Album images

[lbkBrad 5]

I've started converting to MP3 and I seem to have an artwork issue:  Emby does not appear to be pulling any album cover-art.  I figure I have some settings wrong and am looking for some tips hopefully.  Here's details:

-each new MP3 subfolder is an album
-my metadata tags are good including all artist/album/year tags updated (no artwork imported during conversion)
-if it matters, file name is usually the song name but subfolder name is a custom scheme
-during song playback, a 'generic' artist background loads; in the web interface, this same generic background is shown for all songs/folders/albums; in the Roku app, album folders show no art
-library settings:  real-time monitoring on (have also manually scanned); all artist/album metadata providers on; all album/artist image fetchers on; save artwork into media folders on; download images in advance off
-confirmed the emby system acct has read-write to the music-library share

Since images don't download in advance, I wasn't sure if manual scans or meta-refreshes really did anything.  Also, I'm not sure what kinds of files should get saved into the folders (jpg?).  So those maybe some things, but if anyone spots a problem with these, let me know.  Thanks.

[Luke 43402]

4 minutes ago, lbkBrad said:

I've started converting to MP3 and I seem to have an artwork issue:  Emby does not appear to be pulling any album cover-art.  I figure I have some settings wrong and am looking for some tips hopefully.  Here's details:

-each new MP3 subfolder is an album
-my metadata tags are good including all artist/album/year tags updated (no artwork imported during conversion)
-if it matters, file name is usually the song name but subfolder name is a custom scheme
-during song playback, a 'generic' artist background loads; in the web interface, this same generic background is shown for all songs/folders/albums; in the Roku app, album folders show no art
-library settings:  real-time monitoring on (have also manually scanned); all artist/album metadata providers on; all album/artist image fetchers on; save artwork into media folders on; download images in advance off
-confirmed the emby system acct has read-write to the music-library share

Since images don't download in advance, I wasn't sure if manual scans or meta-refreshes really did anything.  Also, I'm not sure what kinds of files should get saved into the folders (jpg?).  So those maybe some things, but if anyone spots a problem with these, let me know.  Thanks.

HI there, can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

 

[lbkBrad 5]

I should have dug a bit deeper before my previous post as I've realized the issue is more complex.  My default view for music libraries is usually 'folder' but that was hiding some things like for instance artist 'duplication'.  I'm uploading a few images of one example.  One of the artist 'IDs' has coverart, while the other has an artist description but contributing-artist value with no coverart.  As one might guess, I've found the '3 Doors' value in the contributing artist tag of some of my files, so that is a root cause and I've already found where I would need to make changes to start cleaning that up.

I also noticed that I was not seeing a way to play albums in correct song order, like by track #, while in 'folder' view (my subfolders are albums).  It wanted to play the songs in alphabetical order instead and I didn't see an opton to sort by track#.  does that sound correct/expected?

[user24 424]

On 9/29/2026 at 5:41 AM, lbkBrad said:

Also, I'm not sure what kinds of files should get saved into the folders (jpg?).

Hi, have you read the Emby Music Naming guide? This gives some info about file types that may be useful, if you haven't seen it already?

https://emby.media/support/articles/Music-Naming.html

There may be other useful tips in this documentation that may help with some of your other questions?

7 hours ago, lbkBrad said:

I also noticed that I was not seeing a way to play albums in correct song order, like by track #, while in 'folder' view (my subfolders are albums).  It wanted to play the songs in alphabetical order instead and I didn't see an opton to sort by track#.  does that sound correct/expected?

In Folder view, there's Sort By options for File Name, Number, Title:

Depending upon how your files are named, perhaps one of these will work for the order you want?

Which tagging program do you use? In Mp3tag there's many options to redo filenames from tags and vice versa:

I also noticed in your pics, there is "3 Doors Down" and "3 Doors" Artists shown. This looks like you may have inconsistent tagging with Album Artist and/or Artist???

Perhaps the above info will assist with answering some of your questions? Cheers!

Edited September 30 by user24
spelling corrections

[lbkBrad 5]

thanks for the link - and yes, a fair amount of my file names do start with track number, so in those folders, if I sort by the name, they do play in correct order....although that setting doesn't hold when I move to the next folder.  I suppose sort order resetting to alphabetical each time is another part of my issue potentially.

[Luke 43402]

5 minutes ago, lbkBrad said:

thanks for the link - and yes, a fair amount of my file names do start with track number, so in those folders, if I sort by the name, they do play in correct order....although that setting doesn't hold when I move to the next folder.  I suppose sort order resetting to alphabetical each time is another part of my issue potentially.

For music, track numbers come from embedded metadata within the file. We don't actually try to parse the numbers out of the file name.

[lbkBrad 5]

agreed, but is there any way to use meta track numbers in folder view of a music library?

 

sorry, that's a bit vague....I mainly mean to play in that order - although if you have other ideas, please let me know.

Edited October 2 by lbkBrad
first reply to vague

[Luke 43402]

Yes user84 showed how to sort by number in his screenshots above.