[K0D1User1138]

Kodi v21 has begun randomly exporting -thumb files for some movies in my library. I use The Universal Movie Scraper and have no artwork selections checked as I curate all artwork myself. I can't find another setting for thumbs and can't understand why Kodi is suddenly exporting these files for some but not all media. I don't use thumbs for movies and don't need the files in the local folders for any reason. I've already gone through all my rives to delete what had been exported but Kodi has now exported even more and I am just confused.

[Karellen]

Kodi does not "randomly" export artwork when it feels like it.
Are you running an Export to Separate Files?
If not, then there is some other addon that is exporting it.
Maybe Artwork Dump?

[K0D1User1138]

Yes, I export to individual files to generate the NFO file because there is no other option within Kodi and this requires a full library export because Kodi can't export for just 1 individual item.. All other files are created/curated by myself and scraped into Kodi upon initial media scraping. None are thumbs for movies, only TV show episodes (which aren't the issue here).

I have no other add-on that I know of that handles media scraping, artwork or anything of the sort. Nothing I have added to Kodi so unless it's built into the add-on default Kodi 

Kodi IS randomly exporting thumbs for some media, not all media, and different each time. I have over 6000 movies. None use thumbs for anything. None of purpose made thumb files. Kodi just exported a couple hundred thumbs.

[K0D1User1138]

It may not be randomly new thumbs each export, it seems it's the same entries. Still randomly chosen. I've even removed an entire source and then re-scraped (without any thumb artwork) and still get the same thumbs exported.

[Karellen]

Yes, I export to individual files to generate the NFO file

Ok, so why are you answering Yes to "also export artwork" if you are collecting and curating your own artwork?
I hope you are answering "No" to overwrite otherwise you have probably overwritten all your original artwork with inferior copies.

I actually do similar to what I think you are doing.
I manually download the artwork I want from tmdb and fanart.tv
After scraping, I run Artwork Dump to download remainder of artwork. (discart, clearlogo etc)
I then run an Export to separate files for the nfo files, answering No to artwork and Yes to overwrite.
I then run a second export answering Yes to artwork; Yes to actors thumbs; then No to overwrite.
This allows me to get nfo files and overwrite existing nfo files in the first run.
Second run gives me the actors thumbs saved locally.

Make sure Extract thumbnails from video files is disabled... https://kodi.wiki/view/Settings/Media/Videos
But I think disabling it now will only affect all movies added from this point. Previously added movies will still have the thumbnail extracted and attached.

[K0D1User1138]

I only export artwork for TV Show thumbs and no I don't override everything. I've been doing this for over a decade of XBMC/Kodi use. I've never had this issue before unless I made an error in putting the artwork together or named a file incorrectly and then saw what happened and made that fix. Export is build into my custom skin, I don't go through the Kodi settings menu and don't need to make specific selections each time I export.

This isn't new media being added to the library, this is a selection of media that's been in my library for years and years and years. It's not ALL media it's only some, maybe 250-300 total? And none of that media has thumbs as part of it's artwork. This issue never existed in Kodi v18x and prior and has only begun since updating to Kodi v21. I can't find any other explanation other than it's just doing it, like I've found a few other issues that have only occurred in this version of Kodi around scraping and now exporting.

[jjd-uk]

Have you tried switching back to Estuary and activating export from there? since the issue could be related to your customisations.

[K0D1User1138]

Have you tried switching back to Estuary and activating export from there? since the issue could be related to your customisations.

I just did this, same result. out of 3070 entries on one network location 156 -thumb.jpg files were created. No discernable correlation between any of the random entries that get this action. Some media that has been recently added overall, some that's been in the server for a decade. 

Never had this behavior prior to upgrading to Kodi v21.

Very confused.

[K0D1User1138]

I have a suspicion that this relates to viewing items in the library for an actor as Kodi used to show the poster for the selected title but now seems to generate a thumbnail from the media source (which isn't defined by the skin action) and then exports those newly created database thumbs. Hoping there is a fix for this.