Hard embed downloaded Album art into song

[Manoj Goswami]

I want to merge the downloaded Album art into the music file, so I don't need to redownload the album art if Poweramp gets uninstalled or when I switch to new phone. 

[andrewilley]

You can do this with an external tag editor (I think New Playlist Manager does it too?) but not currently within Poweramp.

The same applies to writing Ratings back to audio files.

Both have been requested in the past, but there have been concerns about possible file corruption and playback glitching issues.

Andre

[Ndets]

I love editing my tags from within Poweramp (although I have an external audio tag editor (Kid3)) because it's quick and convenient. Poweramp's ability to access and write to the external SD storage is also an added advantage over most of the recent and popular tag editors.

The problem with this is:

1. The downloaded album art is not embedded to the audio file.

2. The filename can't be edited.

3. It's impossible to add & embed lyrics to the audio file.

4. Lack of more tag editing options for example release date, lyrics author, producers, copyrights e.t.c.

[monkeybutt]

I noticed this issue with Poweramp, the lack of tag-editing "capability".. I think? where all of the edits are in Poweramp only, when other app uses the audio file, the tag is still the old one, like it's not permanent.

it is convenient to be able to edit the song's tag from the player itself and have it changed permanently, but I see this issue has been a long one with Poweramp, even since before the v3 redesign with no sign of fixing.

at this point I already give up lol, I'd point out some other music player app with working tags but I don't know if it's against the forum's rules or not, besides I always find myself get back to Poweramp anyway. I always set the tag properly on my PC using mp3tag before transferring it to my phone, and if it's a file already on phone, I'm using AutomaTag.

 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by monkeybutt

[MotleyG]

35 minutes ago, monkeybutt said:

I always set the tag properly on my PC using mp3tag before transferring it to my phone

This is generally the suggested method anyhow. But if such is the case there is no need to have any kind of enhanced metadata editor within Poweramp. There are plenty of threads here outlining the reasons why the developer chooses not to try to manipulate mass file changes. Plus the fact that syncing any changes made on a device back to the original storage library is even more likely to be a challenge.

[andrewilley]

If you do edit a tag in Poweramp, and then Save that change, it should be written back to the audio file (if possible) and other apps should see that change next time they access the tag contents. Issues like file formats and write permissions all could affect the success of this though.

Andre

[Fitzian]

If your music library is organized Root\Music\Artist\Album, I bet renaming (adding an underscore to) the album folder for multiple track edits or the file name for single edits, would make other music apps replace the previous entry for those files with the ones having their tags corrected in Poweramp.

Would this mess up playlists if that matters to you? Probably. 💁

[MotleyG]

1 hour ago, Fitzian said:

If your music library is organized Root\Music\Artist\Album, I bet renaming (adding an underscore to) the album folder for multiple track edits or the file name for single edits, would make other music apps replace the previous entry for those files with the ones having their tags corrected in Poweramp.

And how do these edits make their way back to your original library? I think adding the underscore would either duplicate files, or have them get "lost" during any sync process.

[andrewilley]

@MotleyG Any edits would change the last-modified time/date stamp of the file, so it would be up to any external syncing method that you decided to use if you want the updates to be copied elsewhere.

Andre

[Fitzian]

1 hour ago, MotleyG said:

And how do these edits make their way back to your original library? I think adding the underscore would either duplicate files, or have them get "lost" during any sync process.

If the non-underscored folder does not exist… it’s culled from the library when performing a rescan and the underscored folder is added in turn.

I’m all for just using Mp3tag/kid3 to edit tags en masse. Any time I had a tag to change and wanted to enforce the tag change when those files were already scanned in to any app’s music library (PA, NMP, UAPP), renaming the folder with an added underscore never resulted in duplicates or missing files.

But I don’t care about protecting (my non-existent) playlists from effects of such location alterations.

Edited June 14, 2022 by Fitzian

[Ndets]

On 6/11/2022 at 2:44 AM, andrewilley said:

You can do this with an external tag editor (I think New Playlist Manager does it too?) but not currently within Poweramp.

The same applies to writing Ratings back to audio files.

Both have been requested in the past, but there have been concerns about possible file corruption and playback glitching issues.

Andre

@andrewilley Do you by any chance know of Poweramp add-ons for tag editing and playlist management? If yes, please provide a list and give your review if possible. 

Thanks.

[andrewilley]

@Ndets The only app that I know of for playlist management is New (now Music) Playlist Manager, but it is an external app not a plug-in.

Andre

[AlphaGeek]

On 6/10/2022 at 6:44 PM, andrewilley said:

You can do this with an external tag editor (I think New Playlist Manager does it too?) but not currently within Poweramp.

The same applies to writing Ratings back to audio files.

Both have been requested in the past, but there have been concerns about possible file corruption and playback glitching issues.

Andre

The problem with that is that it doesn't use the specific images curated within Poweramp.  I think the need, at least for me would be to read the image reference data pairing audio files and image files from Powerup, and specifically embed those either within Poweramp or a companion app.

[andrewilley]

I wouldn't mind the manual artwork download feature offering to also attempt to embed the chosen image back into the audio file. But looking through what has been found over the years for my own Singles collection, automated searched downloads are so patchy in terms of real relevance and quality that I'd hate to have all that varying stuff automatically written into my files!

Andre

[maxmp]

@AlphaGeek it can be implemented for users which understand what they actually want and know how it works. It can't be done with just single option switch or 2 clicks - like it's currently done in Poweramp. On Android, OS doesn't guarantee we'll finish writing to the file. Actually, it's actually guaranteed the app can be terminated at any moment. You may imagine what that means for any mass tagging apps on Android.

 

[AlphaGeek]

4 minutes ago, maxmp said:

@AlphaGeek it can be implemented for users which understand what they actually want and know how it works. It can't be done with just single option switch or 2 clicks - like it's currently done in Poweramp. On Android, OS doesn't guarantee we'll finish writing to the file. Actually, it's actually guaranteed the app can be terminated at any moment. You may imagine what that means for any mass tagging apps on Android.

 

That's insanity.  There has to be a way to write a file and prohibit the system from terminating the thread during write operations.  If the camera app got the axe while writing an image, we'd have garbage images from the camera, etc.  I have to believe there is a way to actually write a file to mass storage, flush and close the stream, and still have enough of a process running afterward to verify the file.  If there was no way to do this, the file system would be a chaotic mess of garbage corrupt files.  I run a lot of background copy jobs (root explorer) where I am copying whole directories - video files, etc. to/from CIFS shares over WFi.  If there was a high probability of the processed being force closed and corrupting the files, this would presumably have come up from time to time, but I have literally never had a corrupt file on Android.  All that said I am a Windows desktop and systems developer - never done mobile development on Android.  What little I have read tells me Google is not an easy overlord to abide.

[maxmp]

@AlphaGeek unfortunately, no way to finish writing the file. We can get away with some text tag editing in place and smaller files. Larger file rewrites, due to the image data insertion to the middle of the file, may take seconds or more and not guaranteed to be completed. Also, we can't safely copy to temp file, change it, and atomically rename to the previous file on SAF accessible storages (Android 11+). We can do this only if we have direct file access. SAF can't overwrite and always adds suffixes like (1).

Anyway, the approach to images as it is now in Poweramp will stay, but I will extend tag editing anyway - for the users which do know what they are doing and what risks and limitations are. No way we can touch and rewrite files when covers are found - this happens when you just scroll the list in Poweramp.

[AlphaGeek]

How about a separate app which will just read the data from Poweramp which ties the specific file to the specific image and then lets you zip all that up, send copy it to a PC or something and have at it?  The critical data are those curated image associations that have been painstakingly made over time.

I still don't get the whole file writing thing.  You can make a copy, delete the original, write a new file, then delete the copy WITH all the associated validations, etc.  No?  I can edit a 12 GB video file and save it, then copy it to my NAS over WiFi, and copy another similar sized file down to my Android tablet.  I can do this with entire directories.  Process runs for an hour or more sometimes.. never gets cut off.

[andrewilley]

I know Google's latest file handling is horrible, but I'm not quite sure why SAF doesn't allow you to read data from a file abcd.mp3, then write a new temporary file abcd.tmp, and then only when that's fully complete and saved, delete the original file and rename the temporary version back to abcd.mp3.

Andre

[MotleyG]

3 hours ago, andrewilley said:

I know Google's latest file handling is horrible, but I'm not quite sure why SAF doesn't allow you to read data from a file abcd.mp3, then write a new temporary file abcd.tmp, and then only when that's fully complete and saved, delete the original file and rename the temporary version back to abcd.mp3.

Doing this for one file might not be an issue. But doing it in batches with a potentially large number of files is where this can become troublesome with Android’s app and file handling.

[andrewilley]

5 hours ago, MotleyG said:

But doing it in batches with a potentially large number of files is where this can become troublesome with Android’s app and file handling.

Oh I agree, batch file processing of any sort is not really the role of a dedicated Music Player app. There are already programs out there which do that sort of thing for you - including ones that can source artwork or lyrics and add them to music files. I think it's better to be a master of one role than trying to be some kind of Swiss Army Knife of musical editing as well as a great Music Player.

Perhaps @flyingdutchman might consider adding this as a feature to his Music Playlist Manager app? As long as file access permissions allow it (which might be an issue for Android 13+) it probably wouldn't be too hard to trawl through Poweramp's artwork cache folders and insert any already-downloaded content from the album_art or selected_aa folders into the relevant music files. 

Personally I would never want to do it as an automated batch process anyway - at least not without previewing first - as automated searching and retrieval of cover artwork can be a bit inconsistent to say the least, and often downright wrong, especially in the case of non-album songs. And I wouldn't want to do that sort of thing on a phone screen either, I do all my tag management tasks on a proper computer.

Andre

[AlphaGeek]

8 hours ago, andrewilley said:

Oh I agree, batch file processing of any sort is not really the role of a dedicated Music Player app. There are already programs out there which do that sort of thing for you - including ones that can source artwork or lyrics and add them to music files. I think it's better to be a master of one role than trying to be some kind of Swiss Army Knife of musical editing as well as a great Music Player.

Perhaps @flyingdutchman might consider adding this as a feature to his Music Playlist Manager app? As long as file access permissions allow it (which might be an issue for Android 13+) it probably wouldn't be too hard to trawl through Poweramp's artwork cache folders and insert any already-downloaded content from the album_art or selected_aa folders into the relevant music files. 

Personally I would never want to do it as an automated batch process anyway - at least not without previewing first - as automated searching and retrieval of cover artwork can be a bit inconsistent to say the least, and often downright wrong, especially in the case of non-album songs. And I wouldn't want to do that sort of thing on a phone screen either, I do all my tag management tasks on a proper computer.

Andre

The problem for me is that the critical data which associates a specific music file with a specific image is in Poweramp.  I don't care if the needed function is inside Poweramp or external to it.  For me the need is to take the music file, the data which I have painstakingly curated in Poweramp which references the image I prefer and put that image into the music file - and do all of them.  If someone showed me a way to do that today, I would JUMP on it, and be happy (ecstatic) to pay for it. 

THE KEY is that I do not want to search or download images.  I've already done that in Poweramp.  I want the solution to use the data in Poweramp.  To me, the easiest way to do that is to have Poweamp run a background batch process like Automatag.  If Automatag could read Poweramp's data to inform it which images to use for which music files.. whoa man would that be a win!

@Maxamp keeps saying an Android app like Poweramp can't faithfully and reliably write a file to mass storage.  I'm really having a hard time with this because if it could not be done then things like Root Explorer, Autamatag, and Powerdirector would create corrupt files on Android enough to render them useless - but they never do create corrupt files in my experience.  That makes me believe reliably writing files (hundreds of them, some >1GB) in background/batch is quite doable on Android.

 

Edited March 16, 2023 by AlphaGeek

[maxmp]

@andrewilley it may work for small files, enough space on the storage and non-mass tag editing. Android scanner is tied to the SAF, so when we modify files, Android scanner activates. It's slow and battery consuming. Also it won't work if file is outside of Music Folders, as we can't rename/delete/create files in this case (we can only read or write to the file). Obviously it won't work for large unsplit cd images (hundreds of Mbs).

SAF won't rename anything on Androids below 8, so that won't work for e.g. USB storages on old Androids at all (where SAF is used).

Poweramp already uses this approach for writing m3u files safely. If Poweramp gets All Files permission from Google, some work for tags in this direction can be done as well.

@AlphaGeek Poweramp is able to export covers via Settings / Export option. Unfortunately the exporting process is subject to these file writting limitations as well, so ensure you have Poweramp on foreground while exporting happens (as large collection takes time to write).

[AlphaGeek]

3 minutes ago, maxmp said:

@andrewilley it may work for small files, enough space on the storage and non-mass tag editing. Android scanner is tied to the SAF, so when we modify files, Android scanner activates. It's slow and battery consuming. Also it won't work if file is outside of Music Folders, as we can't rename/delete/create files in this case (we can only read or write to the file). Obviously it won't work for large unsplit cd images (hundreds of Mbs).

SAF won't rename anything on Androids below 8, so that won't work for e.g. USB storages on old Androids at all (where SAF is used).

Poweramp already uses this approach for writing m3u files safely. If Poweramp gets All Files permission from Google, some work for tags in this direction can be done as well.

@AlphaGeek Poweramp is able to export covers via Settings / Export option. Unfortunately the exporting process is subject of these limitations as well, so ensure you have Poweramp on foreground while exporting happens (as large collection takes time to write).

If I export covers from Poweramp, is there a way I can also use the data in Poweramp to pair the cover with the specific music file, and process all this with some app on PC or Android?  That is really the key I am looking for.

How can I copy hundreds of music files, movie files and image files to/from Android via WiFi in a backgroud job and not ever have difficulty?  I do this all the time.  If Root Explorer and Powerdirector can do this, why can't any given Android app?  I frequently copy TWRP backups which are multiple very large (>10GB) files to and from Android.  Never a glitch.

15 minutes ago, maxmp said:

@andrewilley it may work for small files, enough space on the storage and non-mass tag editing. Android scanner is tied to the SAF, so when we modify files, Android scanner activates. It's slow and battery consuming. Also it won't work if file is outside of Music Folders, as we can't rename/delete/create files in this case (we can only read or write to the file). Obviously it won't work for large unsplit cd images (hundreds of Mbs).

SAF won't rename anything on Androids below 8, so that won't work for e.g. USB storages on old Androids at all (where SAF is used).

Poweramp already uses this approach for writing m3u files safely. If Poweramp gets All Files permission from Google, some work for tags in this direction can be done as well.

@AlphaGeek Poweramp is able to export covers via Settings / Export option. Unfortunately the exporting process is subject to these file writting limitations as well, so ensure you have Poweramp on foreground while exporting happens (as large collection takes time to write).

Looked up SAF.  Hrrmm...
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/70248631/starting-from-android11-do-i-need-to-comply-to-androids-saf-just-to-even-creat

 

[maxmp]

@AlphaGeek you can easily open the backup file with any file manager (it's a zip file, can be renamed to .zip) and use the images on PC. Filename format is fixed and tied to the track tags. If the backup is restored on the new device, Poweramp will match and use these restored images.