[hurricane51]

I can't figure out how the Subfolders work in the Video menu. I choose Folder 1 and type in the source name and label. However, when I click on the subfolder entry it takes me to a list of Movies, TV Shows, In-progress TV Shows, Recently added movies.......

However, if I add the source to Favorites, I can use the Favorites shortcuts in stead of Folder shortcuts.

I seem to be missing some basic knowledge, but my searches weren't successful.

[PatK]

Eeps, not really sure what your actions are; but perhaps reading this and what I stumbled through, you could gain some enlightenment. When I first started out, I didn't quite understand that the 'Video' button really should have been called 'file maintenance mode button'. The concept of folders, or hierarchy of files (what I was used to from the PC world) is not part of how Kodi does it's job. In the end all your sources and files are combined into one large flat file, available when you click on the button Movies, Music, or TV all the rest is more or less icing on the cake. Using tools within Kodi (Playlists, Tags, Nodes, Filters etc) takes this mountain which is your library and attempts to categorize and put some order to this pile and with playlists like recently added, random, sets, filters etc, especially trying to take advantage of all the meta-data the scrapers have gathered.

So Kodi in large part is the 'library' and all the content in the big pile (outside of the fact that it is also a media player). But as Kodi gained popularity with more users that didn't scour the wiki's for operational information, the more the 'Video' button was used as the player and the big complaint by new users is 'why do I have no movies when I click on the movie button'. Once they understood that the movies had to be scraped into the library, trivial things like improperly scraped files based on nomenclature became their next hurdle. So instead of tackling this issue directly, clicking on the 'Video' button to get to their source was enough, but they bemoaned the lack of meta-data.

Skinners hearing this plea have given this 'Video' file mode just about all the capabilities of the library 'movie' button and if the meta-data is present will utilize that too. Now we get to your issue, and creating multiple and perhaps a hierarchy of folders. I'm as guilty as most in that I too have 36 separate sources (folders you can say) but I'm well aware that Kodi will put all of this mountain which is my library into one flat file. Within any specific folder I may have a sub folder (lets say and animation folder and then a sub-folder within called Disney, and then a further sub-folder called Pixar and within that an even further sub-folder called Toy Story and within that, the videos etc.) There is really no need for this kind of organization, as Kodi handles all of this well with the tools and add-ons provided. But because I have this organizational bug, and because it was needed to keep file listing speedy, and the for the ease file maintenance, I kept the folder structure to some degree. Scraping still works fine, sub-folders pick up art from the first file or if provided the poster, fanart within the root of that folder. You should set the scrapers at the top source as default.

Re-reading your question after having my coffee, seems you are having difficulty with sources. So you click on add-videos, browse to the source of the folder, then give it a name. At this point you should have a requester pop-up that offers to scan into your library with your scraper? Once everything is all good (that source can be added to favourites) just clicking on the listing will take you into it. Kinda wordy... but in all this might be your salvation.

[hurricane51]

Well, that's not really my problem. It's taken a few years but I now organize things with an eye to what Kodi likes. What I use the Videos button for is those files that fall outside the easily indexed media content, like commercial movies, TV series, CD Music, etc.

Things like sporting events, miscellaneous videos and videos clips are unindexed and I access those using the Video button, and there aren't that many folders, maybe 5. To be sure, there are subfolders, but the parent folders are the source for all of this content and I'm happy with these 5 parent folders. And these 5 folders have been added to Kodi as sources with the type "None" and excluded from Kodi's scanning.

Everything works fine as it is, but when the user clicks the Videos button, he/she sees the sources for Movies, TV shoes, Music Videos, etc and it's tempting to launch everything from that list instead of the main menu. I'd just as soon keep prying eyes away from there if I can. (I'd even like to "hide" selected sources from the average user, but I can't see a way to do that.)

So one solution is to create sub menus for the Video button just like for Movie sets. So I go into Settings | Menu | Video | Submenu and see a list of 5 Folders and 3 favorites. It seems intuitive that since I have folders I should select Folder 1. Even more intuitively Kodi prompts me for the SOURCE NAME (let's call it Sports). At this point I am sure I am doing everything properly. Typing in Sports for both names does indeed create a submenu button but it does not open the source. It opens to a list that I haven't run across, but that it of no use to me (see my first post).

If, however, I add the Sports source to my Favorites, I can simply add that favorite to one of the three submenu items and Voilà! But there are only 3 favorite submenu items.

So what the heck are the Folder 1-5 submenu items for

[PatK]

Ah.. I see the light... forgive my early misunderstanding, I thought you were talking about something else. But I think this is what you wanted to ask about?



You've discovered one of the great extras in T!, in this you can set a path to a source 'outside' the library, as you can see pictured the first source is my download folder which isn't part of my library set-up at all, yet I can get to play anything in it with this feature as long as my path is correct to the folder specified. The next are links to entire drives with content that is largely watched and I've taken out of Kodi (storage drives). So hopefully this casts a bit of light on these 5 listings and answers your question.

I must confess, I've never tried Kodi as sources with the type "None", perhaps another area to explore.

P.S. I've discovered that the add-on called Super Favourites will direct link all of this with artwork, but without meta-data and will allow me to categorize within these non-library listings with locks if needed, so I've created sub genre listings of all of this.

[hurricane51]

It all becomes clear to me! The "Source Name" should probably be labeled "Path", but since I couldn't find any complaints or questions about this I'm either brain dead or few users are using it.

I started using Super Favs about a month ago, but I use it for the Internet radio stations. And they just upgraded it to make it even more flexible so that might be a solution as well. Since it doesn't appear to have any limits on the number of items you can place their categories it seems an ideal add-on.

Thanks for all your help!

[JohnWPB]

Thank you! I had tried a few times in the past to set this up, simply for "Home Movies" and I was never able to get it to work!

Who knew source name actually was where you were supposed to put the PATH TO THE FOLDER!

It probably would have been helpful to label it better, or at least browse to the desired path.