Exporting yields only folder.jpg as cover art image for all albums

I have all of my .mp3 files and cover art .jpg files in one big directory on my NAS. MP3tag doesn't seem to mind this, nor does my music streaming appliance mind it. I see the correct cover art for each album when I browse through my music collection via MP3tag's main window. However, if I run an export script which [supposedly] outputs cover art, I get only the default folder.jpg image as the cover art image for every album in my collection. The MP3tag Options dialog lets me specify a cover art directory, which I've done (in my case that seems redundant, since my cover art is lumped in with my music in one big directory). I should add that I didn't create any of the scripts that I've tried; they're all samples that I've downloaded via these forums--they work correctly as far as I can tell. Is there a setting I'm overlooking, such that the correct cover art for each album will appear in the output file created by running an export script?

When you export an embedded picture with an action, you can specify field variables as part of the name, e.g. %album% instead of the string constant "folder".
But: when you export an embedded picture and the exported file has a different size than an already existing one of the same name, you get a renamed file like folder(1).jpg, folder(2).jpg.

I guess you mean that I will have to figure out how export scripts work and then modify the ones that I've experimented with.

That is one way.
I mean: how did you create the folder.jpg files?

Also, you can set a default file name in
File>Options>Tag-Sources>Filename for cover art

But I think that is the one for saving pictures from web sources.

Well, you can do what you want, I prefer to have a list of folders, with each containing all objects related to the technical product. In this way one can avoid naming collisions.

This dialog allows also scripting with Mp3tag placeholders.

Please explain ... in your opinion which window is the "MP3tag main window"?
In my opinion the "MP3tag main window" is the spreadsheet with the columns, which shows the plain filelist and the values from the tag-fields and other user defined calculated data, but there is no cover image shown.
The Mp3tag dialog windows "Tag Panel" and "Extended Tags" are able to show embedded images.

The Mp3tag feature to create export scripts is not designed for exporting embedded images.
If you want to export one or more embedded images, then apply the action for image cover export or use the context menu from the displayed cover image.

Once an image resides as a physical file in the folder, then for example the external image file can be addressed from within a HTML-file, which has been created by the Mp3tag export feature.

DD.20170721.0719.CEST

Sorry for my incorrect terminology. By "MP3tag main window" I meant (as DetlevD suggests) the spreadsheet with the columns in combination with the tag panel.

Clearly I need to do some research and experiments in order to figure out the answers to my questions. I appreciate the guidance provided thus far. I think I can see the appropriate path to follow. I'll report back if I learn anything that appears to be worth mentioning in this forum.

Pity really, that you did not tell us how you got to the observation that led to this thread:
how did you export the embedded pictures in that first attempt?

The best way is still:
Select all the files that should be treated.
Click on the button in the toolbar for "Actions (Quick)" and select an action of the type "Export cover"
Enter as format string for the filename: %album%_%_cover_type%
Do not tick the options for only one cover type or duplicates.
Click OK to start the action.

I have successfully exported my cover art, using the technique mentioned in Ohrenkino's preceding post. I've also moved the exported cover art into a 'Cover Art' sub-folder, and I've managed to modify some export scripts which run correctly to show the cover art adjacent my album info, e.g. genre, title, album artist, etc. etc.

In my original post I said "I have all of my .mp3 files and cover art .jpg files in one big directory". That was true, but I now suspect that those .jpg files were irrelevant and that my only "real" cover art was the cover art embedded in my .mp3 files. For example, I had a lot of .jpg files with bizarre names like "AlbumArt_{08FBCB95-2831-4FCD-A7BF-D62CEB2CA041}_Small.jpg". However, after exporting my cover art into a sub-folder, I began to suspect that these bizarrely named .jpg files might be irrelevant. To test that suspicion, I moved those files into another sub-folder. I haven't deleted them yet, but I'm thinking that I could probably delete them, because everything seems to work fine without them.

Once again, I appreciate the feedback I've received.

You can safely delete those weird AlbumArt_{08FBCB95-2831-4FCD-A7BF-D62CEB2CA041}_Small.jpg
files - Windows Media Player creates them if it finds varying embedded pictures in the files of one folder.
Did you know:
you can create folders for the music files with the help of mp3tag.
see the FAQs: /t/8016/1

And you can extract the cover files to a single but different folder if you include a path component in the format string for the filename e.g.
Cover Art\%album%.jpg

Noted. Thank you.

I've read most of the solutions so this may be redundant. As it is mentioned Windoes Media Player creates those files anytime you use it's application. So, with the help of someone on this site, i created a batch txt file to delete them and other attributes i dont want or need..

Here's my scenario.

I have a tempoary folder for all music I purchase, where i do all editing before i add them to my main database. (everything goes there). Before I run MP3 Tag editor, I use this txt file which removes all Album_Art and other attributes I don't want/need. This way MP3 Tag Editor doesn't inquire each time it notice a Album_Art or Ini or other atributes in question.

If you have a lot of Album folders in your main database you suspect has these attributes, you can add / run the txt file to that directory.

Last, in my backup software, there's a filter to exclude attributes, which I select Album_Art.jpg, *.ini, *.Thumbs.Db and anything else you don't want to back up.

You can name the txt file whatever you like (in my case: New Music.txt).

cd %1
attrib -h -s . /s
del /s albumart*.jpg
del /s desktop.ini
del /s Thumbs.db
del /s cover.jpg

There may be a simpler. faster way of doing this, but it works for me and is very simple. Again, just place this file where ever you save your music.

Hope it helps