I’m curious

Filter for library items without cover art

What is the best way to find all item sin my library that don't have cover art? I'd like to be able to add many items in a row, then go back later and figure out which ones I need to manually acquire covers for, instead of stopping the scanning process every time I come across an item whose cover isn't automatically or easily found.

I thought I had figured it out when I found that you could add "Cover Image"-based criteria for Smart Shelves, but there doesn't seem to be a way to say "doesn't exist" or even pick "Contains a lot of transparent" or something like that.
2 people have
this question
+1
Reply
  • Best thing I can suggest is that you view your library in List mode instead of Covers. Click on the tool icon (hammer in upper right corner) and select Creation date (near bottom of drop down list) to add that column to those shown. When you click on the heading for that column your items will sort by Creation date. So the items you just added are now at the top and the left column shows the cover in miniature. The missing covers will show as white with a dotted border. Select them one by one and update your covers.

    Just don't forget to reselect your preferred sort (Author or Title) before returning to Covers mode.

    As long as you update your covers at the end of each batch of entries it shouldn't get out of control. I like to update them before I put the scanned items away in case I find more than one cover version to pick from, or no matching cover at all... in which case I have to resort to scanning it.
    • Thanks for the reply -- that's basically what I had been doing, although I hadn't thought to switch to List mode, which would be a big help. I was hoping to avoid having to scan by eye though. If I missed one at the end of a batch, it would fall further down the list with the next batch and likely be missed for a very long time...
  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. indifferent, undecided, unconcerned kidding, amused, unsure, silly sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited

  • actually there is a better way.

    in List mode, click the hammer and spanner icon to add the "cover color" item to the list. any items with a blank cover will have a blank color in this field.

    sort the list by "Cover Color", hey presto
  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. indifferent, undecided, unconcerned kidding, amused, unsure, silly sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited

  • I’m happy
    Thanks Stu, that's what I was after! Much more efficient than creating a Smart Shelf for items whose covers do not contain a lot of ... :-)
  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. indifferent, undecided, unconcerned kidding, amused, unsure, silly sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited