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Tstrbl · 2017-12-06, 23:46

I scanned a two disc compilation of poorly tagged (didn't know) songs into the Kodi music library; both the artist tage and the title tag were artist-title. I cleaned up the tags and rescanned but the residue of the old artist tags still appears in the library artist view. That is, there is an artist entry but then a separate 'artist' entry with the artists name - song title for each of the songs the artist has in the compilation. So for example, artist X who sings songs A, B, C, and D in the compilation now has five different artist entries in the music library artist view: X, X-A, X-B, X-C, X-D.

I ran clean library several times but hasn't fixed it. Is there any way to resolve this without deleting the folder from file view, recopying, rescanning?

**DaveBlake** · 2017-12-07, 19:37

Are you sure that you did not clean the video library by mistake, it is a common error? To clean the music library you need to scroll down the page.

Tstrbl · 2017-12-08, 01:15

(2017-12-07, 19:37)DaveBlake Wrote: Are you sure that you did not clean the video library by mistake, it is a common error? To clean the music library you need to scroll down the page.

Ha, yes, I have made that error in the past, but not this time!

Tstrbl · 2017-12-15, 07:52

Still have not managed to fix this. In fact I've noticed that there are numerous inconsistencies in my library that the 'clean' command does not remove. There are lots of artist entries that are empty and cleaning the library does not remove them. Double entries here and there. What causes the 'clean' command to miss this? Even when I've successfully used the 'clean' command it still takes four or five goes before it removed what I wanted removed.

Do I have to learn how to use SQL to resolve this?

**DaveBlake** · 2017-12-15, 19:56

(2017-12-15, 07:52)Tstrbl Wrote: Still have not managed to fix this. In fact I've noticed that there are numerous inconsistencies in my library that the 'clean' command does not remove. There are lots of artist entries that are empty and cleaning the library does not remove them. Double entries here and there. What causes the 'clean' command to miss this? Even when I've successfully used the 'clean' command it still takes four or five goes before it removed what I wanted removed.

I don't know what is wrong for you, if you are selecting to clean the music library then it sounds very odd.

If you just want a solution for you then I suggest you go to file view and remove the music source(s). Then stop Kodi and delete MyMusic60.db from the userdata folder. Finally restart Kodi and add music source(s), rescan etc.

The downside of that fresh start to the music library is that you will lose any playback history or user ratings that you have added manually.

But if you would like to make your MyMusic60.db and sources.xml files available to me, and then names of the poorly tagged albums that triggered this issue, then I will have a look and see if I can see what has happened. The clean process does remove orphaned records, and there is no obvious reason for it to fail.

(2017-12-15, 07:52)Tstrbl Wrote: Do I have to learn how to use SQL to resolve this?

No. I am happy to do that SQL work for you.

Tstrbl · 2017-12-16, 15:43

Deleting and rescanning would be tedious so I decided I'd be better off learning SQL. I went into terminal and just deleted the artist entries manually from the database...seems to have worked. In fact, it was much easier than I expected. If you had to edit a database would you do it manually in terminal like I did or use some kind of SQLite GUI?

Tstrbl · 2017-12-16, 15:53

I did something like

delete from artist where idArtist between 1894 and 1920

All of these artists were added at the smae time so the Artist IDs were sequential. Is that what you would have done?

**DaveBlake** · 2017-12-17, 11:16

(2017-12-16, 15:53)Tstrbl Wrote: I did something like
delete from artist where idArtist between 1894 and 1920

All of these artists were added at the smae time so the Artist IDs were sequential. Is that what you would have done?

No. I would not have just deleted artists willy nillly. I would have first checked that there actually were orphaned or duplicate artists. Then if there were I would have investigated further why the clean process was not removing them, and see if I could deduce more about what had happened. I suspect that it is not just about some unwanted artists, but I can learn nothing from this, it is a dead end. Kodi can not be improved, nor other users benefit.

Yes SQL syntax is very obvious, yet SQL is very also powerful. Your data is yours to do with as you wish, but I caution all users that manually meddling is not something to undertake unless you know what you are doing, and have some understanding of the entire data model. It is easy to make things worse not better.

You seem happy with the outcome, but should you have further problems then please remind others that you have manually deleted artists from your music db.

Tstrbl · 2017-12-17, 12:28

Oh, OK. I still have a copy of the original MyMusic60.db file which I'm happy to send you. I'd also like to know why the 'clean' process didn't work. Do you need any other files?

What effect should the 'clean' process have on the .db? Does it not also just delete the orhpaned artists? What negative effects might my deletion of those files have on the .db as a whole?

**DaveBlake** · 2017-12-18, 01:15

(2017-12-17, 12:28)Tstrbl Wrote: Oh, OK. I still have a copy of the original MyMusic60.db file which I'm happy to send you. I'd also like to know why the 'clean' process didn't work. Do you need any other files?

See post #5

(2017-12-17, 12:28)Tstrbl Wrote: What effect should the 'clean' process have on the .db? Does it not also just delete the orhpaned artists? What negative effects might my deletion of those files have on the .db as a whole?

It does not only delete the orhpaned artists, the rest sorry I don't have time to explain now.

Tstrbl · 2017-12-22, 03:07

(2017-12-18, 01:15)DaveBlake Wrote:
(2017-12-17, 12:28)Tstrbl Wrote: Oh, OK. I still have a copy of the original MyMusic60.db file which I'm happy to send you. I'd also like to know why the 'clean' process didn't work. Do you need any other files?
See post #5

(2017-12-17, 12:28)Tstrbl Wrote: What effect should the 'clean' process have on the .db? Does it not also just delete the orhpaned artists? What negative effects might my deletion of those files have on the .db as a whole?
It does not only delete the orhpaned artists, the rest sorry I don't have time to explain now.

Thanks for taking the time to help me with the above. I actually thought I was saving you time by deleting the .db entries myself, but I now see that you can learn from the bugs in my system. How do people usually send you files [MyMusic60.db and sources.xml]?

I'd actually like to develop my own understanding of how kodi works, which is the other reason why I decided to try and fix this myself. Hopefully I haven't done any damage to my database!

Anyway, thanks again.

**DaveBlake** · 2017-12-23, 18:17

(2017-12-22, 03:07)Tstrbl Wrote: Thanks for taking the time to help me with the above. I actually thought I was saving you time by deleting the .db entries myself, but I now see that you can learn from the bugs in my system. How do people usually send you files [MyMusic60.db and sources.xml]?

Upload those files to somewhere on the cloud e.g. Dropbox, and then send me a PM with a link to them. But be aware that over Xmas I may be slow to respond.

(2017-12-22, 03:07)Tstrbl Wrote: I'd actually like to develop my own understanding of how kodi works, which is the other reason why I decided to try and fix this myself. Hopefully I haven't done any damage to my database!

The db is built from your music files so you can always recover, and I am not saying that you have broken something just I can't be sure without looking. I applaud the desire to learn more about how Kodi works. As an open source project the full code is available, although some parts are harder than others to follow. There is also a wiki for some aspects of the music db design, but unfortunately as volunteers the devs have little time to stop and explain details.