Album Art -- Confusing Behavior

[Late2DM]

I am trying to understand the behavior of Album Art so I can use it effectively.

I have run into this scenario (or slight variations) repeatedly.
-- Processing a folder tree in the form [artist] / [album] the "Fixing Albums" process completes.
-- Click Fix Album for an entry with the "No Match" designation, "No Covers" is reported.
-- Close and restart the program.
-- Click Fix Album again (without changing any information about the album) and the precise cover is displayed along with many other options.

I am confused as to what conditions would change by simply stopping and starting the program.

[Spoon]

Perhaps something is blocking internet access to the program, such as some anti-phishing protection.

[Late2DM]

Thanks. New to PT Album Art, so I have read quite a number of threads and found that same speculation in many places. The only security software running on this machine is a personal firewall and ESET NOD32 anti-virus. The program has explicit authorization for internet access within the firewall and ESET displays a pop-up whenever it blocks anything. I get no such indication.

To conclude something on this machine was blocking access would mean accepting the conclusion that the blockage is intermittent and without pattern. I find that troubling.

Here is another instance of similar behavior that I did not include with the original post for simplicity.
A small 3-album folder tree for 1 artist, all without art.
-- Click Fix Albums.
-- "Applying Fixes, Please Wait..." is displayed, and each of the disc icons is captioned with "0x0, 0KB", leading me to believe that art has been located.
-- One hour later the display has not changed. I intentionally left it sit undisturbed, but knew nothing would happen as CPU utilization had dropped to zero and I could not hear the faint click of disk arm movement.
-- Click Cancel, click Fix Albums again and all 3 entries have art displayed in less than 10 seconds.

Again, I'm just trying to understand what the program is doing so I can use it effectively. It just seems to stop functioning until it is shut down and restarted. What does it do if one of the sites from which it is attempting to retrieve content is very slow to respond or does not respond at all?

Again, thanks.

[Spoon]

>"0x0, 0KB"

This will mean the art could not be read from the internet. Try disabling your firewall and anti virus as a test.

[Late2DM]

>"0x0, 0KB"

This will mean the art could not be read from the internet. Try disabling your firewall and anti virus as a test.

Again, thanks. A couple quick comments then I'm going to leave this rest.

I understand your position -- the firewall and AV are prime suspects when connection issues exist. However, as I indicated PT AA has explicit internet access granted at the firewall -- can't be suspect. The AV program is not giving any indication of virus detection so evidence suggests that's not an issue either. That said, disabling the AV whilst retrieving unknown content from unknown web sites seem to be inordinately risky. Too much so...the repercussions could be devastating.

All that aside, you seem to imply that the program knows that connection issues exist, if it specifies a "0x0, 0KB" caption. If so, is it unreasonable to think/hope the program would provide explicit notification? Even better, how about this:
- connection failure detected, close connection / de-allocate resources
- re-allocate and re-establish connection
- put above in a delayed loop, say 30 - 60 seconds per iteration, make 3 attempts to reconnect before notifying user of failure
Such behavior would prevent the user from sitting and wonder what, if anything, the program was actually doing when no activity is apparent.

[Spoon]

>whilst retrieving unknown content from unknown web sites

The automatic fixer is connecting to our own servers retrieving only album art, there is no risk in this test (if the computer is not forward facing on the internet).