[CaptainTivo]

I hope this is the right group, I suspect this has nothing to do with Windows.

I have been running Kodi 16.0 for over a year. I have an Unraid server running MySQL (5.0.67) and several PCs running Kodi.
Until now, I have had no problems. Lately, when I add a movie (DVD rip), I use this method: I got to Videos->Files and select the video source (for instance DVD) where I stored the rip. I highlight the new movie and the select "I" to get info. Since the movie is not in the database, Kodi displays:
"Select Movie:" and the title. I select the movie title and it displays the title (or multiple if there are more than one) it then takes me to an Info screen where it shows the details. I can then return to the main menu and the movie in now in the library database. This saves time because I don't have to use the "update library" function which takes a long time to search for new movies.

Well, the last time I added some new movies, I actually DID select the "Update library" process. It took quite a long time and when it returned, my library was twice as big! It had duplicated each and every one of the 535 movies! Well, not quite. The paths of the two entries are different.

When I used the the "Info" function on the duplicates, one lists the correct location on my server, for instance "smb://Tower/Videos/Movies/DVD/The American President (1995)/VIDEO_TS.IFO
and the other entry has this path:
Z;\Movies\DVD\The American President (1995)/VIDEO_TS.IFO

Now, I have used Windows to map the Unraid server (Tower) shared directories to a local drive so that I can copy files (in this case Z:). But here's the thing: I have been running with this settup for years. I have not even updated Kodi. So why did Kodi do this now?

Can someone who understands how the database is maintained shed some light on this? I am guessing there is no way to reverse the duplications other that to manually remove each one. Is there any other way? And how do I stop this from happening again?

Thanks for any help.

[blossom24]

In the last couple of days there has been a couple of threads with your type of questions...

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=302995

and

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=231052


Maybe there is some info in those that can help.

[Derek]

Are you sharing from a mac as this can happen with mac shares is a nightmare as the mac creates a kind of copy of the directory as a cache and kodi scans it in like another copy of the movie.

its easily fixed but creating a batch file to get rid of them if thats your problem.

[CaptainTivo]

No. I have only PCs running Windows 7 and 10. The thing I don't understand is how Kodi even know that scan those directories. They are locally mapped and I did not create video "sources" with them.

[Derek]

Hmm strange one mate, as you say seems to be windows users, i did see this problem some time ago and experienced it myself but due to the way the mac filesystem works but that pretty easily fixed.

I cant understand how its known to scan your local drives for the same movies unless you had duplicate sources for offline viewing which would make no sense.

I would export your entire database to folders and redo it dosent take that long dependant on your collection, i can populate a machine with my collection in a couple of hours and thats a lot of content.

If your unsure how to do this PM me and i'll take you through it pretty easy though. (But no dont delete them one at a time )

Edit: I see you run SQL might be even easier; You posted the SQL solution in the threads you posted however it seems the problem returns but there is a ticket posted.