How to use the Zune software to update album art

This article describes how to update album art in your Zune collection by using the Zune software. It also describes a problem that you may encounter when you try to download album art for one or more albums in your library.

When you try to update album art in your Zune collection, the Zune software might not download album art for one or more albums in your library. If this behavior occurs, go to step 6 under "Use the 'Find album info' feature" in the "More Information" section.

Note The Zune software uses an online database that contains media information to download album cover art for tracks in your music library. This media information includes track names and album art, among other items.

This behavior can occur if one or more of the following conditions are true:

• You are not connected to the Internet when you copy ("rip") music from a CD to your computer.
• The online database does not contain the album art or media information for that particular CD.
• The computer is configured to prevent you from downloading items such as album art from the Internet.
• You do not have the correct permissions to download items such as album art from the Internet.
• You used a program other than the Zune software to copy the music from the CD.

To update album art on albums in your Zune collection, use one of the following methods.

Use the "Update album art" feature

1. Start the Zune software.
2. In your Zune collection, right-click the album for which you want to update the album art.
3. Click Update album art.
4. Select a picture that you want to use for album art, and then click Open.
   
   The album should now reflect the updated album art.

Use the "Find album info" feature

1. Start the Zune software.
2. In your Zune collection, right-click the album for which you want to update the album art.
3. Click Find album info.
4. Enter text in the search field to locate the album online, and then click Search.
5. Locate and select an album that matches the album that you want to update, and then click Next.
6. Click Finish to accept the changes.
   
   Note When you add album art manually, the picture is embedded in the file. The Zune software will always display the embedded file as the album art. Art that you add manually overrides any album art that the Zune software may have downloaded from the online database.
   
   If you cannot manually add album art, verify that you have the correct permissions to modify the file. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Right-click the file in the library, and then click Open File Location.
   2. In the folder that opens, right-click the file, click Properties, and then click to clear the Read-only check box.
      
      Note You can add a picture of any size to a file. However, we recommend that you only use small pictures for album art. For example, a graphic that measures as 200 x 200 pixels. Using a large picture increases the size of the audio file. This may cause problems for certain playback devices, such as some car stereos.

Note You can also use the Edit option to make additional changes to how your music and videos appear in your collection. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about how to manage your Zune collection, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: