Quick start guide

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Home icon grey.png   ▶ General topics ▶ First time user ▶ Quick start guide

Congratulations, new user, in your choice of media center software: Kodi!

quick start guide new


This guide is designed to get you up and running with Kodi in the shortest time possible, and was written with the most typical use cases in mind. For more in depth information please refer to the Kodi online wiki manual

The Kodi interface is designed with the 'Home Theater' in mind. This means it is best viewed on a large-screen TV while you sit on your couch 10-feet away from that TV, rather than on a small monitor while you sit at your desk. Because everything is designed with the home theater experience in mind, the best way to interact with Kodi is with a remote control, rather than a computer mouse. If it helps, think of Kodi as the ultimate DVD-player/set-top-box.

Installing Kodi

Kodi can be installed on a wide range of supported hardware, from normal desktop computers, ARM powered tablets and phones, to tiny set-top-boxes, and more.

If you haven't already done so, download Kodi from http://kodi.tv/download/ or see the installation guides here:

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Android
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iOS
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Linux
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Mac OS X
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Raspberry Pi
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tvOS
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webOS
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Windows

See the Installing page for additional guides.

Adding files

While you can just use Kodi with plain file views, adding/scanning files to the library will add rich features such as cover art, summaries, thumbnails, trailers, and more.

To just quickly add files see Adding videos to the library/Adding media sources.

Adding videos to the library

Video library/Adding media sources

Adding music to the library

See main page: Adding music to the library and Music library

In order to be able to include information on your music collection in the library, Kodi needs your music to be tagged. When your collection is scanned, Kodi stores all the tagging information (artist, album, year, genre, etc) in the database which allows you to efficiently search and manage your music collection. Today most media applications and players (e.g. iTunes / iPod) organize music by this ID tag information.

Note: Your audio files must have a valid ID tag for them to work properly in the Kodi music library.

Adding pictures

Adding sources for your pictures follows the same method as adding other media sources. From the Home Page navigate to Pictures, select Add Source and browse to the location of your picture files.

Using a remote control

Kodi is primarily designed for the home theatre using the 10-foot user interface principles controlled with a remote control. Alternatively a (wireless) keyboard can be used.

Kodi add-ons

An Add-on is another piece of software that can be added to a program to further expand and enhance the features of that program. Imagine a smart phone and all the additional Apps that can be installed to enhance its functionality. Kodi has the same ability and these apps are referred to as Add-ons. Kodi has a growing list of community driven add-ons which can be installed from a common official repository, while still enabling third-party developers to also host their own unofficial repositories for add-ons that any user can choose to add themselves.


For this example a skin is being installed, the same method is used for other add-ons.

Select Install from repository -> Select the repository (if no other repositories are installed it will automatically open the Kodi Add-on repository) -> Select the add-on category -> Select the add-on -> Select Install

To access the Add-on browser see: How to access the Add-on browser

When the add-on has finished downloading Kodi will enable it and depending on the add-on ask if you want to start using it. Add-ons will then appear in their appropriate section (e.g. skins in the appearance section of settings, movie scrapers in the options of scrapers when adding a new movie source)


Changing the look and feel of Kodi

Kodi is unlike many contemporary media and gaming centers, in that it can be easily customized to look completely different using skins while still remaining equally as useable and providing access to all your videos, music, and more.

To get new skins, go to: System -> Appearance -> Skin -> Skin Confluence

You will be provided a list of currently installed skins and an option to "Get More..." where you can download additional skins.

Important note about the Context Menu

As you read this wiki and experiment on your own, you will quickly learn about the value of the context menu.

To use it, while highlighting an item, press the C key on the keyboard. If you are using a mouse, you can right click while hovering over an item. With remote controls, this is normally the guide button.

Alternative guides


See also