How to Remove Album Art Images Embedded in MP3 Files?

How to Remove Album Art Images Embedded in MP3 Files?

Ever wondered how some of your mp3 files show up with the album art icon instead of the standard mp3 icon, when browsing through the mp3 collection on hard disk? Also, does the cover image appear at the background when playing an mp3 file using Windows Media Player or any other music player?

Thumbnail image of the mp3 files as seen in Windows Explorer.

The thumbnail image can come from JPG album art images (super-hidden) within that folder, or from pictures embedded into each mp3 file. If you need to remove the mp3 album art/images for some reason, first configure Windows Explorer to show hidden and protected Operating System files. 

Use these steps:

1. Press WinKey + R to launch the Run dialog. Type control folders and hit {ENTER}

2. Click the View tab

3. Enable Show hidden files, folders, and drives

4. Uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)

5. Click OK.

6. Open the folder that contains the mp3 album.

7. Delete the AlbumArt_{GUID}_Large.jpg, AlbumArt_{GUID}_Small.jpg and Folder.jpg images.

Album art still appears?

If the album art still appears for an mp3 file or album, that could be coming from the pictures embedded into the mp3 file, and you need an ID3 tag editor to remove them. There are several freeware products available; I used Mp3tag.

Browse and locate the mp3 file. Right-click on the image and click Remove cover. Do this for every image.

That should remove all the album art images from the mp3 file.

Note that using Mp3Tag, you can also add additional album art images or change the "picture type" (cf. Picture Types at ID3.org) for the image that’s already embedded onto the mp3 file. Here are the options available.