I’ve seen some discussions about this but can’t seem to find the right answer. I have a couple OSMC raspberry PIs set up and they work great for our needs.
I have a NAS with a Movies folder and a TV Shows folder. The movies work just fine.
In the TV Shows folder, I have each show in a separate folder with names like:
Show Name S01E04.mp4
Show Name S01E05.mp4
…etc
I use Media Companion to scrape for the info file, artwork, and other details and store them directly into the folders with the media. I tell OSMC to use “local information only” for both movies & TV shows.
But for some reason, some TV shows just simply are missing from the show browser on OSMC. If I know of a show that does this, I have to go to Videos -> Files and then browse to the NAS folder where the show is and watch it that way.
Nothing in the logs show up for the missing shows (kodi.log) when scraping.
Honestly can’t seem to find any red flags when comparing a working show’s info file to one that isn’t.
Thanks for any help, and I’m willing to try some things to sort this out.
Here's one:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<tvshow>
<id>79502</id>
<state>0</state>
<title>Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin</title>
<showtitle>Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin</showtitle>
<mpaa>
</mpaa>
<plot>Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days is a BBC television series presented by comedian and actor Michael Palin documenting his eighty-day trip around the world.
Palin was to not use any form of travel that was not around during Jules Verne's book, Around the World in 80 Days in 1873; most importantly, he was to use no aircraft. He followed Phileas Fogg's route as closely as possible during the series. However, Palin encountered several setbacks that Fogg did not, partly due to traveling with a five person camera crew, his Passepartout.</plot>
<imdbid>tt0096536</imdbid>
<tmdbid>
</tmdbid>
<status>Ended</status>
<runtime>50 min</runtime>
<rating>9.5</rating>
<userrating>0</userrating>
<votes>6</votes>
<year>1989</year>
<premiered>1989-10-11</premiered>
<studio>BBC</studio>
<tag>
</tag>
<genre>Documentary</genre>
<genre>Travel</genre>
<episodeguide>
<url cache="79502.xml">http://www.thetvdb.com/api/6E82FED600783400/series/79502/all/en.zip</url>
</episodeguide>
<language>en</language>
<episodeactorsource>imdb</episodeactorsource>
<tvshowactorsource>imdb</tvshowactorsource>
<sortorder>default</sortorder>
<sorttitle>
</sorttitle>
<scrapefrom>tvdb</scrapefrom>
</tvshow>
Hang on, I need to update some things. So actually the sample info file I gave shows up, so that’s not a good example. But I did find some items missing, and it turns out they all show up in a “tv show” called “TV Shows” - all 246 episodes. When browsing that folder a ton of episodes show up, and one that I recognized was Bridgerton (2020). I’ve attached the .nfo file for it.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<tvshow>
<id>366668</id>
<state>0</state>
<title>Bridgerton</title>
<showtitle>Bridgerton</showtitle>
<mpaa>
</mpaa>
<plot>Inspired by the bestselling novels, this series follows the eight close-knit siblings of the powerful Bridgerton family as they attempt to find love.</plot>
<imdbid>tt8740790</imdbid>
<tmdbid>
</tmdbid>
<uniqueid type="imdb">tt8740790</uniqueid>
<uniqueid type="tvdb" default="true">366668</uniqueid>
<status>Continuing</status>
<runtime>61 min</runtime>
<ratings>
<rating name="tvdb" max="10" default="true">
<value>0.0</value>
<votes>0</votes>
</rating>
</ratings>
<userrating>0</userrating>
<year>2020</year>
<premiered>2020-12-25</premiered>
<studio>Netflix</studio>
<tag>
</tag>
<genre>Drama</genre>
<genre>History</genre>
<genre>Romance</genre>
<episodeguide>
</episodeguide>
<language>en</language>
<actor>
<actorid>0047332</actorid>
<name>Jonathan Bailey</name>
<role>Anthony Bridgerton</role>
<thumb>https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzQ3Nzc4OTItMzdmNS00YTE5LWEzZmItYzY1ZmYwNzc3MTI5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjM1NzE4Njk@._V1._SY400_SX300_.jpg</thumb>
<order>1</order>
</actor>
<actor>
<actorid>8659047</actorid>
<name>Ruby Barker</name>
<role>Marina Thompson</role>
<thumb>https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDdlYTJhNDQtYzQwMi00NzMwLWJlMzUtMTdmYmVhOTBkZmRiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzA1NzU1MTU@._V1._SY400_SX300_.jpg</thumb>
<order>2</order>
</actor>
.....snip (hundreds of lines of actors here)
<episodeactorsource>imdb</episodeactorsource>
<tvshowactorsource>imdb</tvshowactorsource>
<sortorder>default</sortorder>
<sorttitle>
</sorttitle>
<scrapefrom>tvdb</scrapefrom>
</tvshow>
If the folder containing the episodes does not have a proper match to a particular show, as in they scraped wrong and showed up in the library under some other title, then editing the shows nfo and updating the library isn’t going to change anything as Kodi will just be skipping over that folder. I would suggest to navigate to that Bridgerton folder in video>files, then context menu, change content, set it none and hit okay. It should ask if you want the items removed from the library to which you should say yes. You can then context menu the folder again and set the scraper once more which will give those files a fresh scan with whatever changes you made.
Just to save you manually removing the episodeguide tag in future: in MC go to TV Preferences > Extras and there’s an option to exclude it automatically.
My 4K+ running Kodi 18.9 still has issues with some TV shows, where an incorrect number of episodes show up or none at all. I use TVDB as the scrapper for TV shows both in TMM and in Kodi.
I spent some time comparing the information stored in the file folders (one per series and seasons in subfolders corresponding to their numbers).
I use TMM (TinyMediaManager) to organize my movies and TV series. One thing I noticed is that not all TV Shows get one NFO file per episode. Some do and some do not.
However, this is not the reason for the incorrect episodes’ listing in Kodi, since it lists some that have one NFO per episodes and others that only one NFO for the whole series correctly.
I then tried comparing the information in the NFO file and also did not see anything different between a correctly identified series and one not showing the episodes.
I then went to TVDB and created the input for a TV series that did not exist there and Kodi was not showing any episodes for it, despite all files were there and the NFO created by TMM. Still not correctly displayed.
As suggested above, I delete the incorrect TV Series from the library, and then run a “Scan for New Content” in the context menu. Still nothing. I also tried using the “Update Library” but got the same results.
The weird thing is that I can add new episodes to some ongoing TV Series, run the “Scan for New Content” command and the new episodes show up without issues, don’t even need to delete them for Kodi to see the new episodes. However, Kodi simply refuses to show the episodes in a couple Series.
It is kind of hard to say without specifics (file names in particular) but the only times I normally see issues like that is if I have files that are in DVD order and TMM is trying to scrape the default episode order (or vise versa setting DVD order incorrectly). If the file names do match with TMM’s db then try right clicking on the show and tell it to rewrite episode nfo’s.
In Kodi check in settings>media>videos and make sure the use tags option is not enabled. That can cause random scraping issues.
If you have a show that is scraping correctly, but you have a correct nfo file in it’s folder then it would seem that Kodi’s db is set to bypass the nfo. In this case in Videos>files find the top level folder in question and bring up the information window for the show there. Click on refresh and choose the options for all episodes and not to ignore local. If that doesn’t work try renaming the actual folder and which will normally let Kodi treat it as a new show to scrape. You would then run a clean library to remove the now dead links.
I use Kodi’s general instructions for TV Shows: (year) SxxEyy.
For example: Rugal (2020) S01E01.mp4, Rugal (2020) S01E02.mp4, etc. in a folder named Rugal (2020).
However, I noticed that some shows scrap and display correctly even when I do not use the year or even put the season number in the file name. I also noticed that placing the files under a folder for each season (e.g. season one under a folder named Season 1, season two under a folder named Season 2, etc.) many times also does not make a difference on how Kodi displays them.
TMM has an option to enable DVD order but I never used it. Always leave blank.
I have the tags option disabled already.
Tried that already. I removed the TV Show in Kodi, renamed the folder and file names, deleted the NFO file and created a new one using TMM (the NFO files are stored in the same folder as the movie files). Then ran a “Clean Library” in Kodi and after that a “Scan for New Content”. Still no files, or Kodi does not display all the files in the folder. So far, I only had this problem with four or five TV Shows, out of approx. 250 that have displayed properly. So, it’s some detail about those specific shows that Kodi is not “digesting”.
I can see when a show will display correctly when Kodi’s progress bar shows a % report that goes up to 100% for each show being scanned. If a TV Show stops at around 8% or so, it usually shows no episodes under its entry in Kodi. It shows the poster, actors and general info but the episode guide is blank.
On this topic, is there a difference between the two commands “Scan For New Content” that pops in the context menu when right clicking in that category and the “Update Library” that comes up when we use the menu on the left screen? I tried both but did not see a difference.
Some TV shows will only scrape correctly (this is regular without a NFO) if their is no year, some only if year is part of the name, and other work either way. Best practice is to just look the show up on the web site of the scraper your using and use what is listed there. A good example of this is Doctor Who.
ie with TVDB
Doctor Who (1963) [probably will not scrape, have not checked in a while to see if this changed]
Doctor Who (2005) [scrapes the newer episodes]
Doctor Who [scrapes the original run from 1963]
Note that how the show is named is not always consistent between TVDB and TMDB if you switch scrapers at some point.
Subfolders under a TV shows root are always ignored, season, special, or otherwise for scraping purposes.
Kodi identifies a show as being attached to a folder and stores that info. When scraping the actual files the only bit of info Kodi actually looks for is the season and episode.
The above is only relevant if your actually using Kodi to scrape. When there is a nfo file then it just uses the info in that and it does not care at all what the file is named.
What I meant is that some shows have a situation where DVD and episode order have different number of episodes in a given season so having the scrape type not match can lead to situations where end of season episodes don’t have a match (in addition to descriptions not matching other episodes). I’m just putting this out there as a common issue that comes up. Without having info on specific episodes that are not scraping it is only guesses and speculation possible to offer up.
Sounds like there is a problem with the nfo TMM is generating. As you described the result would be TMM making an identical nfo to the one you deleted manually as it has all the info stored in a database. You can try deleting the entry in TMM and then refresh for new content and then scrape in TMM again (making sure your using TVDB and not another scraper). Sometimes a shows url’s or id’s get changed and a nfo needs to get updated with new data.
You can also just bypass the nfo for the show itself by in Kodi bring up the info windows of the show, refresh, no to all episodes, and yes to ignore local and get from the internet. If you do this Kodi will still use the nfo files if present for episodes when updating. This just makes it not use tvshow.nfo.
Scan for new content is limiting the scan to just what you have selected. If you are bring that up just a single show then the scan will usually be faster, but how much depends on how long it takes to scan through the rest of your file system.
Run debug logs when scanning for new content. It might give a clue to why Kodi is ignoring some TV shows in the logs.
I’m using TMDB and had to change the scraper recently on my v18 devices. It starting playing up by not pulling thumbnails or poster artwork in. I had to install the python version (as oppose to the standard XML version) for it to scrap properly again. Search the Kodi forums. The devs are aware but not intending to fix due to v18 no longer being supported. It’s fortunate the python works (for now).
Thanks! I ran a few tests based on the advices and managed to fix a few things. So far, I haven’t seen the issue you described. Maybe because I use TMM to do the scrapping?
In my case, it seems that Kodi (18) prefers to use some of the information on the TVDB (the online scrapper I am using) instead of reading the NFO file or checking the folder’s contents.
Example: One of the TV series wasn’t loading any of the episodes despite the names matched both in the local NFO (created by TMM and stored in the same folder as the episodes). After doing several comparisons, I found out that the TVDB information did not contain any episodes. So, I went to TVDB and created the episodes, that is, created 36 episodes (number of the series’ episodes) there under that TV series.
Then I deleted the TV series in Kodi, cleaned the library and rebooted the 4K+. After that I ran another “scan for new contents” command under TV Series.
Voila! This time Kodi created the TV series correctly.
That brings the question: Is there a way to override how Kodi reads the online database’s metadata and give preference to what is stored locally? I am already aware that we cannot use only the “scan local content” for TV series because of a software bug. However, is there a way to override the info Kodi reads online in lieu of the local one?
I found a way to “trick” Kodi by creating the NFO files by using TMM first, then scrapping TVDB’s contents with TMM, then editing the created NFO with TMM, and only after that I update Kodi’s library. It works well for the series’ title, artworks, actors, storyline, genres, etc. However, it does not seem to work for the episodes. For some reason, Kodi gets confused by the info in TVDB and does not read the local actual files stored under that TV series’ folder.
Thoughts? Is this a bug we need to live with in Kodi 18? I am concerned about upgrading to Kodi 19, based on all the new issues. So far, the issue above is the only one I have, based on how I use my 4K+, that is reading files stored in my NAS. I do not do any online activity with it, except the scrapping when adding new movies and TV series.
I noticed that also. Still scratching my head about this, since it does not seem to be an issue that repeats all the time. That is, some TV shows are sensitive to this, but others are not. This past week I have been running some tests trying to isolate the issue and only found one that seems consistent and constant (described in my post above - i.e., TVDB’s information does not have the correct number of episodes (it lists zero shows) and this seems to confuse Kodi. I managed to fix one, as described above. Now will check the few others showing the same issue and see if it also fixes it.
Yep, I also noticed that. The local NFO overrides the information on TVDB (e.g. TV show name, actors, storyline, etc.). However, Kodi gets confused with if the number of episodes do not match (e.g. what TVDB shows and what is stored locally under that TV series’ folder. In that case, the online info seems to take precedence over what is local. Have you also had this issue?
Based on what I found so far, the issue is not TMM’s NFO. It’s how Kodi reads the information online and local and “decides” how to build it in its library.
So, I’ll keep using the “scan for new content” when updating the Movies and the TV Shows’ libraries, since its faster.
Good news! It seems that I found what was causing the episodes to not appear or to appear incorrectly.
Kodi gets confused when TVDB (the scrapper I am using) does not have the correct episodes info. Therefore, it ignores the video files in the folder and either does not show any episodes or show an incorrect number of episodes.
I went to TVDB and fixed a couple more TV series and only one, which wasn’t listed there, did not show correctly. All others now show the correct episodes.
I created the missing TV series there, but it’s pending a moderator’s approval, since I am not a “frequent flyer” there.
So, now the question is whether it’s possible to override this issue manually in Kodi. Can it be done?
Another question is why some TV series get a NFO file created for each episode when TMM scraps it, whereas others do not?
I would say that with movies it is best to always include the year (since this is actually scraped as separate from the title) but with TV shows it is best to only ever include the year for shows where your scraper source shows it as part of the title such as with the case with something like " The Flash (2014)". This is normally just found with reboots and remakes of shows that are using the same/similar as the original program. I think some listing have an original or alternate title listed that makes them less sensitive to scraping issues and that may be why you see it inconsistently.
A nfo file overrides the online information as long as it is either originally scraped with that file present or else at some point the show was refreshed and the option to ignore local was not selected. Kodi stores the info for the show and that is the source used when scanning local files. So you can have odd situations where something like you had a nfo for the show scrapped that was missing or had a bad link to the online source so it can only pick up new episodes if you have an nfo for the episode. You might also have something like a situation where an episode scrapes with slightly different scraper details from what Kodi has stored which can cause problems. When in doubt check what is in the nfo files and then just have Kodi rescrape the show and all episodes.
Kodi doesn’t AFAIK do any kind of processing of the nfo files. The files contain tags that correspond to different areas of Kodi’s database and Kodi just inserts the information as provided. Because of this Kodi is also very sensitive to any errors in a nfo file.
It is probably best to conform your files to the scraper and not the other way round. In cases where you want something custom then manually edit the entries (with TMM unless you are masochistic) and remove any links to the online scrapers. This will ensure that Kodi can only get local info.
Also be aware that when the number of episodes in a season do not match your files it is either because your files are in DVD order or because there are episodes and “specials” being conflated. There is also (more common with TMDB) sometimes an issue with movies where some consider them episodes and others specials or proper movies.
