[agibby5]

I am having an issue with Kodi showing my movie artwork. It's happening to about half of my library. I have 1400+ dvd rips. I setup my library quite a few years ago. I have had this problem in the past. I used to just delete the mysql db, Thumbnails and Textures.db file and rescrape everything. But I don't want to do that since we have watch progress on many movies and TV shows.

Most of my movies are DVD rips from my own DVDs. The naming scheme is [movie name].dvdrip.mkv. Almost all of the missing artwork is on movies that have been scraped properly. The actors are linked and the movie name is scraped and the information is filled in, except the artwork.  I check in the database and I can see the the c08 field has artwork URLs in it.

On titles that have missing artwork in Kodi, the URLs return a 404.
For example, here's one of the URLs inside the c08 field in the DB for a movie called 2 Guns: https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/30lM3Uvz...YTWgd3.jpg.  I can readily find many, many other examples with the same problem. I use The Movie Database Scraper.

I can go in the GUI and click Refresh and then it finds the movie instantly and pulls down the new artwork and then the problem is solved, for that ONE movie.  To test if I can do this in an automated way, I've tried to delete them manually from the movie table and the files table and then Update the Library and Scan for New Content but that does not rediscover the movie. 

I'm guessing this scraping happened fine at some point before 2017 when these movies were added to my library (files.dateAdded), but that the links are now dead? Or perhaps there was a problem with the scraper when the files were originally scraped years ago? Who knows.

I found a reported issue where the links had http: instead of https: in them, and followed the instructions here (https://www.reddit.com/r/kodi/comments/j...&context=3). I exported the tables, sed replaced the http with https for the tmdb.org links, and reimported the sql file. There was no change at all in my problem. Most of the links that i glanced through had http in them were actor links, and I do recall missing actor images, but I don't care about that nearly as much as the cover art.

Questions:

1. I'm not sure what to do to fix nearly 700 bad entries like this in an automated way. It will take way too long to do it manually. Any ideas?
   
2. Is there any better way to handle long term storage of scraped information? I see some people use scrapers outside of Kodi and somehow manage jpg files alongside the movie files. All my files are named like I said above, and in one folder called Movies. I'm not sure if I can use something like Artwork Beef? But I don't really want to go through alot of effort to set things up and have to maintain that going forward. I just want it to work within Kodi. I use it daily and it's been a few years that this problem has been antagonizing me.
   

Any help is appreciated as my son is getting older and it's frustrating for him to find his kids shows without the cover art. On the plus side, I guess it'll help him learn to read better though

[Karellen]

here's one of the URLs inside the c08 field in the DB for a movie called 2 Guns: https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/30lM3Uvz...YTWgd3.jpg.  I can readily find many, many other examples with the same problem. I use The Movie Database Scraper.

TheMovieDB last year undertook a mass purge of artwork. They deleted tens of thousands of images. We don't know why, but its not the first time. Plus they regularly delete artwork anyway- those that are of poor quality, duplicated or uploaded to the wrong movie.
Considering that you last scraped in 2017, you are suffering from this mass purge.
You should get into the habit of saving your artwork locally, so that way you are unaffected by what the scraper sites do.

m not sure what to do to fix nearly 700 bad entries like this in an automated way. It will take way too long to do it manually. Any ideas?

Probably best to rescrape your library. Its either one at a time, or all of it. There is no quick shortcut to fix this problem.
If you install the WatchedList addon from the repo and run it, it will save your Watched and Play Count status. But this requires correct IMDB ID's for movies and TVDB ID's for tv shows to work correctly. Check your UniqueID table in the database.
Your library data must be 4+ years old, it could probably do with a refresh.

Is there any better way to handle long term storage of scraped information?

Yes, install Artwork Dump... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=360078
Once configured, it will download artwork as you scrape. You can also run it manually to download all missing artwork (as long as the artwork links are still valid)
Also get into the habit of exporting your library to Separate Files (NFO Files) to keep a local backup of the metadata. You can then quickly rebuild your library when needed.

[agibby5]

Thanks for the info. Looks like I have some research to do. Can you think of any issues with running all this on 4 separate clients? Do I need to set them all up the same?

[Karellen]

Can you think of any issues with running all this on 4 separate clients? Do I need to set them all up the same?

I don't use MySQL, but from what I understand, you need to set one up to scrape the library, when the other three are connected to the database via the advancedsettings.xml file, then they will use all the same data and artwork. Each client will have its own thumbnail cache, so the artwork links need to be valid so each client can cache the artwork.

[jbinkley60]

Thanks for the info. Looks like I have some research to do. Can you think of any issues with running all this on 4 separate clients? Do I need to set them all up the same?

Since you are doing research, there are other Kodi sharing solutions which have solved some many of the challenges you are describing.  Here's my HTPC setup where I have many clients syncing their Kodi databases to a central source with the ability to lock the scraping so that artwork never gets changed even if the scraping sites change / delete their artwork, it also provides me the ability to override the scrapers with my own artwork when I like something more specific.  I have over 2,100 pieces of artwork where I do this across 16,000+ video files and 80,000 pieces of artwork. 

All artwork is kept centrally and locally (clients fetch from the central server).  You also have control on how the Kodi clients cache the artwork (i.e. no caching or 30 minute cache clearing).  It has backup / restore capabilities for the central SQL database and  automatic rebuilding of Kodi clients.  Their databases are refreshed daily or if a Kodi database / client blows up it's database can be rebuilt in a few minutes (or less depending upon the size of your library).  You can also choose just to refresh the Kodi client database manually from the central source.  I use the concept of write / scrape once and read many times from the clients.  Bookmarks / resume points, play counters, trailers and all metadata etc.. are also shared to all clients.  I used to struggle with similar issues you are seeing.


Jeff

[agibby5]

I installed WatchedList, let it do it's work. I installed Artwork Dump and then deleted the database and re-ran Kodi. Took nearly 2 days, but everything looks good now, especially since "most" of the watched status is good. Some were wrong, but that's okay. I'll go through with the wife and mark things watched as needed.

I'm curious what the local files do here? It seems like it's still going to use the scrapers and the URLs are still stored in the c08 field on the db. Can anyone elaborate why the local files help? When do they come into play?

I appreciate you guys. Thanks again for the confidence in wiping out the DB. I have done this many times over the years, but as I have grown my library, I've been reluctant to redo everything.

[Karellen]

I installed Artwork Dump and then deleted the database and re-ran Kodi.

So Artwork Dump downloaded the artwork as you rescraped your library? So now you have all local artwork saved?

especially since "most" of the watched status is good. Some were wrong, but that's okay.

WatchedList needs IMDB ID's for movies and TVDB ID's for tv shows and episodes. Those that never updated most likely had those ID's missing so WatchedList could not save the watched status. But now that you have rescraped your library, you should have all the correct ID's and WatchedList should work accurately in future. You just need to remember to run it every now and then.

Can anyone elaborate why the local files help?

Which local files are you referring to? Artwork or NFO files?
Local artwork which is correctly named and saved is always used first.
NFO files are always used instead of scraping.
Part of the scraping process is obtaining artwork links. Just because they are scraped, does not mean they are used. The local artwork is used.

Great that it is all working now.

[agibby5]

I installed Artwork Dump and then deleted the database and re-ran Kodi.

So Artwork Dump downloaded the artwork as you rescraped your library? So now you have all local artwork saved?

Well, it does it after the scraping is done, but yes. I scraped, and then it pulled all the artwork down locally in line with all my files.

Can anyone elaborate why the local files help?

Which local files are you referring to? Artwork or NFO files?
Local artwork which is correctly named and saved is always used first.
NFO files are always used instead of scraping.
Part of the scraping process is obtaining artwork links. Just because they are scraped, does not mean they are used. The local artwork is used.

Great that it is all working now.

Just the local .jpg files from Artwork Dump. I did not see any NFO files get created at all.

So am I to understand that kodi will automatically look locally first for any artwork that matches the filename before trying to use the network URLs?

[Karellen]

Just the local .jpg files from Artwork Dump. I did not see any NFO files get created at all.

Artwork Dump does not create nfo files, just artwork.
If you want nfo files, then you need to run the Export. Don't export artwork as you already have it.

So am I to understand that kodi will automatically look locally first for any artwork that matches the filename before trying to use the network URLs?

Correct.

[agibby5]

And what do the NFO files provide? All the other metadata?
I guess all this effort goes to avoiding any changes in the scrapers such that it would disrupt your local library?

[Karellen]

And what do the NFO files provide? All the other metadata?

NFO files contain all the information that is displayed in the library. Open one up in a text editor and have a look.

I guess all this effort goes to avoiding any changes in the scrapers such that it would disrupt your local library?

It is a useful as a backup for your library. Many users make lots of changes to their library data so they save it to nfo files, so they can quickly restore the library in future and not have to remember all the changes they made.