[rogers13]

Sorry if this has been answered but it is bugging the hell out of me. I chop and change my films library all the time, normally when I replace copies of my films with higher quality versions. Is there a way in XBMC to remove missing files from the library without using the "clean" function in the menu, as this also removes all of my custom film information on some of the titles which aren't detected correctly by XBMC as the films that they actually are.

My library is re-scanned on startup and new files are added perfectly fine. I understand that having an option to remove missing files automatically at startup could be catastrophic as I expect I'm not the only one who stores all of their files on a network server rather than on the machine XBMC runs on, so if for some reason the file server isn't running or the network is down then XBMC would assume the files are missing and just delete the whole library.

It would just be nice if there was an option in the menu to remove missing files when you knew it was safe to do so. Thanks!

[PatK]

Deletions and moves within XBMC deserve a little explanation, what should be simple task would seem fraught with pitfalls for some. I'm not the best at simple explanations, so I'll just tell you how I do things, and throw a grain of salt over my shoulder.

Settings>Appearance>File Lists "allow file renaming and deletions" will allow selected videos to be deleted, (or optionally just deleted from the library) but will not delete the extras nor folder in which it resides. I often use this function when I need to get rid of the second part of a 2 part movie that I forgot to stack, and for me that's about where this function ends for me.

I have a lazy folder in which all new files are thrown, manipulated and scraped.. prior to inclusion in a more permanent status folder. I cleanup all new files with theRenamer (drag & drop) which creates a folder of the same name with date and XBMC scrape the new file into the library... now here is the 'trick' once you have a sufficient amount of new arrivals, you export to separate files. This export places a 'copy' of the backdrop, cover art, and metadata called .nfo into the physical folder (at this point you could edit the .nfo parms etc) but you would need to refresh the library locally for this new data to show up. (considering you've mentioned your custom set-up. I presume you're familiar with this bit).

Now for the move: I use an O/S file manipulator (explorer windows) and just 'move the entire folder' from it's temp spot to a new more percent location. Because it includes all the needed metadata and images, a refresh is done locally and in a second. A clean-up eliminates the old listing in the lib. If I'm simply replacing the existing video with a better resolution version, a simple copy over will suffice if it's the same kind of file (e.g. MKV but the change in res will not show until you refresh).

So the synopsis of all this is 'save your movies in folders of the same name with date' and 'export the library to separate files', re-scrapes are a breeze and it becomes an editable back-up should you forget and clean-up while your share is not online.