Music navigation

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Home icon grey.png   ▶ Music library ▶ Music navigation
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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.

Frodo

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 edited the "Party mode playlist" item in the Playlist menu. Bring up the context menu and select "Play in party mode". You can do this for any valid playlist.

Context Menu

In the default configuration you pop up the Context Menu using the 'C' key on your keyboard. If you are navigating XBMC using a remote control, the default button is, for some releases, the 'title' button. If your remote control has no 'title' button then you may need to remap the ContextMenu action to another button.

File mode

The context 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 or (Play using...)
Plays the selected file. (Play using... depends on players available on your platform e.g. PAPlayer or DVDPlayer
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.
Delete
Delete selection from your sources (will delete actual files) Must be enabled in Appearance Settings.
Rename
Rename selection to something more to your liking. Must be enabled in Appearance Settings.
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

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.
Change scraper
Change scraper from current. see also: set content
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.