Some TV shows not showing up for me

[djbloc]

Afraid I don’t have any experience of TMM so I’m not going to be much help with that.

I use NFO files for TV shows and episodes. I haven’t had a problem in Kodi v18 by following the guides on the wiki

For the tvshow.nfo file I use the combination method which mixes the scraped information and overrides using local information.

The nfo files need to be created before you scan for content in the directory in Kodi. Could that be contributing to the problem?

[darwindesign]

@djbloc

Afraid I don’t have any experience of TMM so I’m not going to be much help with that.

If your manually writing xml then TMM would probably save you some effort. I personally don’t use it for my currently airing TV shows (I just use Kodi online scraping for them) but I have used it quite a bit for older shows which is also where I normally run into issues. TMM is not all or nothing (It only scrapes and creates files when you manually click on a show and hit the search button), and the settings let you choose exactly what files it creates with a fair bit of granularity. It also allows you read existing nfo files and edit the info quite easily.

I avoided using it for years as I thought the learning curve was too much effort given that I knew how to manually edit them on the odd occasion I needed to. In hindsight I wish I had been using it sooner as it looked more complicated to figure out then it actually was.

[djbloc]

Thanks @darwindesign I’ll bear that in mind.

[Rossi]

@darwindesign

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.

So, for TV shows, the best practice is to not add the year, unless it’s a remake that has the year as part of the title, correct?

@darwindesign

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.

I did not understand this part. I create the NFO files using TMM while pointing it to a scrapper website (e.g. IMDB for movies and TVDB for TV shows).
The process I follow is this:

1. Using TMM, scan the parent folder where I store the movies or TV shows (I use one for movies and another for TV shows).
2. Using TMM, scrap the source website (IMDB or TVDB). This part is where TMM sometimes shows me several options of movies or TV shows and I pick the correct one. TMM then creates the NFO files for that movie or TV show.

Remark: Here there’s an interesting thing that I could not figure out yet. Sometimes TMM creates a main NFO file and a separate NFO file for each episode, and sometimes even downloads thumbnails for each episode. Sometimes it only creates one single NFO for the whole TV series. However, this does not impact on how Kodi later inputs that TV series in its library.

3. I review the information that TMM has in the NFO file and sometimes I edit it adding a better description for the TV show, actors’ names, category, etc. This NFO is stored in the same folder as the TV series.

4. Go to the 4K+ > settings > videos > run “scan for new content” for the TV series and/or Movies.

Remark: in this step I can see Kodi’s progress bar showing the new movies and TV shows it’s finding during the scan. If a TV show shows the scan going all the way to 100%, it’s usually displayed correctly in Kodi. If it stops around 10%, it usually has the episodes’ issue. That is Kodi displays zero, or just part of the episodes under that TV show.

@darwindesign

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.

I did not see where the NFO file stores the number of episodes of a TV series. Already opened several that display correctly but did not see where this info is placed. It seems that Kodi reads this directly from the website (in my case TVDB) and if it does not see the number of episodes, or the number of episodes is incorrect there, it ignores the files stored in the NAS server?

Reason for my suspicion in this case, is that in the test I ran, when I fixed the number of episodes in TVDB, Kodi displayed the correct number of episodes. How can I override Kodi pulling this info from TVDB instead of locally?

@darwindesign

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.

Agree. I usually name the files following the name given in the TVDB website. Then add the SxxEyy.

@djbloc

Afraid I don’t have any experience of TMM so I’m not going to be much help with that.

I use NFO files for TV shows and episodes. I haven’t had a problem in Kodi v18 by following the guides on the wiki

For the tvshow.nfo file I use the combination method which mixes the scraped information and overrides using local information.

The nfo files need to be created before you scan for content in the directory in Kodi. Could that be contributing to the problem?

I use TMM to create and edit the NFO files. Makes my life much easier.

The issues are only around 5% of all TV shows I created and added to Kodi, and are only related to the number of episodes that Kodi displays after scanning the folders where I store the TV shows. For some reason, if TVDB’s information about the number of episodes is incorrect, Kodi ignores the files stored locally and displays zero or only part of the total number of episodes. Most TV shows are correctly listed on TVDB; therefore, Kodi displays the number of episodes correctly.

As a test, I went to TVDB, fixed the number of episodes there, deleted that show from Kodi’s library and scanned again. This time Kodi displayed the correct numbed of episodes.

The question is how can we make Kodi ignore the info on TVDB and read the number of files stored in that TV show’s folder. I do not see this info anywhere in the NFO files created by TMM.

I see that Kodi gives priority to the info in the local NFO for everything else. E.g. TV show description, actors, category, tags, etc. The only issue I found so far is the number of episodes.

[djbloc]

@Rossi

…and if it does not see the number of episodes, or the number of episodes is incorrect there, it ignores the files stored in the NAS server?

I’ve not witnessed that behaviour. Perhaps share a filelist of one of those 5% problem TV shows and copies of the tvshow.nfo and episode nfo.

[darwindesign]

@Rossi

So, for TV shows, the best practice is to not add the year, unless it’s a remake that has the year as part of the title, correct?

Yes. There may be the odd exception, but my experience has been this causes the least amount of mismatches identifying the TV shows. But to be clear, I mean if you go to TVDB or TMDB (depending on which your using) how the title is listed there, not the “official” title of the show or how it appears in IMDB.

@Rossi

I did not understand this part.

The information about the show itself it separate from the episode data. The show data is what is put in tvshow.nfo and what is generated when you scrape the show initially with TMM. As part of this show information is a link to the scraper site. You will see that in TMM TVDB ID, TMDB ID, etc. The data for the episodes gets stored in the form of [episode filename].nfo. If when you scan a folder in Kodi there is a nfo for the filename it is trying to scrape it will use the information within to add the library entry. If there is not a nfo matching the file name then Kodi will parse the season and episode from the filename and then use the ID number it stored when it scraped tvshow.nfo and grab the info from online using that shows ID. Also note that telling it to update the library or scan a folder for new content only tries to scrape items that have not previously been scraped. If you updated something for an item in TMM then you have to “refresh” to get Kodi to read the updated info and make the changes to its database. If TMM is not making files for individual episodes then that is something you should probably look into on TMM’s forum. If TMM is showing episode descriptions and art, and the files are missing because you deleted them at some point then try right clicking on a show and look at the options available for telling it to re-write the episode data. If something goes really sideways you also always have the option to just delete the show in TMM (ie the information it has stored in its own internal database) then update sources in TMM which will make the show pop back up again and then scrape again as if it was originally.

@Rossi

I did not see where the NFO file stores the number of episodes of a TV series.

It stores season and episode info. Kodi counts the total number you have on its own. It should be pretty obvious what info is being stored by just looking at one of the nfo files with a text editor. For example here is the first few lines of one I randomly pulled from my collection…

nfo snippit

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!--created on 2021-02-27 10:09:01 - tinyMediaManager 3.1.13-->
<episodedetails>
  <title>Brain Drain</title>
  <originaltitle/>
  <showtitle>Cleopatra 2525</showtitle>
  <season>2</season>
  <episode>3</episode>
  <displayseason>-1</displayseason>
  <displayepisode>-1</displayepisode>
  <id>67456</id>
  <uniqueid default="true" type="tvdb">67456</uniqueid>
  <ratings/>
  <userrating>0.0</userrating>
  <plot>Voice sends Hel, Sarge and Cleopatra to a bar to retrieve Jensen Manning, an important Bailey researcher. When they arrive, the team finds Manning standing on the bar, shouting like a madman. Voice soon sends a Confessor, a futuristic shrink, to talk Manning down. Manning suddenly goes into convulsions and dies. An electronic parasite slithers from his mouth and forces its way down the Confessor's throat. The team fends off a group of Betrayers trying to get a hold of the Confessor and return to the lab. Mauser puts the Confessor in a healing tube and runs a full medical diagnostic. They learn that the parasite is a Bailey-engineered data retrieval unit that is downloading everything in the Confessor's brain, which explains why the Betrayers wanted him so badly. The Confessor convulses and dies and the parasite exits his mouth to look for new host. The bug breaks out of the healing tube and invades Hel... The Betrayers from the bar find the lab, but Sarge secures the area before they c</plot>
  <runtime>60</runtime>

If there is a situation where you have missing episodes then you need to check to see how your actual files match up with the info on your scraper. For example maybe you have your files such that episode one is a TV pilot and then 13 episodes as part of the first season making for 14 episode season. Your scraper may have the pilot listed as a “special” episode and so it has listed a 13 episode first season. If scraped without changing your files and tweaking the nfo’s then all your episodes will be listed wrong and the last file will not scrape as it will not have a listing for the last episode. If you had corrected an issue like this on a show that had previously been added to Kodi (which means Kodi is set to scrape that show with online information) then you must bring up the full screen information window and tell it to “refresh”, all episodes, and not tell it to ignore local when asked. This will update Kodi with the updated local info.

@Rossi

The question is how can we make Kodi ignore the info on TVDB and read the number of files stored in that TV show’s folder. I do not see this info anywhere in the NFO files created by TMM.

If you remove the TVDB ID in TMM and refresh the show in Kodi then it will prevent Kodi from using online info for episodes (since you will be taking away the link to where this info is located).