Hi, I am having this error message "Unable to connect to remote server. Would you like to continue scanning?" in Kodi 17.6 and latest Widows 10. This has occur before, maybe 2 weeks ago, and then it started to work again and scan my movies. Than today this started again. Before that Kodi have worked just fine for year about scraping movies. Is this a problem at my side? In that case does someone know what I can do?
Thanks Captorx
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Reply by Travis Bell
on August 4, 2021 at 6:42 PM
Hi @Captorx, there are no reported issues from any of our 13 monitoring locations around the world.
"Unable to connect to remote server" is a pretty generic error and without knowing the specific error you're getting, I don't know if I can provide much more useful feedback.
Where are you located? What do you see when you go to these URLs in your browser?
Reply by Captorx
on August 5, 2021 at 12:05 PM
Hi Travis, Thank you for answering. I am located in Sweden in the city named "Malmo" in the south. And I want to say that I did a try right now by starting Kodi and now it worked! All movie scanned now. It works flawless again. I had the same problem2 weeks ago. That time I could not scan for 2 days and then suddenly.... it worked fine again! Very strange! And now same again. It is working fine! Maybe some internet problem?
Here is what it said on the 2 URLs you sent me. Same in both:
status_code 1 status_message "Success." success true remote_address "85.228.196.237"
May I ask another question or should I start a new discussion? 2 weeks ago (When I had the problem with the old Kodi) I did try the most new Kodi (ver. 19.4 I think it was) and the strange thing about that was the scraping did not work well at all. Only about 20% of my movies were found at TMDB. With the old Kodi 17.6 all 100% movies were found. But not with the new Kodi. What do you think about that? Strange? Or is it just the movie namings that is not correct? Downloaded movies have all sorts of information in the file name. But the movie name and date in the beginning is always correct. OK, I did not accept 20% only so I turned back to the old Kodi and then the scraping worked 100% again. Have they changed something within Kodi so Kodi is more sensitive in newer versions? I mean the old Kodi works about scraping why should not the new one do that too.
Reply by Captorx
on August 5, 2021 at 12:06 PM
Oh, by the way, can I attach printscreens here? I could not find that.
Reply by ticao2 š§š· pt-BR
on August 5, 2021 at 3:12 PM
Maybe Kodi's Scraper isn't the same in both versions.
I know Kodi has several Scrapers.
Team Kodi made 4. And people say Python is the least troublesome.
List of Addons
1 TMDB Movie Scraper or The Movie Database
Author: Team Kodi
https://kodi.tv/addon/movie-information/movie-databasehttps://kodi.tv/addons/leia/metadata.tvshows.themoviedb.org.python
https://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:The_Movie_Database
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=339672
2 TMDB TV show Scraper or The Movie Database
Author: Team Kodi
https://kodi.tv/addon/tv-information/movie-databasehttps://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:The_Movie_Database
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=200504
3 Python TMDB Movie Scraper or The Movie Database Python
Author: Team Kodi
https://kodi.tv/addon/movie-information/movie-database-pythonhttps://kodi.tv/addons/leia/metadata.themoviedb.org.python
https://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:The_Movie_Database_Python
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=344580
4 The Movie Database Scraper Library
Author: Team Kodi
https://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:The_Movie_Database_Scraper_Library
5 TheMovieDb Helper
Author: jurialmunkey
https://kodi.tv/addon/plugins-video-add-ons/themoviedb-helperhttps://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:TheMovieDb_Helper
6 ExtendedInfo Script - Rate media
Author: phil65
https://kodi.tv/addon/context-menus/extendedinfo-script-rate-media-itemshttps://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:ExtendedInfo_Script_-_Rate_media_items
Reply by Captorx
on August 6, 2021 at 3:23 AM
Yes, the scraper is not the same. After Kodi ver. 17.6 there is this new Python 3 scraper. But still I wonder why that find less movies than the older scraper. It should be the opposite. However you have been kind and supplied me links that I will look into more closely. Some of them are not working anymore but there is probably a good reason for that. I will for sure look into the other links that work. Maybe I must have some other setting. But I have for not not tampered with the settings as I was thinking the originalones probably work. Thanks for your response!
Reply by Captorx
on August 6, 2021 at 6:54 AM
Hi, I have installed the latest Kodi 19.1 again and Kodi can only find 95 out of 389 movies with the The Movie Database Phyton. So it is about 25%. I have also tried with The Movie Database (not Phyton) and got same result about 25%. When I use the old Kodi 17.6 about 100% is found with The Movie Database (not Phyton).
Is it possible to attach print screens here? I would like to show filenames. One example: "A.Family.Man.2016.1080p.BluRay.x264-PSYCHD. This one is to be found with old Kodi but not with the new.
Reply by ticao2 š§š· pt-BR
on August 6, 2021 at 9:26 AM
From what you say, certainly Team Kodi introduced a modification in Scrapper, from 17.6 to 19.1.
So here on the TMDb forum you might not find much help.
Perhaps the Kodi forum is more productive.
No, it's not possible.
You can put in the cloud and post the link to the image.
In this example of yours I have identified the problem.
Movie Year setting criteria are different between TMDb and IMDB.
And in some cases the year established by TMDb is 1 year after that established by IMDB.
So, in this case, the year of the movie on TMDb is 2017.
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/375183-a-family-man
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1718924/
In TMDb = the year is determined by the year of release in movie theaters.
In IMDB = the year is determined by the first exhibition, even if it is a festival.
It may be that they are configured differently.
If in your movie folder there is an NFO file, then
The Kodi 17 may be fetching the data from the NFO, using the ID and fetching the TMDb.
Kodi 19 may be fetching data directly from TMDb, using Title and Year.
EDIT
PS: In time, thanks for reporting that there are broken links on my list.
I've already done the correction. :-)
Reply by ticao2 š§š· pt-BR
on August 6, 2021 at 9:40 AM
When I used Kodi, I set it to first fetch data from the NFO file that is in the movie folder.
If NFO doesn't exist, then Kodi uses Scraper to search TMDb.
It's probably still possible to do this setup on Kodi 19.
And I used the MediaElch program to scrape and create the NFO file in the movie folder.
I also downloaded Poster, Fanart and Cast images.
Reply by ticao2 š§š· pt-BR
on August 6, 2021 at 9:56 AM
I think it's good to add the term KODI to the title of this conversation.
For example: KODI - Unable to connect to remote server
It should make it easier for other users with the same problem.
Reply by Captorx
on August 7, 2021 at 7:28 AM
Dear Ticao, Thanks for answering! I have already tried to talk to the Kodi community about this. But it loo9k like no one there know the answer. The conclusion from that is to use FileBot and rename the movies folders. No one can answer why the old 17.6 is better in scraping then the newer ones. It is like buying a new car. I would not like to replace my old rusty slow car with a new one that is even more rusty and slow. Why go backwards in the development of Kodi? Anyway, no answer there.
Here comes a paste of some of the films that Kodi not finds information for. I mean not the new Kodi but the old Kodi 17.6 finds it all... https://pasteboard.co/KeLQTbH.jpg
I have renamed "A.Family.Man.2016.1080p.BluRay.x264-PSYCHD > "A.Family.Man.2017.1080p.BluRay.x264-PSYCHD (2017 instead for 2016) but Kodi still not find. I then renamed to "A.Family.Man.2016.1080p.BluRay.x264-PSYCHD, still not find. I then renamed to "A.Family.Man.2017" and still not find again.
I have done the same for the movie "12 strong". Same result with that. I attach nfo-file for that movie here: https://pasteboard.co/KeM529a.jpg
Screenshot of the 2 renamed movies comes here: https://pasteboard.co/KeM5N2d.jpg
I have also tried to take away the year at all. Same result.
So I still dont think it has to do about the date. And the different date method between IMDB and TMDB is same weather I use Kodi 19.1 or 17.6 right? So the result should be the same but it is not. The old Kodi finds all the new finds 25%.
Reply by ticao2 š§š· pt-BR
on August 7, 2021 at 10:30 AM
I like mysterious cases.
I'm a curious old man, but I'm not a code programmer.
No doubt there was some modification from 17 to 19.
CLEAN NAME
Considering your test, maybe they don't use the Year.
Certainly they use some RegEx to "clean up" the title before sending the API Request.
I don't know if they use Folder name or Media File name.
Then test it out by renaming the Folder with a name "Clean":
CACHE
Maybe they introduced the use of Cache.
See here https://www.themoviedb.org/talk/5f9dbd98bc8abc003932c658
In this case these tests are impaired.
You will need to wait 24 or 48 hours between one test and another. :-/
NFO
This is an endless fight.
No NFO files made by Rippers follow the NFO File rules.
I never use the ones that come with the movie. I rename the file by adding "RIPPER"
This NFO example of yours does not contain the TMDb ID or the IMDB ID.
I'll try to create one for A Family Man and post the link here.
Link can only be used once.
If it doesn't work, let me know.
Everything was translated by Google. Therefore, they contain errors.
Reply by ticao2 š§š· pt-BR
on August 7, 2021 at 11:02 AM
NFO file for A Family Man movie
https://file.io/OqjWFe1cQZ3K
Reply by Captorx
on August 8, 2021 at 10:08 AM
Hehe, I know about that. I am curious myself and also old:-)
Clean Name I have already try that and it did not help, sorry. I have tried with different movies.
Cashe OK, that is good to know. I have tried several times with maybe 2-3 days between trying. I have both Kodi's installed. The old with normal installation in C:\Program files (x86) and the new Kodi in another folder as a portable installation so that it not intefere with the old Kodi. So I try sometimes when I new idea comes up.
NFO I can try that. But the link you sent was deleted already so nothing there.
Other Scraper I have tried other scraper also now. First was TMDB Phyton 3, then TMDB, Then Universal Movie Database and not FilmWeb. But no different. The first 3 was same result 95 out of 389 movies. FilmWeb did not show any result at all.
FileBot Maybe I should do what they are saying at the Kodi forum and try the FileBot software and rename all movies. But I think that is a lot of work because I have more than 1000 movies and some TV-shows as well. I beleibe I must rename them one by one. No batch renaming possible I think. That is what made Kodi so good before. Easy about scraping.
Other Maybe I should try other software than Kodi now that they have downgraded it. Do you know any other nice software for movies? I have hear about Plex. Is that nice?
I have another software name JRiver for my music. I know that I can have movies in that as well but I like to have movies and my music separated. But sure I could give it a try later: https://jriver.com/
For now I can continue using Kodi 17.6 but maybe later, down the road, it will not work anymore and that time it would be nice if having another software or if new Kodi is working about scraping.
OR, the last resort: I can use Kodi without scraping but that is a little bit dull :-)
Reply by ticao2 š§š· pt-BR
on August 8, 2021 at 10:12 AM
New Link https://file.io/oT3dgnU7h3XC
Reply by Captorx
on August 8, 2021 at 10:31 AM
Thanks! OK, I have tried now and it still did not work. I have also tried with different years 2017-2016 and with no year at all. Both in NFO-file name and folder name. Nothing helps, sorry. See attached: https://pasteboard.co/KeWKrow.jpg