Modern smartphones have become the main music centers for millions of users, and high-quality visuals when playing tracks have become no less important than sound purity. The application AIMP is deservedly considered one of the best audio players on the Android platform due to its flexible interface settings and support for a huge number of formats. However, many users are faced with a situation where, instead of the artist’s colorful art, a standard gray record or an empty background is displayed on the screen, which significantly reduces the aesthetic pleasure of listening.
The problem of lack of graphics often lies in the lack of embedded metadata in the files themselves or in incorrect settings of image search paths in the player menu. To correct this situation, you do not have to be a technical specialist; you just need to carefully follow the algorithm of actions and understand the principles of how tags work. In this article we will examine in detail how to add cover art to AIMP on Android in various ways, from built-in functions to the use of third-party editors.
The correct design of a music library is not only pleasing to the eye, but also helps you quickly navigate through huge lists of songs. AIMP reads artwork directly from the ID3 tags of audio files or looks for image files in the same folder where the music is stored. Understanding this mechanism is the key to successfully solving the problem with missing pictures in your playlist.
Preparing music files and checking tags
Before you start setting up the player itself, you need to make sure that your audio files are technically ready to display graphics. Most problems with missing art arise due to the fact that the image is simply not specified in the file structure or it has an unsupported format. ID3 tags - these are containers inside MP3 files that store information about the artist, track title, year of release and, of course, album cover.
If you downloaded music from unofficial sources or converted tracks from other formats, the fields with graphic data may be empty. In this case, the player simply has nowhere to take the picture, and it shows the default icon. First, you should check several files through any file manager or track properties in AIMP itself to understand the scale of the problem.
⚠️ Attention: The image format for inserting into tags must be strictly JPEG or PNG. Using rare formats like WebP or BMP can lead to the player ignoring the image, even if it is formally present in the file.
Users often forget that the quality and size of the image also matter. Files that are too large (for example, 4K or originals from cameras) may not be processed correctly by mobile versions of players due to memory limitations. The optimal solution is to use square images with a resolution of 500x500 to 1000x1000 pixels.
Using the built-in AIMP tag editor
The easiest and fastest way to add missing graphics is to use the functionality of the application itself, without resorting to the help of third-party software. The latest versions AIMP for Android have a built-in powerful tag editor that allows you to change track information and attach images directly in the player interface.
To get started, you need to open a playlist or library, find the desired track or an entire album. Tap and hold your finger on a song title to bring up the context menu. In the list of actions that appears, select Edit tags or File properties, after which a window with detailed information will open.
In the menu that opens you will see fields for entering text and an area for working with images. Click on the camera icon or the add picture button to select a file from your smartphone's gallery. After selecting an image, do not forget to press the button Saveso that the changes are written to the device memory.
☑️ Check before saving
The convenience of the built-in editor lies in the possibility of batch processing. You can select several tracks belonging to one album and add cover art for the entire group at once, which significantly saves time when designing large music collections.
Setting search paths for covers in the menu
Even if images are present in files or folders, the player may not see them due to incorrect scanning settings. In the settings menu AIMP there is a special section responsible for the priority and methods of searching for graphic accompaniment for tracks.
To get to the desired section, go to the main menu of the application and select Settings. Next, you are interested in the category Library or Appearance (the name may differ depending on the version of the skin). Find the item related to album covers and make sure that the options for searching for images in the track folder are activated.
There are several search methods that can be combined to achieve the best result. The player can search for pictures inside file tags, in a separate image file in the same directory or in special Android system folders.
- 🖼️ Built-in tags: Priority search for pictures inside the audio file itself (ID3v2).
- 📁 File in folder: Search for a file with name
cover.jpgorfolder.jpgin the same folder where the music is. - 📱 System thumbnail: Using cached thumbnails created by the Android operating system.
- 🌐 Online search: Automatic downloading covers from the Internet by album name (requires a plugin or subscription).
It is recommended to check the box next to "Search in the folder with the track" if you store music in a structured form by albums. This ensures that even if there is no image in the file's tags, the player will find a nearby file. cover.jpg.
To ensure display, place a cover file named "cover.jpg" in each album folder. This is a universal method that almost all media players understand.
Using third-party tag editors
Built-in AIMP tools are not always able to fix damaged tags or bulk edit thousands of files. For such cases, there are specialized editor applications that work deeper and more reliably than standard tools. One of the most popular solutions is the application Star Music Tag Editor or AutoTagger.
These apps allow you to automatically find missing information and covers by accessing huge online databases. You just need to start scanning your library, and the application itself will offer design options for your tracks. This is especially true for older collections collected in the era of MP3 players without screen support.
The process of working with a third-party editor usually looks like this: you give the application access to the files, it analyzes the audio track, recognizes the track and offers to download metadata. After confirmation, all changes are applied to the files instantly.
The use of specialized software also allows you to correct text encoding, which often solves the problem of "crazy" in track names, which sometimes interfere with the correct display of covers.
| Application | Search type | Batch processing | Complexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIMP (built-in) | Manual | Limited | Low |
| Star Music Tag Editor | Automatic | Full | Average |
| AutoTagger | Online databases | Full | Low |
| Musixmatch | Texts + Art | Partial | Low |
After processing files with a third-party editor, be sure to restart AIMP or update the library for the changes to take effect and appear on the screen.
Working with playlists and local databases
Sometimes users are faced with the fact that there are covers, but they are not are updated or shown from different albums. This is due to thumbnail caching. AIMP, like any app, creates a local database to quickly load the interface, and sometimes errors accumulate in it.
To force the player to redraw all the covers again, you can use the library update function. Go to the application settings, find the section Library and select the option Update or Rescan. Some versions require you to first clear the application cache through the Android settings.
If you use playlists, make sure they are not damaged. Sometimes an old playlist file (.apl or .m3u) may contain paths to old versions of files or incorrect links to resources. Creating a new playlist after editing tags often solves the problem of "jumping" pictures.
⚠️ Attention: Clearing application data (not to be confused with the cache) will delete all equalizer settings, created playlists and playback history. Use this option only as a last resort.
It is also worth paying attention to access rights. If you updated Android to a new version, the system may have restricted AIMP's access to the music folder. Check in your phone settings whether the application is allowed to read storage files.
Why is the cover image in the file, but not visible in the widget?
Widgets on the Android desktop often have their own limitations and cache. Try deleting the widget and adding it again, or update the widget through the widget settings menu (usually by tapping).
Common problems and ways to fix them
Despite the simplicity of the process, users may encounter a number of specific errors. For example, a picture may appear in the track list, but disappear on the lock screen or widget. This is often due to the operating features of your smartphone's shell (MIUI, OneUI, ColorOS), which aggressively save battery and unload processes.
Another common problem is square cropping. If the original image is rectangular, the player can crop it in the center, cutting off important parts. To avoid this, always use graphic editors to bring the picture to a 1:1 format before loading it into tags.
If after all the manipulations the graphics still do not appear, check the encoding format of the audio file itself. Some rare codecs or containers (for example, old Ogg Vorbis or FLAC with non-standard tags) may not be supported by the image rendering engine in the current version of AIMP.
- 🔄 Reboot: A trivial but effective solution is to completely close the application and open it again.
- 📂 Renaming: Try to rename the cover file to
folder.jpgand put it in the root of the album folder. - 📱 Android version: On Android 11 and higher, the file access policy has been changed, which may require additional authorization for access to folders.
- 🎨 Player skin: Some third-party skins (themes) may have display bugs; switch to the standard skin to check.
Give the phone a few minutes after bulk loading of covers before drawing conclusions that the method does not work.
A systematic approach to tags (file quality + correct player settings) solves 99% of problems with missing covers in AIMP.
Why does AIMP not see the cover after updating Android?
New versions of Android (11, 12, 13+) have introduced strict restrictions on application access to the file system (Scoped Storage). You need to reopen the music folder inside AIMP through the player's built-in file manager to give the application new rights to read those specific directories.
What size of the cover is best for AIMP?
The optimal size is considered to be a square of 1000x1000 pixels. Images smaller than 300x300 will look blurry on modern screens, and files larger than 2000x2000 may take up excess space in tags and load more slowly.
Is it possible to download covers automatically inside AIMP?
The mobile version of AIMP does not have a built-in function for automatically searching for art from the Internet "out of the box" for all users. This requires installing additional plugins (if they are available for your version) or using third-party tag editors before adding music to the player.
How to add cover art for a radio station in AIMP?
Internet radio covers are loaded automatically from the stream metadata if the broadcaster transmits them. As a rule, it is impossible to manually add a static image for a radio station in mobile AIMP, since this is dynamic content.