Reinstating my media library
#1
Hey all.

Getting fed up with how slow my win 7 xbmc PC was running, I decided to reinstall windows and the latest 13.1 from the homepage. My library was in a pretty messed up state, after a botched attempt using thumbnail cleaner to downsize my 26gb of thumbs. It left me with blank thumbs and all kinds of hiccups when rendering the new ones. A reinstall I thought, would do the trick.

I've never had 100% success with exporting then importing libraries when updating my xbmc. Often times, the same problem happened; gaps in artwork. I know now that this was due to the textures.Db file.

Adding 300+ movies and 60+ tvshows to the system again would be a pain but I thought for better or worse if get the result I want.

And happily enough, adding movies has been very quick (might be as I'm using the efficient confluent default skin) but even though I have folder.Jpg posters in ALL of my movie folders, xbmc has grabbed a poorer-quality one from a website. I had a look but I could not find the option to prefer the local folder.jpg. Now I have the lovely task of right clicking each movie and browsing for the folder.jpg

I recall an option at the movie info page which downloaded extrafanart images as well. iirc, it stores them in a sub folder if the folder is writable of course. mine were/are and so those backdrops ARE there but the skin (aeon Nox) is not cycling through them; it's just showing one. Is this a skin limitation or is something messed up?

As you mighty have guessed, im using nox5 now. It's said to be a lightweight skin however I'm seeing what I assume to be system performance issues. For example I'm browsing TV shows at the season episode level, and the thumbnails after not changing as I browse. Eg, I am browsing tvshow Africa and it is still displaying episode thumbnails from they last show I browsed ("24"). I'm hoping my library thumbnails aren't messed up already.

I did backup my old libraries anyway because I knew something like this would happen... If i want to use them (import). What's the BEST way of deleting the old libraries entirely including thumbnails etc beforehand? -it's never been clear to me what 'clean library' does in the xbmc settings. Why don't we have an option to delete library entirely and street from scratch? (An option selectable from within xbmc) to avoid all the problems of leftover thumbnails and texture files)

Regards.
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#2
If you have previously exported your library as single files, then XBMC would have placed an xml file for each media file, in the same folder as the media file itself.

When subsequently re-importing your library, it is using these exported details - if these were screwed up in the first place, then you're re-importing this screwed up data.

So - do a search on your media shares for "*.xml" - and delete them all. **THIS WILL LOSE ANY "WATCHED" STATUS**

Also, delete your MyVideosXX.db and TexturesXX.db files from your XBMC userdata folder (at "%appdata%\XBMC\userdata\Database")

<Edit> You said that your backgrounds are "folder.Jpg" - they [b]must[b] be called "folder.jpg" (with everything in lower case) </edit>

Now, when you start XBMC again, you'll have a fresh database, and XBMC will now retrieve all your required information direct from the internet - this will take longer than your library scans previously - but that's a good thing, as it proves you're using the internet.



The "Clean Library" option will scan for any files which were in your library but have subsequently been deleted, and remove them from the listings in the library.
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#3
there's an advancedsettings option to say folder.jpg > poster.jpg (as poster.jpg is the default name)
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#4
(2014-08-06, 11:07)PantsOnFire Wrote: Why don't we have an option to delete library entirely and street from scratch? (An option selectable from within xbmc) to avoid all the problems of leftover thumbnails and texture files)

Regards.

I was under the impression that if you delete the scan folders and then re-add them that this has the effect you are asking about. (So, if you only have few it's very easy.) However, I'm no expert, so others feel free to correct me.

B.
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#5
Thanks for the Info's ConfusedTA, greatful for someone to help me out in understanding the library.

Martijn, thanks for he info on the folder.jpg. For the record, mine were always called 'folder.jpg'. My android phone just decided to make the 'J' in uppercase! He he.

Just my opinion, but Martijn, don't you think the option to prefer local folder.jpg should be in the main program settings than in an XML? Small issue really but...
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