How to Add Album Art to MP3 Files and Fix Unknown Artist Tags

August 29, 2026 · 8 min read · album art, id3 tags, music library

You add album art to an MP3 by editing its ID3 tags — the small block of metadata inside the file that stores the title, artist, album and cover image. A free tag editor on Android or on a computer does the job, and fixing one song takes seconds.

Tagging solves the two most common annoyances with downloaded, converted or self-recorded files: a player that lists everything as Unknown Artist, and a grey placeholder where the cover should be. Both come from missing tags, not from a damaged file.

Below you will see what ID3 tags are, when to embed the cover inside the file and when a cover.jpg next to it is enough, and the exact steps for Android and desktop. The same steps work for your own recordings, public-domain music and Creative Commons downloads, including tracks you save with the Music FM search tool.

Why does my player say Unknown Artist?

Players do not read file names. When your music app builds its library, it opens each MP3 and looks for the ID3 block inside. If the Artist field is empty, the app has nothing to group the song under, so it falls back to Unknown Artist. Missing album and cover fields produce Unknown Album and the blank grey square.

That is why a file called track01.mp3 can carry a proper name and still sort under Unknown, and why files converted from video or saved years ago often show nothing at all — the name is for you, the tags are for the player. Fix the tags once and every player, car stereo and computer that reads the file will show the right information.

What are ID3 tags, and which fields matter?

ID3 is the standard metadata format for MP3: a small block of text, and optionally an image, stored inside the file next to the audio. Players read it to build artist lists, album grids and genre filters.

These fields do the visible work:

Fill in at least Title, Artist and Album. Those three alone pull a file out of the Unknown pile.

• Title — the song name shown everywhere.
• Artist — who performed it; players group and search by this field.
• Album — ties tracks together into one album view.
• Track number — controls the play order inside an album.
• Year and genre — used for sorting, filters and smart playlists.
• Cover — the embedded picture shown in the player and on the lock screen.

What is the difference between ID3v1 and ID3v2?

ID3 comes in two generations, and the generation decides whether the file can hold a picture at all.

Any decent editor today writes ID3v2, and many write both so old devices still see basic tags. If a file ignores every attempt to tag it, it probably carries only ID3v1 — open it in an editor and save again as ID3v2.

Some older car stereos read ID3v2.3 but stumble on newer revisions, so if your tags vanish in the car, re-save them as ID3v2.3.

Embedded artwork or a cover.jpg in the folder?

There are two ways to attach a picture to music, and players treat them differently.

Embedded artwork is copied into the tag of each MP3. Nearly every player shows it, and it travels with the file: copy the song to another phone or send it over Bluetooth and the cover is still there. The cost is duplication — the same image is stored inside every track of the album.

A folder image is a separate file, usually named cover.jpg or folder.jpg, placed next to the songs. Many players use it as a fallback when a track has no embedded art, so one small image covers a whole album and is stored only once. But it works only while the folder stays together — share a single song and the picture stays behind.

Rule of thumb: embed art in singles and in anything you plan to move or share. For albums that stay on one device, either way works, and doing both is harmless.

How do I add album art and tags on Android?

The easiest route is a free tag-editor app: open the Play Store and search for 'MP3 tag editor'. Some offline players, Musicolet among them, include a tag editor, so check your player first and you may not need a second app.

Where does the image come from? For your own recordings, any photo works. For Creative Commons and public-domain releases, use the cover from the page you downloaded the track on — that artwork is normally shared under the same terms as the music.

1. Install the editor and open it. Allow file access when asked — without it the app cannot reach your music. On recent Android versions it may request All files access; grant that only to an app you trust.
2. Browse to the folder that holds your music, usually Download or Music, and tap the song you want to fix.
3. Type the Title, Artist and Album.
4. Tap the empty cover box and pick a square image from your gallery; the app embeds it into the file.
5. Tap Save, then reopen your player. If the old entry still shows, use the player's rescan option or restart the phone — Android caches its media library.

How do I add album art and tags on a computer?

Windows handles basic tags with no extra software: right-click the MP3, open Properties, go to the Details tab, and click the values next to Title, Contributing artists, Album, Year and Genre to edit them, then OK. That panel cannot add a cover image.

For covers and whole albums you want a free tag editor. Mp3tag is the common choice on Windows, with similar tools on macOS and Linux. The routine is the same in all of them:

For a large library of music you own, MusicBrainz Picard can fill in tags and art automatically: load the files, press Lookup to match them against its open database, then save. VLC can also fix basic fields on any system — open the song and press Ctrl+I.

1. Open Mp3tag and drag the album folder into its file list.
2. Select every track, then type the shared fields — Artist, Album, Year — once in the panel on the left.
3. Right-click the empty cover square at the bottom of that panel, choose Add cover, and pick your image.
4. Press Ctrl+S. Nothing is written into the files until you save.

How do I keep a whole album grouped together?

One song is easy; albums break because of tiny differences in the text, and players merge or split albums based on exact matches.

None of this changes whether you may keep the file. Tagging your own recordings, public-domain music and Creative Commons downloads is always fine; for anything else, what matters is how you got the track, not what you write in its tags.

• Keep the Artist and Album spelling identical on every track — one extra space creates a second album in the library.
• On compilations, fill the Album artist field, for example with Various Artists, so the album is not scattered across ten artist entries.
• Number the tracks so the album plays in order instead of alphabetically.
• Rename the files to match, for example 01 - Song Title.mp3 — tags are for the player, names are for you, and tidy files are easier to move later.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my album art show in one player but not another?

Players cache artwork and read it differently. Some display only embedded images, some prefer a cover.jpg in the folder, and many build a thumbnail cache that does not refresh on its own. Embed the art inside the file, then run the player's rescan option or clear its cache so it picks up the new image.

Does editing tags or adding art change the sound quality?

No. Tags live in a separate part of the file from the audio data. A tag editor rewrites only that metadata block and never re-encodes the music, so a 320 kbps file stays a 320 kbps file with identical sound.

What size and format should the cover image be?

Use a square JPEG or PNG — ID3v2 supports both, and JPEG is smaller for the same picture. Anything between 500 and 1000 pixels looks sharp on phones and in car stereos. Bigger images just inflate every file they are embedded in without looking better on a small screen.

Why do my tags show strange symbols or question marks instead of the song name?

That is a character-encoding problem: the tags were written in an old format or a regional code page your player cannot read, which is common with ID3v1 files and non-Latin scripts. Open the file in a tag editor, retype the fields and save as ID3v2, which stores text in Unicode and handles any language.

Can I remove or replace album art later?

Yes. Open the file in the same tag editor, right-click the cover image and choose the remove option, then save — or simply add a new cover over the old one. Removing embedded art also shrinks the file a little, which is worth doing if a huge photo was embedded by mistake.