Music: "Various" folder and files keep disappearing from library

[phunzie 42]

have added new files, deleted and re-added others, updated metadata, and have done quite a few library updates, both manual and automatic, and am happy to report the problem folders have not disappeared...looks like you solved the issue with Album Artist view 

[phunzie 42]

very strange, but i have like 24 albums with intentionally mismatched Artist and AlbumArtist tags that now properly display in Kodi and no longer "disappear"...but there is still ONE album that still does...if i refresh metadata it will show up. but after a subsequent library update, poof it's gone from Kodi...but still ok in Emby server

 

[quickmic 1596]

I'll check that... Do you have a kodi.log?

Edited April 12, 2022 by quickmic

[quickmic 1596]

Is this still an issue with latest 7.x version?

[phunzie 42]

it didn't happen for almost 3 weeks even after many library updates, but then last week it happened again with the same album (West Side Story OST)...don't recall which 7.x version i was using....but at least i can say i haven't had any problems with any of my other compilation albums that have mismatched Artist/AlbumArtist tags  

now using latest release...will let you know if it happens again

 

 

 

[quickmic 1596]

3 minutes ago, phunzie said:

it didn't happen for almost 3 weeks even after many library updates, but then last week it happened again with the same album (West Side Story OST)...don't recall which 7.x version i was using....but at least i can say i haven't had any problems with any of my other compilation albums that have mismatched Artist/AlbumArtist tags  

now using latest release...will let you know if it happens again

 

 

 

Very strange, let me know if you find any pattern. It's almost impossible to debug without a specific test case.

Edited May 4, 2022 by quickmic

[phunzie 42]

yeah, i've been trying to find a pattern...at first i thought it was the mismatched Artist/AlbumArtist tags, but that's no longer causing an issue for any of my other files/albums

but maybe with the latest release it won't happen again

[phunzie 42]

well, looks like there is still a problem...today after a library update, my Various AlbumArtist folder (actually now named/tagged as "zVariousz") and the West Side Story ST folder disappeared from E4K, but still on Emby server....commonality of missing media is mismatched Artist/AlbumArtist tags....although not sure if it will tell you anything,  i'll send you a copy of my log

i'll also add that the "Emby Processing Updates" progress bar is also locking up...found the cause of the updates locking up...recently added mp3 with a very long file name, due to artist tag consisting of multiple artists...this was also causing iTunes to choke...fixed file name and tag, and now at least the updates are no longer hanging

 

Edited May 10, 2022 by phunzie

[phunzie 42]

both folders disappeared again yesterday, using 7.0.1 build 186

so now only using E4K-NG for Movies and TV, have manually set up Music source in Kodi....will let you know if this config. also experiences an issue  

[quickmic 1596]

Let me know if there is any pattern.

I'll review the code once again but without a specific testcase tackling this issue is very hard.

[phunzie 42]

i believe the "pattern" is when the Artist tag and the AlbumArtist tag are not the same....now why there can be multiple library updates/refreshes with no issues, then all of a sudden after an update the issue occurs, is still a mystery

 

[quickmic 1596]

On 5/24/2022 at 7:20 PM, phunzie said:

i believe the "pattern" is when the Artist tag and the AlbumArtist tag are not the same....now why there can be multiple library updates/refreshes with no issues, then all of a sudden after an update the issue occurs, is still a mystery

 

I think I found the reason. On Emby "Various Artists" can be different Items, while the plugin merges them together into a single "Various Artists" record.

You can check that by searching on Emby Server. e.g.:

 

I try to fix it in next version. btw, I restructured once again the complete music database. A full dbreset will be mandatory.

 

btw, this issue is not limited to VA. It could affect any Artist item.

 

Edited May 27, 2022 by quickmic

[phunzie 42]

but it's not really the term "Various Artists" that is causing the problem...i've been tagging the mp3s of compilation albums as well as misc mp3s with the ArtistAlbum tag of "zVariousz", specifically so as not to cause potential issues with Kodi/Emby if the term "Various Artist" is handled differently than other generic terms, plus i use the "z" prefix to make this miscellaneous folder last in my library...i should also note i intentionally do not have any audio files tagged with more than one Artist

i think the same problem of disappearing folders would also occur if i used any generic AlbumArtist tag like for example "Junk"....i believe the files eventually disappear because i have AlbumArtist =   zVariousz, but the Artist = the actual artist of the particular audio file...i think this discrepancy between the Artist and AlbumArtist tags is what's causing the add-on to drop these files from the library...the plug-in seems to choke with this scenario, but this scenario never causes a problem in Emby server nor in Kodi when i add the Music source manually without using the plug-in

and my West Side Story OST also disappears, which has the tags of Artist = Leonard Bernstein, AlbumArtist= West Side Story ST

and fyi, when i search Emby server for Various Artists, i get 0 results...but like i said, i no longer use that term as a tag for any files, nor do i have any files with more than a single Artist tag, so i wouldn't expect that search to find anything

[quickmic 1596]

Please try 7.0.2-build 12 or higher.

As mentioned, the issue is not unique to Various Artists". Actually, all records (even Album records) could be affected and I hope yours is actually related to that matter. Theoretically, the pattern of your bug report could match.

Fingers crossed...

 

Edited May 29, 2022 by quickmic

[phunzie 42]

updated to 7.0.2 build 12 and went back to using E4K to manage my music library....will let you know my experience

thanks for continuing to work on improving E4K 

[quickmic 1596]

I found some additional bugs in music sync, but not directly related to your reported issue. (will be fixed in next release)

May I ask, if you have still issues so far?

[phunzie 42]

no issues so far, currently using build 16….but in the past it sometimes took a couple of weeks and quite a few library updates before the issue presented itself, seemingly out of the blue…will let you know how it goes

Edited June 6, 2022 by phunzie

[phunzie 42]

....and they're gone  

using 7.0.8

 

[quickmic 1596]

Damn, did you capture a log when it exactly happen?

Edited June 14, 2022 by quickmic

[phunzie 42]

sadly no...i've shut down Kodi and restarted a couple times times since then...i'll add the tracks again and make sure to get the log next time

so to confirm, once i see the problem happen, i'll close kodi and send you the log?

 

[quickmic 1596]

8 minutes ago, phunzie said:

sadly no...i've shut down Kodi and restarted a couple times times since then...i'll add the tracks again and make sure to get the log next time

so to confirm, once i see the problem happen, i'll close kodi and send you the log?

 

Thanks, and no. Immediately copy the kodi.log and also kodi.old.log out from the box. You can stop Kodi, but DON'T restart Kodi, this will wipe the kodi.log.

kodi.old.log is the one before restarted Kodi.

In other words, kodi.log (Current Kodi session) and kodi.old.log (previous Kodi session). The rest of the logs are gone/overwritten. (sort of history)

If you rebooted Kodi just once after the issue happened, there is a chance it's still in the kodi.old.log. If you rebooted more than once, it's overwritten.

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by quickmic

[phunzie 42]

it happened again...the logs i'm sending you should be from the Kodi session when it happened, but not 100% sure...the only real activity i did with the music library was delete an unrelated artist folder from within Kodi/Emby

[quickmic 1596]

1 hour ago, phunzie said:

it happened again...the logs i'm sending you should be from the Kodi session when it happened, but not 100% sure...the only real activity i did with the music library was delete an unrelated artist folder from within Kodi/Emby

Thanks, I'll review the log.

btw, I found some (additional) issues related to music.  Crossing fingers, your log shows exactly the issue I already covered in my (internal) test version.

[quickmic 1596]

1 hour ago, phunzie said:

it happened again...the logs i'm sending you should be from the Kodi session when it happened, but not 100% sure...the only real activity i did with the music library was delete an unrelated artist folder from within Kodi/Emby

I see an issue related o native mode, but not related to the remove issue.

Did you update/remove artist: "Lamb of God (Burn the Priest)"

[phunzie 42]

yes, that's the Artist i added yesterday then removed soon after