[ashlar]

...

There are lots and lots of pictures it complained it could not download. Is this solvable somehow? I could always go back to the backed up version but if I can fix it, it would probably be better in the long run, I suppose.

To clarify: could the utility be ran in a way that "fixed" the empty/wrong entries automatically? Because there's hundreds of them and it's not something I wish to do manually, it's like searching for a needle in a haystack, as there's no logic to it.

If so many images cannot be loaded, it is probably because your NFO entries are very old (the scrape was a long time ago) and no longer correspond to the current status of the online film and TV show databases.

The only thing that helps is to delete all NFO files and then have your files completely re-scraped. There is no other possibility of repair. You can rescrape via Kodi or with the tinyMediaManager.

I don't have any .NFO file in my directories.

[rainman74]

...

Then this tool is not for you for the time being. First read up on what NFO files are and how to name the media files correctly in Kodi so that they can be found by Scaper.

[ashlar]

...

Then this tool is not for you for the time being. First read up on what NFO files are and how to name the media files correctly in Kodi so that they can be found by Scaper.

What? This looks like a complete non sequitur to me.

You said I should delete .NFO files to rescrape. I don't have NFO files at all. I know what they are, I've been using Kodi for more than 15 years.
You then go on stating that I should read on how to name media files correctly in Kodi? What does that have to do with anything discussed here? What leads you to believe that my files are not named correctly
Only a masochist would go 15+ years without learning how to name files correctly.

All my movies are in dedicated folders named Movie Title (Year), same as the files they contain.

So if the tool knows how to identify "dead entries" but it's then not able to trigger a rescrape for those, I can understand, yeah. But what does that have to with how I name files?

[rainman74]

 

You said I should delete .NFO files to rescrape. I don't have NFO files at all. I know what they are, I've been using Kodi for more than 15 years.
You then go on stating that I should read on how to name media files correctly in Kodi? What does that have to do with anything discussed here? What leads you to believe that my files are not named correctly
Only a masochist would go 15+ years without learning how to name files correctly.

All my movies are in dedicated folders named Movie Title (Year), same as the files they contain.

So if the tool knows how to identify "dead entries" but it's then not able to trigger a rescrape for those, I can understand, yeah. But what does that have to with how I name files?

I'm sorry, I won't write anything else about it here. This tool is for professionals who know how scraping and Kodi work. Since you don't seem to know that, the tool is not for you.

If the scraper in Kodi does not recognise your media files, then texturecache.py can neither clean up nor recache anything!

[Klojum]

This tool is for professionals who know how scraping and Kodi work. Since you don't seem to know that, the tool is not for you.

That's enough condescing talk. This forum is for constructive cooperation in supporting Kodi, it's not a place for the next pissing contest.

[ashlar]

...

I'm left speechless but @Klojum said everything that needed to be said anyway (thank you).

For other kind people that might wanna help, I am available to provide whatever info might be needed. As I have stated, the files are named correctly and Kodi has no problem in scraping them. The database has been going for about a decade now, going through several Kodi versions. As such, several artworks that were downloaded from a given URL cannot be downloaded anymore from that same URL, as that's most likely invalid by now.

If I manually activate a refresh for the movies/series where art is missing, said movie/series is rescraped correctly (since it's named correctly... sorry but couldn't resist).

My question remains: since the tool "knows" which files have been giving it problems recaching them, is there a way to activate a refresh rescrape only for those files or not?

[rainman74]

This tool is for professionals who know how scraping and Kodi work. Since you don't seem to know that, the tool is not for you.

That's enough condescing talk. This forum is for constructive cooperation in supporting Kodi, it's not a place for the next pissing contest.

That's not condescing talk, that's the truth, which I've formulated politely but without any rewording.

Is it not allowed to say here that someone lacks knowledge? That would be ridiculous.

But someone else is welcome to explain all the basics here, on a tool that the author left a long time ago. I have already written extensive explanations here, as you can see, but I will not start with Adam and Eve.

[Klojum]

Is it not allowed to say here that someone lacks knowledge? That would be ridiculous.

Perhaps not everyone has the same amount of your skills. That can happen. But if we are gonna (have to) point out all the things that certain people on this forum are incapable of or have no knowledge of, we'd have a gigantic extra workload on our plate. So we're not gonna do that.

Again, be nice and excellent to each other.

[izprtxqkft]

well i dont know wth all that was about...

-----

@ashlar

i read back and to recap -

• you recently discovered kodi can do much better quality artwork and you would like kodi to upgrade the artwork in the cache
  
• the library has been long running and the urls are not all valid where kodi can load the artwork from its original source
  

as long as i understand those points correctly i will move forward

• you have now run this 'utility' to manage your cache - whatever this 'utility' is supposed to do
  
• now you have artwork missing that kodi cannot retrieve
  

its going to be quite difficult but not entirely impossible to get this back on track but it will require some doing and its not so much an official method

lets see if we can get something moving, what needs to be done is a 'refresh' per item but that is tedious and very annoying

i intentionally removed the artwork urls in my kodi database, cleared my cache and made kodi reload them so for a quick test this did work but i did not try on a full library

so here's what i suggest -
 

1. backup the entire kodi userdata folder (!)
   
2. perform step 1 again (or not, just reiterating its importance)
   
3. rename (dont delete) the "Thumbnails" folder -> Thumbnails.old or some such
   
4. rename (dont delete) the Textures.db file
   
5. open kodi, change the source's content to None
   
6. when it asks to remove from library SAY NO
   
7. change the content back to what it was before
   
8. when it asks to rescan the content SAY YES
   

this should refresh your content with new artwork urls, without obliterating the database, without individual refresh per item

put your desired artwork level into the advancedsettings.xml before the refresh so you get the higher quality artwork

as it is not any sort of official method, even though i expect it to work, it is a risk so if it goes awry restore the backup

-----

in the future, if kodi has good urls for artwork, all that is needed is you change the artwork level, delete Thumbnails and then delete Textures.db - kodi will reload good artwork the next time you browse the section

and you can forget this 'utility' here that i dont understand the purpose of

[ashlar]

Is it not allowed to say here that someone lacks knowledge? That would be ridiculous.

Ok, enough.

You know what's funny? The fact that you come here accusing me of lacking knowledge, while presuming I am using NFO files while I have none.
You accuse me of not knowing what NFO files are, do I have to explain them to you, in order for you to believe me when I say I know what they are?

What I can guess from what I have experienced is that Kodi has saved in its database the location of all the artwork it has scraped during its (for me) 15 years run. Many of those locations are dead by now. So when the tool asks to redownload those resources, in order to re-cache them, errors happen. In my case lots of errors because the database is so old and so many resources have changed their URLs.

You assumed I had NFO files forcing the rescraping of these expired resources. I have none but those URLs are saved in the database and they don't change unless one forces rescraping by using the Refresh functionality.

Now, I am not a developer and I don't consider myself "an expert" but I know my way around Kodi, so if you want to accuse me of lacking knowledge, there are two things you should be doing:

1) Share your knowledge because that's the reason these forums exist. Look at my very long posting history, I always try to help people when I can.
2) Actually demonstrate your presumably deeper understanding makes a difference for the problem at hand.

Lack of one or both of those things ends up with you simply insulting me. And I hope insults are not tolerated on the forums, which is the way I remember things working around here.

[ashlar]

so here's what i suggest -
 

1. backup the entire kodi userdata folder (!)
   
   
2. perform step 1 again (or not, just reiterating its importance)
   
   
3. rename (dont delete) the "Thumbnails" folder -> Thumbnails.old or some such
   
   
4. rename (dont delete) the Textures.db file
   
   
5. open kodi, change the source's content to None
   
   
6. when it asks to remove from library SAY NO
   
   
7. change the content back to what it was before
   
   
8. when it asks to rescan the content SAY YES
   
   

this should refresh your content with new artwork urls, without obliterating the database, without individual refresh per item

put your desired artwork level into the advancedsettings.xml before the refresh so you get the higher quality artwork

First of all, thank you for looking into this. I confirm you interpreted the scenario correctly. You decribed the situation correctly.

I had done a full userdata backup before using the tool. So I am currently with a fully populated database (but with lower res artwork and artwork cached using the old scaling algorithm). Meaning, basically, I can start from scratch, as if this tool hadn't ever been used on my db.

Now, I've read the quoted procedure and I'm not sure I understand how it would differ from a full rescan. The only thing I can think of is that, by following it, I will end up with Kodi not rescraping the "text based" metadata but just the artwork material which I have removed by renaming the texture db (where URLs are saved) and thumbs folder (whose content is the actual cached artworks, right?).

Is my interpretation correct? I will test this. Thanks a lot, once more, for trying to help.

[izprtxqkft]

First of all, thank you for looking into this. I confirm you interpreted the scenario correctly. You decribed the situation correctly.

youre welcome
 

I had done a full userdata backup before using the tool. So I am currently with a fully populated database (but with lower res artwork and artwork cached using the old scaling algorithm). Meaning, basically, I can start from scratch, as if this tool hadn't ever been used on my db.

right on
 

Now, I've read the quoted procedure and I'm not sure I understand how it would differ from a full rescan. The only thing I can think of is that, by following it, I will end up with Kodi not rescraping the "text based" metadata but just the artwork material which I have removed by renaming the texture db (where URLs are saved) and thumbs folder (whose content is the actual cached artworks, right?).

Is my interpretation correct? I will test this. Thanks a lot, once more, for trying to help.

what it should do is technically a full rescan but avoiding removing from the database first should prevent the removal of non-scraper data such as watch status, play count, last played and those things that dont come from a scraper


so it should overwrite all the scraper retrieved data with fresh data

[ashlar]

what it should do is technically a full rescan but avoiding removing from the database first should prevent the removal of non-scraper data such as watch status, play count, last played and those things that dont come from a scraper


so it should overwrite all the scraper retrieved data with fresh data

Ended up switching scrapers. I was still using old ones, so went to thetvdb 4 and moviedb python. Lost watched status, last played... everything.
I have good memory so I will rebuild watched status manually. At least now I have an up to date db and it will last a while, hopefully.

[izprtxqkft]

was worth a try i suppose, at least you got somewhere

[RonnieG3]

Hey all - quick question:  I have both Python 2 & 3 installed to be safe. Running through a script as a batch file and I'm having an issue. I can't get Xd or R to run to save my life. Any help from someone who may understand a bit better?  Here's the Script I'm running as a batch file:

Code:

echo "Start Scanning Video Library vscan"
"C:\Python27\python.exe" texturecache.py vscan $clean.showdialogs=yes
timeout /t 3
echo "Start Cleaning Video Library vclean"
"C:\Python27\python.exe" texturecache.py vclean $clean.showdialogs=yes
timeout /t 3
echo "Start Cleaning Video Library vclean"
"C:\Python27\python.exe" texturecache.py vclean $clean.showdialogs=yes
timeout /t 3
echo "Start Scanning Audio Library ascan"
"C:\Python27\python.exe" texturecache.py ascan $Scan.showdialogs=yes
timeout /t 3
echo "Start Cleaning Audio Library aclean"
"C:\Python27\python.exe" texturecache.py aclean $clean.showdialogs=yes
timeout /t 3
echo "Start Cleaning Audio Library aclean"
"C:\Python27\python.exe" texturecache.py aclean $clean.showdialogs=yes
timeout /t 3
echo "Start update with qax"
"C:\Python27\python.exe" texturecache.py qax
timeout /t 3
echo "Start scanning texturecache with function C"
"C:\Python27\python.exe" texturecache.py C
timeout /t 3
echo "Prune data missing on disk P"
"C:\Python27\python.exe" texturecache.py P
timeout /t 3
echo "Start update with Xd"
"C:\Python27\python.exe" texturecache.py Xd
timeout /t 3
echo "Start Reverse query cache update with R"
"C:\Python27\python.exe" texturecache.py R
timeout /t 3
echo "end"

Any assistance, please... I just want to be able to run it, knowing I can get through the whole thing.