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RoccoJones · 2015-06-16, 00:22

I seem to have figured out how to put my own album artwork in the library, but what I can't do is get the artist artwork to appear everywhere I want it. It seems to appear in most places, but it doesn't appear as the background when playing that artist's music. It seems as though the only artist artwork it will show is what's to be had from the scraper. Is there a way of putting my own?

**scott967** · 2015-06-17, 02:41

Different skins have different options as far as what art to show. Typically in the background some sort of "fanart" image is shown. To set it you focus on the artist in one of the views and then pull up the artist info dialog (keyboard "i"). You have option to select remote (online) thumb and fanart (as scraped) or browse for local art. Note that the artist info dialog is only available if the artist has been scraped. Otherwise the current artist scraper is called.

scott s.
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RoccoJones · 2015-06-17, 02:46

I think we have a different idea of what my keyboard is. I forgot to mention that I have a Raspberry Pi, so my keyboard is the laptop from which I access the web interface using Chorus.
In any case, I'm sure that in some cases the artists weren't scraped.

**DaveBlake** · 2015-06-17, 18:43

From my bundering around (and hitting similar problems to you) I think the answer you need is:

folder.jpg for album thumb inside album folder (or embed in each track file)
folder.jpg for artist thumb inside artist folder
fanart.jpg for artist fanart inside artist folder
extrafanart folder in artist folder with all extra fanart images (1920x1080 preferable)

Preferably in place before you load into music library, I have had some odd problems trying to change it later.

If these don't exist when artist/album loaded into music library then using the "scraper" will try and find some. I get the artist info dialog up using context "button" on the Kore remote (probably as much help as telling you to use "i" on keyboard!). Or if you are trying to change art after loading you can use this to pick the local file but only if the scanner knows the artist otherwise you seem to get stuck in a loop. Sad

HTH

RoccoJones · 2015-06-19, 04:48

Fanart.jpg, eh? Well, I already had folder.jpg for the artist, but now I've made a link from fanart.jpg as well, it hasn't made a difference. But maybe I don't know what you mean by "before you load into music library". Do you mean I'd have to set that up before a rescan detects any of the material (mp3s, images and all)? In some cases, I'm definitely dealing w/artists that are not recognized by the scraper.

**DaveBlake** · 2015-06-19, 17:36

(2015-06-19, 04:48)RoccoJones Wrote: But maybe I don't know what you mean by "before you load into music library". Do you mean I'd have to set that up before a rescan detects any of the material (mp3s, images and all)?

Yes, my experience is that if the correctly named files are in the right place before Kodi scans that artist for the first time it all goes smoothly. But if you do what I did - scan with some artwork missing - then it can get twitchy about finding the art that you add retrospectively.

Quote:In some cases, I'm definitely dealing with artists that are not recognized by the scraper.

Same here. Have you hit the endless loop yet when trying to use "artist info" to add an artist thumbnail? It seems that there is a long standing bug that is difficult to catch and reproduce. I was stuck with 7 artists that it would not let me link the thumbnails I had added as folder.jpg, for artists that the scraper could not find. Then one day it let me do 6 of them? Scraper still not locating them but no endless loop. Finally, just when I thought I had something reproducable to report to support, it let me add the 7th.

It is weird, and would be great if this area of Kodi received some attention. The scrapers are great, but if you want control of the art it seems to require quite a bit of faff.

RoccoJones · 2015-06-19, 20:17

Ah, ok, I think I got it under control now. I managed to figure out how to get the artist information, w/the "Discography", the "Refresh" and the "Get fanart". It just requires a different image than what I'm using, so I made one and now have my fanart.
I don't think I experienced anything that would be an endless loop. I might notice a permanent reduction in performance if I had one, but I've never had it seize up on me when working w/the music library. Maybe my music library isn't used as heavily as yours.

**scott967** · 2015-06-19, 21:25

My work around is to run an SQL tool against the music library that looks for null entries in the artist and album tables "lastScraped" field and plugs in the current date. Once I do that I have access to the info dialogs. I still need to open each artist or album info and add the local art to thumb or fanart. I wish there was a "recently added artist" view or sort which would make it easier.

scott s.
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**DaveBlake** · 2015-06-19, 22:18

(2015-06-19, 20:17)RoccoJones Wrote: I don't think I experienced anything that would be an endless loop.

It occurs when you attempt to bring up "Artist Info", it asks for artist name repeatedly rather than bring up the dialog. If it doesn't happen then good for you.

Thanks for the SQL tip Scott. Funnily I just had a look at the database in SQLLite and decided that I would have another look if I got the unkown artist loop problem again to see if I could notice anything special. Have done DB work before so it is no problem.

helta · 2015-06-19, 22:30

just hit escape if you are in the "endless loop" for future reference.

**DaveBlake** · 2015-06-20, 11:51

Can I confrim that having got the music artists artwork all looking as I want - either liking what was scraped, selecting different art or providing it locally in folder.jpg or fanart.jpg - if I scrap again (Query all artists) then it will not be overwritten? Do I need to take care if I upgrade Kodi? Currently running Isengard Beta so will be going to release at some point I guess, will I need to backup the art selection and how to do this?

Being a bit of a control freak I like the look to stay as I want it! Almost tempted to manually grab the scraped art and make all art local (on the NAS drive with the music). Could I automate that somehow?

**DaveBlake** · 2015-06-26, 13:07

Tripped over the answers myself, so here they are in case some other nubie needs them.

Quote:Can I confrim that having got the music artists artwork all looking as I want - either liking what was scraped, selecting different art or providing it locally in folder.jpg or fanart.jpg - if I scrap again (Query all artists) then it will not be overwritten?

No rescrapping does not overwrite selected artwork.

Quote:Do I need to take care if I upgrade Kodi? Currently running Isengard Beta so will be going to release at some point I guess, will I need to backup the art selection and how to do this?

There is a Backup addon, it saves all the thumbnails etc. so just use that.

Quote:Being a bit of a control freak I like the look to stay as I want it! Almost tempted to manually grab the scraped art and make all art local (on the NAS drive with the music). Could I automate that somehow?

Have not done it yet but it seems that export to separate files will create .nfo files for everything and saves the scraped artwork.

whitebelly · 2015-06-27, 00:29

(2015-06-19, 22:30)helta Wrote: just hit escape if you are in the "endless loop" for future reference.

And if you don't have ESC on your remote, instead of pulling out a keyboard I have found you can delete all the characters then hit done and you'll get out of the loop as well.