My previous Škoda Octavia and Fabia both accepted an SD card with all my music and displayed the album artwork (cover) on the head unit. The music is a mixture of ripped CDs and downloads. The artwork display also allowed one to quickly scroll through content choosing from recognizable album covers.

My new Scala however doesn't have a slot for an SD card so I transferred all on the music to a USB-C stick which fits into the one of the front USB-C slots. It plays fine though I find it 'forgets' the source if I connect my iPhone and looks to play the (much smaller) selection on the 'phone.

Unfortunately, none of Album Art is shown on the head unit, just the generic music logo. I cannot find a jpg/png/bmp etc. file to try to resize.

Anyone else have this problem or know of a solution?

This has been a VAG "issue" for years.

You'll already know that each album has to be in it's own folder the root directory of the USB drive. Also the drive is better if it does not have any other data on it.

Beyond that I've found that having the exact right size of album art in the same folder as the music sometimes works and sometimes not. In our car about 80% of the music shows album art using this method.

The only for sure cure I've ever found is to use an MP3 tag editor to add the album art to each track. Also means you need every track ripped as MP3.

The source thing is annoying. If you plug in a phone the infotainment just assumes you want to use it as the source. Even if you just plugged the phone in to charge it up. There is sometimes a chance to default back to the USB drive but you need to be quick.

If I just want to charge a phone I use the rear seat ports.

Edited 20 April, 20251 yr by Aldfort

Many thanks.

Though you note it’s been a VAG issue for years it’s only surfaced with my 2024 Scala. The Album Art worked fine on my 2013 Octavia and my 2018 Fabia.

You are right to highlight not all of my music is MP3 format but uploading the music files in Windows11 Explorer I can find no picture format files.

MS windows was once great at finding the album art of almost any album. Not so much now.

If you have the CD you can scan the cover and save it but that is a bit geeky.

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll try when I get a moment.

Just disappointed that Škoda seem to have gone backwards on what was a useful feature.

I found that in both my Fabia and Rapid the actual size, width and height, of the album art was important. Too big and it did not show. I set all of mine to 750 x750 maximum and have the album covr embedded in each file.

I rip my CDs as FLAC and which adds the album art to each file. I then run this through FLACSquisher which converts the files to mp3, still with the album art embedded. I then run Sanse Mp3 Art Sizer which allows me to resize all of the albumn art to the maximum that I specify. This has worked brilliantly for both the Fabia and Rapid. When I get my new Scala I am hoping that it will show the album art from the USB drive that I will be putting my music onto. It is a shame that they have removed the SD card slots as this was neat and out of the way.

Thank you, I’ll take a look.

The mystifying think is that the same files in the same format and structure worked perfectly on my Octavia and Fabia.

Edited 25 April, 20251 yr by iamian