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Mavii · 2024-10-21, 02:43

I'm trying to export the artwork in my library.
I'm using the Export Library command from the settings menu.
I'm exporting to a single file.

Movies, Movie Sets, and Actors all have files in them.
Tvshows doesn't contain any artwork.

How do I get all the TV Show artwork to export?

On a separate but related note:

Does the "export library" function export all artwork, local artwork only, scrapped artwork only, etc.? I'm trying to see all the thumbs for my TV shows.
Is the "artwork dump" add-on available on the Xbox version of KODI? I don't see it listed in the list of add-ons.

At the end of the day, my goal is to get a copy of all the artwork that KODI uses (scraped and local) into a single folder, or even better, into sperate folders without having KODI copy all the files directly to my library. I want them to be exported to a different location, but "export library" to separate files doesn't give me an option to select a location. Only when I select "single file" do I get an option to choose a location.

**Karellen** · 2024-10-21, 02:59

(2024-10-21, 02:43)Mavii Wrote: I'm exporting to a single file.

Please don't use this or you will end up in a world of hurt Wink

Read the warning here... https://kodi.wiki/view/Import-export_library/Video

(2024-10-21, 02:43)Mavii Wrote: How do I get all the TV Show artwork to export?

It should just export with all your other artwork. How did you add the artwork to tv shows initially? Just via scraping?

(2024-10-21, 02:43)Mavii Wrote: Does the "export library" function export all artwork, local artwork only, scrapped artwork only, etc.? I'm trying to see all the thumbs for my TV shows.

It exports the cached artwork which is modified. If you select "Overwrite" then it will export all cached artwork and overwrite what is already there.

(2024-10-21, 02:43)Mavii Wrote: Is the "artwork dump" add-on available on the Xbox version of KODI?

Yes.
It is not in the repo as it breaks one rule about not directly accessing the database, othewise it would be in there.
You need to install it from rmrector's repo... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=360078
Don't export the cached artwork as it is an inferior copy. Use Artwork Dump to download the original artwork.
Be mindful that depending how old your library is, some artwork may no longer be available at the Providers, so you will end up with missing artwork. Can't be helped as that is outside of Kodi's control. You just need to visit the site and download the new artwork for the movie/tv show/episode.

Mavii · 2024-10-21, 03:32

(2024-10-21, 02:59)Karellen Wrote: Please don't use this or you will end up in a world of hurt
Read the warning here... https://kodi.wiki/view/Import-export_library/Video

My entire library is on a read only file share on my Synology. I do this on purpose to prevent accidental deletions, edits, etc.

(2024-10-21, 02:59)Karellen Wrote: It should just export with all your other artwork. How did you add the artwork to tv shows initially? Just via scraping?

I have both local artwork and the scraper gets everything else. I also use a combo NFO file (the one with some local info and a URL to point the scraper to the right movie on themoviedb.org).

(2024-10-21, 02:59)Karellen Wrote: It exports the cached artwork which is modified. If you select "Overwrite" then it will export all cached artwork and overwrite what is already there.

I don't let anything but myself to alter my movie DB. KPDI only has read-only access.

(2024-10-21, 02:59)Karellen Wrote: Yes.
It is not in the repo as it breaks one rule about not directly accessing the database, othewise it would be in there.
You need to install it from rmrector's repo... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=360078
Don't export the cached artwork as it is an inferior copy. Use Artwork Dump to download the original artwork.
Be mindful that depending how old your library is, some artwork may no longer be available at the Providers, so you will end up with missing artwork. Can't be helped as that is outside of Kodi's control. You just need to visit the site and download the new artwork for the movie/tv show/episode.

I will have to try this. Ultimately, I want all my artwork stored locally so that I don't have to worry about it going missing at some future date. Here is what I am trying to do:

Create a library using my movies/tvshows, local artwork, and nfo files
Export the library (scrapped artwork) to a second a location
Manually merge the scrapped artwork back into my local artwork

Maybe there's an easier way of doing this, but I'm paranoid to let anyone or anything but myself to make anything but manual edits to my movies and tvshow data on my synology

**Karellen** · 2024-10-21, 04:01

(2024-10-21, 03:32)Mavii Wrote: I want all my artwork stored locally so that I don't have to worry about it going missing at some future date

Good plan. That is exactly what I, and many others, do.
1. Scrape once
2. Allow Artwork Dump to download the artwork
3. Export to separate files for the nfo file which contains all the metadata.
Now you are set and don't need online access again for those items.
Everything for that movie is now contained in a single folder, and I can move it around easily if I need to.

(2024-10-21, 03:32)Mavii Wrote: Export the library (scrapped artwork) to a second a location

Yea, that is where it becomes difficult. Kodi is designed for related files to be kept in a single folder. What you want to do is spread the connected files into separate folders.

(2024-10-21, 03:32)Mavii Wrote: m paranoid to let anyone or anything but myself to make anything but manual edits to my movies and tvshow data on my synology

What sort of edits?
Kodi can't delete anything unless you specifically enable the setting "Allow Deletions", even then you get a warning first.
All it can really do is a database dump into nfo files.

**Karellen**

(2024-10-21, 03:32)Mavii Wrote: Ultimately, I want all my artwork stored locally

The MSIF folder stores artwork centrally, but this is because a Movie Set is virtual and different users treat them differently so it needed a central solution.
Have you set this up?
https://kodi.wiki/view/Movie_set_information_folder

Have a look at the images on these pages. They are from my own library and shows all the information stored locally with the video file.
https://kodi.wiki/view/Movie_artwork
https://kodi.wiki/view/TV-Show_artwork
https://kodi.wiki/view/Artwork/Episode

You might say it looks messy, but I will then say how can you store all artwork in a single folder. If I have 3000 movies and hundreds of tv shows and thousands of episodes... can you imagine all that artwork in a single folder or maybe two folders?
Then you have themes, subtitles, trailers, Extras. Do you want them stored centrally also?
It would be a nightmare to maintain.

Mavii · 2024-10-21, 05:06

(2024-10-21, 04:01)Karellen Wrote: Good plan. That is exactly what I, and many others, do.
1. Scrape once
2. Allow Artwork Dump to download the artwork
3. Export to separate files for the nfo file which contains all the metadata.
Now you are set and don't need online access again for those items.
Everything for that movie is now contained in a single folder, and I can move it around easily if I need to.

Yes, that is exactly what I want. I want a folder for each movie and tv show that is self-contained; so I never have to scrape a file for that movie or tv show again.
I also want to be able to edit certain details like title, sorttitle, plot, etc. Does Artwork Dump create an NFO I can modify? Does Artwork Dump allow me to save to a location of my choosing?

(2024-10-21, 04:01)Karellen Wrote: What sort of edits?
Kodi can't delete anything unless you specifically enable the setting "Allow Deletions", even then you get a warning first.
All it can really do is a database dump into nfo files.

Any edits. Even the thought of files being created inside my movie library on my Synology makes me cringe. I'm a VERY long-time user of the popcorn hour and have spent decades carefully writing every NFO file by hand, downloading artwork one file at a time, and then carefully naming everything correctly. I'm not joking. I have thousands of NFO files I created one at a time that all have the same tags, arranged in the same order, with the same indentations, etc. I really want to have total control of my files. For example, if I export my library to multiple files, does it put artwork in my folders?

izprtxqkft · 2024-10-21, 05:25

(2024-10-21, 05:06)Mavii Wrote: Any edits. Even the thought of files being created inside my movie library on my Synology makes me cringe. I'm a VERY long-time user of the popcorn hour and have spent decades carefully writing every NFO file by hand, downloading artwork one file at a time, and then carefully naming everything correctly. I'm not joking. I have thousands of NFO files I created one at a time that all have the same tags, arranged in the same order, with the same indentations, etc. I really want to have total control of my files. For example, if I export my library to multiple files, does it put artwork in my folders?

i can understand, i am very similar with my own library

Kodi wants to put everything side by side with the files, including artwork dump addon

what i do to prevent having kodi write anything which may or may not suite you is as follows

use a separate computer with kodi installed
create a dummy library folder (for kodi to scrape and export to)
inside the dummy folder create an empty file for a movie, kodi doesn't care if it's a valid video as long as it has the right extension
- windows "create new text file" rename to "movie name.mp4"
- linux "touch movie\ name.mp4"
(0 byte length is fine)

then you can scrape, export and edit to your content then manually move the art and nfo to the NAS when you are happy

- if you want separate folders then create the folder structure as you would on the NAS with the dummy files

-----

i've done that for a long time but recently wrote a python script to scrape directly from tmdb to nfo (no it's not public code) and download artwork, if you're into programming then you could look into create one of your own

**Karellen** · 2024-10-21, 05:56

(2024-10-21, 05:06)Mavii Wrote: I have thousands of NFO files I created

Could you post the contents of one of your nfo files to Kodi Paste Site. Let me see if they are Kodi compatible.
Yep, before you grumble, trust my experience. You may use those nfo files and everything will seem to work, then some unknown time in the future you will come back and say your library is corrupt. TV Shows are missing, episodes are mixed into wrong shows. etc...

And you should consider nfo files as having an expiry date. It is best practice to run regular library exports to keep the nfo files updated with your usage on Kodi.

Mavii · 2024-10-21, 09:25

(2024-10-21, 05:56)Karellen Wrote:
(2024-10-21, 05:06)Mavii Wrote: I have thousands of NFO files I created
Could you post the contents of one of your nfo files to Kodi Paste Site. Let me see if they are Kodi compatible.
Yep, before you grumble, trust my experience. You may use those nfo files and everything will seem to work, then some unknown time in the future you will come back and say your library is corrupt. TV Shows are missing, episodes are mixed into wrong shows. etc...

And you should consider nfo files as having an expiry date. It is best practice to run regular library exports to keep the nfo files updated with your usage on Kodi.

My NFOs are very simple. Not much more than the title, sorttitle, genres, plot, collection, etc. I've checked all the tags and they are compatible with KODI.

Mavii · 2024-11-04, 10:07

(2024-10-21, 04:01)Karellen Wrote: Good plan. That is exactly what I, and many others, do.
1. Scrape once
2. Allow Artwork Dump to download the artwork
3. Export to separate files for the nfo file which contains all the metadata.
Now you are set and don't need online access again for those items.
Everything for that movie is now contained in a single folder, and I can move it around easily if I need to.

I'm finally finding time to get back to this. What are the steps I should follow to get the self-contained folders you spoke of? I currently have each movie in a folder. Each movie contains the following 4 files.

The movie
The fanart
The poster
NFO

The NFO is very simple. It contains genres, plot, title, sets, etc.

I want to run KODI so that it scrapes all the necessary art and meta data. Then I would like to take all of that data and put the correct files in each movie folder without overriding the files that are already in movie folders.

Can you provide me instructions on who to do what I just described?
Will my original files be overwritten?
Will following your steps result in a new NFO?

**Karellen**

(2024-11-04, 10:07)Mavii Wrote: I want to run KODI so that it scrapes all the necessary art and meta data. Then I would like to take all of that data and put the correct files in each movie folder without overriding the files that are already in movie folders.

1. Scrape your library.
2. Install Artwork Dump via rmrector's repository... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=360078 and adjust the settings to your preference.
3. Run the addon so that it will download and save the original artwork that has been scraped. It will be saved next to your video files. Make sure to adjust settings so it does not overwrite existing.
4. Once that is done, run the Export to Separate files to export the nfo files. Answer NO to export artwork.

(2024-11-04, 10:07)Mavii Wrote: Will following your steps result in a new NFO?

Depends if you answer Yes or No to the prompt "Overwrite Existing files"
But, there is no problem overwriting your existing nfo files. Whatever is in them, is now in the library, right? So the Export will just export the same data, plus a bit more like stream details and play counts.

Mavii

I finally found time to try Artwork Dump. I got it to dump artwork, but there are no NFO files. Reading back through our messages, I'm not sure that Artwork Dump will dump NFO files. Does it do that?

I would like each movie or tvshow to have its own folder. I would like each folder to contain all the information for that movie or tvshow. This includes all artwork and all meta data for the movie, tvshow, seasons, episodes, etc. Basically, I would like KODI to never need to go to the internet again for any data once I get the movie or tvshow setup the way I want it (this includes extras).

What I did was:

1) I got the movies/tvshows to display exactly the way I want them to in KODI
2) I used ArtWork dump to get all the artwork saved to the individual movie/tvshow folders

How do I get all the meta data into an NFO file?
I don't understand your last step above. What did you mean by the following?

"4. Once that is done, run the Export to Separate files to export the nfo files. Answer NO to export artwork."

I don't see this as an option in artwork dump. Is this the Export Library function?

**Karellen** · 2025-01-13, 02:15

(2025-01-13, 02:00)Mavii Wrote: I'm not sure that Artwork Dump will dump NFO files. Does it do that?

No.

(2025-01-13, 02:00)Mavii Wrote: Is this the Export Library function?

See here... https://kodi.wiki/view/Import-export_library/Video

Mavii · 2025-01-13, 02:46

I'll try the export library later tonight.

I deleted a few artwork files, and I am trying to run Artwork Dump again. It doesn't appear to do anything now. I checked the settings to make sure that the tracking function is turned off. It should download all the artwork again and overwrite existing files. However, the files I deleted and expected to see return with subsequent runs are not being dumped again like I expected. Any advice?

Does Artwork Dump literally remove the artwork from KODI? For example, are the files not reappearing berceuse they are no longer in the KODI DB? Do I need to update the library again before I run Artwork Dump again?

**Karellen** · 2025-01-13, 03:30

(2025-01-13, 02:46)Mavii Wrote: and I am trying to run Artwork Dump again. It doesn't appear to do anything now

Yea, there is a database in the addons_data folder that keeps track which shows and movies it has already downloaded artwork for. It prevents scanning the same shows and movies each time you run the addon.
Delete that database.

No, Artwork Dump does not remove artwork. Are these the same files that you deleted?