Cached Album Art Force Displayed on Win10 When Cover Art Is Only Metadata

Screenshots attached.

Full explanation of symptoms and known steps to reproduce follow below summary.

SUMMARY When MP3 metadata is missing, VLC ignores embedded artwork images unless the file is the very first music file played since installation. Afterwards, VLC always displays this same (first) cover art image whenever a file with no metadata is called.

If an MP3 file with metadata and embedded cover art is played, the correct cover art is displayed.

Wiping out the art cache does not affect this bug. The inconsistent behavior remains. As a benchmark, VLC's behavior playing MP3 files was compared with Windows Media Player (standard version included with Windows 10). WMP does not exhibit the same behavior as VLC. The WMP experience is consistent with what a typical user would expect of album art during music playback. VLC exhibits behavior contrary to a reasonable expectation of an end user under the circumstances described herein.

This issue has been widely reported on the forums for some time (years). New information is presented below that should be useful in diagnosing the source of the error.

Modifying VLC to improve end user UX is strongly suggested.

It is possible this problem extends to other file types such as FLAC. Only MP3 was tested for this bug report.

SYMPTOMS Playing MP3 files in VLC 2.2.6 on Windows 10 Home 64-bit results in album artwork for very first file played by VLC retained as the album art displayed by VLC for EVERY subsequent MP3 file played.

However, this only occurs when a MP3 file is missing metadata (tags).

EXPECTED BEHAVIOR Music files with no metadata should display a black/blank screen. The program appears to be caching the last defined art image and calls that image as the album art when the player is requested to play an image with no cover art metadata.

Displaying a blank art cover / black screen would eliminate user confusion and provide a more consistent UX. The current behavior does not inform the user the issue is missing or malformed metadata.

*ANALYSIS / STEPS TO REPRODUCE / SUPPORTING EVIDENCE * Windows 10 Home 64-bit on Intel PC. Windows Media Player never installed. Uninstalled VLC. Installed fresh copy of WMP via Windows Control Panel. Rebooted PC. Tested various MP3 files and observed WMP displays artwork correctly associated with file regardless if the MP3 file contains properly formatted metadata or not.

MP3 file metadata was examined using Mp3tag v2.79 desktop version.

VLC 2.2.6 was then installed and PC was rebooted. VLC was used to play an MP3 file with missing metadata but presence of album art embedded in file. VLC correctly displayed embedded cover artwork. VLC was closed and re-opened by double-clicking on a different MP3 file in Windows File Explorer that was known to lack metadata but included an embedded cover art image. Result was the second file audio played correctly, however the cover art image from the 1st file was displayed in VLC.

VLC was closed and reopened by clicking on a 3rd file known to contain no metadata but did contain an embedded image. Again, the cover art image from the 1st file was displayed while the 3rd song audio played correctly.

VLC was closed again. VLC was opened by launching the program. Using the File | Open menu feature, a 4th MP3 file was selected that was known to have an embedded art image, but no metadata. The same behavior as above was noted: the correct music played, but the incorrect cover art from the 1st file was displayed.

VLC was closed and VLC's art cache was cleared (%appdata%\vlc\art folder). The 2nd file referenced above was opened from Windows File Explorer. The file's music played as expected, but again the cover art image from the 1st MP3 file was displayed in VLC.

The user closed VLC, emptied the Windows Recycle Bin. The user launched VLC by double-clicking on the 3rd MP3 music file referenced above. The music played as expected, but again the cover art image from the very first MP3 track was displayed.

VLC was closed. The user navigated to a different sub-directory which contained files known to contain metadata. The presence of metadata in the new set of test files was verified using Mp3tag v2.79.

The user double-clicked on a MP3 file in the new sub-directory with verified album cover art and verified metadata. VLC played the file's music as expected, and displayed the corresponding album cover art as expected. The user's overall experience was as expected.

The user closed VLC and returned to the original sub-directory. VLC was opened by double-clicking on the 2nd MP3 file containing cover art but no metadata. The music played as expected, however the cover art image displayed was that of the 1st MP3 file, which was not as expected. VLC was closed.

The user returned to the original sub-directory and opened the 2nd MP3 file using Windows Media Player. The music played as expected and the user viewed the corresponding cover art image as expected. The user closed WMP and re-opened WMP by double-clicking on the 3rd MP3 file. The music played as expected and the user viewed the corresponding cover art image as expected.

The user navigated to the 2nd sub-directory and used WMP to select a file verified to contain metadata and embedded cover art. The music played as expected and the user viewed the corresponding cover art image as expected. WMP was closed.

The user returned to the original directory and opened the 4th MP3 file using WMP. The file was known to contain embedded artwork but no metadata. The music played as expected and the user viewed the corresponding cover art image as expected. WMP was closed.

The user closed VLC and returned to the original sub-directory. VLC was opened by double-clicking on the 2nd MP3 file containing cover art but no metadata. The music played as expected, however the cover art image displayed was that of the 1st MP3 file, which was not as expected. VLC was closed.