[mebia]

I've just noticed that the artwork for a majority of my movies is missing.
I'm not sure exactly when this happened so I have no idea what may have caused it.

Selecting "Information" from the context menu on a movie, clicking the "Refresh" button, and choosing the correct title pulls the artwork from the scraper, solving the issue.
However, I have hundreds of movies and this process is very tedious.

Is there a way to force Kodi to refresh all movies from the scraper?
I do not want to remove and re-add the source/content as many of my files are not named in a way that allows Kodi to determine correct movie without ambiguity (i.e. there's been a lot of manually selecting the correct movie over time).

I tried removing the "thumbnails" folder and "Textures13.db" but that just resulted in losing even more artwork).
I also tried Artwork Beef's "add missing artwork for ... all videos" option but it did not seem to have any affect.

Thanks in advance.

[PatK]

not named in a way that allows Kodi to determine correct movie

And there's the issue; Kodi doesn't determine anything, the scrapers garb the metadata according to the title/date (artwork included, and the likelihood that Artwork Beef is not for you). If you have most of the artwork and meta-data with the movie already, you could do just a local re-scrape, by bringing up the context menu on one of your sources, pick 'change content' choose local information only and allow a scan. Alternately you could initialize one of the other scrapers with proper settings (e.g. universal scraper) which will attempt to match-up, with the correct movie and artwork and should there be local meta-data that is in a format Kodi is happy with, it will be added to your library otherwise it will try best fit (or just skip) but with an odd ball naming convention it's going to be hit & miss but you will get a better result than just using local information scraper.

Truly this post screams out for a 3rd party scraper of which there are many. Supplemental tools/Windows (wiki) section 3 Library managers.

[mebia]

Thanks for the response.

I was hoping that Kodi stored an identifier upon matching a file to a movie title during scraping, thus persisting all of the manual selections I had made. This led to my idea of refreshing all of the movies to restore the missing artwork. However, based on your response, it seems that the scraper simply provides Kodi with metadata, which it stores, and no such link between the scraper entry and the file is persisted. Or am I still missing the mark?

A follow up question: If no link is maintained between Kodi and the scraper, how is TV show information resolved as new episodes come out?

[PatK]

Kodi stored an identifier upon matching a file to a movie title

It does but it's a manual export via separate files that you must initialize, that process stores your meta-data inside the movie folder. The scarpers check this path for viable meta-data prior to a web fetch and will use that meta-data first.

If no link is maintained between Kodi and the scraper, how is TV show information resolved

Kodi scanning ensures there is meta-data for the TV series and all sub episodes, if there is none, on scan it calls the scraper for matching, the scraper is a subroutine within this process. Important in all this, is the understanding that Kodi's library is internal and bound up in the local internal database *.db files. The export via separate files is the best way to manipulate listings, then refresh the meta-data locally which will pull in the edits.

Adding video sources (wiki) and Create Video Library (wiki)

[mebia]

Selecting "Information" from the context menu on a movie, clicking the "Refresh" button, and choosing the correct title pulls the artwork from the scraper, solving the issue.

Thanks for all of the information but I ended up biting the bullet and refreshing the movies one-by-one.
Though this was tedious, it was actually beneficial as I discovered that I had several files matched to the wrong movie and a few duplicate movies.

I used an AutoHotKey script to setup ALT+Z to bring me directly to the title selection step, slightly speeding up the process.

Code:


!z::
SendInput, i
SendInput, {Left down}{Left up}
SendInput, {Enter}
Sleep, 250
SendInput, {Left down}{Left up}
SendInput, {Enter}


[PatK]

discovered that I had several files matched to the wrong movie and a few duplicate movies.

Yup, I've heard that before Just remember to export your library to separate files, so a quick local scan brings back your library the way you have it now.

[mebia]

Exporting my library to separate files creates an .nfo file for every movie and TV show.
Thus if my internal library ever ended up in a bad state again (missing artwork, etc.) or if I had to build my library from scratch, Kodi could pull metadata from these local .nfo files.
This would save me from the tedious process of matching every file to the correct title in order to fetch metadata from the internet.

Is that correct?
If so, barring either of those two situations, Kodi's internal library should suffice right (i.e. the export is just a backup)?

[PatK]

Is that correct?

Yes, Exactly.

(i.e. the export is just a backup)

Yes & no... most see it just as a back-up, but it is an easy method to edit the .nfo meta-data and refresh just one movie with custom information, If you have a habit of running Kodi without the sources available, or largish source cache with flushes, Kodi will dip down into the folder for images. Caches explained (wiki)

[scott967]

I think a single file export would work just as well for this, wouldn't it?  I don't use this currently (I use a 3rd party scraper and nfo files) but I think an export would allow just a single import and you're done.

scott s.
.

[Karellen]

I think a single file export would work just as well for this, wouldn't it?

Single file export has too many issues to use safely.
- Artwork URL's are re-written to the location of the export folder, which can be deleted by the user and then artwork slowly disappears from the library displays.
- If you rearrange folders after the export and before the import, the single file export cannot cope with the change and the library entry effectively becomes dead.

Use separate file export.

[mebia]

- Artwork URL's are re-written to the location of the export folder, which can be deleted by the user and then artwork slowly disappears from the library displays.

Does this happen upon single file export or only once the export is imported?

[Karellen]

Happens with single file export and once it is imported. Kodi finds the local artwork in the export file and saves the path to those images in the export folder.