OOPS - my fix to this problem: I did a search on my hard drive for all instances of MM.DB and renamed each one of them; started MM4 and rescanned my MP3 folders to rebuild the MM.DB - THIS TIME I made sure that the check box was UNCHECKED to scan the folder for image files / artwork! Problem solved

Figured it out. I already had / have MM3 installed on my machine; when MM4 it automatically detected the MM3's MM.DB database during the "first run" and created the new MM4 database - my MM3 database apparently, at least once, was configured on the LIBRARY->OPTIONS tab to have a checkmark active in the option titled "Scan file directories for artwork", which caused the problem. I'm left scratching my head as to WHY somebody would want this option checkmarked, as it caused absolute chaos for me - it infuriated me so much that I downloaded / experimented with every existing MP3 collection manager to find an alternative program!

So, problem solved, but I found other weird behavior with MM4 and artwork tagging, but will create another forum topic post for that to keep them separated.

MM 4.0.21462 (and earlier versions)
The image embedded within the MP3 file is sometimes NOT displayed when you've activated the Display Art features located under the VIEW main menu option (e.g. View->Show Art With Details). I confirmed that the front cover is embedded in the image with Tag & Rename and dbPowerAmp MP3 Tag Editor; MM ignores that embedded image and instead chooses to display *.JPG images located in the same folder as the MP3 files; however, if that MP3 file is currently playing MM will display the correct image in the small "Art & Details" pane (so you now have TWO different images showing onscreen for the same MP3 file!).

This affected other MM versions.

This is driving me crazy!! MM will also sometimes display NOTHING for the MP3 file, but when I check the MP3 tags for that file (using Tag & Rename or dbPowerAmp) the image is embedded properly.

[img]http://www.sdaughtry.com/downloads/mm.jpg[/img]