Archive:All platforms FAQ

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▶ All platforms FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions for Kodi that apply to all versions/platforms/OSes.


General

About Kodi

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Installing Kodi

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  • See Installation and select the OS for your device for installation instructions.
  • The current stable build of Kodi is Kodi v20.5 Nexus.

Uninstalling/fresh installing

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  • To completely uninstall Kodi, or to preform a fresh reinstall, you will need to delete the userdata folder and the containing Kodi ("xbmc" on older installs) home folder that holds the userdata folder, in addition to deleting/uninstalling the Kodi application.

What version am I running?

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  • In the default skin go to: Kodi main menu > System > Lower submenu > System info
  • For a nightly build, note the build date.

First Time User

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See: First_time_user

Sync the Kodi library between multiple installs

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See: Syncing and sharing

Controlling Kodi

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See: Remote controls
See: Keyboard controls

Switching between windowed and full screen

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  • To toggle between windowed mode and full screen mode, press the \ button on a keyboard. (This, or any keyboard button, can be assigned to a remote control button if you wish. See Remote controls for more info.)
  • If you have backed out of a playing video and see it behind the GUI, you can toggle back by pressing Tab .

Can I stream Kodi from my PC to my TV using DLNA/UPnP?

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  • Kodi has some support for this, and more is planned for the future. Normally Kodi is meant to be ran on a computer/supported-device that is directly connected to the TV by a video cable.
  • Some files can be shared from Kodi using the built-in UPnP server and files scanned into the Video library. Kodi will not currently transcode any files, so only file formats that your TV/device can natively playback will work. This will only work with video (so you won't see Kodi's GUI) and currently does not work with add-on content.

Can I install Kodi on a PS3/4, Xbox360/One, or Wii/U?

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  • Not to be confused with XBMC4Xbox, which is the continued effort to run Kodi on original Xbox hardware.
  • Nope. The required reverse engineering (to get access to the video acceleration hardware, among other things) has typically not happened on any of these game consoles. Further more, no one on Team Kodi has expressed an interest in attempting to port Kodi to those platforms, which would be a huge undertaking.

Does Kodi still run on the original Xbox?

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  • Team Kodi no longer officially supports the original Xbox, but the group over at XBMC4Xbox does.

Videos

How do I add videos with summaries and that show up under "TV Shows" and "Movies" on the main menu?

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  • Kodi has the ability to create separate Movie, TV Show and Music Video libraries that can display your collections in an Artwork and information rich display. Follow these pages to step through the creation of your libraries.

How do I update the library?

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Why don't all movies/shows show up in my library?

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See: Incorrect and missing videos

How to separate the library (cartoons, documentaries, anime, etc) from normal listings

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It is possible to create additional Main Menu items that appear on the default Main Menu. For example, adding Home Movies, Kids Movies, Sports, Documentaries and other menu items. Kodi can already filter and separate library items using a number of methods. Combined with a skin that supports Custom Home Items, the library and main menu can be laid out to meet your requirements.

Can Kodi playback 3D (stereoscopic) videos?

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  • Kodi can playback some 3D (stereoscopic) video formats but not all. See the Kodi wiki article on "3D". To summerize; Kodi can playback 3D video formats such as SBS, TAB, anaglyph or interlaced, but it can not playback MVC (Multiview Video Coding) encoded 3D video format used by 3D Blu-ray Disc and some DVB 3D streams.

Can kodi playback Blu-ray Discs or images?

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  • Kodi can playback unencrypted Blu-ray Disc and Blu-ray ISO images as long as they are not a 3D version. There is limited support for some Blu-ray menus.

Can Kodi handle multi-part movie files?

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  • Kodi can combined multi-part video files so that they play and appear as once video.
  • File stacking is currently only available for movies and not for TV shows or music videos.

Movie series and sets

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  • A Movie Set is a collection of related films that are part of the same fictional universe. The scraper sites include artwork and metadata for Movie Sets which is scraped by Kodi and creates the Movie Set in your library. Movie sets are versatile and can be easily edited to suit your own needs.

How do I automatically play the next video?

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  • As of Kodi v12 you can turn on automatic playing of the next video by going to Settings -> Player -> Videos -> Play next video automatically
  • While selecting the video you wish to start at, bring up the contextual menu (press C) and select "Play from here".
  • You can also play all items in a folder, show, or season, by selecting the folder and pressing play on your remote. If you do not have a dedicated "play" button then you can also select "Play" from the contextual menu (press C or menu).

Music

How do I add music to the library?

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The aim of these modules is to provide the required information to enable you to correctly set up, modify, and reinstate your Music library as required. As this guide is created for the new user, most pages have been created with minimal jargon and short explanations in an effort to reduce information overload and confusion. Where extra information is provided, note is made to what can be safely ignored.

Why doesn't all of my music/info show up in my library?

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  • Most of the information for music is pulled from the embedded music tags inside the file. Make sure your music files are tagged correctly.
  • Some tags might show up in other programs, but might still be damaged or invalid for the tag standard, causing issues in Kodi.
  • You can use a program such as MusicBrainz Picard to easily tag files or fix broken tags. See also Category:Music tools for other programs.

Pictures

How do I add view digital pictures and still images?

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Why isn't there a picture library?

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  • No one have developed a picture library for Kodi yet, but there is a pictures section where you can add media sources and view pictures in file mode.
  • Not having a picture library (and a picture database) unfortuanly means that you can not sort, browse, or search pictures by their tags.

PVR (Live TV and DVR)

Can I watch Live TV and control PVR/DVR function?

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How does Live TV and PVR work in Kodi?

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Logically, the PVR / Live TV design in Kodi uses a distributed application structure that is designed after the client–server model concept which consists of two parts:

  1. The PVR backend (as the server side part), which communicates with a TV tuner adapter(s) to receive the Live TV signals and create a video or audio stream, and
  2. The PVR client (as an addon for Kodi) - an Kodi addon which controls the presentation of that content via the Kodi GUI that acts as unified frontend and common interface for all connected PVR backends.

The "PVR backend" as such is a separate application/process that directly interfaces with your TV tuner adapter(s) and the performs the task of tuning, streaming, and recording over-the-air and cable television signals and radio programming. PVR backends can either run on the same host running Kodi, or on a stand-alone host/device completely by itself with Kodi only running when needed, as long as they have a network connection between them. Some PVR backends may be able to serve several clients simultaneously, which may be Kodi clients or others applications/devices, and in those cases such PVR backends that serves multiple clients are commonly refereed to as PVR servers.

When paired with one or more matched PVR backends, a configured PVR client addon enables Kodi to handle the GUI interface, or frontend, allowing the user to watch Live TV (with pause/time-shift, if supported by the PVR backend used), display a graphical EPG (Electronic Program Guide) of all available television programming, schedule recordings or listen to radio, giving the same sort of functionality as TiVo-style video recorder devices.

Add-ons

What are add-ons?

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  • Add-ons are a way of extending Kodi's functionality easily. Common add-ons include: Skins, Scrapers, Video Add-ons, Subtitle services and many more are available.

How do I install add-ons?

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Where can I find unofficial add-ons/skins?

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  • Add-ons not included in the official Kodi repository can be obtained by using unofficial repositories or installing the add-on using Install from Zip file option. The two main sources for finding unofficial repos and add-ons are Unofficial add-on repositories and the Kodi Add-on support forums.

What should I do when Addon repositories dont list any contents?

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See Empty repositories list

Where do I get help with add-ons or skins?

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  • You can get help with add-ons at the Kodi Add-on support forums, with some add-ons even having dedicated threads with FAQs, and more. For skins see the Kodi Skin support forums, which has sub-forums for several skins as well as general help threads. Be sure to use the search function to see if your question has been answered before.

Special features

Netflix, LoveFilm, and other Silverlight-based video services

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  • Both Netflix and LoveFilm use silverlight, making it all but impossible to play inside of Kodi directly, even with an add-on. Sometimes there are add-ons for Kodi that will launch a web browser to load the service, but you will require an OS that has silverlight support (Mac OS X or Windows).
  • Editor note: Know of a guide for Advanced Launcher, or a working add-on for launching Netflix or LoveFilm? Feel free to add that info/links here

Hulu, Amazon, and other Flash-based video services

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  • While Kodi does not have Flash video support directly, very often videos can be extracted from the Flash video stream/file container. Some sites also have non-flash video streams that can be accessed from within Kodi. Sometimes these streams/files can be accessed by using a STRM file, while others are more complicated and need an add-on to access the content. For example, there is an add-on for Hulu and Amazon Prime video services (see Bluecop's add-on repo for both). Be sure to check out Category:Video add-ons and the Kodi forums to see what is currently available.

AirPlay

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Troubleshooting

Reporting bugs

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Platform/OS specific troubleshooting

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Getting more help

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Cache full messages and constant buffering

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  • This message refers to the playback cache that Kodi uses when a video is loading/streaming from the network (local or internet). It indicates that the video is loading too slowly for Kodi to play it back smoothly, and Kodi can't fully buffer it without having to buffer again as the video plays. The common cause for this is simply a slow connection to the file, often on the server's connection.
  • The cache is loaded in RAM and is cleared out every time a video is stopped.
  • Cache settings can be adjusted using advancedsettings.xml. See: HOW-TO:Modify the video cache.
  • Note: In most cases, this simply means that the server on the other side of the connection is too slow, and there's nothing you can do about it. No matter how fast your internet is, the server on the other side might simply be slow.

Not all videos are scanned into the library

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See: Incorrect and missing videos

Previously watched videos are no longer listed/ Videos seem to go missing

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  • Bring up the side menu (arrow over left or right on a keyboard or remote) and toggle the "Hide Watched" option.
  • See this video for quick guide on how to fix it.

No sound and red speaker icon in the corner

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Mute.png
This means that Kodi is muted. Turn the volume up.

Is there a list of some known issues?

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See: Common issues