BTRAMP pulls cover art from several sources and picks between them using a defined priority order. This page explains how that works — for songs, for collections (albums, artists, genres, composers), and for folders in the Files browser — and how you can supply your own custom art.
The answer breaks into three parts:
Followed by a clarifying note on the two distinct user-customization mechanisms:
_btramp/art/ override folders (per-entity custom art, keyed by name).folder.jpg, cover.jpg, etc. dropped into the same directory as your music).When BTRAMP needs to display art for a single song, it walks through the following sources in order and uses the first hit:
_btramp/art/song/ override — a custom image you placed specifically for that track._btramp/art/album/{Album Artist} - {Album Title}.{jpg|png}_btramp/art/artist/{Artist}.{jpg|png}_btramp/art/artist/{Album Artist}.{jpg|png}_btramp/art/genre/{Genre}.{jpg|png}_btramp/art/default.{jpg|png} if present, otherwise the image bundled with BTRAMP).Whichever source wins at step 4 is cached in both memory and disk for next time. Overrides from step 1 are not cached in the normal image cache — they’re always read directly from their folder, so edits show up immediately.
Collections (album, artist, genre, composer, and playlist) don’t have artwork of their own in the file system. Instead, BTRAMP designates a representative song for the collection at scan time and displays that song’s artwork.
Album — Picks the album’s first track by disc/track number. If track numbers are missing or zero across the album, it falls back to the earliest-inserted song for that album.
Artist — Picks the earliest-inserted song across every track where the artist appears either as album artist or as track artist. Songs without a usable asset location are excluded.
Genre — Picks the earliest-inserted song in that genre.
Composer — Picks the earliest-inserted song by that composer.
Once the representative song is chosen, the same resolution order from Section A runs — starting with the appropriate _btramp/art/ override for the collection itself (which, if present, short-circuits the whole lookup). So the effective order for a collection is:
_btramp/art/{type}/ override for the collection (for example _btramp/art/album/Pink Floyd - The Wall.jpg or _btramp/art/artist/Pink Floyd.jpg).What if no song in the collection has art? Albums still get a last-chance lookup for an artist or genre override file. Artists, genres, and composers go straight to the default placeholder.
BTRAMP’s Files browser shows a thumbnail next to each folder. That thumbnail is produced by looking inside that folder for the first file whose name matches BTRAMP’s configurable list of album-art filenames.
Default search order:
folder.jpg, folder.jpeg, folder.png,
cover.jpg, cover.jpeg, cover.png,
front.jpg, front.jpeg, front.png,
albumartsmall.jpg, albumartsmall.jpeg, albumartsmall.png
The match is case-insensitive, and the first filename found in that folder wins — so the order of the list is the priority. You can add, remove, and reorder entries under Settings → Library → Album Art Filenames.
Three related settings control how and where this is used:
Results are cached in memory and on disk like any other image.
_btramp/art/ vs. Folder-Level DefaultsThese are two separate features and it’s worth being explicit about the difference.
_btramp/art/ — Per-Entity Overrides (Highest Priority)A single directory tree inside BTRAMP’s Documents folder, accessible via WiFi file transfer or the Files app. Structure:
Documents/
└── _btramp/
└── art/
├── default.jpg ← optional global fallback
├── album/
│ └── {Album Artist} - {Album Name}.jpg
├── artist/
│ └── {Artist Name}.jpg
├── composer/
│ └── {Composer Name}.jpg
├── genre/
│ └── {Genre Name}.jpg
├── playlist/
│ └── {Playlist Name}.jpg
└── song/
└── {Artist} - {Song Name}.jpg
Rules
.jpg / .jpeg) and PNG (.png) only.Pink Floyd.jpg matches a request for pink floyd./) before the match, so an album with a slash in its title will match the sanitized form on disk.default.jpg / default.png at Documents/_btramp/art/ is the ultimate fallback image when nothing else is found._backup/ subfolder, so nothing is lost.Priority: An override here always wins. If _btramp/art/album/Pink Floyd - The Wall.jpg exists, BTRAMP will show it even if the album’s tracks have embedded art, even if a cover.jpg sits next to the music, and even if the system has a valid memory or disk cache entry.
cover.jpg, folder.jpg, etc.These live next to your music files, not in _btramp/art/. They’re conventional image files inside the album/artist/whatever folder where your audio lives:
/Music/Pink Floyd/The Wall/
├── 01 - In The Flesh.mp3
├── 02 - The Thin Ice.mp3
├── ...
└── folder.jpg ← used as the album/folder artwork
Rules
folder.jpg, cover.jpg, front.jpg, albumartsmall.jpg (plus .jpeg and .png variants of each).Priority: These are consulted after _btramp/art/ overrides, memory cache, and disk cache. For songs, they come either before or after embedded art depending on the Prefer Image Files Over Embedded Art setting.
_btramp/art/ overrides | Folder-level defaults | |
|---|---|---|
| Where does it live? | Documents/_btramp/art/{type}/ | Inside each music folder, next to the audio |
| Keyed by? | Entity name (e.g. Pink Floyd.jpg) | Filename pattern (e.g. folder.jpg) |
| Scope? | Specific song / album / artist / genre / composer / playlist | Every song in that folder + the folder itself |
| Priority? | Highest — beats every other source | After cache; before or after embedded art (user setting) |
| Editable from inside BTRAMP? | Yes, via the Metadata Editor | No — manage with the Files app or WiFi transfer |
| Formats? | .jpg, .jpeg, .png | Whatever you put in the filename list (.jpg, .jpeg, .png by default) |
All of these are found inside BTRAMP’s Settings screen: