[brazen1]

Hold down scroll left or right horizontal view browsing movie library. Titan crashes every time. Estuary no problem.
Local media. No navigation until all local hdd's are spun-up. After all drives are spinning, still crashes. Cache problem? Happening very long time now.
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2510466

1 thing I have noticed with Titan is that there seems to be quite a delay (up to 10secs) from when I click on say "Movies" till it shows up the "Movies" page with the DVD on it. During this time, it has the Titan background, just empty. However, this only occurs on the first time after starting Kodi. When I go back to the menu and click again, it is almost instantaneous.

Is there anything that I can do to make it quicker like disabling other themes etc.

Thanks again

It appears there is a serious cache problem although it's not being acknowledged. Not sure but I see symptoms posted like this one including my own. I'm guessing you have Kodi installed on your C: drive and your media is on another drive. If that is true this delay is caused because your media drive is spun down and you won't see any artwork or be able to access the content until it spins up. If the metadata was actually cached properly, this shouldn't be happening. You say it's instantaneous after restarting Kodi, returning to the menu, etc. I'd imagine that is because the drive is still spun up from when it was initially started.

We should be able to browse the library with the drive spun down. The drive should only spin up for actual playback to access the media. This is what the cache is for. To duplicate and store the artwork and other metadata within Kodi so the other drives containing the original metadata don't have to be accessed and slow down the experience (which is what is happening).

I have eight internal SATA data drives. I routinely have to wait a few minutes for the drives to spin up in sequence and 'populate' the library. The library is locked up until then. Drives do not spin up all at once. Waiting for them, one by one, is pretty frustrating at times. The common cure suggested has been to never spin down the drives. Imo, that is not a cure. Furthermore, when I hold down the scroll button (horizontal view and not sure about other views) Kodi crashes every time. I don't even use backgrounds like fanart or anything. I'm using a very minimal view, not even the widgets this skin is popular for. It's not like Kodi is being overloaded processing artwork or taxing the GPU to draw. I guess the real test is if this happens using other skins. I've only tried the default Estuary. This does NOT happen using it. I thought it might be a Kodi problem and not a skin problem. See the link included where it was originally reported.

The last test would be to see if it's my end or not and I'm actually hoping it is since a cache problem is rather severe to diagnose let alone repair if it's skin related. Asking other users could see if any of this is familiar to them or not. This is with local drives. I don't know how NAS feeds are handled? I don't wish to plague marcelveldt unnecessarily but if it is a common problem and not isolated.... bring it to his attention and perhaps look into it if he desires.

I thought this was a very good suggestion. I didn't even know the setting existed. I just tried unchecking every view except horizontal, the only one I use. I went to browse the library. It won't budge until the drive(s) spin -up. I can hear the drive spinning up while it's stalled. Once the drive has spun-up, I can navigate..... until I come upon a title that resides on another drive that has not spun up yet. Once it too spins up, I can resume navigating until I come upon yet another drive containing that metadata and have to wait again. Attempting to navigate by holding down the scroll results in a crash every time. Again, I don't know if it's just my system or if this is prevalent for everyone.

I'm not 100% sure how it works exactly but my best guess is that it's trying to grab something from the disk.
Most definitely it will be the artwork but it shouldn't do that because that is cached locally.
Something is off either in the skin code or in your specific setup and I'd like to work with you to sort it out.
Are you available for some debugging ? In that case I will send you some special test versions of the skin and some actions to perform in order to sort out where the issue is.

After all you contribute for us? It's the least I could do. Ready when you are.

Your 2 cents makes sense. Why can't/isn't the metadata reference extended to the db as in case 1? Why should the file system query for path info when the data that needs to be read could be contained in the db? Sort of negates the whole need for a cache in the 1st place if it's going to do a confirm reference by calling up the source to read.

The only examples I could think of is for those that do not permanently populate source folders with metadata and/or those that only have one drive. Sort of screws the rest of us.....

With extrafanart enabled it will definitely spin up your disks, otherwise, as long as the images are in the texture cache, I guess it won't but I'm not sure.
There's a tool called Texture Cache Maintenance Utility. You might want to run that one to have all images pre-cached into the texture cache so it won't have to read your disks to grab the image at first access.
Just an idea. Might work.

After all you contribute for us? It's the least I could do. Ready when you are.

Well, please first test the texture cache tip. If that doesn't help we will do some debugging.

I was using the utility since it was introduced. I stopped using it when I switched to this skin because it deleted all my custom animated poster art. I haven't used it since. I understand animated artwork will rebuild now. Problem is, many of my custom artwork are not in the database. I've submitted them but they never made it and I don't know why.

Extrafanart is not enabled. Never has been. Nor is any other artwork. I only use posters. Nothing else, although I have ALL available artwork residing in the title folder. Just don't use them. Posters are cached. I can see them in the thumbnails folders along with actors, clearart, fanart, logo, etc.

I'll run the utility again just to double check but I'm fairly certain it won't make a difference now any more than it did in the past. If it does, I'll post the results. If not, you can PM me when convenient. I'll do it within 24hrs.
These are the commands I normally ran and in this order. Do you recommend I change anything?

C:\Python34\python.exe C:\texturecache.py update

C:\Python34\python.exe C:\texturecache.py P

C:\Python34\python.exe C:\texturecache.py R

C:\Python34\python.exe C:\texturecache.py c all

I was using the utility since it was introduced. I stopped using it when I switched to this skin because it deleted all my custom animated poster art. I haven't used it since. I understand animated artwork will rebuild now. Problem is, many of my custom artwork are not in the database. I've submitted them but they never made it and I don't know why.

Animated artwork is now stored in a seperate location so it's safe again to use the texture cache maintenance tool.
Well, if that also didn't work we'll have to dig deeper for the root cause.

Can you confirm that this issue does NOT exist if you switch to the default Estuary skin ?
Or does it also happen on the default skin ?

I ran the tool. I tested. Using Estuary (which is the default skin Windows 10, Kodi v.17) I scrolled my entire library pressing the key continuously. Kodi did not crash. I was able to scroll the entire library without waking any hard drives. The only time a drive wakes is when I need to access the movie for playback.

I immediately switched to Titan and repeated the test. Pressing down and scrolling continuously, crashes Kodi. Scrolling one by one, I can browse the library. But, I have to wait until drive(s) spin up when entering the library. ONLY the drive(s) that pertain to the (7) titles that are displayed (not simply what is focused) in the horizontal view. Which ever drives pertaining to those titles are now spinning. Now I can navigate. I continue scrolling one by one until I come upon a title that lives in a drive that is NOT spinning yet. Kodi/Titan stall and I can hear the drive starting to spin up. Once it has, I can continue navigating until I come upon ANOTHER title that lives on a drive that has NOT spun up yet, and so on and so forth.

Something is wrong with the cache procedure and reasoning in Titan that is not a problem using Estuary. It is skin specific.
I would not rule out my hardware although I don't see how that could come into play?
No one else has tested and then confirmed or denied.

I immediately switched to Titan and repeated the test. Pressing down and scrolling continuously, crashes Kodi. Scrolling one by one, I can browse the library. But, I have to wait until drive(s) spin up when entering the library. ONLY the drive(s) that pertain to the (7) titles that are displayed (not simply what is focused) in the horizontal view. Which ever drives pertaining to those titles are now spinning. Now I can navigate. I continue scrolling one by one until I come upon a title that lives in a drive that is NOT spinning yet. Kodi/Titan stall and I can hear the drive starting to spin up. Once it has, I can

OK, I did some testing on my end. Started Process Monitor with a few filters to check for file access on my media NAS.
With extrafanart enabled I immediately saw disk access for the extrafanart images. Disabled it. After that really no files were accessed while scrolling though the list.

Maybe you can do the same test on your setup to determine which files are accessed ?
Also, please double check that you really disabled extrafanart. Í'd also like to know which view you use for the library.

BTW: I'd like to mention that even if we can trace the source why it's accessing your disk you will never ever get this perfect.
Like member @oattes said too, Kodi will do a head checkup every now and than to your images, I believe in fact it does that every 48 hours.
So your disk will have to spin up every once in a while because the etxture cache checks if the image didn't change in the meanwhile.

Also for the sake of completeness I want to point out that spinning your disks down and up is very bad for your disks.
If it happens once a day, OK but multiple times will wear out your disks.

Best case scenario will discover what it is accessing and prevent that from slowing down the UI.

With extrafanart enabled I immediately saw disk access for the extrafanart images. Disabled it. After that really no files were accessed while scrolling though the list.
Maybe you can do the same test on your setup to determine which files are accessed ?
Also, please double check that you really disabled extrafanart.

I don't use extrafanart. I use a poster and a logo. I've already uplinked my settings to you. Show fanart background is DISABLED in Titan settings as are many other settings related to artworks.

Í'd also like to know which view you use for the library.

As I stated, Horizontal Panel (52). EVERY other view is disabled in settings.

BTW: I'd like to mention that even if we can trace the source why it's accessing your disk you will never ever get this perfect.
Like member @oattes said too, Kodi will do a head checkup every now and than to your images, I believe in fact it does that every 48 hours.
So your disk will have to spin up every once in a while because the etxture cache checks if the image didn't change in the meanwhile.

I can get it perfect if I use the default Kodi skin. This problem doesn't exist when testing with that but I prefer this one. It's going to become a deal breaker as it shortens the life of my HDD's though and I'd rather help you help me because I really like this skin and you maintain it well. I don't mind the drives spinning up once every 48 hours doing a cache vs folder confirmation. The problem is spinning them up every library browse.

Also for the sake of completeness I want to point out that spinning your disks down and up is very bad for your disks.
If it happens once a day, OK but multiple times will wear out your disks.

Exactly the reason I'd like to help diagnose and repair with you, per your request.
If this is no longer viable, I understand.

Anyway, here is process info you requested. I don't use Sysinternal or any of those 3rd party software. I just use windows built in. Here is what is triggering extra HDD's.

Logo.png $MFT NTFS Master file table
System volume information\EfaSIDat\SYMEFA.db
Poster.gif (.gifs are no longer in userdata folder animatedgifs. I remember you said you moved them but this problem existed when they used to be located there too. Maybe gifs themselves are the underlying problem? I disabled Prefer Animated Poster if available. That setting only disables gifs pulled in from the database, where ever that is. CUSTOM gifs I have manually added (because they are not in the database, although I submitted them to someone who said they maintained it and would add them) reside in the title folders with all the artwork. THESE are spinning up drive(s) to access.

Hmmmm, I am getting somewhere now. I added CUSTOM gifs to Kodi\userdata\addon_data\script.module.metadatautils and to Kodi\userdata\addon_data\script.module.skin.helper.artutils. This is no longer accessing HDD's. Fixed now, sort of. That one is my own fault and anyone else doing the same.
*EDIT*
A day has went by and now HDD's are being called for gifs again. I'm lost at this point. I do know it is accessing drives for animated poster .gifs and nothing else because logo is disabled in skin. With logo enabled, it too accesses drives.

logo.png is the only problem now. This is still being accessed from HDD's.
If I disable Show Clear Logo if available top center, logo.png is no longer accessed and all is well. I have custom logo but nothing custom being accessed. These are in database scraper.
I would like to use logo and clearlogo if possible but will turn off for now. Maybe you can help with this and check skin code? I don't think it's me? Thank you for the hints. Happy!

First of all this is a beautiful skin and I love how versatile it is. Everything is perfect except I am getting a crash every time I try to browse my movies. The movie artwork starts disappearing almost like the skin can't keep up. Sometimes an error message pops up like this.



I can browse the TV shows and music ok. The crash only happens in movies. I can browse my movies in Estuary without it crashing. I have run out of ideas on how to fix it and was hoping I could find an answer here

Here is the LOG

You are not alone. Trying to diagnose as time permits.