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
    2009-12-31T23:13:56+00:00

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences]

    "LargeAlbumArtSize"=dword:ffffffff

    "SmallAlbumArtSize"=dword:ffffffff

    that didn't work for me either, how can we find a cure for cancer if we cant display album art in a reasonable size in 2010. no album art much less joy, might have to go back to vinyl;)

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-01-04T22:57:46+00:00

    Hi DigiNoise,

    The registry edit *has* appeared to have worked, for me.

    It will still create a (hidden) Folder & AlbumArtSmall file *IF* one doesn't exist in the directory already; but it doesn't seem to delete/update existing one's anymore.

    NB: in my library, I have a copy of my HQ folder.jpg called COVER.jpg (which I started creating when WMP started deleting my HQ folder.jpg's) as well as MQ versions of the single covers related to the album - I haven't needed to delete any LQ folder.jpg's since I posted the above. 

    Part of the problem previously for me was that WMP grabbed the first albumart tagged file and re-created the folder.jpg from it, which generally was a single cover for me, instead of the album cover.  This doesn't make WMP show the image tagged to the specific file either, just the 'folder.jpg' shows when playing in WMP.

    Hope this helps someone! :)

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

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-01-05T05:22:38+00:00

    I have the same issues with WMP.  The registry thing won't work for me because I don't want any jpgs downloaded AT ALL!  I don't even use WMP, but my kids start it and play music and all the files appear again.

    Seriously, when I say, "don't connect to the internet and download stuff" in the options dialog, I actually mean it.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-01-11T22:13:18+00:00

    [snip] when I say, "don't connect to the internet and download stuff" in the options dialog, I actually mean it.

    should go without having to be said, eh?  I guess they didn't have enough room to put the option as "don't connect to the internet and download anything unless microsoft decrees that it's valid content and user input is discouraged or actively denied"

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

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