[snowjim]

Hi,

I have always been using different Media Managers to generate metadata for movies and series but now Im thinking about trying out the auto generation in Kodi. There is however a couple of questions I could not find in the Wiki NFO files page.

If I am using a central MySQL service, how will this work with 2-3 Kodi clients where each one will try to scrape for meta data? Will they save everything to the MySQL database, even images? And if it would match a item wrong, how do I correct it?

[Klojum]

If I am using a central MySQL service, how will this work with 2-3 Kodi clients where each one will try to scrape for meta data? Will they save everything to the MySQL database, even images?

Once all Kodi clients have been connected properly, each of the Kodi clients will be able to scrape for new content in the sources.
The metadata of the scraped content will be stored in the video database, for images only the URLs to their internet location will be stored.
Each Kodi client also has a local database that checks if the cache of thumbnails, posters, et cetera is uptodate.
If necessary, each Kodi client will download the related fanart into its cache.

And if it would match a item wrong, how do I correct it?

That will not differ when you use a local database or a centralized database.
You can refresh the metadata of a movie or a tvshow/episode manually, and then select the correct entry.

[snowjim]

Is there any settings I need to set to make this work? I have tried to add a couple of media files but Kodi will not add them, I can however go to Video and find and play them manually. It seems like Kodi will not add media files that do not got meta data? I looked in settings but could not find any setting that should make Kodi only look for local meda data?

I will turn on the debug and see if I can get some more info there.

[DarrenHill]

You can manually add metadata via an NFO (wiki) file.

Kodi will play anything it can see that's in a suitable format if you use the videos > files mode (from the main menu). But to be scraped into the library and viewed that way, it needs metadata.

[snowjim]

Im not following? I thought that KODI do its own scraping of metadata based on the name of the file or folder? So I still need to create nfo files to get the mediafailes in to the library?

Yes I can see the files in videos > files but It would be nice if the got in to the library with metadata.

[DarrenHill]

If the file naming is correct and the media item is listed in the database of the scraper, then yes Kodi will scrape it and download the metadata (and if you export your library, it can create the NFO (wiki) file for the item).

So if items are not being scraped, the first thing to check is how you've got it named, and how it's named in the database for the scraper that you're using (for example on TMDB or TVDB). The naming has to match for the scraper to find one in the other. More details on naming is on the wiki - naming video files (wiki).

If there is no entry, then you can do the manual NFO (wiki) file creation that I mentioned.

To your original question, the best way to do this is the MySQL (wiki) database you already set up, and then once you're done with the set-up do a library export (Import-export library (wiki)) as single files. That will create the NFO (wiki) files alongside your media in your sources, and so you will have everything available locally if you need to set up your library again in the future on another device or if you have issues with corruption of the database or any other kind of issue with it that means it needs to be recreated.

[snowjim]

Thanks,

In this case its episodes of series that I already got. The name of the files starts the same way as prev and they have the sXXExx to determine season and episode. I will try to turn on debug and see if i get more information there.

Regards

[DarrenHill]

How long ago were the original episodes scanned in?

Some of the scrapers have had some updates which has been known to break things for older scans (in that it stops the addition of newer episodes from working).

@Karellen is more of an expert on this than I am, but if you can provide the debug log (wiki) of such a scan and more details of the exact program/series in question and what scraper you are using it will help.

[snowjim]

I have now generated a debug and uploaded it here : x

Pleas take a look.

[DarrenHill]

@snowjim - we've looked at your log, and there are several points:

• Some of your entries are missing the SxxExx format or have spelling issues (the "National.Geogprahic.Hitlers.Hidden.Holocaust" one for example).
  
• In many cases the file naming is not really in a format that the scrapers can easily digest (many seem to be in "torrent name" format). Your file naming needs a general clean-up to ensure good and accurate scraping. See the naming convention wiki link I posted before.
  
• Some items (e.g. on line 2914) are set to use the "local information only" scraper option, so of course no metadata will be downloaded from the internet (this setting is designed for use with the NFO (wiki) files I mentioned before).
  
• You've got some old (version 1) API metadata scraped from TVDB (see log line 2308 for an example). Those no longer work (the site depreciated that API), and will block download of newly added episodes which will use the v2 API. For those you will need to remove them from your library and scrape them again (set the content type on the folder to none, allow the library clean and then set the content and scraper back again to TV shows).
  
• If your movies are set up to be each one in an individual folder (which they appear to be), ensure that the setting "movies are in separate folders..." is enabled.
  

With thanks to @Karellen for the help in reviewing the logs.

[snowjim]

Thank, but it seems like I have ended up in a bad state.

I decided to remove the media file you pointed out with faulted name, when I went to the Video>Files>Series folder and changed content to none, the library was cleaned. Then I when back and changed the content to TV show with the Movie Database as provider, it started to look for media but did not find any!? I tried again but this time with TVDB, it worked for a while but did only find 1 series? I really really hope that I did not just lost all my watched flags, I have hade big problems before with losing large amount of watched flags with Kodi. 

I have mostly used TinyMediaManager to generate local media files and the problems have been vary few. It is however some work with it and I heard that the kodi scraper is good enough so this is why I try to change.

The structure of my series folder is like this : SeriesName(clean) \ SeasonXX \ filename(like my.series.s01e02.rip....mkv), there should not really be any problems to digest the files.

If I need to change all file names. then the TinyMediaManager is probably less works.

How do I get my library back with the watched flags?

[snowjim]

oh no, it seems like alla watched flags is gone!? If I go a Videos > Files > Series and look at episodes I know was watched they are not.

I do got Trakt connected, maybe it can help setting the correct watched again? But first I need the library to show up.

[Karellen]

@snowjim

If you want to preserve your watched status, then install this add-on here which will save them as a backup to another location... https://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:WatchedList
It won't fix what you have already deleted, but will preserve your existing ones.

Then I when back and changed the content to TV show with the Movie Database as provider, it started to look for media but did not find any!?

Have you deleted the nfo files? Did you set up the correct scraper?

Your tv shows are also using the v1 API which Kodi no longer supports, nor does TMM, so your nfo files must be quite old. If you look in your tvshow.nfo file for Billions, you will see this outdated link and this is what is preventing you from adding new tv shows ...
<episodeguide>http://www.thetvdb.com/api/1D62F2F90030C444/series/279536/all/en.xml</episodeguide>

[snowjim]

[snowjim]

Some questions before doing any big changes in my setup : 

1. If I remove all metadata and images from the library Kodi will scrape new and it will not be stored in file location but in database with links to images? Right? So if There would not be a internet connection the images will not work like they did while the data was in the file system? Also if the MySQL database is crashing all meta data have to be created again.

2. I have hade problems with getting trailers to work, it is now. Will this behavior change if kodi is doing the scraping or is it independet?