Album Art Downloader Scripts: Install, Update & Fix (Guide)
Scripts are the engine room of Album Art Downloader. Every website the program can search — Amazon, Discogs, MusicBrainz, and 20+ other community sources — is powered by a small script file. Understand how scripts work and you’ll understand why a source sometimes stops returning results, and exactly what to do about it.
What Scripts Are
A script is a small plugin file (with a .boo extension, written in the Boo scripting language) that teaches Album Art Downloader how to search one particular website: how to send the query, how to read the results page, and where the full-size image lives. The sources you tick in the search window — each checkbox — is one script.
The program ships with 20+ community scripts covering general stores, specialist music databases, and genre-specific sites. Because each source is just a script file, new sources can be added and broken ones repaired without touching the program itself.
Where Scripts Live
Scripts live in the Scripts folder inside the program’s installation directory — typically:
C:\Program Files\AlbumArtDownloader\Scripts\
The installer organizes them into subfolders by general category. If you ever need to back up your setup or move it to another PC, this folder is the one to copy.
Getting New and Updated Scripts
You don’t have to hunt for scripts manually. Album Art Downloader can check for script updates itself:
- Open the program’s settings and look for the script update options.
- Turn on automatic checking for script updates — the program will then fetch fixed and improved scripts on its own.
- There’s also a “Get more scripts” function that lets you browse and install any available scripts you don’t have yet.
When a Source Stops Working
This is the single most common “problem” with Album Art Downloader, and it’s almost never a bug in your installation. Websites redesign their pages constantly; when a site changes its HTML, the script written for the old layout returns zero results. It happens to every source sooner or later — for example, the Qobuz script has broken and been repaired several times over the years as the site kept changing.
What to do, in order:
- Check for script updates — a fixed script is often already available.
- Turn on automatic script updates if you haven’t, so fixes arrive by themselves next time.
- Search with other sources meanwhile — with 20+ scripts enabled, one broken source rarely blocks you.
- Check the SourceForge discussion boards for that script — if a source broke recently, someone has usually already reported it and a fix is on the way.
Can You Write Your Own Script?
Yes. Scripts are plain text .boo files, and the program uses a strongly-typed, interface-based script model — you can even write compiled scripts in any .NET language if you prefer. The existing scripts in your Scripts folder are the best documentation: open one, copy its structure, and adapt it to the site you want to add. The community has historically shared new scripts through the SourceForge project pages.