# Exporting Cover Art Small Problem
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/exporting-cover-art-small-problem/6309
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [February 21, 2008, 5:41am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/exporting-cover-art-small-problem/6309 "2008-02-21T05:41:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mjcm](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mjcm)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 5:41am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/exporting-cover-art-small-problem/6309/1 "2008-02-21T05:41:44Z")
Hi,
i am using the action Export Cover to File with the format string %artist% - %album% - %title%.
On for example
Artist: Johnny Cash
Album: American III: Solitary Man
Title: I Won't Back Down
It creates a file called Johnny Cash - American III (without extension) and the size is 0 Bytes.
Am i forgetting something ?
thanks in advance
Michael
---
### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 8:19am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/exporting-cover-art-small-problem/6309/2 "2008-02-21T08:19:50Z")
> [@Mike\_nl](#):
>
> ... It creates a file called Johnny Cash - American III (without extension) and the size is 0 Bytes.
> Am i forgetting something ? ...
Yes.
The underlying filesystem has restrictions in usage of special characters, e. g. ' **\< \> : ” / \ | ? \***'.
In your case the colon is the bad character.
You can work around using a formatstring like '**$validate(%artist% - %album% - %title%, )**'.
DD.20080221.1018.CET
---
### Author:  [@mjcm](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mjcm)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 8:39am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/exporting-cover-art-small-problem/6309/3 "2008-02-21T08:39:57Z")
> [@DetlevD](#):
>
> Yes.
> The underlying filesystem has restrictions in usage of special characters, e. g. ' **\< \> : ” / \ | ? \***'.
> In your case the colon is the bad character.
> You can work around using a formatstring like '**$validate(%artist% - %album% - %title%, )**'.
>
> DD.20080221.1018.CET
Hi DetlevD,
thanks for your quick reply, and Thanks it worked
Regards
Michael
---
### Author:  [@mjcm](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mjcm)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 9:44am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/exporting-cover-art-small-problem/6309/4 "2008-02-21T09:44:51Z")
Hi Detlevd.
your solution works very good, but only for a couple of files it refuses.
For example this one
Artist : N.E.R.D
Album: In Search of ... (Note the 3 ... at the end of the name of the album)
Title: Lap Dance (Feat. Lee Harvey And Vita)
If i use this Format String
$validate(\covers\%artist%\%album%\%title%,)
it Creates
Covers \N.e.r.d\In Search Of
But no album art.
And if i use
$validate(%title%,)
it creates the album art in the original album directory.
I think there is a problem with the 3 dots at the end, I also have some refusals where the album title starts with 3 dots.
Is there away around this instead of removing the 3 dots 😃
Thx
Michael
Edit: I even used the Example from the help file:
$validate(\covers\%artist%\%album%\%track%\%title%,-) but with no luck, it Creates Covers\N.e.r.d\In Search Of
But no album art.
---
### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2008, 1:55pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/exporting-cover-art-small-problem/6309/5 "2008-02-21T13:55:53Z")
> [@Mike\_nl](#):
>
> ... I think there is a problem with the 3 dots at the end, I also have some refusals where the album title starts with 3 dots.
> Is there away around this instead of removing the 3 dots 😃 ...
Hmm ..., a look into Mp3tag help pages proves that $validate() respects only special chars ' **/?\*"\<\>|:**'.
It is common sense that the dot is treated as a special character too when used as a relative reference to the current folder (.) or to the parent folder (..) or when used as the last char of a full filename (then the dot get lost, see example foldername ' **N.E.R.D**').
To create legal foldername resp. folderpath for sure you have to replace dot chars too.
You may try something like this:
$replace($validate(\covers\%artist%\%album%\%title%,),'.','\_')
DD.20080221.1555.CET
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:20pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/exporting-cover-art-small-problem/6309/6 "2026-02-09T12:20:47Z")