# Adding cover to a FLAC file is too slow...

**URL:** <https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-cover-to-a-flac-file-is-too-slow/16035>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [August 21, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-cover-to-a-flac-file-is-too-slow/16035 "2014-08-21T16:00:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pepeillo001](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/7cd45c/32.png) [@pepeillo001](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/pepeillo001)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-cover-to-a-flac-file-is-too-slow/16035/1 "2014-08-21T16:00:50Z")

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Hi,

When I add covers in FLAC files, usually mp3tag is too slow. In APE files is less than a second, in most of FLAC files I have to wait about 20-30 seconds per file. ¿Is it normal?.

In earlier versions of mp3tag there is not this problem.

Greetings. Pachu.

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**Author:** ![ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/ohrenkino/32/4843_2.png) [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 4:03am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-cover-to-a-flac-file-is-too-slow/16035/2 "2014-08-22T04:03:53Z")

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> [@pepeillo001](#):
>
> ... FLAC files, ... APE files ...

FLAC describes an audio format.  
APE is a tag format.  
FLAC files usually have the seize of several MB.  
A tag has the size of some KB (factor 1000 smaller than the whole file). So if you modify the tag, not a lot has to be written.  
Unless ... you add so much data (very likely when adding pictures) that the padding does not suffice. Then the whole files has to be rewritten.

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**Author:** ![dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/dano/32/6_2.png) [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 2:30pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-cover-to-a-flac-file-is-too-slow/16035/3 "2014-08-22T14:30:14Z")

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APE can also mean [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey%E2%80%99s\_Audio](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey%E2%80%99s_Audio)  
a lossless audio format like flac.

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**Author:** ![ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/ohrenkino/32/4843_2.png) [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-cover-to-a-flac-file-is-too-slow/16035/4 "2014-08-22T15:08:40Z")

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It think I have to apologize for my ignorance in that field.  
Now the post by pepeillo001 makes more sense (to me).  
So please ignore most of what I have written in post #2

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**Author:** ![pepeillo001](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/7cd45c/32.png) [@pepeillo001](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/pepeillo001)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 9:29am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-cover-to-a-flac-file-is-too-slow/16035/5 "2014-08-23T09:29:50Z")

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I only add a cover (500x500 pixels) and is about 80-100 k)...

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**Author:** ![system](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/c/ce7035d426cb755a7916793326d23b465222a407.png) [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2026, 12:25pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/adding-cover-to-a-flac-file-is-too-slow/16035/6 "2026-02-09T12:25:12Z")

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Closed on February 9, 2026, 12:25pm UTC