HOW-TO:Change data location for Android

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Home icon grey.png   ▶ Android ▶ HOW-TO:Change data location for Android

As of v14, Kodi supports a backdoor to specify the location of your settings folder, which includes the userdata folder and add-ons. It is the equivalent of using environment variables on other platforms

This is accomplished by creating a plain text file file at /sdcard/xbmc_env.properties (the root directory for the Android device) with the following line: 

xbmc.data=<path to the Kodi data folder you wish to use>

How-to

1 Quit Kodi by using the quit option or shutdown menu from within Kodi.
2 In the root directory of the internal storage of your device, usually just mnt/sdcard (not mnt/sdcard/root) create a plain text file called: xbmc_env.properties

Note: You must use "xbmc" when noted above for the text and file name, even when using Kodi.

3 In xbmc_env.properties you need to tell Kodi where it's data will now be stored.

This will be done by creating a path statement like: 

xbmc.data=/storage/sdcard0/external_sdcard/kodi_data


The path might start with /storage/ as shown above, but it might be different on various Android devices. You can find the correct path by using a file explorer, like "File Browser" or "Root Explorer" to determine the proper path.


For example:

A USB drive location might look like: 
xbmc.data=/storage/external_storage/sda1/kodi_data/
4 Using a file manager program, such as "File Browser" or "Root Explorer", move or copy the .kodi directory from /sdcard/Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/.kodi to the new location you defined in Step 3.


For example:

Move or copy: /mnt/sdcard/Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/.kodi
To: /storage/sdcard0/external_sdcard/kodi_data/


New data location requirements


  • The specified path must be a local Android file path and not a typical network path. i.e. no "smb://" or "nfs://". To use a network file path you would need to mount the network share as a local mount, which might require root access on some Android devices.


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