nobody's.
  • Fanart.tv, with FANARTTV_API_KEY.
  • The photo Wikidata gives for the artist, from Wikimedia Commons, credited to its author.

Steps 2 and 3 need the artist's MusicBrainz id: from the tags (as Picard writes them), else a search by name that only counts when it's clear who they are (their albums we've matched, or a name nobody else has). Artists not found are looked for again after 30 days. - Descriptions and album details: an album matched to MusicBrainz (by its tags or its cover lookup) gets its type and first release date; artists and albums get the summary of their Wikipedia article, through the Wikidata item MusicBrainz links them to. What's missing is looked for again after 30 days. - A cover or photo picked by hand (uploaded, or chosen among the sources' own) is never replaced by a scan; "Use automatic" hands it back to the scans.