Prevent Windows Media Player Album Art Download

Anonymous
2009-12-02T13:24:14+00:00

I have spent a large amount of time fixingand manually editing my music album art with 500x500px images.

I have read the article at http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7music/thread/6ff8c9fd-d97f-4304-bad5-693f7dbb4532/ however this isn't my problem - I can add the artwork as I need.

The problem I have is that Windows Media Player is going online and replacing my 500x500px artwork with the 200x200px artwork from the online database. In addition to this, it is creating all of the 75x75px Small artwork files which are cluttering the My Music folder.

I have set Retrieve Additional Information from the Internet to No, and I have set Update Music Files by Retrieving Media Info from the Internet to No also, however it still goes online.

I used Wireshark to determine it is going to the following addresses:

redir.metaservices.windowsmedia.com.akadns.net

serviceswitching.metadata.windowsmedia.com.akadns.net

I have blocked these addresses on my router but WMP is finding a way around. I looked in the registry and there is nothing regarding totally disabling the artwork download (although this should be disabled with the options already set).

I can set the Folder.jpg files as Read-Only and this prevents WMP from overwriting my 500x500px files, but I still don't want it creating the AlbumArtSmall files.

Richard Green, MCSA Windows Server 2003

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Music, photos, and video

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2011-11-02T20:30:33+00:00

easy... just totally block windows media player using your firewall... or add those address as 127.0.0.1 (redir.metaservices.windowsmedia.com.akadns.net; serviceswitching.metadata.windowsmedia.com.akadns.net)

in the HOSTS file.

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-09-14T18:46:43+00:00

    Me too, they should fix this bug

    PS i do NOT think it is ok when i share my g:\music as read-only \l\music and \l\music mount it as drive x: and then add drive X: to WMP (and so also windows 7) library  to reverse it back to g:\music. I'm sure devs are now laughing at my post.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-09-14T18:34:17+00:00

    I did not found any way to contact WMP team to fix issue with WMP downsizing and setting +H+S attributes on folder.jpg files.

    I know there is partial solution with registry hack. I also know, that it can't be fixed with crating read only share on same computer where wmp is used.

    So how can i contact WMP team to report them issues (i tried submitting via Microsoft support three times, but never got answer) OR can somebody who is MVP or can contact them make them fix this issue, because there is no player with better UI for windows, but this is totally annoying thing and even with registry hack i don't trust it.

    BTW I do NOT think it is ok when i share my g:\music as read-only \l\music and \l\music mount it as drive x: and then add drive X: to WMP (and so also windows 7) library  to reverse it back to g:\music. I'm sure devs are now laughing at my post.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-04-27T13:04:12+00:00

    Agreed @ Koawmfot.

    ******* now using 'Windows 7' (from Dec'09)

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