[tm22493]

I am having a problem locating certain movie thumbnails I am in users/name/appdata/roaming/kodi/userdata/thumbnails/ However there are a lot of folders within that that include every actor movie thumb and a lot more is there a way to find a single movie thumb without scrolling and looking at every .jpg in those folders?

[PatK]

Scanning the thumbnail folders is not the right approach.

If you run Kodi, you should be able to locate the movie in question, then using the 'C' command, pull the movie information and manipulate the thumbnail through extras to exchange, delete etc.

[tm22493]

Scanning the thumbnail folders is not the right approach.

If you run Kodi, you should be able to locate the movie in question, then using the 'C' command, pull the movie information and manipulate the thumbnail through extras to exchange, delete etc.

Thanks for the reply
I need a bit more clarification on C command I am not very computer savy I think I know what you are telling me what to do just don't know where to locate the movie information. I have done this with my WD Streaming media player through the XML file but that one is easy to find it's always on the drive my movies are on. what I want to do is either change my thumbnails on box sets to show box set and this may require me to take the thumbnail and add words to it Also I have a couple of movies with unusual thumbs that I want to swap out and keep them in the same folder as the other kodi thumbs so they are not scattered. Which brings up another question if I save my library as an XML then someday install kodi will this keep all locations of the thumbs I have added or edited?

[PatK]

With the movie in focus... (the one that is in the center with your pointer over it) hitting the keybaord letter 'C' will bring up the context menu, and one of the choices will be 'information', in that page/window you will see an option for 'extras', within that 'choose art', poster, fanart etc.. pick one, then choose or browse to the image. You will have the same method for sets in the most part. [do not use file mode to change set images, and don't mistake a folder with your choice of films as a 'set'] find the menu item 'sets' and go from there. Artwork (wiki)

If you use the export and import method, they will apply as a back up with path etc. I prefer to use the export to separate files, which places all your meta-data in each folder, with images, then a rescan locally your system back together with a nice fresh build.

HOW-TO:Backup the video library (wiki) Backup (wiki) Import-export library (wiki)

[tm22493]

With the movie in focus... (the one that is in the center with your pointer over it) hitting the keybaord letter 'C' will bring up the context menu, and one of the choices will be 'information', in that page/window you will see an option for 'extras', within that 'choose art', poster, fanart etc.. pick one, then choose or browse to the image. You will have the same method for sets in the most part. [do not use file mode to change set images, and don't mistake a folder with your choice of films as a 'set'] find the menu item 'sets' and go from there. Artwork (wiki)

If you use the export and import method, they will apply as a back up with path etc. I prefer to use the export to separate files, which places all your meta-data in each folder, with images, then a rescan locally your system back together with a nice fresh build.

HOW-TO:Backup the video library (wiki) Backup (wiki) Import-export library (wiki)

Ok I think I kinda get it I have been down that path before in my case it's movie information/Choose Art then I get Poster,fanart, thumbnail and I can choose ones that are already there or I can browse but when I browse like you said it will be a path and if that path is ever removed then I have to find it again correct? with my other media player all the xmls and thumbs were on the very hard drive the movies were on and not path related but title/file related example movietitle.jpg would give you a thumbnail movietitle.xml would give you the movie information as long as it was with the movies at the same level on the hardrive they showed up. pretty sure Kodi does not work like that. So once I do a library export and do seperate files per movie I will have each thumb or poster or fanart located in the same movie folder? So then I could take that movie folder find the thumb I need make changes and the import it back to kodi and I should have the changes I made correct? Or I guess do the browse find my created thumb make a path to it then export the library and pull it from the folder that way also and then when I import it back it will be in with the appdata location? Thank you so much for your help BTW

[PatK]

if that path is ever removed then I have to find it again correct?

Not necessarily, once the images is taken into the library and hashed out to thumbnail folder, it stays linked to that image. For the most part you have the idea, but there is some anomalies, the html URL's inside the .nfo file are pointing at other possible art choices and will eventually be expunged, but the art you have chosen will not disappear, regardless if the art is with the file folder or not. Placing a file called poster.jpg in the folder will show as the cover even prior to a scrape but may be replaced by the scrape, if the art is named movie_name-poster.jpg it will be used as the cover on a scrape. Art in the movie folder is not necessary to the operation of Kodi and showing cover/fanart, it's all picked up and placed in the hashed tables connected to the library. It's just easier to work with the art in separate folders, and makes a convenient back-up.

I know clear as mud, most of this will be second nature over time, check the wiki's for the final word on most of this stuff.

[tm22493]

Ok I took and exported the library into separate files and it took a very long time like 12 hours however it never asked me for a location like when I choose 1 file so where is the separate files located on my PC?

[PatK]

so where is the separate files located on my PC?

They should be right beside the movie in the movie folder (if you have movies in separate folders named as such) Use windows explorer to find one of your movies and look inside. 12 hours seems a little excessive, either the collection is very large, the storage ultra slow or you have an issue that goes beyond this thread. Note once you've done this the first time, subsequent exports will quick when you choose to not write over existing files. Check the wiki links I left.

[tm22493]

so where is the separate files located on my PC?

They should be right beside the movie in the movie folder (if you have movies in separate folders named as such) Use windows explorer to find one of your movies and look inside. 12 hours seems a little excessive, either the collection is very large, the storage ultra slow or you have an issue that goes beyond this thread. Note once you've done this the first time, subsequent exports will quick when you choose to not write over existing files. Check the wiki links I left.

Yes I always check the wiki links don't think I am just wanting your total help and all help is apreciated and I do give back also I became very knowledgeable with the wd media player and helped a lot of people. I really liked the WD but it was nearing it's EOL. PC based is always going to be more broader in functionality and this works much better and has more things to offer. I have close to 3,000 videos on 16tb of hard drives and yes the minute you told me it writes it to the movie location that made sense for some reason it takes a long time to write to my NAS it's an old netgear stora that the structure shows the hardrives as folders in which I like because there was a hardrive limit with the WD of 10. Ok so if I make any changes example Write box set on a thumb will the new changes once they cache show or will I have to export it back into kodi and if I have to export does that mean the whole library I just did export

[PatK]

I guess a slow NAS explains the long time you had exporting. 3K videos is not uncommon, 20k to 50k is uncommon but not unheard of. Your example of box sets is the one anomaly that doesn't fit into the standard information provided. The graphics are easily chosen from the similar set-up offered by Kodi, but they are not saved other than a thumb; atm. You would need some 3rd party software like http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=153502 to handle those.

I briefly owned one of the first gen of the WDTV, and couldn't stand the scanning on start, nor the lack of extras information, but it did work well out of the box. I think you'll find Kodi far out classes the WD in just about every aspect. If you look at sources, you will see the fluidity of Kodi, and how it could accommodate large libraries in a fashion that makes it the software of choice.

[tm22493]

Ok now that I have everything on my source drive I made a change to the info file removed the quotation marks on the "the burbs" and it never changed in kodi do I have to import it back in when I make changes? Still not sure how this all works where is kodi pulling the info for the videos from internet or on my computer in the appdata or the source drive

[skylarking]

Initially, when you scan your sources, the artwork and other meta data is fetched from the www and stored within the Kodi database/userdata.
Subsequently, when you export your library as separate objects, you can choose to save the artwork and actors, etc as separate objects.
These separate objects are stored within your source directories, right next to your media files.
These separate objects include .nfo and various .jpg files and a .actors directory with associated .jpg files within, all next to your movies (.mkv's/.mp4,etc).

However, if there is some .jpg artwork that you deside to edit or some data within the .nfo that you desire to change, outside of Kodi, such changes do not automatically get reflected within the Kodi database.
For such changed to be reflected within Kodi, you must refresh the database.

As far as i have experianced, a rescan will not refresh the changed .jpgs or changed .nfo data as such.
So in these instances where i have edited .nfo's and/or .jpgs outside Kodi, and things don't get refreshed by a rescan, i remove the movie from the database.
I can remove teh movie from the database via right clicking the movie and selecting "manage", then "remove from library".
Note that this does not delete your movie file and it's associated metadata files, it only removes the references within the Kodi database.

Then i rescan my sources and it again finds the movie and my updated metadata files.
And since i have updated .nfo and .jpg files, Kodi fetched this updated metadata in preference to looking on the www.

Maybe there is a better way but i haven't been too fussed to find it.

[PatK]

I made a change to the info file removed the quotation marks on the "the burbs"

If you made the change inside Kodi with the rename command, then the title would changed before your eyes (not the file/folder). But if you used windows explorer to rename the folder/file then Kodi would no longer see the file, and your listing would be a ghost entry, expelled on new cleanup. The newly renamed file would have to be re-scanned and become a new listing.

[tm22493]

I made a change to the info file removed the quotation marks on the "the burbs"

If you made the change inside Kodi with the rename command, then the title would changed before your eyes (not the file/folder). But if you used windows explorer to rename the folder/file then Kodi would no longer see the file, and your listing would be a ghost entry, expelled on new cleanup. The newly renamed file would have to be re-scanned and become a new listing.

Ok so this is the easiest way to change a title the way you explained now when I export it after the changes to the title it will overwrite the older data thats one my source drive? I understand that if I change the filename then yes I loose it all together in the movies section of kodi then I have to rescan the source drive to get it to show.

My second question is when I do it this way put everything on the source drive and in the future change locations like right now it's something like stora/family library/movie1/movie name and if i take that hard drive out and put it with another Nas and now you have WDmybook/library/movie1/moviename then I scan it it will then scrape the info thumbs and everything from the source drive instead of IMDB or whatever I have chosen in the beginning when it asks what content I have? Then obviously I would need to cleanup the library to then remove all the videos from the old location that would not play anyhow cause they are no longer there right?

[PatK]

will overwrite the older data thats one my source drive?

No not quite, when your rename a title (some people like a foreign title replaced, or in your case the "" marks) and Kodi maintains a list of these title changes, and your original library scrape is still used. On the occasion of a mistaken title, I'll often correct it and re-scan/re-scrape, the same if I move the folder to a different source.

I'm always moving sources from one drive to another as the space gets eaten up by the source size as I add files. As long as I've exported my library to separate files, all the meta-data is intact, a local re-scrape with 'local information', is painless... usually seconds. (just remember to put a proper scraper back in after, or you'll be complaining Kodi doesn't scrape anymore

Another way of handling this issue is to create a split source on two different drives e.g Space & SiiFi and put them under one source name. It is important to understand that the path to the video is going to change, and you'll have to scrape again to re-establish a new path (and the easiest way is the export to separate files function), and the clean function will get rid of all the ghost listings if you haven't removed the original source, which should clean if removed. Obviously your NAS path will be quite different from a local drive letter.