[cgroth]

Hi, I am new here.

Just managed to install and start updating my music library. Made a separate folder on my NAS called KODI>Music with a copy of all my ripped CDs so I can tweak the entries to work perfectly with KODI. I have organized my structure by Album subfolders within Artist folders. Does that make sense?

I started "importing" alphabetically. (10CC, Abba, Accept, Ac/Dc), but I cannot get 10CC to show up properly. Could this be because the only 10CC album is called "The Definitive Collection", the same title as an Abba album that does show up? (By "not showing up" I mean that when I select Music>Library>Artist 10CC is not shown?) The 10CC album does not show up either. In Music>Files>10CC right clicking The Definitive Collection > Scan item to library doesn't achieve anything, nor does Music>Files>Music>10CC>Scan item to library.

How can I fix this?

Thanks for all help!

[whitebelly]

Check the tags.

[cgroth]

Check the tags.

What does that mean?

[helta]

It means that Kodi doesn't care about the physical layout of your files, it reads the "tags" within the files. So if your tags are wrong/not there, then it won't show up in the library because it can't scrape properly.

[cgroth]

It means that Kodi doesn't care about the physical layout of your files, it reads the "tags" within the files. So if your tags are wrong/not there, then it won't show up in the library because it can't scrape properly.

OK, where do I find these "tags"? The only difference I can see between the album folder that doesn't show up and the ones that do is that the former has flac files in it, whereas the latter have mp3. Otherwise the folders all contain the individual songs and a jpg file called "cover".

Thanks again for all help

[Prof Yaffle]

The tags are embedded in the files themselves - they're stored in the 'header' of the file, so a bit of the file just before the music. They describe (amongst other things) the track number, artist name, genre, album name, and similar. Most desktop operating systems will allow you to view and change the tags from a file manager, e.g. right-click and select 'Properties' or something similar - otherwise, you need a tag managing application.

[cgroth]

Thanks! It seems the difference is in the format of the files. I use Windows Explorer, and when I right click on a song, the Properties then Details each song has info on the artist, album, genre, song #, length and bit rate. My flac files do not have the same Details fields. I though flac was supposed to be a "better" format (I guess it may be in technical/sound terms), but in terms of other information and integration with KODI MP3 files might be preferable?

[helta]

Flac files are lossless (no information lost due to encoding), hence the better quality. However you acquired those Flac files (ripped or downloaded), it didn't embed proper tags into the files. There are plenty of freeware programs like Mp3Tag (yes it can write to flac files as well) or better yet Musicbrainz Picard can write proper tags to those files as well.

The tags themselves are essential for Kodi to display the proper information in your library. Like I said before, the physical layout of your music doesn't matter.

[cgroth]

Hi, is there some way I can add missing artist information myself when selecting "Artist information" doesn't yield a result? I have successfully updated the album, and the artist name shows up, but no image in Library mode (or rather an anonymous generic artist icon instead of a picture).

Christopher

[helta]

Two ways I believe:

1) If you have your Music setup like:
Artist
----->>>Albums
--------->>> Songs
You can place a folder.jpg of the Artist in the Artist folder, and upon next library update it should pick up the artwork.

2) Even if there is no result from the Artist Information screen, can't you still choose to select a thumbnail/fanart from a local copy somewhere?

[whitebelly]

Hi, is there some way I can add missing artist information myself when selecting "Artist information" doesn't yield a result? I have successfully updated the album, and the artist name shows up, but no image in Library mode (or rather an anonymous generic artist icon instead of a picture).

Christopher

1. You can add the information directly to http://www.theaudiodb.com . Then it will be available and downloaded for any and all using the scraper.

2. You can add artist.nfo and images if you follow the instructions in the wiki, and have the proper directory structure.

3. From the Artist view, you can select "Artist Info" from the context menu for an artist. If it takes you to a blank Artist Info GUI, you can see the Select Thumbnail button, from which you can browse to a local image and select it. Sometimes, if the artist is not found, KODI will prompt you to enter a different artist name, if you are lucky you can make a slight change so the name can be found, otherwise you'll get stuck at that point and unfortunately that problem has not yet been resolved. Even if it works, you cannot edit the artist biography text, you can only select images.

[cgroth]

Thanks, I'll look into your # 1 and 2.

I have been trying # 3 mainly, and this works for known artist without an associated picture, However, in some instances the artist seems unknown, and instead of a blank page I get a virtual keyboard. Pressing done after I enter the artist name (it is actually already typed in by KODI) then gets me into a loop of 'Searching artist' and 'Enter artist'. Only x-ing the keyboard makes exit possible, and then I get the message "Downloading artist failed". I assume this is a knwown/intended behaviour of KODI, and using method # 2 is the way around it?

[cgroth]

One curious thing I notice, on a ripped CD called Pomp & Circumstance I have Elgar listed as the artist. In addition to works by Elgar there are also "songs" by Sergey Prokofiev and Ottorino Respihgi. I only use last names for classical music, which normally works fine. However, those two gentlemen do not appear to be in whatever database KODI uses for look ups. But when I look for "Prokofiev" I get a blank page, with only the name Prokofiev on top, and then the text "No biography for this artist", and no artwork. For Resphigi I get a jump straight to the on screen keyboard and I am asked to Enter the artist name.

Can anyone explain the difference in behavious? I think it might help me understand how KODI works...

Thanks for all comments!

[whitebelly]

....instead of a blank page I get a virtual keyboard. Pressing done after I enter the artist name (it is actually already typed in by KODI) then gets me into a loop of 'Searching artist' and 'Enter artist'. Only x-ing the keyboard makes exit possible, and then I get the message "Downloading artist failed". I assume this is a knwown/intended behaviour of KODI, and using method # 2 is the way around it?

This issue is known, but it is not resolved. There is a workaround, http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=166228 , but it is a bit convoluted.

[whitebelly]

Can anyone explain the difference in behavious? I think it might help me understand how KODI works...

If you get a blank artist info GUI screen, that means that artist was found by the scraper, but there was no other information on that artist available to download. If you get the keyboard, that means that artist was not found at all. (and so it does not create an info record for that artist).