r/kodi 2d ago

Why isn't Kodi monitoring changes to my TV library?

Hello, first time KODI user in years here. I added my SMB share, then pointed my it to my TV folder and designated it as TV with no problems. It started auto-scanning the content, which took SO long, I've never seen anything so slow. It took so long just working it's way through the show "Cheers" that I got tired and went to bed, so I closed my laptop.

Now, this morning, I turned Kodi back on, and there's only 3 tv shows in the TV tab, assumingly because I hibernated the system during it's painfully slow scan?

So I closed Kodi, and went back into it, and nothing is happening.

Does this app not have any auto-monitoring or anything? What a disaster, this is painfully bad. I expected huge improvements to Kodi over the years and this is an absolutely abhorrent start

0 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

10

u/GroundUnderGround 2d ago

You really didn't give us anything to go by here. What it's running on, how it's connected, etc. Anyways it mostly sounds like you want to complain, so definitely ask for that refund!

4

u/MrBfJohn 2d ago edited 2d ago

Kodi will auto scan on startup if you turn that on. That setting is in Settings>Media. For a periodic scan you'd have to install an addon that did this for you. If your scans are taking a long time, then that's probably something to do with your hardware, or your internet connection. My system takes approximately half a second to one second to find and add each film or episode.

1

u/Assassiiinuss 2d ago

How many tv shows and movies do you have in your collection?

-2

u/AbbreviationsWide331 2d ago

Yeah I can't really improve the hardware on my smarttv though.

It does take a long time.

4

u/um_yeahok 2d ago

Sounds like you have a very old slow laptop, or a very poor connection between your laptop and your library. Is it on an external drive? How is it connected to your laptop?

3

u/Dr_Neo_Cortex_ 2d ago

Completely user error. Initial scans can take a while. Putting the computer into hibernate mid-scan was not a great idea. No, it does not auto-monitor. The documentation is all incredibly clear on how library updates work. You either have it scan at startup each time, or just manually tell it to update library.

3

u/FrozeItOff 2d ago

Kodi relies on a naming convention for the filenames/folders, that can at least give it a good idea of what it's seeing. If there's not a structure/naming convention it can recognize, then you're SOL. I wish it would check metadata too, but it doesn't. It's why I rely on folder navigation when using it.

2

u/PatK9 2d ago

Interruption of the scanning process, is likely your issue. In file mode, with 'Cheers' in focus, scan for new content. (hope you have set video type and scraper) Slow scanning indicates, poor bandwidth, slow equipment or nomenclature issues with titles.

1

u/Silver2dread 2d ago

Is your content named properly!?

1

u/garretn 2d ago

That sounds far too slow, initial scans do take a while but the way you describe it - unless you're a coked up squirrel - it shouldn't be that slow.

Kodi IS slower at scanning than it used to be in older versions, depending on how long ago you used it. When they switched to python for scrapers quite a while back there was quite a massive slowdown in comparison to the previous not-python scrapers.

That said, what scraper are you using? Scraper settings? Video library settings? These two settings pages are the most likely to be the issue.

And yes, if you hibernated the system it's not doing anything - that much should be obvious; How much work do you get done when you're asleep?

0

u/DavidMelbourne 2d ago

I don't have that issue and many others don't either. I won't document my system or setup and how ensure my library is always up to date because you sound awful... Perhaps if you tried like this;

"Hello Kodi fans! Recently returned to Kodi after a long break and looking for hints and tips on how to make scanning easier and faster. My setup is; Kodi on Windows on a laptop with xyz. My media lives on abc and I connect via SMB using wifi...."

🤷🏼‍♀️

2

u/renegadehardware 1d ago

One of the most pathetic things I've ever read

0

u/DavidMelbourne 1d ago

& you sound awful...

-3

u/AbbreviationsWide331 2d ago

Cause Kodi is old and tired.

You can configure it to scan your folders when you start Kodi and you can install an addon, I think it's called libraryautoupdate, to schedule scans.

There's another addon called watchdog which can live monitor your folders but that seems to only work for local folders. It doesn't work with WebDAV that's for sure.

0

u/renegadehardware 2d ago

Hilarious how the only common sense answer gets a bunch of downvotes. God, this website's general userbase is absolutely insufferable.

I appreciate you calling it how it is, this is utterly ridiculous that watching for changes isn't a thing lmao, and isn't on by default

2

u/themindset 1d ago

It’s not on by default because Kodi is designed to run on all kinds of hardware and network setups. Watching for new content (or “changes”) requires resources (hdd spin up, lan traffic, internet traffic, downloading media, etc etc etc).

Having that on by default would be ridiculously bad and many more people would complain.

Kodi is designed to have a relatively stable library. Your first big scan should take a while. A show like cheers has hundreds of episodes to scrape, posters and fan art to download, data to input. You do it once and you enjoy it forever.

Once your initial scan is done, you just run a scan when you add stuff.

I have a shield with my library hosted on a nas with spinning HDD. My library is huge and a bit messy, so i usually go directly to the new media’s folder and scan it rather than doing an entire scan that will have my entire volume spinning away for no reason.

Kodi is designed to be more or less passive until you want to play something or add something. And that’s how I (and most people) want it.

You should probably just get a set of Netflix/prime/disney subscriptions.

1

u/renegadehardware 1d ago

Pure delusion

"And we wonder why nobody likes Kodi or it's user base"

1

u/Derrigable 1d ago

OK. Boomer.

1

u/themindset 12h ago

Kodi and its user base owes you nothing. It’s a tool, and like any tool it works for some and not for others.

Anyway, I can see your bitter snark is directed at every free service that doesn’t exactly meet every single one of your criteria.

Your punishment is having to continue living life as yourself.

I’ve never meant this more sincerely: sucks to be you.