Clean up the Thumbnails folder

***See 2nd post for my script to clean up unused thumbnails and fanart***

My Thumbnails folder is growing larger and larger. I'm guessing a lot of the images in there are no longer used, as i have a pretty high turn-around rate for my library content.

Is there any standard way to determine which images in the userdata/Thumbnails folder are no longer used? Or some process to clean them out?

If there isn't a standard way, I will attempt to do it myself, but i need some help. I need to determine what all the valid hash's are, so i can determine which ones can be removed. To do this, I need to determine the CRC hash for every item in XBMC's library that can have a thumb/fanart image.

So far I think I know:

• Movies, episodes, and music videos use the actual path to the file to generate a CRC hash, for example "smb://server/share/videos/movie/Avatar.mkv" = 1c145e0e. Fanart is stored under the fanart subfolder using the same hash.
• If the video is a multi-part video, the name only (e.g: stack://part1.ext , part2.ext...) is used to generate the CRC (the path string is ignored)
• Actor thumbs use the "actor" + [actor name] to generate the CRC, for example Jane Lynch = "actorjayne lynch" = 9f309464
• Album thumbs are (usually) [album]+[artist] and are also stored in the database under the strThumb field.
• Album/song thumbs may be taken from a folder.jpg image, and may be generated from the folder path or the song path. More info here on album/song thumbs.
• Artist fanart is generated using the literal artist name, for example "Metallica" = b18ea041.
• Artist thumbs are generates using "artist"+[artist name], for example Metallica = "artistmetallica" = 0a2d8dbc.
• Video Bookmark thumbs store their path in the thumbnailImage field in the database. I'm not sure how it is originally generated
• TV Show seasons use "season" + [path_to_show] + [season_label]. See here for details
• TV Show banners/fanart use the literal path to the show, for example "smb://server/TV Shows/Lost/". Fanart is stored under the fanart subfolder using the same hash.
  

I need to figure out:

• Are there any other image types I'm missing that get stored in the Thumbnails folder?
  

I plan on deleting all auto-xxxxxxxx.tbn images since they can be recreated automatically if XBMC needs them.

Thanks!

Well, I ended up writing my own script that cleans up the thumbnails directory.

I had 31,563 thumbs/fanart before cleaning up.
After cleanup, I have 12,967....Much nicer
I've been exploring XBMC for a while now and have not found any thumbs missing

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Here is my script. You can use it to clean up your own thumbnail directory:
Download XBMC Thumbnail Cleaner - v1.1 (Dharma Compatible)
Download XBMC Thumbnail Cleaner - v1.2 (Eden Compatible)
***Currently no Frodo compatible version is available or planned***



Details:

• This script will delete unused thumbnails, fanart and textures in the userdata\Thumbnails directory.
• It can be run in simulation mode if you'd like to test it.
• It uses data from XBMC's video/music/texture databases, as well as the JSON-RPC interface to get a list of all thumbs that are still used by the libraries. Any thumbs that are no longer used are deleted.
• Any auto-xxxxxx thumbnails will be deleted since XBMC will automatically re-create them if they are needed.
• Written in Java. Tested in a Windows environment.
  

Disclaimer:
If you are not running in simulation mode, I recommend backing up your Thumbnails directory, in case something goes wrong, you can easily revert.
This has only been tested when XBMC's language is set to English.

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If you have problems, please paste your log and ThumbCleanerConfig.xml to pastebin.com and reply here with a link to them.
Here is what a normal log would look like for reference: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=5cd6WEYf (v1.0 log)

***Note:
If you are not running this on a Windows environment, you must specify the path to this program's directory as a command line parameter when starting.

Cheers,
BradVido88

you can use the fileitem.py in my logo downloader script to get hash and path

ppic Wrote:you can use the fileitem.py in my logo downloader script to get hash and path

Thanks. I'm not developing in python, but could still be useful for cross-checking.

Edit: for anyone who need to quickly check XBMC CRC hashs, you can use this on windows: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=116861

bradvido88 Wrote:Well, I wrote my own script that cleans up the thumbnails/fanart.

I had 31,202 thumbs/fanart before cleaning up.
After cleanup, I have 11,936....Much nicer
I've been exploring XBMC for a while now and have not found any thumbs missing, so I must have properly determined which CRC hash's are still valid and which can be purged...

If there is much interest in the script, i'll post it.

I am definitely interested in your script! I have the same problem as you and my thumbnail directory is getting way too big (over 3gb). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Add me to the people looking for a solution to this problem. My Thumbnails folder has grown exponentially over the years. I have upgraded my NAS a few times and I've also renamed a few items. It's too bad XBMC can't do this on its own.

Yes, come on guys send your Thumb clean codes. I want to use it

@ppic come on write one for us with python also

Ditto.... speed and space are always on the forefront when I look deep. Trouble is I get lost, end up wandering into plugins.

looking for the script too. thumbnail directory here is over 8gb.

OK, I'll clean out the hard-coding and post it when i have a chance.