[slash13]

Hi all, 

Relative n00b here in need of help; I hope this is the right forum. I've been having a couple of issues with my Library that I just can't solve and it's been driving me insane. I've read all I could find on these pages, but still can't figure it out. (Excuse the long post, but I am trying to be as thorough as possible. Full system details and a debug log attached at the end, for reference). 

Basically, in some (seemingly random?) cases Kodi refuses to read my custom NFOs. As a result, those episodes are missing from the Library. In some cases, it is one or two episodes missing from a particular season (while the rest of the episodes from that season show up); and in other cases entire seasons are missing altogether.  

What’s really puzzling is that I used the same template (copied from the forums) to set up every custom NFO – yet it works for some episodes and not for others. I basically used the same nfo file for every episode from every show, only changing the key details (title, episode number, season, etc) and saving under a new file name. Why some of them would be recognised while others not is beyond me. 

My Library folder structure is as follows: “TV Shows” –> “Individual TV Show Folder” –> “Season Folder” –> “Video Files + NFOs + Extras Folder”.  The tvshow.nfo file is located in the “Individual TV Show Folder”, and the custom NFOs for the individual episodes are located in the “Season Folder” alongside the video files. 

For example, “TV Shows” –> “Pink Panther (1993)” –> “Pink Panther (1993) - Season 01” –> “Pink Panther (1993) - S01 - E01 - Pink, Pink & Away.mkv”.

Here, the tvshow.nfo file is located in the “Pink Panther (1993)” folder, and my Custom NFO for the first episode would be located in the “Pink Panther (1993) - Season 01” folder, next to the associated MKV file, and it would be called “Pink Panther (1993) - S01 - E01 - Pink, Pink & Away.nfo”.

As mentioned, this structure has worked flawlessly in the past, but in recent months Kodi has been failing to read an increasing number of episodes. Originally I created the custom NFOs using Notepad, but subsequently I also tried using Notepad++, which made no difference. 

In case this is relevant, the reason I sometimes use custom NFOs is that a have a bunch of shows that I have backed up from foreign language DVDs that are listed/described in the Cyrillic alphabet. Again, most of the time this has worked just fine, until these read errors started happening. 

I am attaching below examples of both my "tvshow.nfo" file and a custom NFO for one of the missing episodes below. Any help would be greatly appreciated – many thanks in advance! 

(My other major issue with the Library is that the Video Extras add-on sometimes fails to ignore scraping from the “Extras” folder and so some files are shown in the Library even though they should not appear there – but I will create a separate post for this, as per the forum rules).

1. System details:
OS: LibreELEC (official): 8.2.5 (kernel: Linux 4.11.12)
Build: Kodi 17.7 Git:a9a7a20Compiled: Apr 13 2018
Skin: Xonfluence

2. Debug log:
jaxosaziri (paste)

3. Example of one of my tvshow.nfo files:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<tvshow>
    <title>Розовата Пантера</title>
    <showtitle>Розовата Пантера</showtitle>
    <rating>8.500000</rating>
    <votes>250</votes>
    <epbookmark>0.000000</epbookmark>
    <year>1993</year>
    <top250>0</top250>
    <season>-1</season>
    <episode>125</episode>
    <uniqueid></uniqueid>
    <displayseason>-1</displayseason>
    <displayepisode>-1</displayepisode>
    <outline></outline>
    <plot>Любимият на милиони зрители анимационен герой се завръща за нови, още по-смешни и по-щури приключения!</plot>
    <tagline></tagline>
    <runtime>10</runtime>
    <playcount>0</playcount>
    <episodeguide></episodeguide>
    <id></id>
    <genre>Animation</genre>
    <set></set>
    <premiered>1993-09-11</premiered>
    <status></status>
    <code></code>
    <studio>ABC</studio>
    <trailer></trailer>
    <dateadded>2017-12-17 23:33:03</dateadded>
</tvshow>

4. Custom NFO for an individual episode that's missing from the Library:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
    <episodedetails>
        <title>Отиваме На Към-Пинко</title>
        <rating>8.00</rating>
        <season>2</season>
        <episode>4</episode>
        <plot></plot>
        <thumb></thumb>
        <playcount>0</playcount>
        <lastplayed></lastplayed>
        <studio>ABC</studio>
        <displayseason>2</displayseason>
        <displayepisode>4</displayepisode>
        <fileinfo>
          <streamdetails></streamdetails>
        </fileinfo>
    </episodedetails>

[Klojum]

Your .nfo schema does not completely match the one that Kodi uses when exporting a tv show episode.
Here is an example:

xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>

<episodedetails>

    <title>Splinter</title>

    <showtitle>12 Monkeys</showtitle>

    <ratings>

        <rating name="default" max="10" default="true">

            <value>7.500000</value>

            <votes>49</votes>

        </rating>

    </ratings>

    <userrating>0</userrating>

    <top250>0</top250>

    <season>1</season>

    <episode>1</episode>

    <displayseason>-1</displayseason>

    <displayepisode>-1</displayepisode>

    <outline></outline>

    <plot>27 years after a virus wipes out most of humanity, scientists send James Cole back to 2015 to stop the plague from ever happening. Cole&apos;s only lead is virologist Dr. Cassandra Railly, who knows the dangerous source of the outbreak.</plot>

    <tagline></tagline>

    <runtime>46</runtime>

    <thumb>http://thetvdb.com/banners/episodes/272644/4961780.jpg</thumb>

    <mpaa>TV-14</mpaa>

    <playcount>1</playcount>

    <lastplayed>2017-11-01</lastplayed>

    <id>4961780</id>

    <uniqueid type="unknown" default="true">4961780</uniqueid>

    <genre>Mystery</genre>

    <genre>Science-Fiction</genre>

    <credits>Terry Matalas</credits>

    <credits>Travis Fickett</credits>

    <director>Jon Cassar</director>

    <premiered>2015-01-16</premiered>

    <year>2015</year>

    <status></status>

    <code></code>

    <aired>2015-01-16</aired>

    <studio>Syfy</studio>

    <trailer></trailer>

    <fileinfo>

        <streamdetails>

            <video>

                <codec>hevc</codec>

                <aspect>1.777780</aspect>

                <width>1280</width>

                <height>720</height>

                <durationinseconds>2806</durationinseconds>

                <stereomode></stereomode>

            </video>

            <audio>

                <codec>aac</codec>

                <language></language>

                <channels>2</channels>

            </audio>

            <subtitle>

                <language>dut</language>

            </subtitle>

        </streamdetails>

    </fileinfo>

    <actor>

        <name>Ramon De Ocampo</name>

        <role></role>

        <order>0</order>

        <thumb>http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/ufbmBwY3P1dA8Cqxn28iZqes5rS.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Aaron Stanford</name>

        <role>James Cole</role>

        <order>0</order>

        <thumb>http://thetvdb.com/banners/actors/376574.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Robert Wisdom</name>

        <role></role>

        <order>1</order>

        <thumb>http://thetvdb.com/banners/actors/78008.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Amanda Schull</name>

        <role>Cassandra Railly</role>

        <order>1</order>

        <thumb>http://thetvdb.com/banners/actors/376573.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Željko Ivanek</name>

        <role></role>

        <order>2</order>

        <thumb>http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/bQbyb11FgEPwNSfFeb6ChTfkqEM.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Emily Hampshire</name>

        <role>Jennifer Goines</role>

        <order>2</order>

        <thumb>http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/8KYPzjQFy1sVZgnsEDV5bHb3DlP.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Bill Timoney</name>

        <role></role>

        <order>3</order>

        <thumb></thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Barbara Sukowa</name>

        <role>Katarina Jones</role>

        <order>3</order>

        <thumb>http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/mGKhBMI9P2teTXC1v9HgS3WtL73.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Mark Boyd</name>

        <role></role>

        <order>4</order>

        <thumb></thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Kirk Acevedo</name>

        <role>José Ramse</role>

        <order>4</order>

        <thumb>http://thetvdb.com/banners/actors/376575.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>ShaTyrah Dexter</name>

        <role></role>

        <order>5</order>

        <thumb></thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Alisen Down</name>

        <role>Olivia</role>

        <order>5</order>

        <thumb>http://thetvdb.com/banners/actors/426607.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Harry Wetzel</name>

        <role></role>

        <order>6</order>

        <thumb></thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Todd Stashwick</name>

        <role>Deacon</role>

        <order>6</order>

        <thumb>http://thetvdb.com/banners/actors/376578.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Julie Sifuentes Etheridge</name>

        <role></role>

        <order>7</order>

        <thumb></thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Noah Bean</name>

        <role>Aaron Marker</role>

        <order>7</order>

        <thumb>http://thetvdb.com/banners/actors/340310.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <actor>

        <name>Tom Noonan</name>

        <role>Pallid Man</role>

        <order>8</order>

        <thumb>http://thetvdb.com/banners/actors/340305.jpg</thumb>

    </actor>

    <resume>

        <position>0.000000</position>

        <total>0.000000</total>

    </resume>

    <dateadded>2015-11-10 19:39:36</dateadded>

</episodedetails>

[slash13]

Thanks for the prompt reply Klojum!

I guess I downloaded the wrong templates. I'll use what you posted above and report back.

Btw, is it necessary for all NFO files to have every single entry listed above? Would omitting some of the entries, e.g. actor names etc, cause any problems?

[slash13]

Just to confirm that, after amending my custom NFOs to fit the structure provided above, the previously-missing episodes are now showing in the Library. Many thanks again for your help!

And to answer my own (silly) q: omitting some of the additional entries such as artist names etc seems to make no difference to Kodi recognising the NFOs.