[hammersmith]

unfortunately all my movie folders now have unwanted fanart files and nfo files and actor folders etc.
is there a way to remove all of this and leave only the single movie file in its folder?

[Klojum]

is there a way to remove all of this and leave only the single movie file in its folder?

Not directly. But .. your fanart and nfo files are also a backup for Kodi's video library. Why do you want to get rid of it? All those files combined are probably the size of one single movie.

In Linux itself you can do stuff via the command line:
find . -name \*.nfo -type f -delete

[hammersmith]

is there a way to remove all of this and leave only the single movie file in its folder?

Not directly. But .. your fanart and nfo files are also a backup for Kodi's video library. Why do you want to get rid of it? All those files combined are probably the size of one single movie.

In Linux itself you can do stuff via the command line:
find . -name \*.nfo -type f -delete

so if i leave them all in then i should be fine?
what is the scraping order for kodi?

for instance what happens when . . .
1. empty movie folder except the movie. if i set kodi content to local only, what happens?
2. movie has been scraped by a media manager and kodi is set to local only, which info does kodi use?
3. same as 2 but kodi is set to scrape itself. again, which info will i see?
4. kodi has already scraped a movie, but now i want to use the media manager data. is that possible?

i'd like kodi to use the meta data from my scraper when it's there and use it's built in scraper when it's not.
and then if i scrape it with a media manager, i want kodi to use that instead.

i know there's a lot of questions, but i thought it would be easier than it is.

[Klojum]

what is the scraping order for kodi?

Simple.. The physical order in which you added your video sources. First come, first served.

1. empty movie folder except the movie. if i set kodi content to local only, what happens?
Nothing. With only the movie file and no nfo file, there is no metadata available.

2. movie has been scraped by a media manager and kodi is set to local only, which info does kodi use?
The nfo file next to the video.

3. same as 2 but kodi is set to scrape itself. again, which info will i see?
The nfo file next to the video.

4. kodi has already scraped a movie, but now i want to use the media manager data. is that possible?
For a single movie, refresh the metadata of the movie manually.
For the entire movie collection, set the source content to 'none. Then set the content to "Local only' and rescrape.

[hammersmith]

what is the scraping order for kodi?

Simple.. The physical order in which you added your video sources. First come, first served.

1. empty movie folder except the movie. if i set kodi content to local only, what happens?
Nothing. With only the movie file and no nfo file, there is no metadata available.

2. movie has been scraped by a media manager and kodi is set to local only, which info does kodi use?
The nfo file next to the video.

3. same as 2 but kodi is set to scrape itself. again, which info will i see?
The nfo file next to the video.

4. kodi has already scraped a movie, but now i want to use the media manager data. is that possible?
For a single movie, refresh the metadata of the movie manually.
For the entire movie collection, set the source content to 'none. Then set the content to "Local only' and rescrape.

thanks for the great info.
just to be clear:
every time i try a different scraper, it overwrites the nfo and fanart etc. to the movie folder or tv folder?
in order for kodi to see this new scraper nfo, i have to set source content to "none" and update, then set content to "local" and rescrape?
would it be best after to leave the tv scraper to "tvdb" instead of "local" because when i add new tv episodes i want them to show up and not have to use the pc scraper for every episode.
it would only be used for new tv shows and movies where the main artwork doesn't change.

so when i put a new tv series on my server, do i use the pc scraper to generate the nfo and artwork and then what do i do with the kodi content scraper?
do i go through the whole "none" then "local" change and then finally put it back to "tvdb?"
so basically, does my kodi content setting change when i add a tv series as opposed to adding an individual tv episode?

sorry for asking so much.

[Klojum]

every time i try a different scraper, it overwrites the nfo and fanart etc. to the movie folder or tv folder?

No, a scraper only fills the video database with metadata. Kodi itself only generates nfo files and fanart when doing a video export.
So new movies or TV episodes will have no nfo files or fanart to begin with (unless generated by 3rd party tools)

Again, the default scraper is TMDB, not TVDB. If you prefer to use TVDB, select it when setting to the content to a video source.

so basically, does my kodi content setting change when i add a tv series as opposed to adding an individual tv episode?

No. You set the content to a video source. You can additionally set a source for one or more folder inside that source, but I would be careful with that. Things can get confusing very quickly.
If you want to use different content settings for various tv shows, I'd create different root folders for each of the content settings, and move your tv videos to them accordingly.

[hammersmith]

every time i try a different scraper, it overwrites the nfo and fanart etc. to the movie folder or tv folder?

No, a scraper only fills the video database with metadata. Kodi itself only generates nfo files and fanart when doing a video export.
So new movies or TV episodes will have no nfo files or fanart to begin with (unless generated by 3rd party tools)

Again, the default scraper is TMDB, not TVDB. If you prefer to use TVDB, select it when setting to the content to a video source.

so basically, does my kodi content setting change when i add a tv series as opposed to adding an individual tv episode?

No. You set the content to a video source. You can additionally set a source for one or more folder inside that source, but I would be careful with that. Things can get confusing very quickly.
If you want to use different content settings for various tv shows, I'd create different root folders for each of the content settings, and move your tv videos to them accordingly.

i think i have discovered where my confusion comes from and the reason i originally wanted a way to delete nfo files.
when i have sources and i add the first, it populates tv shows with the tv shows on the source.
when i add a second source it populates the tv shows with the tv shows on the source AND in a separate tv show it adds all the shows from a third source.
a source i haven't added. somehow kodi doesn't forget those shows but just adds them anyway . . . and it puts every individual show in a single show folder.
so imagine source-1 has "tv show 1a" and "tv show 1b" and source-2 has "tv show 2a" and "tv show 2b"
first i delete all sources and have no tv shows. then i scrape the shows with a third party tool.
then i add video source-1 as a tv show with content set to none. everything looks good with tv show 1a and 1b. at this point i'm just happy something is working but i don't even know whether kodi or the 3d party is doing the scraping.
then i add video source-2 as a tv show with content set to none and it adds tv show 2a and tv show 2b BUT also a separate tv show called tv show 2c that contains all episodes from source-3.
but i haven't even added source 3 yet.
so how do i resolve this? that's why i tried manually clearing all the nfo files thinking that would work but it didn't. i wanted to start fresh with my tv shows and movies.
there must be a reason that kodi remembers sources i previously added. but i don't want that.
i don't want to change the source name since other pcs and devices use that.
what is the proper way to do this? i'm sure it can't be this complicated.