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**Karellen**

What is this about?
Choice!
Kodi enables you to download TV Show metadata from TheMovieDB, TheTVDB and TV Maze.
The metadata includes an <episodeguide>. This is a link that points Kodi to the correct TV Show and episodes at the scraper site when adding new episodes to your tv show.

The new Python scrapers use a simpler <episodeguide> than the older XML based scrapers which were very long strings of confusing code.

This <episodeguide> is simply the TV Show ID and it is unique to that information provider site.

The Problem
The problem is that even though each scraper information provider uses UniqueID's within their own site, these ID's are not unique across the three information providers - TheMovieDB, TheTVDB and TV Maze.
Why? Because all three providers use a simple numerical string as the ID.

eg The Boys (2019) at the MovieDB uses an id of 76479
At The TVDB ID 76479 belongs to this show... https://thetvdb.com/series/one-step-beyond

This problem reveals itself when users change scrapers in their library.
A user adds a TV show using one of the three scrapers. At a later date more episodes are to be added. The user has changed to another scraper, or forgotten which scraper they originally used. Invariably, the wrong scraper is used and the <episodeguide> is no longer valid as it is pointing to the wrong tv show or does not exist.

What are we doing about it?
We have an Issue report here... https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/issues/17341
It has been decided that the <episodeguide> will be reformatted into a JSON string that will allow an identifier and multiple episode guides to be saved.
All TV Show scrapers will need to be updated, so the fix may be a little while off yet.

How do I fix my scraping in the mean time?
The fix is simple...

Confirm which scraper site you prefer to use. Ensure the correct scraper is active.
Refresh the TV Show. No need to refresh episodes if you are happy with them. See images below
Scrape new episodes into the library

**Karellen**

Issue Resolved - Updated Scrapers Released

With the release of Kodi v20 RC1 the issue described in the previous post (which affects all versions of Kodi) has been resolved and most TV Show scrapers have been updated to use the new <episodeguide> format.

Scraper	<= v18	v19	v20 RC1 **
TheSportsDB	Not supported	Not supported	Updated - v1.1.0 and later
TMDB TV Shows	Not supported	Updated - v1.4.17 and later	Updated - v1.6.1 and later
TV Maze	Not supported	Updated - v1.3.3 and later	Updated - v1.3.3 and later
TVDB v4	Not supported	Updated - v1.1.4 and later	Updated - v1.1.4 and later

** Due to an unrelated breaking change, all Kodi v20 installs must be updated to at least Kodi v20 RC1 (released yesterday) for continued use of TMDB TV Show and TheSportsDB scrapers.

What has changed?
The <episodeguide> has been modified to use a JSON format as shown in the example below:

Original format : <episodeguide>2426</episodeguide>
New JSON format: <episodeguide>{"tvmaze": "428", "tvrage": "2610", "tvdb": "71035", "tmdb": "2426", "imdb": "tt0162065"}</episodeguide>
or using HTML encoding :

<episodeguide>{&quot;tvmaze&quot;: &quot;428&quot;, &quot;tvrage&quot;: &quot;2610&quot;, &quot;tvdb&quot;: &quot;71035&quot;, &quot;tmdb&quot;: &quot;2426&quot;, &quot;imdb&quot;: &quot;tt0162065&quot;}</episodeguide>

Each UniqueID in the <episodeguide> is clearly identified as to which provider it belongs to.

How does this affect my library?

If you have incomplete TV Shows to which you add new episodes
If you have complete TV Shows, but you sometimes refresh episodes

Then you will need to update the <episodeguide> to the new format.
To do this, see the previous post and follow the instructions and images under How do I fix my scraping in the mean time? at the end of the post.

Even if you use NFO files, these contain the obsolete <episodeguide> and need to be updated. The best way to accomplish this is to delete the tvshow.nfo file and Refresh the library as detailed above.