PC Share - What are those annoying AlbumArt files cluttering my hard drive?

What are those annoying AlbumArt files cluttering my hard drive?

Written by Felix the Great!

Saturday, 14 November 2009

I didn't know about AlbumArt files until an Internet DJ friend asked for help when his computer was taking forever to access the folders. He had over 15,000 MP3 files thoughout his folders, in addition to it, 30,000 more useless AlbumArt files.

If you have music files and used Window Media Player (WMP), chances are you would have many files named in following format:

AlbumArt_{FBCE1D9F-CCDD-41FE-9882-6F16C354E5E0}_Small.jpg
AlbumArt_{FBCE1D9F-CCDD-41FE-9882-6F16C354E5E0}_Large.jpg

These files are created by WMP. Apparently, WMP goes online and downloads two (2) image files for each music file that you have and saves them in to same folder your music files are located. So if you have 1000 music files in one folder, you will end up with 3000 files.

Why? Apparently, Microsoft (MS) thought it's cool to display album images of your song when playing it, while using your bandwidth, using your hard drive storage space, and slowing down your system, all without your premission. How often do you stare at your WMP while playing a song?

This was not an issue with older versions of WMP. But if you've done a Windows updates, bought new Windows or PC, you will end up with newer WMP's, and by default, this option is enabled to automatically downloads these image files. How typical of MS to make the decisions for you? They could have the feature and give the users the option to turn it on to avoid the cluttering the hard drive.

So how do you turn the otion off to prevent further cluttering of your hard drive? Two options, choose another media player, or follow the instruction below:

Open your WMP, click on little down arrow below the menu item Library (that arrow will not show up until you point the mouse on Library), then click More Options.