[Abcde-users] Can not encode with cover to two output formats, possible bug in josh version?

[josh]

I think I found the cause in the do_embedalbumart() function. The
image is moved at the end of the case for each output format, so it
won't be available for the next format.

Have a look at lines 3704 - 3722 for the mp3 and flac cases.
https://github.com/poddmo/abcde/blob/c30d1926c2258ce68932aa99bfc05299450c9046/abcde#L3704

I've wondered in the past why the cover.jpg is missing from the abcde
temp directory when cleaning was disabled. Those move cases would do
it.

Try changing them to copy commands, ie

mv "$ALBUMARTFILE" "$FINALDIR"/albumart_backup

becomes

cp "$ALBUMARTFILE" "$FINALDIR"/albumart_backup





On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 at 22:52, josh <poddmo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 at 18:27, Jose M Calhariz
> <jose.calhariz at tecnico.ulisboa.pt> wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 18, 2026 at 05:27:48PM +1100, josh wrote:
> > > On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 at 17:15, Jose M Calhariz via Abcde-users
> > > <abcde-users at lists.einval.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > I am trying to learn abcde and I am chasing a possible bug on abcde
> > > > v2.12.0.  Doing output to two formats (flac,mp3) and get cover art on
> > > > both.  With extra -V in one of tries I tried:
> > > >
> > > > abcde -V -V -V -V -B -o mp3 1 && abcde -V -V -V -V -B -o flac 1
> > > >
> > > > The mp3 gets the cover art, the flac is not generated.
> > > >
> > >
> > > Off the top of my head, first up I would suggest trying to output both
> > > at the same time:
> > >
> > > abcde -V -V -B -o mp3,flac 1
> > >
> > > if that doesn't work, try the explicit art download command
> > >
> > > abcde -V -V -G -B -o mp3,flac 1
> >
> > Done that, problem still present.
> >
> >
> > abcde -v:
> > This is abcde v2.12.1
> >
> > >
> > > I'd also recommend bumping up to the latest version so we are working
> > > with the same version:
> > > wget https://github.com/poddmo/abcde/releases/download/2.12.1/abcde_2.12.1-2_all.deb
> > > sudo dpkg -i abcde_2.12.1-2_all.deb
> > >
> > > If that all doesn't help, I'd like to see any warning or other
> > > interesting messages in the verbose output
> > >
> >
> >
> >  OK:
> > rm -r The_Chemical_Brothers-Come_With_Us/ The_Chemical_Brothers abcde.990cd70a
> > abcde -V -V -V -V -V -G -B -o mp3,flac 1
> >
> > (...)
> > Successfully embedded the album art into your mp3 tracks
> > Suitable cover image not found, no embedding done...
> > Finished. Not cleaning /data/tmp/wav/abcde_working/abcde.990cd70a.
> >
> >
> > The mp3 have cover art, the flac is missing it.
>
> Is the cover.jpg file still in the abcde_working/abcde.990cd70a
> directory when the command exits with "Not cleaning" above?
>
> I can't run a test or look into it deeper at the moment but could you
> please confirm that the image is embedded if you only do flac?
>
> abcde -V -V -G -B -o flac 1
>
> Can you show the output of: ffmpeg -i trackname.flac
>
> I never use embedding in every track, to me it goes against the whole
> point of compressing to be adding the same image to every track. I'll
> test this tomorrow and get back to you.
> Have a look at my config file to see if there is anything there that may help.
> https://github.com/poddmo/abcde?tab=readme-ov-file#config-file-example