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technostreamer · 2018-09-10, 23:13

I have some slightly obscure movies and tv episodes that I'm trying to add to Kodi. When I let Kodi scan for the titles, it can't find anything. I have manually searched on imdb and on thetvdb.com and I can't find them directly on there either. As far as I understand, for things that Kodi cannot resolve to an actual thing, then Kodi won't show these titles in the top level Movies and TV Shows menu items. The only way to play these items is by going to Videos -> Files and then navigating to the actual folder they are contained in. However, I'd like to have it so that all the content I have is accessible via Movies and TV Shows. How can I get these to show up under the same menus?

I also have a number of videos that don't fall into TV Episodes or Movies. E.g. I have a few videos that are of interesting educational live talks. I'm happy to categorise these manually, but how can I add a new top level menu (like the Movies menu) e.g. Misc which contains these other types of video files? Is there a way to do this?

Thanks in advance

**PatK** · 2018-09-10, 23:26

You'll have to create a custom listing for each video using suggested methods in this Custom video entries (wiki) to get them into your library, then check this Custom home items (wiki)

**Karellen** · 2018-09-10, 23:30

Looks like you are diving into the deep end...

(2018-09-10, 23:13)technostreamer Wrote: how can I add a new top level menu (like the Movies menu)

https://kodi.wiki/view/Custom_home_items

(2018-09-10, 23:13)technostreamer Wrote: How can I get these to show up under the same menus?

You need NFO Files and Artwork wiki pages. Links are in My Signature below.

The easiest thing to do is Export your library to Separate Files (don't export Artwork if you have local artwork). This will create NFO Files for all the media in your library and will give you an idea where they are saved and what they contain. Then just copy one of the NFO Files and modify it to suit the new movie or tv show. See Import-Export in My Signature below.

technostreamer · 2018-09-11, 21:13

Hi, thanks for the help with this. Until now I had my video source folders as readonly but to do the Export as Separate files, I had to make those video source folders writeable from Kodi which is fine. I then did an Export to the video folders which created the .NFO file and poster image. However, I have a few questions

1. I made a quick edit to one of the .NFO files and I was expecting Kodi to pick up the change but it didn't, even after I clicked on refresh for new content or update library. It was only after I changed the content source to None and then changed it to Local Information did it pick up the information. Is this the best way to use the information stored alongside the video source?

2. For the videos that wasn't recognised by Kodi, I copied the .NFO file from another video and copied the structure, renamed the file to match the movie and also created a poster file too. This seemed to work okay. Again, is this the right thing to do?

3. So if I need to use Local Information as the metadata source, how will it pick up new content information as it won't use the TVDB scraper? Ideally, I'd like it to use TVDB scraper except for where I need to use an override in a .NFO file. How do I do this?

4. If I export all content to .NFO files for my videos, will it always now use that local information? What if before I created the export, it scraped from TVDB but there was a mistake on there and then I got an export of it .NFO which was being used as an override. If the TVDB info was corrected, then I'd never pick this up again.

Overall, I'm a little confused how I use TVDB scraper for my content with the .NFO only for overrides or the missing content.

**Karellen** · 2018-09-11, 21:30

The Kodi scraping process is as follows...
1. Search for the Movie / TV Show / Episode. Once found,
2. Search for the corresponding NFO File. If none exists
3. Use the Online source -ie your scraper.

So you do not need to have Local Information Only setting enabled to use NFO Files as Kodi ALWAYS looks for NFO Files first.

(2018-09-11, 21:13)technostreamer Wrote: I made a quick edit to one of the .NFO files and I was expecting Kodi to pick up the change but it didn't, even after I clicked on refresh for new content or update library.

NFO Files are not part of the Kodi system structure, so they won't be used unless specifically forced via a Refresh or Update Library depending upon your circumstance. Read here for the difference... https://kodi.wiki/view/Updating_or_removing_videos

(2018-09-11, 21:13)technostreamer Wrote: 2. For the videos that wasn't recognised by Kodi, I copied the .NFO file from another video and copied the structure, renamed the file to match the movie and also created a poster file too. This seemed to work okay. Again, is this the right thing to do?

Yes

(2018-09-11, 21:13)technostreamer Wrote: 3. So if I need to use Local Information as the metadata source, how will it pick up new content information as it won't use the TVDB scraper? Ideally, I'd like it to use TVDB scraper except for where I need to use an override in a .NFO file. How do I do this?

Incorrect. Refer my opening statement.

(2018-09-11, 21:13)technostreamer Wrote: 4. If I export all content to .NFO files for my videos, will it always now use that local information? What if before I created the export, it scraped from TVDB but there was a mistake on there and then I got an export of it .NFO which was being used as an override. If the TVDB info was corrected, then I'd never pick this up again.

Kodi will still use the library. Consider the nfo files a backup of your library. Whenever you rebuild your library, it will use your NFO Files, regardless of what your scraper setting is. If you don't want this, then just delete the NFO files.

technostreamer · 2018-09-12, 15:02

But this didn't match my own experience. What I did was the following:

1. Did a Kodi update using TVDB scraper.
2. Exported my library which added artwork and .NFO files along with my video sources
3. I edited one of the existing entries as well as add artwork and .NFO files to videos that didn't have them
4. I then did a full video library update on Kodi (this did not pick up the changes or the newly added metadata for video that was missing it)

I tried updating the library multiple times but it never updates. I even tried rebooting Kodi and then updating the library and it still didn't work. What was going wrong?

It only started working when I set the scraper to use None, do a library clean up and then set the scraper to Local Information and then do a library update.

technostreamer · 2018-09-12, 20:49

I have just confirmed, that the only way I can get Kodi to pick up local changes to the .nfo file is to set within Kodi the video folder to say the folder contains None (as opposed to Movies or TV series), this will then prompt me to remove the entry from the library. I then go back into the settings and re-select the folder contains Movies or TV series (picking TVDB as the scraper) and only then will it rescan picking up the local .nfo file settings. I can't seem to get it to update any other way.

**Karellen** · 2018-09-12, 21:42

(2018-09-11, 21:30)Karellen Wrote: NFO Files are not part of the Kodi system structure, so they won't be used unless specifically forced via a Refresh or Update Library depending upon your circumstance. Read here for the difference... https://kodi.wiki/view/Updating_or_removing_videos

_sigh_ You obviously did not "read here for the difference"

technostreamer · 2018-09-12, 22:36

(2018-09-12, 21:42)Karellen Wrote:
(2018-09-11, 21:30)Karellen Wrote: NFO Files are not part of the Kodi system structure, so they won't be used unless specifically forced via a Refresh or Update Library depending upon your circumstance. Read here for the difference... Updating_or_removing_videos (wiki)
_sigh_ You obviously did not "read here for the difference"

I did read that page and now understand it. However, in my defence the line "If you have changed the information inside a NFO File for an existing title in the library, this section will not update the library with those changes. You will need to perform one of the Refresh Library methods below." is mentioned in section 3 so the "below" keyword implies subsections of 3 (i.e. 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4). But it turns out it is talking about section 4. I feel it would have been clearer if it had said "one of the Refresh Library methods from section 4 below".

Anyway, thanks for the help, got there in the end.

**Karellen** · (This post was last modified: 2018-09-13, 02:14 by Karellen.)

(2018-09-12, 22:36)technostreamer Wrote: I feel it would have been clearer if it had said "one of the Refresh Library methods from section 4 below".

Sure. If you feel that it is too ambiguous, then hop on the community driven wiki and reword it. Smile

**Karellen** · 2018-09-13, 02:14

Thread marked solved.

technostreamer · 2018-09-13, 10:33

Thanks for the help. I have requested a Wiki account, if it is approved then I'll update that wiki page.