[Plutoschaf]

Hello everyone,

I am currently updating my music artwork to high quality images.

My folder structure: artist > album > track.

I am following the wiki page for music artwork on this. I name my artist artwork folder.jpg, my fanart fanart.jpg and my album art cover.jpg. According to the wiki the album art may also be named folder.jpg but I want to be able to distinguishe the types of artwork images simply by filename.
I noticed that exporting my library (using Settings/Media/Library/Music Library/Export library) puts a duplicate of my cover.jpg into my album folders naming it folder.jpg. This not only contratdicts my wish for simple distinguishability but it is also a considerable amount of wasted storage space.

I couldn't find anything on the previously mentioned wiki page to change this behaviour of Kodi (e.g. using the advancedsettings.xml) and also a web and forum search didn't get me any closer to solve my dilemma. The wiki page only states that Kodi uses cover.jpg or folder.jpg.

So here is my question:
Is it possible to define the actually chosen naming convention for album art used during a library export?
If yes, how?
If no, why is the wiki so unspecific on that topic and why are two possible ways described but no way to chose either of them?

My specifications:
Device running Kodi: Raspberry Pi 3B+
OS: OSMC
Kodi version: 17.6 (compiled April 3, 2018)
Storage: NFS 3 device (QNAP)

[Karellen]

Hello @Plutoschaf

Is it possible to define the actually chosen naming convention for album art used during a library export?

No, not during library export.

If no, why is the wiki so unspecific on that topic and why are two possible ways described but no way to chose either of them?

The wiki page for Music Artwork describes how to get Artwork in Kodi, not how to Export. The reason for two names is old code. Actually there is three, the third being thumb.jpg IIRC. But you make a valid point and I will create a note at the bottom of the table to highlight the exported version of the artwork.

v18 of Kodi is undergoing major overhaul of the Music Library. One topic that has been called into question is the name of each piece of artwork. Thread can be found here... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=331822 There are also many other threads in the Music forum that also discuss the issue. A quick scroll through the thread list will find them

If you are just now building your Music Library and intend to upgrade to v18, it would be prudent to make allowance for the upcoming changes. The most significant change is the separation of Artist info and artwork from the album library. This thread covers many of the changes... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=331822

[Plutoschaf]

@Karellen 

I think the second link you wanted to post was this: 331274 (thread)?!

I will have a deeper look at both and come back here later. This might take some days since I will be on vacation for one week from thursday on.

[Karellen]

ah, posted the same link twice. I meant to post this one for an overall view of changes... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=310778

Sure, take your time, no hurry.

[scott967]

Keep in mind that for scanning, advancedsettings (wiki) <musicthumbs> allows you to remove folder.jpg as a source for artist and album thumb, and you could then add cover.jpg and thumb.jpg, but then Kodi will treat either of those files as the art type of "thumb" and you have no control on the export filename of the thumb.

For Kodi 18 you can specify cover as an extended art type, but to use that as an album thumb would require skin support.

scott s.
.

[DaveBlake]

Is it possible to define the actually chosen naming convention for album art used during a library export?

No it is not.

Historically the filename automatically fetched as a "thumb" for all media can be configured in advancedsettings.xml to be a number of different names. By default it is any of folder.jpg|Folder.jpg|folder.JPG|Folder.JPG|cover.jpg|Cover.jpg|cover.jpeg|thumb.jpg|Thumb.jpg|thumb.JPG|Thumb.JPG
and users can add names to or remove names from that list.

Note that album cover can also be scraped and the name of the remote files can be very varied.

For consistency the thumb (for albums the cover), regardless of the name of the oroiginal image file,   is always exported as "folder.jpg". It is also exported in the resolution that Kodi cached and uses it, which could be less than the original image file.

EDIT:
Export in v18 does allow you to choose the location of the exported nfo and art files (away from the music files), or to only export art or NFO. This flexibility may help you.

[Plutoschaf]

If you are just now building your Music Library and intend to upgrade to v18, it would be prudent to make allowance for the upcoming changes. The most significant change is the separation of Artist info and artwork from the album library. This thread covers many of the changes... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=331822 

So if I understand everything correctly what you suggest is

• to build up an Artist Information Folder containing one folder per artist each containing the artist nfo file as well as any artist thumbs, fanarts etc. instead of saving them alongside the actual music
  
• use the accepted file naming conventions mentioned in your tables from 331822 (thread)
  
• kepp album artwork within the respective album folder containing the actual music
  

I wonder how do I stay compatible to Kodi 17 if I build up that Artist Information Folder do I need to keep the same files alongside the music until updated to a stable Kodi 18 release?

[Karellen]

Hello @Plutoschaf

I am slowly upgrading my music library to become compatible with v18. Fortunately I am using Windows, so that allows me to install multiple versions of Kodi using Portable Mode. So this is what I have done...

1. First I exported my Music Library to Separate Files using the Export function in v17.6 ... https://kodi.wiki/view/Import-export_library
   
2. Installed v18 and scanned and scraped the Music Library which allowed me to get as much available metadata as possible. This is the same music files being used by v17
   
3. I then set the directory where my Artist Information folder was to be saved. Keep this separate from your song files. See the first image below (my music files are in f:\Music\FLAC)
   
4. I then ran the Export Music Library function and set it up as shown in the next image. This will create the Artist folders for you. So that will save you a bit of work. And if the artist has additional information in v17, then it will be exported here into NFO Files. See the second image below
   
5. Now it will be easier to fill in the gaps in Artist information and artwork. (which was not available to do in v17 and earlier)
   

Notes:
1. It is best if you let Kodi create the Artist Information Folders so the names are correct. There is always a risk of bad naming, such as Beach Boys and The Beach Boys

to build up an Artist Information Folder containing one folder per artist each containing the artist nfo file as well as any artist thumbs, fanarts etc. instead of saving them alongside the actual music

Yes

use the accepted file naming conventions mentioned in your tables from https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=331822

Yes. The table is still a work in progress, but those in the Accepted column are safe to use

kepp album artwork within the respective album folder containing the actual music

Yes

I wonder how do I stay compatible to Kodi 17 if I build up that Artist Information Folder do I need to keep the same files alongside the music until updated to a stable Kodi 18 release?

The Artist Information Folder is separate to the Music files, so it won't interfere at all with v17.

As for the Album folders, nothing should change, except maybe cdArt which is renamed to Discart (yet to be confirmed). So it should all be pretty safe to keep side by side. The NFO's don't change either.

Hope that helps. I am sure if I got something wrong, others will point it out to you.