[Pdubbbs]

I had assumed, it would make the change when the source was later connected (it looked like the change took effect in tmm) but then just now I saw a bunch of errors saying it couldn't write to the nfo. As well some movies I deleted, DB+File, and it disappeared, but later was there again. Are you not able to do any work on movies, unless the source is connected and you can make changes to nfo etc right then and there?

[myron]

Well, no.
On every change, the NFO will be saved, and this won't work here.
But the DB save will - so you might have a different view :/

It might work if you disable the NFO writing (and others) in settings - but then no Kodi import.
In general, this was not designed that way (in fact - what app do you know which lets you update things offline, and correct that days later when something is connected?)

Same with deletion.
We probably need to make this a bit more user friendly, and do not remove things from TMM, which we cannot physically remove...

[Pdubbbs]

Well, no.
On every change, the NFO will be saved, and this won't work here.
But the DB save will - so you might have a different view :/

It might work if you disable the NFO writing (and others) in settings - but then no Kodi import.
In general, this was not designed that way (in fact - what app do you know which lets you update things offline, and correct that days later when something is connected?)

Same with deletion.
We probably need to make this a bit more user friendly, and do not remove things from TMM, which we cannot physically remove...

Yes that's what I have noticed. The tmm db will update, but then when connecting the source, it doesn't update that (but it will look updated since the tmm db is updated).

So the only way those changes are reflected on the source files, is to make changes while device is online, so I am treating tmm, as a read only db when sources are offline.

I have my source drives in cold storage so that's why I frequently am doing work in tmm, but don't want to spin up the drive, for minor changes and edits.

[tars]

If you want to update nfo files in accordance with the database that's updated with sources disconnected, just run "Rewrite nfo" command after connecting sources.
For instance, I regularly update ratings using "update metadata" command, which can take hours depending on the collection size. If the source devices are connected, tmm will write every change, accessing the devices all the time.
But if this is done with sources disconnected, it only updates the database (with error messages saying sources are disconnected but you can rather see it as a counter of how many movies have been updated).
Later you can update the actual nfo files one shot via "Rewrite nfo" command.
With sources disconnected, you should avoid performing any tasks that involve actual media files including pictures and subtitles not to mess things up. And if you have deleted movies from the database with sources disconnected, you should expect those will get re-added as new movies when you rescan the source device. As long as you understand what you're doing, I think this can be useful for many tasks that don't really require accessing media files.

[myron]

Since the DB is saved, you might want to execute "write NFO" manually, once the drive is connected.
This might work for small metadata edits, where only the NFO needs to be written... but for scrape, rename and others surely not.

But im not entirely sure, if we even should do that - IMHO we should also not persist to database, if we cannot write the file (to not get inconsistent).
Might be changed in future w/o any notification

[tars]

If that has to change, how about only disallowing tasks that involve actual media files (except nfo) - renaming, poster, fanart, subtitle changes, etc.?

[myron]

puh - this is hard to create, and to maintain on changes.
TMM was not designed to work that way, sorry.

[Pdubbbs]

When you say only nfo edits, but no scrape.... the scrape info goes where? I thought it writes it to the nfo file? So a scrape counts as an nfo edit, no?

[tars]

When you say only nfo edits, but no scrape.... the scrape info goes where? I thought it writes it to the nfo file? So a scrape counts as an nfo edit, no?

Probably he's referring to creating new nfo rather than updating existing ones.

But im not entirely sure, if we even should do that - IMHO we should also not persist to database, if we cannot write the file (to not get inconsistent).
Might be changed in future w/o any notification

I don't understand what you're trying to "fix" when nothing is broken.
Are you gonna allow only browsing when sources are disconnected? Why can't the user make edits to the database only? Who cares if there's discrepancy as long as it's intended?
Just in case I'll keep the current version somewhere for the offline use in the future.

[mlaggner]

I do also think we should not disallow those changes if the data source is disconnected.. there are still some things the user must have in mind and we should not restrict our features because some users (IIRC this is the first question about this topic in 8 years) are using it the wrong way

[Pdubbbs]

I do also think we should not disallow those changes if the data source is disconnected.. there are still some things the user must have in mind and we should not restrict our features because some users (IIRC this is the first question about this topic in 8 years) are using it the wrong way

I feel attacked

[myron]

Ok, for that perspective....

My concern was, that editing NFO is fine, since it can be synced back to NFO quite easily.
But a complete scrape downloads images, actor pics and does other things... which will run out-of-sync.
But that might be the problem of the user....

We then should only reduce the error messages (a bit)...

[mlaggner]

I feel attacked

no attack, just an observation of the facts