Music library

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Template:XBMC wiki toc Inline The Music Library, one of the XBMC databases, is a key feature of XBMC. It allows the organization of your music collection by information stored in your music file ID tag, like title, artist, album, genre and popularity.

Library.music.fanart.WSCR.jpg

Adding music to the library


Scanning your music

To scan your music collection into the Music Library, first make sure you are not in 'Library Mode' (checkmark on the left). Next browse to the location of your music collection and brings up the The Context Menu menu with various options. Select the option labelled "Scan item to database". XBMC will then proceed to scan the selected music source in the background into the database/library. Once the scan is complete, you can browse your collection by selecting 'Library Mode'.

Navigating your library

Side bar

The library organizes your music into many categories, allowing you to find a specific song using one of many possible criteria. Below you can see root menu showing the different sections.

View
You can the toggle between the different display options, amongst others; List, Icons and Big Icons.
Sort By
You can choose what criteria to sort your music by. Note the arrow to the right which controls whether the items are sorted in ascending or descending order.
Library Mode
This control allows you to switch between Library Mode and File View. (used to be called Switch View)
Party Mode
See below.
Misc Options
Search
You can search for a string anywhere in the XBMC music database, see more below.
Filter
Allows you to filter the library to only show albums, artists or songs that include the specified string in the name.
Hide Fanart
Hides Fanart in the chosen view.
Small Fanart
Shows a smaller version of the fanart instead of a scraped artist picture.

File mode

File mode is the most basic way of browing your music. In file mode, you browse through your sources folder by folder, in the exact same way they are stored. What you see in file mode is the same as you would see if you were to browse the folders on your computer.

Library mode

The library mode is much more advanced and has many more features than the Files View. It has features like song, album and artist info to name a few. In order to utilize library mode, you first need to scan your music into the Music library using the #Contextual menu.

Searching your Library

The search button is available on the left side of the 'Music' window, and is also available in the root listing of your music library. Select it to begin your search. A keyboard will pop-up where you may enter search terms (SMS style with the remote, or just using the virtual keyboard). As you enter more letters, the search will be performed in the background, and results displayed in the search node of the music library. Previous searches are saved, so if you return to the search node later on, it will have the results of your previous search. Artists and Albums are shown on top, followed by matching songs. If the search string you enter is less than 3 characters, XBMC will just search in the first word of each artist/album/song. Otherwise it will do a full word search. NOTE: In order to search within words as well as just for words beginning with your search string, place a % sign in front of the match.

Party Mode

The Party Mode option allows you to randomly play music from your entire music or music video collection based on criteria specified in PartyMode.xsp. Simply build a Smart Playlist and save it as partymode.xsp in The UserData Folder.

Selecting 'Party Mode' from the sidebar will play ALL valid media scanned into your libraries in a random order that meet the conditions specified in the Smart Playlist.

Contextual menu

File mode

The contextual menu allows you to interact with the individual media items. The following options are available whilst in File Mode, selecting an album:

File:Context.files.mymusic.jpg

Queue Item
Adds the item to the Now Playing playlist
Play
Plays the selected file.
Add to Favourites
Adds the item to your Favourites menu.
Album Information
Displays information about the item from allmusic.com. You can also highlight the item and press the Info button on the remote.
Scan Item to Library
Scans the item into the the Music Library. Performing this on a folder will cause every item in the folder to be scanned.
Switch Media
Allows you to switch to playback of other types of media (e.g. video files).
Go to Root
Takes you to the "Music" root folder.
Now Playing...
Takes you to the Now Playing screen that shows what is currently playing and what the next queued files are.
Settings
Opens the Music Settings menu.
Other possible menu items
Search
Allows you to search for specific media
Delete
Deletes the item. Must be enabled in Appearance Settings.
Rename
Renames the item. Must be enabled in Appearance Settings.

Library mode

You perform actions on your music files using the Context Menu. In Library Mode selecting an album, the following options are available:

File:Context.library.mymusic.jpg

Queue Item
Adds the item to the Now Playing playlist.
Play
Plays the selected file.
Add to Favourites
Adds the item to your Favourites menu.
Album / Song Information
Shows the relevant information from allmusic.com.
Query Info For All Albums
Queries information from allmusic.com for all albums in the path.
Update Library
Checks if files in the Library have been changed, added or removed, modifies the database accordingly and runs a cleaning routine. Adds missing media to the database.
Go to Root
Takes you to the Music Library root.
Now Playing...
Takes you to Now Playing screen that shows what is currently playing and what the next queued files are.
Settings
Opens the Music Settings menu.

Karaoke

See: Karaoke

Playlists

See: Playlists

Music Library Settings and Maintenance

The main Music Library settings can be accessed from the Library tab in Music Settings. Those can be accessed either from the Settings menu from the home screen, or via the context menu as seen above.

advancedsettings.xml

Some settings can only be altered through the advancedsettings.xml file, such as settings affecting the "All" database nodes and they way tags are displayed.

Clean Music Library

Cleaning up the Music Library (removing invalid entries and compressing)can be done via the User Interface Settings, in the Music Settings with the Clean Library option.