[EwenH]

Dear Kodi Forum

I have a NAS device at home with all of my movies sorted into a directory structure.. i.e.

G://Movies/Blockbusters/Action
G://Movies/Blockbusters/Animated
G://Movies/Blockbusters/Brit Flix
etc.
etc.

I have found some good images that I want to place in each directory, so that when we are accessing the library of movies using KODI from the NAS device (and using the View: Thumbnail option), there are some nice/cool images instead of the 'std file' graphic which is what you see if there are no 'folder.jpg' or 'directory name.jpg' files.

My problem is that when you copy an image into the correct directory - with the right name i.e. 'folder.jpg' which we will use for this explanation, it seems to pick up this image the first time, however, if you want to change the image, it does not seem to work. i.e. Lets say I used an image of Tarzan and renamed it folder.jpg and placed it in the Animated directory, it would display the Tarzan image - however, if I wanted to change the image and use one of say Rango, it would still show the first image of Tarzan (NB: even though i have made a file called folder.jpg and placed it in the Animated directory overwriting the Tarzan one)...

This does not make sense to me and the only possible solution is that Kodi must cache the first image it finds in a directory and use that.

Has anyone experienced this before and is there a way to do this properly, or flush out the cache Kodi is using so when it relooks at a directory it picks up the latest folder.jpg file??

Many thanks in advance.
Ewen

[PatK]

I guess you are using 'file mode' most of the time to browse. 'folder.jpg' is an older XBMC format name which has been replaced by 'poster.jpg' in Kodi artwork (wiki) and I would recommend you start to use that naming convention, it should work the same way.

If all your folders/directories are added as sources, some skins will give you options to change the source icons. It's when you get sub folders within sources that you have the issues you are talking about, and indeed I have run into this as well. Key here is to pick a good image to start with..and install it before a default image is placed by the system. To change it, is the laborious, rename the sub folder, clean, re-scan as new with new image etc. The logic to all of this, is that Kodi only see's folders/directories with videos inside not folders.

If everything is defined as a direct source, with no sub directories there is no issue. There's plenty of work rounds to this, but key is to remember that file mode really should be called maintenance mode, although most of the library features are available. I've gravitated towards smartplaylists, tabs, nodes, and super favourites to browse my collection, just plain easier in the long run

BTW: just noticed first post! Welcome to the forums, hope you will become a regular.

[EwenH]

Hi PatK

Thanks for your response and suggestions to try - which I have done and is noted below..

Firstly I renamed the folder.jpg files to poster.jpg and Kodi picked up the original image and so this made no difference.
Secondly I renamed one of the sub folders on my NAS device (where I knew I was seeing the wrong image) to force Kodi to rescan the image and it picked up the new poster.jpg image fine - so great this works.
However, I then renamed the sub folder on my NAS drive back to what it was and it picks up the old image again - so still not a solution to my problem.

I guess like I suggested in yesterday's post that Kodi must cache these images somewhere - and so when it opens the sub folder, it does not go and look at what the content of the folder.jpg/poster.jpg is.

So my questions now are;

1) You mention in your response 'rename the sub folder, clean, re-scan as new with new image' - how do you 'clean' the system
2) Is there any global method of clearing the cache that Kodi keeps of the sub folder images?
3) Is there a better way to structure my media library which gets around this? Currently I have the structure as below and a whole bunch of sub folders for the various movies under each Genre.

G://Movies/Blockbusters/Action
G://Movies/Blockbusters/Animated
G://Movies/Blockbusters/Brit Flix
etc.
etc.

This structure is very easy to manage on my NAS device as I can quickly select where a movie should be stored and all of its files and meta data. When I add Videos to Kodi, I simply add the 'Blockbusters' folder from my NAS drive and Kodi does the rest. As I have about 30 Genres and we have 5 or 6 machines we use to watch movies, I want to make the setup as easy as possible and not have to go and add 30 subfolders on each device. The rest of the library is very good and Kodi picks up the images of each film and any other information I have in the Subfolder for that film. It is only the folder for each Genre type that is causing the problem.

Many thanks in advance
Ewen

[PatK]

As mentioned previously you are using 'file maintenance mode' to access your files instead of utilizing the Kodi library.

There's more than one way to structure a collection, and for local small libraries, you set the source e.g. drive G:movies and Kodi scan the entire folder and add it to your library (some skins allow for the source icon to be changed). At this point if you have another drive, you can either add it to the existing source or make it another source altogether, each with it's own icon.
e.g.
I personally have over 30 sources (genre, custom, and whatever) and keeping the collection this way eliminates sub folders/directories and each source could have it's own scraper and settings.

So in your example:

this would be a single source G://Movies/Blockbusters/Action
this would be a single source G://Movies/Blockbusters/Animated
this would be a single source G://Movies/Blockbusters/Brit Flix

There's nothing wrong with sub folders, but then you have to ensure the poster.jpg in the root of that folder is what you want. Clear as mud... yup, you can always put a suggestion into 'feature Requests'. This system or order of adding to the library is quite similar to what you have been using but with the exception of multiple sources.

Settings>Video>Library>Clean Library will clean out old paths that do not have a video in them, but do nothing for the sub folder images other than to eliminate them if the folder/directory doesn't exist, which is the solution to your dilemma, then re-scan as a new source with the correct poster.jpg in the root of that folder.

A library update will scan all the sources for new content (unless specifically tagged not to in the sources settings), subsequently a library clean will be system wide, ensure all sources are online.

[EwenH]

Hi and thanks for the feedback. I will try adding the different Genres as different sources and see how I get on.

I had trouble fining the Clean Library option - which is hidden on the second page and so going to give that a go as well just in case I want to stick to my original file structure.

Many thanks
Ewen

[PatK]

Clean Library should be a regular exercise. They've made it slightly more difficult to use after complaints the library was wiped when their NAS or drive wasn't online. In subsequent Kodi versions, this has been fixed and you now get a warning for sources that are not available.