[abattis]

I've tried to find this topic in the forums and in the FAQ but wasn't able to, so if it's been covered I apologise, but I did make an effort to look.

My entire music collection is in FLAC format.
I've used EasyTAG to edit the metadata of the files and according to the preferences it's set to add ID3 tags in addition to FLAC tags. I won't pretend to know what that means

There are MANY albums that are missing from within XBMC, but I can't seem to find a common reason. I'm using library mode.
For example:
Def Leppard, Hysteria is missing
Def Leppard, Slang is present
My directory structure is /var/music/flac/artist/album

When XBMC starts up, a window pops up saying "Loading media info from files" and it seems to cycle through all of the missing albums.

I've spoken to my brother to see if he has the same problem and he told me he does. He can't get ANYTHING by AC/DC to show up in his library.

I've tried Boxee for Linux and it has the exact same problem.

I noticed in the XBMC documentation that cover art isn't supported in FLAC files. I've tried removing cover art but it makes no difference.
I figure that perhaps XBMC just doesn't have the most outstanding support for FLAC files as yet.

Has anybody else had the same problem? If so, have you been able to determine a cause and/or a workaround?

Cheers!

[spiff]

what kind of tags on those flacs? if its bastardized flac-with-id3, we do not support it (on purpose).

[olympia]

...and just to make it clear: flacs with proper tags work flawless.

[abattis]

Firstly a big thank-you to Spiff and Olympia for your replies.

Spiff, you hit the nail on the head.
The issue appears to have been due to my "bastardized flac-with-id3" tags

For completeness, and in case somebody else comes across this problem, I'll supply some system details:

OS: Kubuntu 10.04 LTS
Kernel: 2.6.32-25-generic
XBMC: 10.0-beta3 r34731
EasyTAG: 2.1.6

This issue isn't related to the XBMC version, the OS or the kernel. It seems to have been due to the metadata that was saved in my FLAC files. I use the word "seems" as I'm still testing things as I write this reply.

In EasyTAG I went to, Settings - Preferences and then the "ID3 tag setting" tab.
There is an option that says "Write ID3 tags in FLAC files (in addition to FLAC tag)", I had this option ticked.

After reading the reply from Spiff, I disabled this option, selected all the tracks of an album that wasn't importing, made a small change to the metadata of all tracks of the album and then saved. I just put a "." in the field that says "Encoded by", but you could change anything, as long as it means the data has changed somehow, enabling you to save the change.

This must remove the ID3 tag in the FLAC tag, as XBMC then happily imported the album.
I tried doing the same thing to a few more albums that weren't importing and they were then scanned in as well.
At the time of writing I'm doing this to my entire collection and it seems to have resolved the issue.

The only question I have now is in regards to the comment by Olympia:
"...and just to make it clear: flacs with proper tags work flawless."

Does this mean XBMC now supports album art in FLAC files? I'm pretty sure the documentation says it's not supported, but I have a feeling the documentation isn't very up-to date.

P.S. It seems Boxee is also importing all FLAC files as well now.