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Kodi library integration is a hot topic as of late because users are comfortable with how easy it is to group your favorite movies and TV shows, but Kodi developers are moving away from the feature in favor of Trakt. Read on to find out why we think Trakt is a better solution rather than Kodi library integration!
At first glance, Kodi library integration is a nice feature. You can add any show or movie from a single Kodi add-on into your library, creating a quick shortcut that links back into that add-on. It saves you time searching for your show every time you want to watch an episode and saves a few clicks navigating through the Kodi add-on.
However, Kodi library integration is very basic and is a hassle to maintain the code. Kodi developers have been moving together towards more Trakt use and we think this is a great idea!
If you aren’t familiar, Trakt is an online service that allows you to add movies and shows to a library (called a collection) similar to the Kodi library integration, but it also does a lot more! Once you have an account setup, there are tons of Trakt apps so that you can keep everything organized from your phone! I use an app for the iPhone called SeenIt, but the official Trakt website maintains a list of add-ons that allow for Trakt account management.
Here are some reasons why Trakt is superior over traditional Kodi library integration:
Reason #1 – Trakt Support Goes Across Multiple Add-ons
The number one reason why Kodi library integration sucks is because it only provides a shortcut into the one single add-on you used to save a show to your library! This means that if Exodus ever stops working and all of your library is added from there, it is useless. When you add a show to your collection, you can view your collection in any add-on that supports Trakt. The only thing that changes is that when you are in Exodus, all your shows link to the Exodus stream select. Likewise, in Velocity all of your shows link to the Velocity stream select. Your Kodi library is automated for every add-on.
Reason #2 – Update your collection on-the-go
When you add a show into your Trakt collection, your collection is viewable in Exodus, Velocity, SALTs, or any other Trakt-supported add-on. You can always view your collection from your mobile phone app and add, delete, and edit on the go as you please and it will all be updated when you get home and boot up Kodi! You no longer have to spend a bunch of time in the Kodi menus adding shows to your library.
Reason #3 – Other Trakt features
In addition to being a movie and TV library, Trakt also comes with other features:
- Add TV Shows and Movies to your watch list and turn on reminders when a new episode is about to air
- Share what you’re watching with your friends on Facebook and Twitter and give everything a rating.
- A custom calendar so you can see when all of your TV shows air.
- Get recommended TV shows and movies based on your viewing habits.
Some of these features require other Kodi add-ons to be installed, such as the Next Aired add-on to know when the next new episode of a TV show airs. Keep your Kodi setup streamlined and move this functionality to Trakt, where you can get the information quickly on your phone without booting into Kodi.
Tip: Trakt Collection Shortcut
Create a shortcut to your Trakt collection inside of your favorite add-on and link to it from your Kodi main menu the same way your Kodi library integration works now and you get all of the benefits above with the same look and feel as the default library integration. Some skins, like Arctic Zephyr, provide an easy interface for setting up shortcuts on the main menu. In less than five minutes, I changed my TV Shows main menu shortcut to be my TV Show collection in Exodus.
Agree or disagree with us? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook today!
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Trakt is just painfully slow very very often. if an addon doesn’t offer library integration, which can still be synced with Trakt but not on every damn action, I don’t use it.
easy as that.
What we really need is a legal streaming service that allows kodi library integration AND which works seamlessly with trakt. Then we can use trakt as a collection manager and have kodi integrate streams into the library directly from Trakt.
Current streaming services often lack essential media in our collection and so we are then forced to keep this media stored locally and fiddle around with some sort of hybred library/streaming/trakt integration which becomes a full-time job rather fast.
As it stands the kodi=> trakt => streaming service solution is a non-solution, it’s a mess, works only half the time, and frankly it’s pushing people into illegal streaming services because of the hassle involved.
Oh well, guess i’ll just have to start a streaming service that solves all these issues and become a billionaire in the process… *sigh* it’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it right? I’m not looking forward to it, but I guess the collection of vintage sportscars, the mansion and the 1500$ hookers will keep me motivated.
Come on guys, this isn’t rocket science, get it together!
For the most part TraktTV has been a plus keeping track of my collection and announcing upcoming shows.
However, in the last week or so, any KODI Krypton menu item which may trigger a connection to TraktTV is painfully slow, like 30-60 seconds and possibly never connects and KODI just hangs. This continues on both my NVIDIA Shield and a Raspberry PI/LibreElec system both running KODI Krypton.
During these times menu items which do not need TraktTV like “Search” then launching from the returned results work perfectly fine.
At least SALTS displays an error and lets you continue.
crappy article and you should take it down
Question to dh82, or anyone who may know… If you import a Trakt list into SALTS, which then gets integrated into the library, the problem is that the process is a one time import, so when you add to your Trakt list, it doesn’t then get imported into the Salts, and subsequently to the kodi library. At least that’s the way I understand it. I only need the kodi library b/c I want to Next Aired to know what new episodes are coming up that I haven’t watched, and it’s reading from the kodi library.
Really, ideally, I want an app that will show me a list of unwatched episodes from my Trakt list.
Have the best of both worlds, use SALTS and you can still use the Library which is linked directly into TRAKT. Meaning they both go hand in hand, you get the bonus of using your library and seeing it on mobile or when new shows come in live and you can utilise TRAKT that keeps you all up to date. I wish Exodus did the same thing as I find it to be more stable, but the beauty is because TRAKT is used across multiple add-ons if you end up having to watch another show on another add-on it will update everywhere (including your library).
I am having trouble paying for a year subscription for real-debrid with PayPal, any recommendation on where this could be done according to your experience, if any.
Much obliged.
Anyone know to to integrate trakt with istream?
Anything that keeps track of your viewing habits, regardless of how “private” you may think you are, is not a good thing.
For instance. I can, just by going to the site without an account, find out how many people are watching movies that are currently in the theater, and therefore, impossible to be legally watching these same movies at home.
It provides me with a list of who is watching it. Sure some profiles are blank and un-clickable, but all some movie company has to do is ask for that information, and according to Trakt’s own privacy policy, they willingly comply with such requests.
So you think you’re private? Hmm… Not in the least.
MPAA bigwig: Hey Trakt, I want to know who has watched Superman vs. Batman between the period of MM/DD/YYYY and MM/DD/YYYY, including the ones that list their profile as private.
Trakt: Here are all the user IP’s that have done so.
Expect letters soon.
Regardless, trakt does have legitimate uses, but even that legitimacy invades my privacy. Why do you care what I watch and when? And why do I have to tell you?
BACK LIBRARY INTEGRATION LIKE IN GENESIS!!! IM NOT HAPPY WITH TRAKT!!!
All we want back library integration..
The old adage “If you aren’t paying for the product – you are the product.” is 100% applicable to Trakt and 0% applicable to the Kodi Library (an open source product).
So… who’s Trakt selling you to and for what purpose… and how will that change in the future.
Great article that explains the differences. Can you add a shortcut in Confluence to Trakt lists? I can’t find a way if so 🙁
Well there are some incorrect assumptions here in the comments. For one, saying Trakt will remove a show from your list when you watch it is incorrect. It only does this with the ” watchlist ” as it’ s meant as a to-watch list and doesn’ t need to show the lists you’ ve already started. For this there is a ” progress ” list on Exodus and a ” My next episode ” list in Salts. These lists will grant you quick and easy access to every singly show you have started watching which has aired unwatched episodes.
A second mentioning was that you need to use two platforms to remove a TV show movie from your trakt/library. Incorrect as well, Both Salts and Exodus have an option under their settings tab which states “Remove episode/movie from my collection when deleted from library.” When this function is switched on, the items you remove from your kodi library will also remove them from your trakt collection list. If you have also installed the Trakt List Manager, you can also remove items from other lists through kodi library simply by pulling up the menu and selecting Trakt Manager.
Also the privacy concerns for Trakt might be misplaced, Trakt is more private than a facebook account. You can go into your profile settings and place your profile of private. That way other people cannot see what you’ ve last watched or what progress you’ ve been making on a show. And unlike facebook, there is no way around these settings. The only people who can see your progress are the moderators and admins of Trakt itself and I highly doubt Trakt has any interest on giving out that kind of information to a 3rd party.
So yes trakt is a fine replacement for Kodi library intergration in several cases but it is also a lot slower than the Kodi Library. All these connections to trakt put a severe load on the server. And the larger your Trakt Collection becomes the larger the waiting time. I can completely imagine that someone with a weaker internet connection might not even get through on a busy moment. Plus the fact that trakt really isn’ t perfect… sure it’ s close but it isn’ t. There are bugs, there are incorrect informations coming from the sites they pull their information from seeing as it’ s like a wikipedia and can be altered by each and every one making a free user account. I love trakt, I love keeping my lists up to date but for reliable information about air dates I still prefer to turn to the ImDb. And it’ s hard to combine that with Trakt seeing as it doesn’ t let me set my own scraper for the information I rely on. Especially with Anime shows/movies.
What I don’t like about Trakt is that anything I want out of my subscriptions has to be deleted twice. Once in Kodi and again either in a browser or a phone app. And if I delete it in Kodi and don’t catch the other one soon enough, it comes back. It’s a bit of a pain in the ass to have to use two platforms to simply delete something I decided I don’t want to watch. Library integration was so much easier to use.
Trakt also removes items from your lists as you watch them. That doesn’t work well if you have more than one device and more than one person trying to watch the same things.
we cant use tvtunes anymore which works only with Kodi Library, that sucks!
I like IMDB and library integration. It lets me easily add shows to my library via the mobile app and the recently added content function lets me watch new episodes without flipping through endless context menus. Trakt has been an excellent way to back up my watch lists, but exodus+trakt does replace Genesis.
Before creating a Trakt account read this Reddit discussion:https://www.reddit.com/r/trackers/comments/2qwxpb/pirates_expose_their_download_habits_through_trakt/
+1 on need of such addon. Pulsar had an addon that worked a little differently (it would pull from Favourites).. but a generic addon that syncs any video source with Kodi library would be great. Not sure if you guys use smart phone remote controls… They also sync up with Kodi library, and are wonderful… Awesome…
Thanks a lot for the efforts though.. really really appreciate it…
I would not mind Trakt if it did not track me. My privacy is just that – private. I do not want to share my “viewing habits” with anyone but me. Plus, I do not know where all the content is coming from. I have no way of telling if it is pirated. Why should I put myself at risk like this? Seems like there is a great chance for another app (or improvement to Kodi) that can add a show to the Kodi Library and keep track of possible sources like Exodus (very well done mind you…).
I dont mind using Trakt, however; I want to be able to link it with library as well. Mainly bcz I can access the library through my cell phone remote, see whats there, and directly play the trailer or movie. How do you do that with Trakt? I already spent so many hours, and have not been able to find a way (trying to use Exodus, that doesnt have library support at all).
Wost of all you are stuck Trakt sort order of shows.
E.g American Dad sort order on Trakt is wrong according to scene and is one of many.
Trakt is not better than Kodi library. Because it doesn’t integrate with the Kodi library. When I turn on Kodi i can see all my shows right there in recently added. With the tvguide addon it has all my shows that come on on the days they come on and it’s right there as soon as i start Kodi. I don’t see how trakt is making my life easier when it’s not right there when i start up Kodi ?
Trakt integration is missing the progress part which is great in Library integration.
When a new episode is up, I can see it in the library as Recently Added.
The only way I’ve been able to shuffle and play random tv shows is with my library. is there any way to do that without a library?
Right, agree. Maybe it’s better but if the TRAKT goes down like it happened this weekend, you can use SALTS because it give an error and you can’t use it at all because you cannot get into addon and in Exodus you will have to use search for everything you need to see.
Using library gives you flexibility so user can choose what to use. Also in addons Trak watch list not all titles are available even though they are added to the TRAKT list. If I add “VOICE” UK but want to watch “VOICE” USA, last one is not showing up on addon TRAKT watch list even though it is added on TRAKT site. Same thing on SALTS. Seem that addons group by name and that’s why. Not very reliable, is what I am trying to say
Good article, but there are other advantages to library integration if you use it with the MySubscriptions context menu addon from Kinkin’s repo. You’re right that by default it will only link to a single add-on, but MySubscriptions allows you to use the context menu to play a show/movie in a bunch of other addons if the first addon doesn’t work. To me that is much better than going back through the menus to get to the other addon, looking for your show/episode/movie and trying again there. I’m sticking with SALTS purely for library integration, although I’ll install Exodus as an alternative as soon as Kinkin adds support for it in MySubscriptions. Trakt lists/collections are awesome, I agree – but even better when set up this way.
Also, it does update on the go as well. Once I set up movie/TV Show subscriptions in SALTS pointing to lists in Trakt, and then scanned those folders from the addon data directory for SALTS to the library, all I need to do to add something is add it to the Trakt lists I use for subscriptions. SALTS will regulary update my subscriptions (option is in the settings for library integration, and you can also choose to update the library afterwards). I set the subscriptions to update every half hour and boom, it’s in my library ready to use with multiple addons.
I’d say that’s about as close to perfection as it gets, I rarely have issues playing anything. I do use paid Real-Debrid too though so that certainly helps.