2021-05-03, 18:49
Hello, comrades! This should be a trivial question, however, I couldn't find a definitive answer anywhere after hours of googling across several years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
After I add my music files to Kodi Music Library, is there any chance that Kodi will ever edit/update/change ID3 Tags of my music files (under any circumstances, including, but not limited to: a bug / crash / power outage / system failure / me being stupid)?
TL;DR: Does Kodi handle music files as read-only, or can it write to music files?
You see, I'm afraid of getting my tags messed-up. My music collection is fairly large, and every single track is tagged by hand, perfectly. I am using Foobar2000 for manual tag management (and music playback), because it provides 100% control and and 0% automation (unless I create automation rules myself).
I have been using and tweaking Kodi for all my video-related needs for over a decade now, and would absolutely love to expand my Kodi-experience to music as well. However, because of the above concerns I am extremely hesitant of using any product that has built-in scrapers / library management tools / automation.
I have read all official documentation related to Kodi Music Library and, like I've mentioned above, I've researched this question for hours. It is clear that Kodi scans all ID3-metadata into it's own — separate — database, and works from there. However, it is not clear what Kodi does with scraped metadata: is it scraped only into internal Kodi database, or do files get updated with scraped metadata as well? A clarification on this by a Kodi-developer or team-member is highly appreciated. Thank you!
[EDIT] [SOLVED]
After I add my music files to Kodi Music Library, is there any chance that Kodi will ever edit/update/change ID3 Tags of my music files (under any circumstances, including, but not limited to: a bug / crash / power outage / system failure / me being stupid)?
TL;DR: Does Kodi handle music files as read-only, or can it write to music files?
You see, I'm afraid of getting my tags messed-up. My music collection is fairly large, and every single track is tagged by hand, perfectly. I am using Foobar2000 for manual tag management (and music playback), because it provides 100% control and and 0% automation (unless I create automation rules myself).
I have been using and tweaking Kodi for all my video-related needs for over a decade now, and would absolutely love to expand my Kodi-experience to music as well. However, because of the above concerns I am extremely hesitant of using any product that has built-in scrapers / library management tools / automation.
I have read all official documentation related to Kodi Music Library and, like I've mentioned above, I've researched this question for hours. It is clear that Kodi scans all ID3-metadata into it's own — separate — database, and works from there. However, it is not clear what Kodi does with scraped metadata: is it scraped only into internal Kodi database, or do files get updated with scraped metadata as well? A clarification on this by a Kodi-developer or team-member is highly appreciated. Thank you!
[EDIT] [SOLVED]
- Kodi handles music files in read-only mode and does not provide write access to addons.
- Since addons know where files are stored, addons can write to files.
- The Team would reject any addons from the official repo that attempted to write to your music files unbidden and without permission.
- Addons from outside the official repo can do anything, and the consequences lay entirely on the user.