Having read the previous posts regarding scraping I am still none the wiser!
I have just purchased a Vero V to replace my ageing excellent Mede8er but am very much regretting it.
With the Mede8er it was easy to scrape information about each movie (manually) and save all of the scraped images (cover / poster / about etc.) into the same folder as the movie itself (each movie is in its own folder on my NAS).
The result was that I could move the folder and all the information would go with it (no need to use a database or rescan and I know where everything is - simple).
Iāve tried many suggestions that have been posted regarding removing the search provider entry etc. but it no longer scrapes when I select āupdateā and when scraping is set to a provider the scraped jpgās donāt appear in the same folder as the movie (they seem to be deep inside the Verosā file system).
It would be really good if someone can help me out, the Vero V is way too light to be used as a door stop (perhaps I could file an edge down to make a wedge), at present I canāt think of another use for it.
If you turn off things like āscan at startupā (thatās not quite the right name) and make sure you donāt have any add ons that trigger scrapes when new files are added, then I think you can do what you want. You would set the source with your scraper of choice (the default TMDB one should work fine). Then you manually select āupdate library whenever you update the library.ā
After each update, you would then go into the settings and find the option to export your library. When you do that, there are two options. One creates a single file with every entry (you donāt want that). The other exports everything into the directory the file lives.
At the end though, if you move a folder, you would have to clean the database to get rid of the old entry and then rescan to get the info back in. The Kodi library runs on a database. There is no way around it.
If youāre trying to have two devices have the same library, there are ways to do that with Kodi that involve using a MariaDB central database.
Kodi has an export library function that takes metadata it scrapes and saves it as files next to the media for people who want that. It also has a clean library function that removes entries that the files no longer exist in the same location.
If you are of the sort that want complete control over the specifics of your metadata then I would suggest to pre-scrape on a PC using a media manager (ie a program that makes a nfo file containing all metadata but images and also saves various image types along side the media files). If you use something like Tiny Media Manager (TMM) it makes all these files for you and you have easy access to modifying all of it. You can even point the program to your Vero and tell it to update the library from TMM without having to go to your TV and do it with a remote.
export library to individual files>move your files>update library>clean libraryā¦ sorted. That doesnāt seem like that big of a deal to me. Besides, how often does one normally move their media library storage location requiring such a thing to be neccessary?
The melodrama isnāt going to get you anything extra around here.
Isnāt it just great when the guys that make the software believe you canāt think for yourself!
I will probably try your ideas but they seem comparatively long winded, the Mede8er could use a database but also could be set mind itās own business and just use the contents of the folder.
I move folders between drives often, itās the way I like to keep things controlled and organised.
Failing that itās about the right size for a beer mat (not drama - but itās probable future!).
So can Kodi. You can browse and play files from the āVideosā section. It is a rather degraded experience vs a proper scraped library, but you do you boo.
Most of these basic level functions are easiest learned about in Kodiās wikiā¦
Again, the theatrics really are not going to provide you any benefit on this forum. You are asking questions to people volunteering their time to help strangers in support of a open source project and acting like they owe you something.
I have tried the āexportā idea which is close to where I want to be but a consistent problem has been everything āfreezingā.
for example:
When scraping, the first few scrapes are quite quick, then it slows to a stop (with the swirly icon still moving). Sometimes it will start to scrape again after a long while or I have to reboot. Pressing āCancelā causes the display to indicate it as been cancelled but everything freezes once again.
Other operations like cleaning the database work fine the first time, sometimes the second time but then the operation becomes really slow (the swirly icon often stops). Again, a reboot is the only way out of it.
Often just using the unit causes it to seize up when doing nothing more than moving through menus.
To discover the issue with certainty you would need to provide debug logs.
If I was to make an educated guess based upon similar issues that others would have, Iād guess that what seems like it is locked up is it hitting lots of delays from a large number of files, possibly exasperated by some mismatches between content IDās stored in the database differing with whatever is set as the current scraper. If you have a large number of files the initial scan can take a very long time to do the initial scrapping even with nfo files (for some hours can be normal). After that initial Library is built updates with just modest amount of content added should only take a minute or two.
There could be possible delays if your file naming and organization doesnāt line up with one of the various formats that Kodi supports. Kodiās wiki has a section where it outlines the various formats that it is designed to work with. There is only one real non-negotiable with file organization which is media types cannot be mixed (movies, series, music) and sources must be pointed to locations that contain only a single content type (ie //nas/videos/movies and //nas/videos/tv and not //nas/videos/).
My suggestion would be to get back to a clean state and start from scratch. To do this go to your sources and change your scraper to ānoneā then click OK. When asked if you want to remove these items from the library select yes. Once that is done go to the library view to make sure everything was removed and if there is some stragglers then manually delete them. Once the library is empty go back to your source and set it to use TMDB (this is the optimal choice for most users). If it does actually lock up at some point just reboot and then tell it to update the library again from the slideout menu in a library view (or hold down the play button on the home screen on the OSMC remote which does the same thing).
I did try to obtain a log but all I could see in it was a list repeating āalarm clockā down the screen, however there was another (very long) log in a file, I expect thatās the one required.
Would it be better to start from scratch anyway? Iām not sure if Iāve tried that already - at one point I used an option to āresetā (reset on boot I think it was called). It seemed to reset everything such as removing sources that had been set up and passwords.
I had some success with exporting the database to the individual folders that the movies are in, am I correct in thinking that I can set up the database with these rather than scraping?
The alarm clock messages can be ignored. You would have to enable debug logging to get verbose logging in kodi.log showing scraping activity. That is where you would be able to see where the delays are and potentially issues with the scraping process.
TBH I forget what all that option actually resets. If you do that, and everything that was showing in your library disappears, then that would mean it removed the local library database. The general idea is that because you had been trying various things with the library it is more productive to start in a clean slate for the database to avoid any potential for earlier learning sessions to have influence on what you are doing now. Kodi doesnāt always act the best when you switch from one scraping source to another across an entire library so it is best to start clean when you do that.
With regular online Kodi scraping it figures out a match to an online entry and downloads a collection of metadata and stores it in its database. When you export to individual files it makes a nfo file which is a xml version of this same information. When you update your library (scrape) it looks to see if there is a nfo file for any given video files it finds and then it just reads those and inserts them into the database without ever even looking online. If you use a media manager like I had previously mentioned they make the same files that Kodi does when you do individual file library exports and they get treated the exact same way. You can actually view and edit them yourself with any text editor if you feel the need. Just make sure not to mess up the xml structure as that will cause issues with scraping and possibly make Kodi hang during a library update.
If the log shown in the upper left is anything to go by, Iād say not much was happening, although it didnāt update that frequently - everything was slow.
There was very little communication with the network during this time, sporadic bursts - few and far between. As I said before, operations take just seconds when working properly.
There are approximately 90 folders connected, each containing a separate movie file, most now contain their data exported from the library.
There is an option to upload logs and a bunch of system data in the myOSMC area. You need to upload the log that way right after the problem though, or the logs are too big. As an alternative, you can put the log on a pastebin site and put the link here. Definitely donāt try to attach the raw log as a file or copy/paste it here on the forum.
I had already pointed you to our wiki that covers this topic and its various methods. Here it is again [How to support request]
You seem to have something going on that is outside the ordinary. A folder with only 90 movies with nfo files should initial scan in literally just a few minutes, and run a clean library in less time than that. My personal collection has just under two thousand movies on a network share and clean takes something like two or three minutes. Next step would be to give a link here to a log set which hopefully should show something insightful.
the log I kept was the kodi log saved after the problem. When I looked into the idea of uploading the log I realised this wasnāt all the logs required so Iām assuming the log I saved would be out of sync with the other logs it wants to upload.
It appears there are many logs it wants to upload, I donāt know what they all are and donāt know whatās in them so Iām reluctant to upload them.
I suppose thereās not much else that can be done then.
While the OSMC addon does upload some other logs, if you have a Kodi debug log and post it, thatās not a horrible place to start. The other logs do provided additional context and information, but Iād rather have a debug log and nothing else then nothing at all.
