Media Players 103: Kodi File and Folder Organisation/Storage

[paligap]

try right clicking on an existing source and look for a delete option to delete a source you want to remove. What operating system does your device use?

Well, the device is probably more like an Nvidia Shield than a NUC. I believe it's Linux-based and runs OSMC and/or Kodi. I was finally able to locate the USB drive in the relevant dialog box in a folder titled "media" and updated my library. I'm new to Kodi, and some of this has been counter-intuitive, at least for me. Hopefully, I'll catch on.

 

[atrocity]

I'm new to Kodi, and some of this has been counter-intuitive, at least for me. Hopefully, I'll catch on.

Much of Kodi is counterintuitive at best. It's pretty straightforward once you get it configured and are up and running, but a lot of that configuration is just plain painful. I feel the same way about JRiver, though Kodi has the advantage of not charging for the confusion.

I'd love to be wrong about this, but as far as I can tell the biggest hole in Kodi is that it doesn't detect changed metadata during a rescan. If you make a change that you want picked up and put into the database, you'll not only need to change the metadata but also either change the file name or temporarily move it elsewhere, "Clean" then rescan. Some kind of "Wipe everything and start from scratch" function would be incredibly useful to me.

I'm criticizing, but I use it every day and haven't found anything better. You'll get used to it.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Much of Kodi is counterintuitive at best. It's pretty straightforward once you get it configured and are up and running, but a lot of that configuration is just plain painful. I feel the same way about JRiver, though Kodi has the advantage of not charging for the confusion.

I'd love to be wrong about this, but as far as I can tell the biggest hole in Kodi is that it doesn't detect changed metadata during a rescan. If you make a change that you want picked up and put into the database, you'll not only need to change the metadata but also either change the file name or temporarily move it elsewhere, "Clean" then rescan. Some kind of "Wipe everything and start from scratch" function would be incredibly useful to me.

I'm criticizing, but I use it every day and haven't found anything better. You'll get used to it.

I don’t know, I’ve been thinking about installing one of these on a new NUC; and tend to update metadata quite often for various reasons. You might have just sold me on JRiver

 

[andi-999]

Much of Kodi is counterintuitive at best. It's pretty straightforward once you get it configured and are up and running, but a lot of that configuration is just plain painful. I feel the same way about JRiver, though Kodi has the advantage of not charging for the confusion.

I'd love to be wrong about this, but as far as I can tell the biggest hole in Kodi is that it doesn't detect changed metadata during a rescan. If you make a change that you want picked up and put into the database, you'll not only need to change the metadata but also either change the file name or temporarily move it elsewhere, "Clean" then rescan. Some kind of "Wipe everything and start from scratch" function would be incredibly useful to me.

I'm criticizing, but I use it every day and haven't found anything better. You'll get used to it.

Hi, have you tried the option "scan items to library" on the source (Right-click)? This takes some time but catches ALL tag changes which the normal "update" has missed. Just change the tags, no need to change file names. This has worked always for me!

 

[himey]

...If you get everything organized with Plex Server, you can simply use Kodi and the KodiPlexConnect add-on, and have everything nice and tidy on more than one device. All the changes to your library will be made within Plex and when Kodi starts it will pass those changes along. The only large database will be on the Plex machine rather than each individual devices so they run smoother.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Hi, have you tried the option "scan items to library" on the source (Right-click)? This takes some time but catches ALL tag changes which the normal "update" has missed. Just change the tags, no need to change file names. This has worked always for me!

You don't have to scan the whole source drive either. Just go into the source files and choose the artist that has been updated. It only takes seconds. Depending on what was changed, you may need to clean the library to get rid of old stuff.

 

[HomerJAU]

I’m sure a Kodi scan looks at the file last modified timestamp and re-reads the tags if changed.

Im pretty sure at least one tagging program has an option to not change last modified timestamp, what tagging app do you use?

 

[HomerJAU]

I’m sure a Kodi scan looks at the file last modified timestamp and re-reads the tags if changed

[System] menu, [Media] option: click on Music sources, in the list of sources find your root music folder you want to rescan, Do a ‘long click’ (hold your Select button down for a second or more), an option pops up, select Scan to Library, Kodi asks ‘’Do you want to force re-reading of all Tags even if files have not changed’, click: Yes

This scans every music file from the selected folder recursively (all sub-folders below)

 

[atrocity]

I’m sure a Kodi scan looks at the file last modified timestamp and re-reads the tags if changed.

Im pretty sure at least one tagging program has an option to not change last modified timestamp, what tagging app do you use?

I almost always use Foobar2000. I'm probably just spreading outdated misinformation and owe the world an apology!

 

[atrocity]

Hi, have you tried the option "scan items to library" on the source (Right-click)? This takes some time but catches ALL tag changes which the normal "update" has missed. Just change the tags, no need to change file names. This has worked always for me!

I've been using the clean/scan functions from Yatse (the remote app that runs on Android). It sounds like I'm just behind the times. Thank you for setting me straight!

 

[paligap]

So I got most of my surround music tagged and updated into a a source I titled "surround". Creative, I know. Also a bit more comfortable navigating in Kodi. Is it possible to create and use another source for my stereo music files?

 

[HomerJAU]

Yes. You can have as many Sources as you like.

You can then use the Source folder name to filter the views. Example in another thread here: Stereo, MCH etc.

You can also filter on folder names contains any words like Quad, Atmos etc and add those as menu nodes (menu items) in Kodi. Clicking on Quad will show only albums with Quad in their folder names.

 

[HomerJAU]

An example of customised menu nodes on page 10 of this PDF:

https://reva.blob.core.windows.net/kodimods/Kodi Music Setup from a Backup.pdf

 

[holland123]

Hey G, one tiny problem I am experiencing with Kodi is in some of my movie folders, where I copied the extra content, it is showing the extra content that I have copied as duplicate movies of the same title, now when I originally scanned the sources into kodi I did check the box that says each movie is in a separate folder, should I rescan the movie folders and uncheck that box? Or do I need to name the extras something else? (currently the extras in the same folders are just Title002, Title 003, etc) which is what makemkv named them. The movie itself I renamed to the actual movie title. I'm sorry to come to you but you are way more helpful than the kodi forum. I genuinely Appreciate all you do. K

 

[HomerJAU]

Good question Kevin.

So do you want to see the extra file’s in Kodi with different names or you don’t want to see the extras at all?

I’ve been using an external scraper program to get all my movie data and artwork. These auto create a data file that Kodi reads so it doesn’t need to scrape its own movie data.

 

[holland123]

Well I guess what I would like is to just see the movie and not the extras in my front page if that makes any sense, and then dig into the file structure if I want the extras, however some of the concert movies were broken into chapters by makemkv, so I'm not sure how to handle that either because they are not a single file within the concert movie folders either, I guess I am asking what is the best way to handle this so that I don't have to click 6 different thumbnails of the same movie to find the actual movie, should I just erase all the extras? I guess that is one way?

 

[HomerJAU]

For concerts I use MMH to split the concert MKVs into individual files per chapter (per song). This makes it a lot easier to play a specific song, although if you play one it still auto plays the next and subsequent songs if you leave it running.

Take a look at the MMH PDF file for more info. It’s pretty straight forward. But you need to have all your concerts in folders under a Music Video root folder and add that to Kodi as a Music Video source and tell Kodi to scrape the folders using a Local Information only.

For movies I only have one MKV in the movie folder, named after the movie name. I use an external Scraper program to find all the artwork, actors and metadata and save all this as local information, then get Kodi to scan the movie Source using Local Information only.

I‘ll edit this post later with a link to the scraper I use. It’s really fast and gives you a choice of artwork.

Edit: Tiny Media Manager

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=142723

 

[holland123]

Ok , so you don't save any of the extras in the folders, that is a simple solution gotcha, simple for me is best, no sweat, I hate to say this but I am somewhat technologically challenged and don't quite understand the scraper thing I just point Kodi to the source folder and whatever it does, it does, I guess It uses its own scraper which is I'm guessing is synonymous with search engine. I'm assuming you are talking about changing settings in Kodi which is a pain in the ass and for me tends to bring nothing but headaches, as someone else said here, kodi is not an easy thing to set up, nothing about it is straight forward. I have spent way too many hours just getting to this point. The media helper folder tool you made I don't understand either, it is full of dll files and such that I don't really know what to do with, for the movie concerts I may try redoing the setup and tell kodi they are music videos, and that's where the kodi info forum said to list them as movie concerts, which I may just leave anyways at this point cuz I'm more of a play the concert or video from the beginning to the end and not into picking and choosing songs here and there, but I see that could be useful for some. just like albums I like to put an album on and listen to it in its order in entirety as opposed to making a playlist. anyways G thank you once again for the assistance and direction = dump the extras, prob never watch em anyways. K

 

[HomerJAU]

The external scraper does what Kodi’s internal scraper does: Searches for data and artwork for movies on the internet using specific online sources. The external program gives you control over what artwork you use, Kodi chooses for you.

MMH: The upcoming version 4.0 now installs a users Program File’s folder and creates a desktop shortcut and start menu entry. No need to worry about dlls etc. just run it. Version 4.0 checks for updates and can download and install updates if user says to to that. I’m updating docs for 4.0 today, probably released this week

 

[holland123]

hmm, sounds interesting, Might be more my speed