[PatK]

Let's see if I can make some headway in this .nfo issue.

-The scraper default set within Kodi scrapes from the chosen meta-database, creates the .nfo and grabs some artwork.

-The scraper choice can changed with or without a total rescrape (on the individual movie folder or general folder level) and the existing .nfo overwritten (leaving different .nfo format/changes, depending on the meta-database)

-The scrapers have been having a few issues of late, and some hiccups that require multiple hits at the rescan (seems to be timeouts) leaving unformed meta-data, or missing key items. (key here is to monitor these scrapes).

-Changes within Kodi and meta-data, artwork have created some incongruities with some older .nfo which have made refreshing library entries important comeing from legacy iterations.  Scanning locally should eliminate any access to the web, and rely only on meta-data within the movies folder. But if the .nfos have been made with various 3rd party, or different scrapers, then that's the scrape you will get, some of which may be incomplete.

-If scanning with a chosen scraper, and the expecation is to use local information only; and Kodi finds missing any meta-data, it will pull from the web and overwrite the exisiting.

-Ember has had issues in the past with malformed or incompatable .nfo, although I have used it and it seem to work well until I found some corruption. I swtiched to TMM and only use it on a single folder basis and found it's quick and clean.  TMM once you pull in your source, TMM doesn't make changes, but it's easy to see what you're missing and the links, editing and correcting can be done manully and on a single file basis.

Perhasp in this, you could find a solution, but I certainly wouldn't disregard ' [b]Karellen[/b]  offer, he has a good eye and don't ignore PH-SYM point about crossover sources.

[Karellen]

@gcdlz

Thanks for the files. I loaded your databases in my Kodi and could see the mixed episodes.

It all comes down to your NFO Files. They are outdated, which is curious as you have tv shows from 2018 that uses these same outdated nfo files. Are you using a current version of Ember?

The nfo files have outdated tags and missing tags. Not all tags are required, but there are a few critical tags that must be included. You are missing these tags...

cpp:
    <id></id>

    <uniqueid type="imdb"></uniqueid>

    <uniqueid type="tvdb" default="true"></uniqueid>

These tags are used to set a UniqueID in the TV Show database.

Of course, I could only judge this on the single tvshow.nfo file you sent me. But looking at the database I could clearly see which tv shows are affected. The following image is a snapshot of your database sorted by column C12. You will note the -1 entry. I can guarantee they are the shows that are problematic for you, and if you check the tvshow.nfo for each of those tv shows, they will be missing the above tags.




Perform a Fresh Start by removing your Roaming\Kodi folder. Remove your NFO Files and allow Kodi to scrape those shows from the Online sources. If you are not keen on doing that, then manually add in those tags with the correct data.

[gcdlz]

Thanks for your help...I will be implementing your suggestion.

[Karellen]

In case you are curious, this is what the proper Kodi generated tvshow.nfo file for Boardwalk Empire should look like... https://pastebin.com/Xa8Kf8CP

And this is S01E01... https://pastebin.com/Hypc1Rzv

You can just copy that and paste it into your NFO Files there, and one less show to fix.

[gcdlz]

In case you are curious, this is what the proper Kodi generated tvshow.nfo file for Boardwalk Empire should look like... https://pastebin.com/Xa8Kf8CP

And this is S01E01... https://pastebin.com/Hypc1Rzv

You can just copy that and paste it into your NFO Files there, and one less show to fix.

Thank you, I was going to ask, but felt you had done enough already.
Really appreciate you help.

[yellow1144]

I had this maddening problem and couldn't really find a complete solution. This thread is the closest I came. So I'll just post my solution, maybe it'll help someone else.

I had a couple of dozen series disappear from my list and their episodes would show up mixed with other shows. Always with shows that had multiple seasons, never with shows that had a single season. Not sure why. I tried removing and re-adding the sources then different shows would disappear into others. I tried removing the show that contained both series to see if they would unmix and again, they would just disappear into others. It was playing whack-a-mole. There seemed to be no pattern to it.

I have been using Kodi since XBMC Eden (Currently using Krypton). I knew with each new version Kodi's database would change. So every couple of versions I would just remove and re-add the sources thinking it would update it's database to what was needed, and it did I suppose but it didn't change the tvshow.nfo files in my library and I had no idea this was as important as it is.

Karellan's post above gave me a clue. I never thought to look at my tvshow.nfo files. I looked and none of them contained the Uniqueid data. I tried editing a couple of the nfo's in the problematic shows and updating the library to see if it would effect the shows in question and it didn't seem to. Maybe it needed a different kind of update, I'm not sure. Damned if I was going to manually edit all those files. I wrote a script that renamed all of them to back them up so I could try to generate new ones.

I started experimenting with different media managers to see if they would generate the proper NFO files. I couldn't use Ember as I am on Linux and it doesn't work under Wine, but I tried Tiny Media Manager and MediaElch and neither of them created tvshow.nfo files that were valid, ie. contained the uniqueid tags. All my shows are added by and managed by SickRage. (Using Medusa now as Sickrage is dead). That app didn't create the proper NFO data either.

At this point I removed the sources from Kodi and re-added them again, seeing if Kodi would reconstruct the nfos properly. It didn't! I was surprised.

I finally figured out that to get Kodi to create proper tvshow.nfo files in the series folders, you need to export the library.

In Kodi go to Settings>Media>Library. under Video Library select Export Library. Select Export to Separate Files. You will then see a series of prompts. I just wanted new NFO files so I said no to export each of "Thmbnails and fanart" as well as "Actor Thumbs. Then say YES to ovewrwrite old files. (https://kodi.wiki/view/Import-export_library) After this all tvshow.nfo files were finally correct.

So finally I get to the point. If you are having this problem, try the above first and it should fix it. It worked for me. It has been a while since I did this but I am not sure if the shows will straighten themselves out after the export, followed by doing a Clean Library then an Update Library, or if you need to remove the sources then add them again. Try the latter and see.