Archive:Official Kodi Remote Android/FAQ

Official XBMC Remote for Android

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions for Official XBMC Remote/Android.

Library works, but remote control does not work Link In 90% of all cases, you forgot to enable EventServer in XBMC. Additionally, you need to allow access from other computers - Yes, that's two options to enable (Under Settings -> Network). If the settings above are correct, then maybe the firewall where XBMC is running on is blocking it. On Windows, disable it to check. On Linux, type netstat --all | grep 9777 while XBMC is running to see if EventServer is accepting connections. If you need to explicitly open the port in your firewall, it's 9777 UDP. If you're port-forwarding packets to your XBMC box in order to access it via mobile internet, make sure you forward UDP port 9777 as well (see next question).

Can I use the remote with my 3G mobile internet? Link In order to do that, you probably first need to subscribe to a dynamic dns provider in order to map your IP address to a unique domain name that stays the same. Then you need to configure your router so it forwards UDP port 9777 and TCP port 8080 (depending on your settings) to the machine XBMC is running on. We strongly advise against this! For starters, it opens a door to everyone outside your LAN to your media collection. The basic HTTP Authentication won't protect you against a more sophisticated attack. Then there's the bandwidth. XBMC Remote downloads all artwork locally for caching purpose. Depending on your provider's data plan, this is going to be really expensive (and slow). So make at least sure you downloaded all covers via WiFi before you go outside.

Changing the volume Link Use the hardware volume button of your phone while running XBMC Remote.

Suddenly, all my library lists are empty! But it worked before! Link That's typically when some other client (or XBMC) changes the response format of HTTP API. In this case, exit the app and restart it. We won't add special support for this problem because HTTP API will be obsolete soon anyway and the new JSON API doesn't have this problem.

All the media lists are empty and have always been. Why? Link XBMC Remote accesses your media library. That means you have to scan your media into XBMC's library.

How can I compile the latest SVN version and put it on my phone? Link If you've never touched an SVN client or Eclipse you probably shouldn't do that. Otherwise it's pretty straight forward. Download and install Eclipse for Java Developers Download the Android SDK and extract it somewhere Install Google's ADT Plugin for Eclipse (also download all the SDKs with the plugin) Check out our source code Open Eclipse and import the project (project files are in SVN) Plug your phone via USB (driver must be installed) Run the project in Eclipse and choose your phone - it automatically installs. You probably need to uninstall the previous version though.

Can I get this on the Android Market? Link Yes, at https://market.android.com/details?id=org.xbmc.android.remote

Will this work with Boxee? Link The library won't, the remote probably will. We're going to look into better support soon.

Will this work with Plex? Link no.

Will this work on Phone XXX, OS YYY? It's all Java after all. Link If your phone runs Android, it will run. If it's something else, it won't. The programming language is one thing, the framework tightly coupled with the OS another, so even if your OS supports Java based programs, it unfortunately won't work.

What about on my X device's screen? They have different screen sizes than most other phones. Link Generally, they will run. However, there will probably graphical quirks now and then. We'll review and test on all kind of screen sizes before we release it to the market. Until then, please bear with us. If you own a Nexus One or a Droid with higher resolutions, we already supply hires graphics.

Where can I get more help? Link Official XBMC Remote for Android sub-forum #xbmc-android on irc.freenode.org

Where can I get more info? Link For installation instructions with screenshots, check here For general screenshots, check out the screenshot gallery. In case you haven't noticed yet, there is a Google Code page with more information For submitting bugs or feature suggestions, use the issue tracker. Or even better, you can fork our code at GitHub and request a pull, or simply add a feature request there.

How do I produce a log in case I got a crash? Link If you don't have a computer, download the SendLog app from Android market. It allows you to send your system log to an email address. Email it to yourself and show us where the error happened. With a computer, it's easier and faster. Plug your device, download and unzip the Android SDK and run ddms.bat in the tools folder. There you have it under LogCat. The logfile is kept on a phone for a while, so you don't need to reproduce a crash in order to get the log.

Using the remote control works, but library browsing doesn't. Link You may need to enable the HTTP server under network settings ("Allow control of XBMC via HTTP"). If that doesn't work, make sure no other program (torrent clients & co) sit on the port you specified. If you don't know how to check that, simply change the port in XBMC and in the remote's host settings and retry. Also try to remove login/password temporarily to see if that's the issue. If you're getting permanent network errors, open up the browser on your Android device and enter http://192.168.0.1:8080/jsonrpc and see if you get a message (adopt IP and port to the settings of your XBMC instance). If that doesn't work, then it's a generic network (or XBMC configuration) problem and the remote simply can't reach XBMC.