Kodi Community Forum

Why is this program so confusing and unintuitive, it is driving me NUTS!!!!

There are several 'sections' when first installed; Pictures, Videos, Movies, Music, Programs, System.

Since I first installed I have moved my 'movies' (I called the location 'Films') from the hard drive they where on to a different one, now when I try to play one it says it is no longer available.

Fair enough as I moved it but how oh how please God do I tell it to not look in the previous location but tell it the new location of my movies, (ie my Films under the 'Movies' section), but NOT on an individual basis (ie clicking on each individual movie, being told it is no longer available and then selecting to remove from Library.)

I click on 'Movies' and go into that 'section'... nothing in there that I can do!

Under 'Videos' there is 'Files' and 'Library'.

In 'Files' I have 'add videos', I choose this and set it to my new location where my films are and I can choose and play from here but they do NOT work from 'Movies' section.

In 'Library' I can choose 'Files' then 'Films' (the name I gave the correct location) and play from here.

However in 'Library' there is also 'Movies', if I choose this it displays all the 'Films' I had originally added but again if I click on one it tells me it is no longer available etc etc ..
oh God oh God help me I am being driven mad by these stupid multi-layer file structure management systems that have many ways to get to one file but leaves you totally lost !!!

Please programmers do not copy MS way of file management, it is simply confusing and stupid (or is it me )

It should be an obvious and simple thing to set in the 'Movies' section where my 'films' are stored on my hard drive and to tell it if a location is wrong

And why is there a 'Movies' section AND a 'Videos' section anyway

I cannot work it out, it is beyond beliveable how unintuitive this is!

UNINSTALLED!
Back to Windows file manager, double click on movie file and watch in VLC or similar

You are making this way more difficult than it really is. If you would just spend 10 minutes looking through the different settings. If you had done that you would have seen that the library actually has its own sub menu for all the settings that touches the library. It even has a "clean library" function that removes all entrys that doesn't refer to a file anymore. When the library is emty you could just go and maybe first remove the soucre that you no longer use, actually I think that it asks you if you want to remove all library entries that is using that source. When the old is removed you use the "horrible" file manager and add the new location, set the content type when asked, and say yes when isk you if you want to refresh the new location and it will scan and add everything to the library.

In my opinion it's all very basic and simple. I thought you really couldn't go wrong.
Guess i was wrong ;-)

(2015-11-13, 04:15)Kihon Wrote: [ -> ]Why is this program so confusing and unintuitive, it is driving me NUTS!!!!

There are several 'sections' when first installed; Pictures, Videos, Movies, Music, Programs, System.

Since I first installed I have moved my 'movies' (I called the location 'Films') from the hard drive they where on to a different one, now when I try to play one it says it is no longer available.

Fair enough as I moved it but how oh how please God do I tell it to not look in the previous location but tell it the new location of my movies, (ie my Films under the 'Movies' section), but NOT on an individual basis (ie clicking on each individual movie, being told it is no longer available and then selecting to remove from Library.)

I click on 'Movies' and go into that 'section'... nothing in there that I can do!

Under 'Videos' there is 'Files' and 'Library'.

In 'Files' I have 'add videos', I choose this and set it to my new location where my films are and I can choose and play from here but they do NOT work from 'Movies' section.

In 'Library' I can choose 'Files' then 'Films' (the name I gave the correct location) and play from here.

However in 'Library' there is also 'Movies', if I choose this it displays all the 'Films' I had originally added but again if I click on one it tells me it is no longer available etc etc ..
oh God oh God help me I am being driven mad by these stupid multi-layer file structure management systems that have many ways to get to one file but leaves you totally lost !!!

Please programmers do not copy MS way of file management, it is simply confusing and stupid (or is it me )

It should be an obvious and simple thing to set in the 'Movies' section where my 'films' are stored on my hard drive and to tell it if a location is wrong

And why is there a 'Movies' section AND a 'Videos' section anyway

I cannot work it out, it is beyond beliveable how unintuitive this is!

UNINSTALLED!
Back to Windows file manager, double click on movie file and watch in VLC or similar

Did you go to the http://kodi.wiki/ to get instructions on how Kodi works?

Like anything new, a little knowledge goes a long way but you sometimes have to make the effort to get the answers. In the amount of time it took to compose your post you would have found the answer to your problem.

PM me and I will help you... I also struggled at first, but then figured it out myself. I would suggest you start by installing the Arctic Zephyr skin... Then we'll take it from there.

In Files you should see the original source you added as Movies. Simply bring up the context menu and Remove source.

Quote:Did you go to the http://kodi.wiki/ to get instructions on how Kodi works?

Like anything new, a little knowledge goes a long way but you sometimes have to make the effort to get the answers. In the amount of time it took to compose your post you would have found the answer to your problem.

This.

Thanks for comments.

VortexDK you say "...the library actually has its own sub menu for all the settings that touches the library." This is what I mean, I do not understand what you mean by 'library', I have a HDD with files on that I point Kodi to so there are locations that have data, what is the 'library' that is a different thing? (BTW I know you're trying to help!)

Gave up on this and simply browse to folder using windows explorer and double click file I want to play but then thought I'd give it another go recently.

Installed Kodi 16 Jarvis.
Setup my folder structureon HDD;
movies in D:\Movies
TV series in D:\Series
On main menu bar in Kodi Clicked on Videos, files, add videos..
Browsed to D:\Movies selected all appropriate settings and clicked yes to update library etc
Did same for D:\Series
I now have a new menu item in the main Kodi menu bar for 'Movies' but nothing for 'Series'

Is there a simple guide on how to maintain the 'library' or file locations etc in Kodi, eg if I delete a file or add new ones?
It seems that if I add new files and click 'update library it adds them but does NOT remove deleted files!!!

Still bloody confusing!!!
There is no intutiveness to this what-so-ever, I'm sorry I know its free but so confusing to use as far as a windows program point of view!

Your series would be under TV Shows in the main menu bar. The benefit is that Kodi will scrape the metadata for your library and it also allows you to sort and categorize your collection.

(2016-03-24, 04:41)cd2022 Wrote: [ -> ]Your series would be under TV Shows in the main menu bar. The benefit is that Kodi will scrape the metadata for your library and it also allows you to sort and categorize your collection.

Thanks for reply but no TV shows item either, just pictures, videos, movies, music, programs, system.

Cheers

Don't give up Kihon!
I have been using Kodi for less than 2 weeks and it seems I am learning something new every day.
The options / setups/ configurations / skins are simply amazing and have been worth spending time on.
Just give it a bit of time.

TV shows not showing up in the library is usually a naming problem. Since you seam to have done every thing correctly, and that the movies are working. I would say that you just need to take a look at your naming system.
Kodi is rather strick with how you name seasons and shows. This is necessary for kodi to have a fair chance of figuring out what is what in your collection. The explanation can be found here http://kodi.wiki/view/Naming_video_files/TV_shows renaming a large or even a small collection would take forever, so I would recommend using filebot to automate most of the process. You can edit the settings to fit the recommended naming style found in the wiki. I would personally recommend including the episode name in the file name, that makes it easier to find incorrectly named episodes.

RTFM man. For anything beyond the basic there is a learning curve. It's defo worth learning though, once you are setup you'll never want to go back.

To get you moving, this seems to be the step youre missing...

TV shows wont show up until you add some. Go into videos, add some sources (I just add my root drives if theyre not there). Have all your TV shows in one dir, all movies in another etc. Navigate to where you put your TV shows and press C, go to set content, set the content to tv shows and let it scan.
When you go back to main menu you will now have a TV shows option. Repeat the process for your movies and music.

(2015-11-13, 04:15)Kihon Wrote: [ -> ]And why is there a 'Movies' section AND a 'Videos' section anyway

"Movies" is a sub-menu in the "Videos" area. Videos is the master directory for Movies, TV shows, Music videos, playlists, Files view, and Video add-ons. "Movies" is just a shortcut on the home screen. You can actually disable this shortcut and then "Movies" shows up as a sub-menu item under "Videos", which makes much more sense to me.

The Video button should have be named "video file maintenance mode", but was shortened for the sake of the button size and perhaps should have been hidden in a sub menu under settings, but it's used a lot. The reason there is a TV Button and Movie Button, is the two types of videos are scraped differently and handled in slightly different ways (as in TV episodes etc).

Once you have a substantial collection of videos, just having a player and looking over a list in a folder is not what movie enthusiasts want, enter Kodi and it's ability to scrape most of the meta-data from popular databases, along with the eye candy, to not only allow for fast access to your collection, but to layout the meta-data in such a way, that it resembles a candy bar rack in a store and better to suit your appetite. Taken a step further, music, streaming videos, TV, and even weather, not to mention things like RRS feeds of news or whatever.

Kodi now becomes all things to all people. As a novice you have to ease in with baby steps, follow the wiki's and it will not be long until they call you master in the religion of Kodi, Happy Easter.