Dummies Guide to Extended Artwork doesn't seem to be working for me...
#1
@Karellen

I've followed your Guide at the top, I've created the "Artist Info" folder outside of where my Music files are. I've exported the library, and it created 2000+ folders with the following files in each folder (artist.nfo, fanart.jpg, folder.jpg).

You then say to "Refresh an Artist for additional online information, the NFO File will block the attempt. Delete the NFO File for that Artist, (or all Artists depending on your requirement) to access online scraping." How are you going about "Refreshing Artists to download additional Online Information"?

I've also created the advancedsettings.xml file (just like yours at the bottom), and made changes to the Universal Artist and Album scrapers, yet I don't download any additional Artwork, and neither is the Artist.NFO file contain anything other than the Name of the Group, (Which is weird because the Artist.nfo files I get from using MediaElch have tons of information on the Artist in them).

I see your example of a Music folder with lots of Artwork (banner, fanart, logo, folder, etc), but I believe you say at the very last line of your post that "4. The Universal Artist Scraper does not download extra fanart. The extra fanart must be manually sourced." So did you just copy all those artwork into the folder, or did you use some program to download them for you (ArtworkBeef maybe?).

Also, you list Artist Slideshow add-on, which I'ved used in the past, but when you configure it to use the "Artist Info" folder, it downloads all the extra artwork into the Extrafanart folder folder under each Artist in the "Artist Info" folder. Perhaps you can share you settings with Artist Slideshow to fix this issue.

Thanks for you help with this.
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#2
So here is an example of the "Artist Info" folder, with a artist.nfo file...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<artist>
    <name>Ariana Grande</name>
    <musicBrainzArtistID>f4fdbb4c-e4b7-47a0-b83b-d91bbfcfa387</musicBrainzArtistID>
    <sortname>Grande, Ariana</sortname>
    <type></type>
    <gender></gender>
    <disambiguation></disambiguation>
    <born></born>
    <formed></formed>
    <biography></biography>
    <died></died>
    <disbanded></disbanded>
    <path>smb://kodi:[email protected]/media/Music/Artist Info/Ariana Grande</path>
</artist>

Now, here is the artist.nfo that MediaElch created...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<artist>
    <musicBrainzArtistID>f4fdbb4c-e4b7-47a0-b83b-d91bbfcfa387</musicBrainzArtistID>
    <allmusicid>mn0002264745</allmusicid>
    <name>Ariana Grande</name>
    <genre>Pop</genre>
    <style>Urban/R&amp;B</style>
    <mood>Happy</mood>
    <yearsactive>2010s</yearsactive>
    <formed>1993</formed>
    <biography>Ariana Grande-Butera (born June 26, 1993), known professionally as Ariana Grande, is an American actress and singer. Ariana grew up in Boca Raton, Florida where she attended North Broward Preparatory School. Grande made her acting debut in 2008 in the role of Charlotte in 13 on Broadway. In 2010 Grande played Cat Valentine on the Nickelodeon sitcom Victorious (2010), iCarly (2011) and is reprising the role on the spinoff Sam &amp; Cat (2013).

In March, 2013, Grande released her first song &quot;The Way&quot; from her debut studio album Yours Truly (2013). It became a Top 40 hit.</biography>
    <born>1993</born>
    <died>0</died>
    <disbanded></disbanded>
    <fanart/>
    <album>
        <title>Problem</title>
        <year>2014</year>
    </album>
    <album>
        <title>My Everything</title>
        <year>2014</year>
    </album>
    <album>
        <title>Yours Truly</title>
        <year>2013</year>
    </album>
    <album>
        <title>Last Christmas</title>
        <year>2013</year>
    </album>
    <album>
        <title>Put Your Hearts Up</title>
        <year>2011</year>
    </album>
</artist>

Which would you rather haveHuh

How is the MediaElch getting all that information, yet the Artist Info folder gets almost nothing?
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#3
To clarify, this is still a work in progress and should be considered an experimental feature. I have updated the guide to indicate that. There are some logic problems with the way this works in this early stage.

(2019-03-13, 22:06)Powerhouse Wrote: I've followed your Guide at the top, I've created the "Artist Info" folder outside of where my Music files are. I've exported the library, and it created 2000+ folders with the following files in each folder (artist.nfo, fanart.jpg, folder.jpg).
That is a good start. Seems everything is working at this point. One known bug is that Extended Artwork is not exported. Not sure when a fix will be applied. You can open a bug report if you like.

(2019-03-13, 22:06)Powerhouse Wrote: You then say to "Refresh an Artist for additional online information, the NFO File will block the attempt. Delete the NFO File for that Artist, (or all Artists depending on your requirement) to access online scraping." How are you going about "Refreshing Artists to download additional Online Information"?
Same as in the video library, if you have an NFO file and local artwork, Kodi will always default to them. One of the things missing in Music Library is the "Locally stored information found. Ignore and refresh from the Internet?" option as you have in the Video Library. Currently there is no way to tell Kodi to ignore the NFO File, so you have to delete them if you want to scrape additional information online.

(2019-03-13, 22:06)Powerhouse Wrote: How are you going about "Refreshing Artists to download additional Online Information"?
Go to the Artists folder, delete the NFO File, then in Kodi call up the Information Page for the Artist and select Refresh. Same as refreshing a movie.

(2019-03-13, 22:06)Powerhouse Wrote: I've also created the advancedsettings.xml file (just like yours at the bottom), and made changes to the Universal Artist and Album scrapers, yet I don't download any additional Artwork, and neither is the Artist.NFO file contain anything other than the Name of the Group, (Which is weird because the Artist.nfo files I get from using MediaElch have tons of information on the Artist in them).
Hmmm. Did you fully scrape your library before exporting? If you only scanned the tags, the NFO file will hold the bare minimum of information as all that information is held in the music file tags, so Kodi does not need to duplicate it in the NFO File. To now scrape your artists and albums online for extra information, you need to go to your Artist folder and delete the NFO Files. Same with your Album folders. Then scrape... https://kodi.wiki/view/Scraping_Music#Pe...the_Scrape

(2019-03-13, 22:06)Powerhouse Wrote: The extra fanart must be manually sourced." So did you just copy all those artwork into the folder, or did you use some program to download them for you (ArtworkBeef maybe?).
The extrafanart I personally have has accumulated over the years. All I did was move them out of the extrafanart folder and rename them. I think artwork beef can download extrafanart. Maybe check through its settings page. The other artwork, I have had since v17, so there was nothing extra I had to do. Just a reminder there is a bug/missing feature as described earlier.

Maybe @rmrector can comment on how Artwork Beef can fill in the gaps and I will update the Guide with workarounds for getting the extra art downloaded locally and loaded into Kodi.

(2019-03-13, 22:06)Powerhouse Wrote: Also, you list Artist Slideshow add-on, which I'ved used in the past, but when you configure it to use the "Artist Info" folder, it downloads all the extra artwork into the Extrafanart folder folder under each Artist in the "Artist Info" folder. Perhaps you can share you settings with Artist Slideshow to fix this issue.
I am currently using AeonNox:Silvo and Transparency! and neither use the Artist Slideshow add-on. Check with the skin thread to see how extrafanart is used.

Did I answer everything?
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#4
We cross-posted. I think I have answered your second post anyway.
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#5
You kinda answered my questions, but the basic answer is, that currently in Kodi 18.1 No Extra Artwork will be downloaded, and I'm pretty sure this applies to the artist.nfo file as well. Things I have done...

1. Scraped the Music Library (Query info for all artists), several times actually. I have not removed my Music and re-added it back to Kodi yet (will do that over the weekend) to see if that makes a difference.

2. I've deleted all the .nfo files in the Artist Info folder, multiple times, before running the "Query info for all artists", this didn't make any difference to the Extended Artwork (which we now know is a bug in Kodi 18.1), but it also generated a new artist.nfo file, but it's no different from the first one, that I listed above.

3. I have not tried the Album scraping, but will do that over the weekend as well.


I've also copied over my artist.nfo files (created by MediaElch), as well as all the extended artwork I have, refreshed the library, and none of these changes show up in Kodi (default skin, or AeonMQ8 skin were tested). I will test on some additional skins (Aeon Nox and Transparency!) over the weekend as well.
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#6
Did you scan your music files fresh into the library when you installed v18 or was your v17 library transferred to v18?

If you installed fresh, did you set up the advancedsettings.xml and scraper settings before scanning and scraping your library?

(2019-03-14, 18:03)Powerhouse Wrote: I've also copied over my artist.nfo files (created by MediaElch), as well as all the extended artwork I have, refreshed the library, and none of these changes show up in Kodi
If this is the case, then there is a problem with your setup, or you are using the wrong options.

Can you provide Debug Log which captures you trying to scrape your library for new info, and detail the steps you take to do it. Be accurate when detailing the steps. I am interested in knowing how you "Refreshed" the library as there is no function to do that.
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Links to : HOW-TO:Create Music Library (wiki) | HOW-TO:Create_Video_Library (wiki)  ||  Artwork (wiki) | Basic controls (wiki) | Import-export library (wiki) | Movie sets (wiki) | Movie universe (wiki) | NFO files (wiki) | Quick start guide (wiki)
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#7
Actually, I've done it both ways (2 different Kodi 18.1 installs on Nvidia Shield TV's). One is brand new install of Kodi 18.1, one was an upgrade from 17.6 to 18, then 18.1. Same issues on both.

Advancedsettings.xml was applied before attempting to due any updates to the Music library.

By refreshed, I meant running the "Query info for all Artists", but I did not run the Albums "Query info for all Albums". That will be more testing this weekend.

I will post a log after my tests, should it not work, or report success if it does. Crossing my fingers I can figure it out, and post a solution.
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#8
(2019-03-14, 21:33)Powerhouse Wrote: By refreshed, I meant running the "Query info for all Artists",
This is the same as Update Library in the video library. It is not going to update items already scraped into the library.

Call up the Artist (or Album) Information page and select Refresh. Do your mediaelch nfo files scan into the library?
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#9
Not sure if I'm making progress or not, but here is what i've done...

1. I've created a new .kodi folder (using a Nvidia Shield TV), so it's a fresh install of Kodi 18.1.

2. I've imported my Movies and TV Shows (as the family is actively using this box), all is good so far.

3. Closed Kodi, added the updated (just like your settings) advancedsettings.xml file (/Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi).

4. As I said previously, I've followed your guide, I have the separate "Artist Information" folder on my NAS, and made sure there are no .NFO files in any of the sub-folders under the "Artist Information" folder.

5. Added my Music collection (adjusted the Universal Artist and Album settings to grab all the extra art first, and there was a setting to grab additional information that was checked as well).

6. Here is where it gets interesting. Once my Music was imported (took like 2 hours to finish, plus I was busy, so waited for several more hours), I then ran the Context Menu on Artists to "Query info for all artists". So not sure what I was supposed to see, but I saw a message about Universal Artist at the top, then a buffering message, then Nothing... Am I supposed to see messages about what Artists are being updated, or some message when it is finishedHuh I gave this several hours to complete, but never saw any further messages.

Something similar happened when I went into Albums, then from the Context Menu ran "Query info for all albums", but this time I saw at least something different. First, the Message about Universal Album Scraper, then the buffering message, then a quick message "The Temptation - Christmas Album"...then nothing. Gave this like 5+ hours to complete, but never saw any messages other than these first 3.

Just in case you are wondering, all my music is tagged with MusicBrainz Picard, and it is set to remove existing tags, and the new tags are in id3 2.4. If that makes any difference.

7. Finally, I went in to set my "Artist Information" folder (in preparing to Export whatever Kodi may have gathered, if anything), and for some reason, Kodi said that this location has no rights to write too (which is totally weird, as its under the same Music source that I've used for years now, without any issues.

Tonight I will restart my NAS, and restart the Shield TV and see if that will fix this weird permission issue with the "Artist Information" folder. Assuming I get it fixed, I will then Export my Music library, and see if there is any difference between the original issues I posted.
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#10
Ok, so I figured out the permission issue (forgot to put the username and password in the SMB share in Kodi). SOOooo, now that that is fixed...

Here is the updated .nfo file created....

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<artist>
    <name>’Til Tuesday</name>
    <musicBrainzArtistID>8cf8869d-e066-4c94-b734-fe05749badf0</musicBrainzArtistID>
    <sortname>Til Tuesday</sortname>
    <type></type>
    <gender></gender>
    <disambiguation></disambiguation>
    <genre>Pop/Rock</genre>
    <style>Rock/Pop</style>
    <mood>Detached</mood>
    <mood>Melancholy</mood>
    <mood>Stylish</mood>
    <mood>Tense/Anxious</mood>
    <mood>Bittersweet</mood>
    <mood>Intimate</mood>
    <mood>Poignant</mood>
    <mood>Reflective</mood>
    <mood>Wistful</mood>
    <mood>Yearning</mood>
    <yearsactive>1980s</yearsactive>
    <born></born>
    <formed>1983</formed>
    <biography>Remembered for their lone hit single &quot;Voices Carry,&quot; &apos;Til Tuesday gradually evolved from a new wave pop band into a vehicle for the songwriting of Aimee Mann. Emerging at the tail end of new wave, &apos;Til Tuesday&apos;s commercial fortunes were helped dramatically by a stylish video for &quot;Voices Carry,&quot; which quickly became an MTV favorite. However, the group wasn&apos;t able to follow the single with another hit; furthermore, their albums weren&apos;t just ignored by the public, they received little media attention as well</biography>
    <died></died>
    <disbanded>Yes</disbanded>
    <path>smb://kodi:[email protected]/media/Music/Artist Information/’Til Tuesday</path>
    <album>
        <title>Everything&apos;s Different Now</title>
        <year>1988</year>
    </album>
    <album>
        <title>Welcome Home</title>
        <year>1986</year>
    </album>
    <album>
        <title>Voices Carry</title>
        <year>1985</year>
    </album>
    <album>
        <title>Coming Up Close: A Retrospective</title>
        <year>1996</year>
    </album>
</artist>

Which is the same as the one from MediaElch...so that works on a Fresh install of Kodi. Still only got the two artworks (fanart.jpg, and folder.jpg), but at least we know that is a problem in Kodi 18.1.

Next I will test copying artwork (banner, logo, and various fanarts - fanart1, fanart2, etc.), then I'll go to the Artist or Album information page, and hit the refresh, and see what happens.
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#11
(2019-03-19, 22:32)Powerhouse Wrote: 5. Added my Music collection (adjusted the Universal Artist and Album settings to grab all the extra art first, and there was a setting to grab additional information that was checked as well).
(2019-03-19, 22:32)Powerhouse Wrote: I then ran the Context Menu on Artists to "Query info for all artists"
Both these options are the equivelant of Update Library in the Video section.

Grab additional information was checked, so it scraped online, which is why it took so long the first time. Running Query info for all artists (and albums) does nothing the second time as you have already scraped. It is like running Update Library, then running Update Library again. Nothing will happen the second time.
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#12
Final test, of copying artwork (banner, logo, and various fanarts - fanart1, fanart2, etc.), then going to the Artist or Album information page, and hit the refresh, and as expected, banner, logo and fanarts showed up correctly.

1. However, is there a way to automate this, as going into each Artist Information page, and hitting the refresh button is going to take me a vary long time.

2. Also, I read that Artwork Beef can rename (or maybe download and name correctly for Kodi 18.x) the various fanarts, to fall in line with what Kodi 18.x now uses (fanart1.jpg, fanart2.jpg, etc.), might you know the settings to achieve this? Oh, and does it work with the "Artist Information Folder"?
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#13
Guys I have left you to talk this through because it is a useful way for me to see the flaws and misunderstandings that may have been introduced with v18 new features. It isn't that I've been lazily ignoring you Tongue

But just to step in
(2019-03-20, 17:06)Powerhouse Wrote: 1. However, is there a way to automate this, as going into each Artist Information page, and hitting the refresh button is going to take me a vary long time.
At the moment the music library does not have a bulk refresh my art facility to go and find art either locally or remotely for things it has previously scraped, but I am currently looking at that issue. I don't know if I will be able to get something into v18 but I will try.

The current alternative to manually refreshing each artist is remove the music source(s), clean the library, and rescan/rescrape. Not quick with a large library, and even exporting album and artist info to avoid that changing or rescaping data you will lose the song playback history - playcount, lastpalyed and userrating. Sad

Alternatively to convince Kodi to rescrape your artists and pick up the local art again there is a bit of SQL trickery that you could do to the db (although not saying you should) Angel
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#14
(2019-03-20, 18:07)DaveBlake Wrote: The current alternative to manually refreshing each artist is remove the music source(s), clean the library, and rescan/rescrape. Not quick with a large library, and even exporting album and artist info to avoid that changing or rescaping data you will lose the song playback history - playcount, lastpalyed and userrating. Sad

Well moving in the right direction I have rasied a PR that improved the export/import facility to include the song playback history. This will means that users can do the above, or just having moved music files to a new physical location, can restore the ratings and play count data that they would otherwise have lost.

If you would like to try it see https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/15864 for a test build (when it has cooked)
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Dummies Guide to Extended Artwork doesn't seem to be working for me...0