Login at Kodi Home

Milhouse · 2013-08-04, 19:55

user is normally xbmc - I'm not sure what happens if you specify a "non-standard" user, probably nothing but there could be some sort of dependency in the creation/upgrade scripts which is why it's recommended to use "xbmc".

Assuming it's got nothing to do with the non-standard user, a debug log (wiki) is essential to help you any further.

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2013-08-09, 01:09

Heads up:

As of August / Alpha 7 cycle, the video DB version is now bumped to 76. This means library sharing between v12-v13alpha6 and v13alpha7+ will no longer work.

See version table (wiki) for a list of DB changes for which version/alpha/etc.

Barry D. · 2013-08-10, 01:19

Since I've added MySQL db and got it working correctly I noticed that .artist folders have been added to almost all of my several hundred movies. How did this happen and can I prevent it from happening again? I also noticed some other files have been added to the actual movie folder. I really don't want these files if I don't absolutely need them as they take up space.

I deleted a couple of the .artist files and it doesn't seem to effect how XMBC works so I am thinking I can go ahead and delete them all. Any easy way of getting rid of these files/folders?

Thanks.

~~Ned Scott~~ · (This post was last modified: 2013-08-10, 01:25 by Ned Scott.)

That happens during the export/import process when you move your library over to MySQL. Those are basically some of the backup files that were used to recreate the library on the MySQL server. They are no longer needed since the library has since been reimported, but they're handy as a backup incase something ever goes wrong. On most OSes, the period will make the folder invisible, so that it's not in the way.

I used to hate this, actually. I found it messy to have extra metadata files and folders all over the place. However, it really makes rebuilding the library easier. Even doing something like changing the files over to another server is easier with the exported data.

Still, yeah, you can delete them, and there should even be some tools that can seek out those folders and nuke them. What OS are you on?

Milhouse · 2013-08-10, 01:59

(2013-08-10, 01:23)Ned Scott Wrote: Those are basically some of the backup files that were used to recreate the library on the MySQL server. They are no longer needed since the library has since been reimported, but they're handy as a backup incase something ever goes wrong.

Surely the .actors folders contain all the cast artwork, references to which have now been imported into MySQL, and if you delete those .actor folders (and the artwork they contain), none of your other clients will be able to find and display the cast artwork (as the shared database will now be referencing non-existant files).

So if you want to view actor artwork in the GUI on all of your clients, you really need to keep those .actors folders, but if not, then delete them.

Personally I would prefer a single, shared, .actors folder for all my movies (located in the root of each source). The level of cast artwork redundancy is quite horrific with the current approach.

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2013-08-10, 02:25

I'm not sure if .artist works the same way as .actor, since I rarely touch the music side of XBMC, but yeah, I totally blanked that it would still be needed for other clients to pull from.

Barry D. · 2013-08-10, 02:33

(2013-08-10, 02:25)Ned Scott Wrote: I'm not sure if .artist works the same way as .actor, since I rarely touch the music side of XBMC, but yeah, I totally blanked that it would still be needed for other clients to pull from.

Ned and Milhouse, thanks for the quick replies. I did mean .actors when I said .artist.

As I mentioned I did delete those files for a couple of movies and I was still able to view cast for the movies where I had deleted the files so it doesn't seem to make any difference on the client side.

Two questions remain: Why the last 6 movies I added didn't have these files AND what tools can I use to make the job easier removing these files?

Thanks to you both for all the support.

Milhouse · (This post was last modified: 2013-08-10, 02:37 by Milhouse.)

(2013-08-10, 02:25)Ned Scott Wrote: I'm not sure if .artist works the same way as .actor, since I rarely touch the music side of XBMC, but yeah, I totally blanked that it would still be needed for other clients to pull from.

I'm assuming it's a typo from Barry D. as he's talking about movies and I know that XBMC will look for a ".actors" folder within each movie folder. To be honest I've never heard of a ".artists" folder in relation to XBMC, so if it is created by the export process when exporting movies, you could very well be right and it's totally unnecessary.

(2013-08-10, 02:33)Barry D. Wrote: As I mentioned I did delete those files for a couple of movies and I was still able to view cast for the movies where I had deleted the files so it doesn't seem to make any difference on the client side.

Yes, you'll be able to view the cast artwork on the client that imported (scanned/scraped) the library as all the artwork (including cast artwork if "Download actor thumbnails" is enabled) will have been cached locally, but it's unlikely you'll now be able to view the same cast artwork on another client that still needs to cache the cast artwork which no longer exists.

Milhouse · 2013-08-10, 02:48

(2013-08-10, 02:33)Barry D. Wrote: Two questions remain: Why the last 6 movies I added didn't have these files AND what tools can I use to make the job easier removing these files?

Don't know about the last 6 movies, but if you're on Linux: "find . -name '.actors' -type d -exec rm -rf '{}' 2>/dev/null \;" should work.

Barry D. · 2013-08-10, 04:15

Forgot to mention the host is W7U.

Dilligaf · 2013-08-10, 04:43

Browse to the root of your Movie folders, type .actors in the search box in the upper right corner, after it's done searching select all and delete

Barry D. · 2013-08-10, 07:33

(2013-08-10, 04:43)Dilligaf Wrote: Browse to the root of your Movie folders, type .actors in the search box in the upper right corner, after it's done searching select all and delete

What a handy tip. Learning something new every day. That did the trick very easily. Thanks.

johnyb · 2013-08-25, 12:25

I've lost hours trying to sort this out, and I'm about to give up... So giving this one more try before I resort to separate synchronized libs (boo).

I noticed the MySQL installed on OMV is V5.1.66 - Could this be causing a problem? In an attempt to see if this is the case, Im creating a temporary MySQL instance on my home PC - importing the library and seeing if that make a difference. (Ill post update on this later)

Really dont understand how two identical systems (both Revo 3610) connected to the same network via LAN, pointing to the same MySQL instance on a seperate OMV server, can deliver such different experiences. System (a) thumbnails appear instantly, (b) slowly if at all

Could it he a hardward issue? The new Revo I purchased 2nd hand, maybe this has a problem (but it seems to work ok otherwise).
Any other suggestions before I give up?

seninha · 2013-08-28, 17:37

Need some help here.
Got my database up and running as mentioned on this topic. Everything works perfect, stopping a movie i the living room and continue watching on my bedroom.
Perfect? Not yet.

I setup my system with two different profiles, My own and the one for the kids.

And now the problem. All of my movies are showed on the kids profile also.
If I go to Video and files I only see the source Kids Movies as it should. But somehow the system now also shows my movies and TV shows.

Is there a way to stop this?
I want to keep my own database shared to my bedroom system but not to my kids profile.

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2013-08-29, 12:30

You have to use two different MySQL DBs by using the <name> tag to create a different DB for the kids profile's advancedsettings.xml file.