[samplerico]

Hi, I have movies spreaded along several discs in my LAN (i have MySQL server for kodi), and every time i look into the movie collection in kodi, all the HDD's in my LAN's PCs suddenly starts spinning up, really annoying.

Heres the log after launching kodi and going to movie collection:

https://pastebin.com/rQQVrVvk

I have some addons, but nothing really crazy. Whats happening? is this normal kodi behaviour? if thats the case, this is really wrong.

I have all my thumbnails locally in each PC in C:\ SSD's and all movie data in my server SSD MySQL database, this shouldn't happen, i mean why kodi need to start spinning up all HDDs when only the movie collection is in display? ther not even a playback running.

[Karellen]

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=329895

[Karellen]

Here are a few images Kodi is looking for in your setup...

cpp:
07:40:13.338 T:6356   DEBUG: CTextureCacheJob::GetImageHash - unable to stat url smb://192.168.1.101/Multimedia 5/Musica/Compressed/Javier Krahe/Surtido Selecto  [2000]/Javier Krahe - Surtido selecto-CD2/20-Agua, ajo y resina.mp3

07:39:59.908 T:7420   DEBUG: CTextureCacheJob::GetImageHash - unable to stat url smb://192.168.1.102/Series M/The Pacific/fanart.jpg

07:40:00.656 T:7420   DEBUG: CTextureCacheJob::GetImageHash - unable to stat url smb://192.168.1.102/Peliculas M/Dersu Uzala [Akira Kurosawa] [Spanish] by GaTo-poster.jpg

[samplerico]

Thank you for the quick answer.

I have read the post you linked but it doesn't seem to give any solution i am right? Why kodi looks for fanarts stored on the drives? (yes, i have nfo and jpg's too in movie folders), if i have all my thumbnails locally on kodi userdata folder? I am using Titan Skin, but i dont recall enabling extra fanart settings. I actually never do that.

The three examples from my log are one from music folder i don't use it anymore on kodi. I tried once to use kodi as my music library too, but it didn't worked for me so i deleted my kodi library music, kodi shouldn't be looking in that folder. And the other two are from an external USB HDD i sometimes have connected to my 192.168.1.102 PC but is 99% of the time off pluged, so kodi shouldn't be looking there neither. Thers is absolute no need for kodi to do that, and is driving me nuts. I have several big NAS drives they are geting louder and louder, and they are being wearing for no reason, when tey could easily be 90% not spinning at all.

Is there anything i can do to stop kodi look for data and fanart in my drives?

[Klojum]

Simply deleting your music library will not auto-remove all the cached objects in the local Textures13.db database. I'm guessing the contents of that database is still checked with the external locations every so often. Textures13.db holds links for both video and music databases.

One solution would be to do a spring cleaning, and do a full Video Library Export (using separate nfo files, don't forget to enable watched status and/or resume points), delete the current Textures13.db, the Thumbnails folder as well as the video database, restart Kodi and rescrape your video collection. And thus removing all redundant data/thumbs/cache.

Your NAS devices getting louder is not a Kodi problem IMO. HDD drives themselves tend to get louder as they get older and fuller, the same applies to the fan(s) in the NAS devices which also pick up dust.

[mikeSiLVO]

This is very confusing to me...

I have tried to do my best to provide a skin that does not spin up hard drives as much as possible by using very little add-ons and the ones I do use are "supposed" to avoid this issue. I consider myself to have a "large?" collection and I use any of the tools, I believe to be, available to me like the Texture Cache Maintenance Utility which I use on at least a monthly basis to presumably avoid this from happening.

Has all of that been for naught?

I feel like this is part of a larger issue that I just do not know how to assist with. I use Kodi everyday and I add new library content on at least a bi-weekly basis. I also want to help the developers as much as I can but have no damn idea how best do that.

I do not want this to be considered a rant or anything negative so I will just continue and see where I end up...

I try to use the latest nightlies for Windows. I know that this may be an issue since it "appears", could and am often wrong, Linux is the the tried and true basis for most things?

I accept that and am not complaining in the slightest. I just want to know where in the forum to post about any of this?

As an example, the latest Leia nightlie "KodiSetup-20180505-249cea99-master-x64.exe" which, for me, does not adjust display refresh rate to 23.976.

Where should I post about that?

Windows general support? Not really general if I were to guess since I am using a development version of Kodi. Am I being a doofus thinking like that?

What about Video support? I am using a development version. Would that be video support if I am not using the latest recommended stable version? There is no video support in the development section.

What about VideoPlayer Development? I am not sure if that is relegated to just those that understand the complexities of that, I am not as smart as FernetMenta.

I am willing to help and provide logs, screenshots, whatever a developer may need that I can "reasonably" provide to them.

Where do I post?

I know that the recent PR from afedchin which from somebody like myself, who knows nothing, would assume the culprit was due to KodiSetup-20180505-249cea99-master-x64.exe is not the cause but I don't know which is. I do know that KodiSetup-20180501-3a989eee-master-x64.exe is working.

I would like to know if I am expected to test all those in between and if that is the case where the fuck should I post it to be the most helpful?

I assume, perhaps wrongly, that somebody wants to know what I know but I don't want to waste anyone's time saying that I know this when it doesn't matter cause of... Whatever the case may be.

I would really like to know how best to help. I again assume that if I am using nightlies someone would want to hear me before the code changed too much and it would be harder to track down the cause. Is that thinking wrong?

Where is my input wanted in the grand scheme of things?

Again it all comes down to what you expect from us vs what we "should" expect from you. Please tell me where should I post?

Thanks.

[brazen1]

I've brought this how to stop HDD spin-up since it's already cached problem up a few times over the years and got no where really.  I was told to never let my HDD's spin down which I thought was ridiculous personally.  I think the drives always spin-up because KODI wants to check if anything has changed in the cache even if it doesn't need to actually be read and accessed by the user.  This involves reading the cache for each title.  Although the cache files are in one location, the actual data cached is spread throughout the drives.  Only when a title is in focus in the library does this cache double checking take place.  This means as soon as you enter the library, at least one HDD has to spin-up for the title in focus.  Nothing but a stall happens in the library until this drive spins-up.  You cannot navigate anywhere until it does.  Perhaps the next 10 titles are coincidently on the same HDD and navigating them is a breeze.  Then you focus on a title that is on another HDD and everything freezes again until that drive spins-up. 

I have (11) local HDD's dedicated to the data associated with KODI and KODI alone.  This includes all artwork residing in each folder for each title.  My data never changes.  Why KODI needs to check that, I don't know?  Why KODI waits to check that only until a title is in focus, I don't know?  God forbid I pause on a title to watch a trailer or read an actor bios.  With 11 drives set to spin-down after 10 minutes of inactivity, by the time I have browsed my library half way, drives start to spin-down.  As I proceed browsing, drives need to once again spin-up while everything is frozen until it does just so I can resume again.  I don't think a drive should need to spin-up unless I need to read something that isn't cached.  The only thing that isn't is the actual video title.  I could understand the 'who cares' attitude or the 'just make sure drives never spin-down' for users with one or two drives.  But when you have 11, the entire experience is soured.  With guests, I find myself constantly apologizing for the delays.  In my own mind, I know how much I have invested in time and money perfecting my home theatre just to be brought to its knees by this cruel little problem.

It seems to me a cache basically duplicates and consolidates data into one location for easy retrieval.  That this cache is always accessible and runs in the background.  That the cache is defeating its purpose by needing to double check itself against the live actual data.  If the point of a cache is to bypass the need to check the live data, KODI is failing in this regard.  There might as well not be a cache if it's going to check the actual live data where it lives anyway creating two functions doing the same exact thing.  I don't think there is a 24 hour cache check.  I spin-up a disc to let the cache check itself against the actual live data it is caching.  That disc spins down in 10 minutes.  Once it has, if I browse back to the title it just got done checking 10 minutes ago, I have to wait for.... you guessed it.... the disc to spin-up again just in case there might have been any changes since the last time it was spinning.

If I was a cache, I'd assume all is well and I don't need to constantly double check myself.  I'd reserve that double checking only when the user needed the drive(s) to be read for a title since it isn't cached.  Everything else associated with it like artwork could then be evaluated along with all the other cached titles on that same drive allowing the rest of the drives to remain spun-down.

Lastly, I use the update library function every time KODI starts.  This involves waiting for any changes like if a title has been added or removed.  I don't mind waiting as all the drives spin-up and the last run of KODI is checked against its present state.  This also includes artworkdownloader to initiate in the event a new title was added and lets artwork scrape.  I can hear the drives spin-up one by one, all 11 and the pause in-between as each is analyzed.  Why this can't be done simultaneously, I don't know?  This alone takes about 10 minutes until KODI is finished looking around for any changes whether there is any or not.  By the time that function is finished, it's time to access the library.  Of course 10 minutes has went by and the first drive that was checked has just spun down so guess what I get to do?  Practice thumb twiddling while I wait for it spin-up.  And that's not all.  I get to wait for the cache to double check again just in case there were any changes since the last time it was spun-up.

[samplerico]

Simply deleting your music library will not auto-remove all the cached objects in the local Textures13.db database. I'm guessing the contents of that database is still checked with the external locations every so often. Textures13.db holds links for both video and music databases.

One solution would be to do a spring cleaning, and do a full Video Library Export (using separate nfo files, don't forget to enable watched status and/or resume points), delete the current Textures13.db, the Thumbnails folder as well as the video database, restart Kodi and rescrape your video collection. And thus removing all redundant data/thumbs/cache.

Your NAS devices getting louder is not a Kodi problem IMO. HDD drives themselves tend to get louder as they get older and fuller, the same applies to the fan(s) in the NAS devices which also pick up dust.

Is this really a solution? i mean what happens if i move or delete a source? i have to redo all the rescrape again? it doesn't look like a solution, specially since i have a very dinamyc local network, with USB HDD's, notebooks constantly moving and whatnot. And it isn't a solution specially because two of the examples posted by Karellen are not from ghost sources or anything are just disconnected USB HDD's... so you are telling me every time i disconnect my USB drive i have to rescrape my entire library to clean those "ghost" fanarts kodi is unnecesary looking for? what? where is the logic here?

And why kodi needs to read constantly from the drives data anyway? it make no sense. Its a design problem in my opinion, i have seen several threads about this already and it doesn't seem to be a solution. It is really sad, i was already looking to implement other multimedia backends like emby because kodi already has problems with server-client infrastructure. I guess i'll have to look away form kodi. Having constantly all my drives spinning only when i am navigating the movie collection seems a bit too much for me.

And yes, obviously Kodi isn't the direct cause of my drives noise, but HDD's wearing out and making more noise everytime it is caused in part by software pushing too much those drives. I mostly exclusively use my server to store and access kodi data, so as i said before, my server drives are almost 99% of the time idle, not used at all, by anything. They shouldn't be that noisy and that weary already. So yes, kodi is, imo, wearing out my drives, and its really really really bad, specially because is totally unnecesary.

[fullsun]

Maybe with a .nfo? tmm  do a good job for that.  Do you have tried to use a distant bdd in the same hdd than your movies?

[samplerico]

Maybe with a .nfo? tmm  do a good job for that.  Do you have tried to use a distant bdd in the same hdd than your movies?

 I don't know what you mean. i don't know what is tmm and distant bdd.

[Karellen]

@fullsun

No, that will make no difference at all. The NFO is simply another way to populate the library like online scraping. Once populated, Kodi doesn't care where the data came from.

[fullsun]

I don't need to be connected for scraping. On my side it's more fast if I need to rebuild the library.

[Warner306]

@mikeSiLVO,

I would post in Video Support for your display refresh rate issue. It doesn't hurt to start a new thread here, too. The person you want to reach is afedchin (you can track his commits here), the one and only Windows developer. He stops by this thread occasionally, but there is no telling when he will show up next. Other Team Kodi members are in this forum more often. Logging a bug in Video Support would make the most sense.

I still visit your skin thread from time to time. I remember we both started doing skin mods for Aeon Nox 5 at the same time, and now you have developed your own skin into something full-featured and fully-customizable. It is not just a good skin; it is excellent. I still haven't encountered a better skin in Kodi. Your ability to master skinning in a short amount of time is very impressive. Kudos to your support of Kodi and other users such as me. I appreciate your work every time I use Kodi.

[mikeSiLVO]

@Warner306 Wow man, thank you! I really, truly, appreciate that