[michaeljc70]

I was having some freezing issues that didn't seem hardware related so I decided to rebuild my PIs since it has been a long time.  I'm using Libreelec 8.25/Krypton. I have around 25k audio/video items and it takes days to rescan them and get the metadata.  My question is what can I do to avoid that?  Things I think might work are:

-Export library metadata to media folder.  I looked at this: HOW-TO:Backup_the_video_library (wiki) .  However, I had previously exported the library so I don't know why it takes so long now. 

-Restore backup of Thumbnails/Database folder from old install.

[Klojum]

Doing a Video library export (using 'separate' files) will create .nfo files next to each video as well as relevant thumbails/posters/et cetera. So when rebuilding your library, all metadata and such is already available and thus unnecessary to be downloaded (again) via the Internet. Making things go lots quicker.

One usual problem though when using an SD card in a Raspberry Pi... The RPi itself is already a slow device, but write speeds of SD cards tend to be awful as well, also causing a slow library build-up.

Other than that: make regular backups of your Kodi databases.

[michaeljc70]

Doing a Video library export (using 'separate' files) will create .nfo files next to each video as well as relevant thumbails/posters/et cetera. So when rebuilding your library, all metadata and such is already available and thus unnecessary to be downloaded (again) via the Internet. Making things go lots quicker.

One usual problem though when using an SD card in a Raspberry Pi... The RPi itself is already a slow device, but write speeds of SD cards tend to be awful as well, also causing a slow library build-up.

Other than that: make regular backups of your Kodi databases.

 Thanks for the reply.  If I do a rebuild, can I copy the old thumbnails and database and library folders to the new build?  I am not sure how they are linked and if that would work. The media files are in the same location (NAS).

[Klojum]

can I copy the old thumbnails and database and library folders to the new build? 

Only when the full path (including file protocol) to the videos in the kodi library remains the same. Thumbnail names are created via hash calculations, so any deviation in the path will result into a different name and thus thumbnail.