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
    2013-01-25T07:16:41+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.

    This only worked for a few minutes. I double-check my firewall settins and WMP is still blocked, and I did add the suggested lines to my HOSTS file.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-12-04T20:42:06+00:00

    I have a 2000 CD collection ripped in WMA lossless. After ripping a ripping session, I would spend considerable time cleaning it all up. You know editing artwork, album titles, track names, etc. Then WMP willy-nilly follows me around and screws up most of my changes.

    You can uncheck "Retrieve Additional Information from the Internet" but WMP will still run around trying to screw up some of your artwork. If WMP can't find any info on an album online, or maybe, if you changed it manually, the metadata ends up getting set to all zeros, like this, AlbumArt_{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}_Large.jpg. These files are hidden in the album directory, BTW. Then WMP will take a random one of those from somewhere and copy it everywhere else with {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000} metadata totally screwing up hours of work. This was really **** me off! There is no way to fix or stop it!

    See more here for more here:  Link

    Anyway, only solution, for me at least, was to go out and buy MediaMonkey. I pointed WMP to a complete different directory and never use it anymore. Never let WMP touch your library again or it will go around changing these things on you again. If you insist trying, make a good backup first. I suspect the W8 Music App is the same way since it appears to be tied into the WMP API like Media Center is. So don't let it touch your library either (without a backup) because it will probably do the same thing!

    With MediaMonkey you can edit and change things to your heart's delight without it messing with you. There is a learning curve to MediaMonkey and you have to make some setting changes before you do an "Auto-Organize". But once you get use to it you will never go back to WMP. Start small with MediaMonkey, like 10 CDs, make a backup, then experiment to learn everything and tweak various settings. I tweaked my MM settings to keep the WMP album format since that was what I liked best.

    If Microsoft ever fixes this issue, or gives us an option to turn this "feature" off, then WMP would be a fine program that I wouldn't mind using! But as it is now, it is completely unusable for me. Only reason I revisited this is I was considering trying the W8 Music App and kind of forgot about the artwork issue with {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000} metadata.

    It takes me like all night to copy my library to a separate drive for a backup. I got better things to do than be a guinea pig copying it back and forth experimenting.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-04-25T15:32:40+00:00

    Due to the age of the thread, please create a new post at the link below for assistance. Be sure to include as much detail as possible about what is happening and what you have tried.

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/sound

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-04-16T21:31:58+00:00

    I'm having this same issue.

    Even tried blocking WMP from windows firewall but somehow its still updating with album art.

    I don't want ANY album art at all as i'm using sugar sync and it's going ahead and backing up all the hidden albumart files also which is a real pain.

    I give up, will try out winamp again, havnt used that player in about 10 years.

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