Below you will find answers to our most frequently asked questions:

Q: How can I tell Sapphire to skip directories when importing?

(Beta 5 or later)

Using the collection folders the main menu, find the directory you wish to have Sapphire skip. Access the ‘mark menu’ by hitting the right arrow on your remote. Select “Mark this Directory to Skip Import”. If you don’t see the directory you wish to skip, make sure you are browsing in the “all” (red gem) view. See controlling sapphire browser if you aren’t familiar with these terms.

Q: Sapphire keeps crashing when I browse – what gives?

First make sure you have the latest version of Sapphire.

Your metadata file might have gotten corrupted. Deleting your metadata file and re-running “Import All Data” will resolve the issue.

• On your AppleTV
  • First follow steps 1-4 in the Sapphire Manual under installing Sapphire Manually.
  • Now we want to remove the metaData.plist file. Using the terminal type: “sudo rm -r /Users/frontrow/Library/Application Support/Sapphire/metaData.plist”.
• On your Mac
  • You want to remove the metaData.plist file. To do this, delete the “~/Library/Application Support/Sapphire/metaData.plist” from your home directory.

Q: How do I uninstall Sapphire?

To uninstall Sapphire from your AppleTV:

• See steps 1-6 in the Sapphire Manual under installing Sapphire Manually.
• You may also want to remove the metadata and cover art. Using the terminal type: “sudo rm -r /Users/frontrow/Library/Application Support/Sapphire”.

To uninstall Sapphire from your Mac:

• See step 3 in the Sapphire Manual under installing Sapphire in Leopard.
• You may also want to remove the metadata and cover art. To do this, delete the “~/Library/Appication Support/Sapphire” folder in your home directory.

Q: Why are there several Importers; do I need to run them all?

Sapphire has several importing methods.

• Populate File Data – Tells Sapphire to examine all files, and remember the file size, length and other information that can be gathered from the file itself.
• Fetch TV Show Data – Tells Sapphire that for every TV episode, gather more information about this episode from the internet.
• Fetch Movie Data – Tells Sapphire that for every Movie, gather more information about it from the internet.
• Import All Data – Tell Sapphire to do all of the above importers at once.

Q: Why isn’t Sapphire on the ATVLoader?

Any plugin displayed though the ATVLoader has to be approved by a site administrator as being the real deal. Sometimes it takes them a few days before they get the change to approve new submissions (updated versions).

Q: How do I Identify Series Specials

Several TV shows have specials which are not part of the episode order, so a season and episode number can’t identify them. Sapphire gets around this by checking to see if the episode number starts with S (for special) and then doing a match on the episode title. This is contingent on TVRage containing the data (if it doesn’t, make and account and add it).

Some Examples (Only part following season/ep must match exactly):

• Battlestar.Galactica.S04ES1 Razor.avi (see Episode Listing)
• Doctor.Who.2005.3xS1 Time Crash.avi (see Episode Listing)

Q: Will XML files override Sapphire’s collected meta data?

Yes – Sapphire lets the XML files override everything. This is a mechanism for you to change the data if you dislike what the import tools retrieved from the internet. Any missing data from XML files is filled in with data Sapphire collected from the internet or from the file itself. See the manual page for more details.

Q: Can Sapphire deal with movies broken into two files?

Yes – The solution is to join the two (or more) movies into a single file.

See: Advanced

Q: Why aren’t the TV Show Virtual Directories displaying cover art?

The TV Show Virtual Directories are looking for their cover art in a different location.

Update: Beta 4.1 see Collection Art.

Q: I imported – the description and other info is there, but no art!

Most likely, Sapphire cannot write to the directory to store the cover art. Make sure the location where you stored your media isn’t mounted as read-only. The importer attempts to write posters and episode art to the directory structure, and so if it were read-only, then it will fail to write anything. You will have to mark them to re-import.

See: Advanced

Q: What happens to files that aren’t TV Shows or Movies?

They won’t be included in the Virtual Directories. You can still access them by browsing through the file system in the same manner as before, such as selecting “/Users/frontrow/Movies” in the main menu.

Q: I have more than one device running Sapphire do I need to import again?

Yes and No:

• No -If your devices share exactly the same mounted locations (such as two AppleTVs accessing a networked storage location). All you will need to do is copy the “~/Library/Application Support/Sapphire” folder to the second device.

• Yes – If your devices only share some locations (or they are mounted to a different path). However, if you copy movieData.plist & tvData.plist (in “~/Library/Application Support/Sapphire/” ) to the second device it will go considerably faster. These two files store the title (and poster) selections you made during the import process. Sapphire will only ask you about new files and files it didn’t recognize (where you selected “Not a TV Show” or “Not a Movie”).

Q: Sapphire is trying to import everything – what gives?

Make sure you have placed a check next to the mount points (collections) you want Sapphire to skip. If the importers continue to try and scan these paths exit Sapphire and try again.

You can also tell Sapphire which individual directories to skip. See This FAQ Answer for how.

See: Getting Started & Settings

Q: Sapphire didn’t recognize a file – how can I fix this?

If Sapphire missed a TV episode, First make sure it is listed on TVRage. Then make sure your file is consistent with one of the supported File Formats & Types.

If Sapphire missed a movie (already listed on IMDB ) try renaming the file something closer to the movie title. It will also help to remove unnecessary text from the file name.

Q: Sapphire didn’t find a poster for my identified movie!

Check and make sure IMPAwards has a poster for your movie title. If there is one (or more) please let us know here by selecting the component “Metadata – Posters”. Just Provide us with the IMDB link to your title.

Q: What are all these settings for?

descriptions for each of the settings.

Q: Is there something to help me rename all these files?

We recommend using A Better Finder Rename.

Q: I can’t find an answer to my question.

If you can’t find an answer to your question submit a comment to us. If we haven’t answered it somewhere already we’ll respond.

Q: Does Sapphire Support VIDEO_TS (the VOB format)?

We are currently only supporting VIDEO_TS (DVD) playback through beta 5 running on Leopard.

Q: How do I Install Sapphire?

We have added a Manual for Sapphire.

See:

• Instructions for installing Sapphire on the AppleTV.
• Instructions for installing Sapphire on a Leopard Mac.