[kallikles]

Apologies if the question is trivial---I am new to Kodi and could not find an answer on the Wiki or online, perhaps because I am not framing it correctly.

Problem:
Some of the movies on my server are not being picked up by Kodi---most likely because the files' and/or folders' names do not respect the conventions outlined in the documentation.
I can see the files' names being processed by Kodi, but the movies do not end up in the resulting list and are in fact invisible to the user after the scanning.

Question:
As I would rather not change the filenames of these movies (for a number of reasons), is there any way to have direct access to the files, with a file browser-like interface, for instance, and simply ask Kodi to play them without bothering to add them to the database, scraping metadata, etc?
Other HTPC systems offer this option out of the box. For instance, I have an old WD TV Live box that allows me to see the file system structure and pick any file. It will then play those for which it has the right codecs.

I could not find any way of doing this in Kodi. Perhaps a kind soul has written an addon to this purpose?

Thanks for the help

[trogggy]

Just look in videos > files for the file and play from there.

[kallikles]

Thanks, I found it.
I guess my confusion derived from the fact that the list of titles and the list of files are almost indistinguishable from the interface, at least in the default skin.
But now that I have the correct command path, it seems rather obvious.

Thanks again

[Karellen]

If you want those videos in the library, consider using NFO (wiki) files. Click the link for the instructions

---Edit---
Thanks @DJ_Izumi

[DJ_Izumi]

If you want those videos in the library, consider using NFO_Files (wiki) Click the link for the instructions

Ahem; http://kodi.wiki/view/Nfo

[smitchell6879]

now that you found how to browse to the files through the kodi file system you can always press 'i' on the keyboard which will cause it to start a search in which time you can manually tell kodi what to search for once it has found it will be added to your library as the correct name without changing the name at the original location.