Sync Genesis TV & Movie Libraries Across Multiple Kodi HTPCs

This is a follow-up to my previous post, How to Merge Kodi Streaming Add-ons into the Video Library.  If you haven’t read that post, please check that out first.  After many years of being an XBMC / Kodi user, it was a complete game changer.

Now, after I set up my main home theater PC (HTPC) with TV shows and movies merged into the library, I noticed an issue where other HTPCs in my home couldn’t access that media.  Episodes would appear, but the links were broken.

Kodi MySQL Database Library Sharing

Before I go any further, I should probably explain why and how my movies and TV shows appear on other computers.  The reason is because I setup a MySQL shared library.

You see, on my “main” HTPC, I installed MySQL server, and configured every instance of Kodi in my house to look to that MySQL database for the library.  You do that by adding an “advancedsettings.xml” file to your userdata folder (For Windows, located in C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\).  The contents of that xml files should look something like this (swapping the highlighted parts with your own settings).

<advancedsettings>
  <videodatabase>
    <type>mysql</type>
    <host>mysql_IP</host>
    <port>3306</port>
    <user>mysql_username</user>
    <pass>mysql_password</pass>
  </videodatabase>
</advancedsettings>

With this setup, every Kodi HTPC in your house shares the exact same library.  You can watch half of a movie in one room, and pick up from that same spot in another room.  Watched statuses get synced across all computers.

Don’t Add a Source with a Local Path When Using a MySQL Database Shared Library

Getting back to the issue I was talking about earlier, based on my previous post, the TV shows and movies in my library that were from Genesis would only work on the main computer because I had added the sources using a local path like…

C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\addon_data\plugin.video.genesis\TV Shows

Use Windows network (SMB) Paths for Shared Sources

The solution to sync Genesis libraries across all of my HTPCs was to add a new source that basically pointed to the same folder but using the network path using Windows network (SMB).

Of course, you will need to make sure you share that folder to make it available over the network.  In my case, I just shared my entire Users folder, so you can see in the below screenshot, I had to drill all the way down to that same folder.

After adding the new source using the network path, I then attempted to mark shows, seasons, and episodes as watched so the network source roughly matched the local source in terms of watched status.  During this state, all episodes show twice.  Once from the local source and another from the network source.

When that was done, I removed the local source leaving only the network source.  I then tested on one of my other HTPCs and the media loaded up exactly the same as the main HTPC.

Enjoy!  If you have any questions or concerns, be sure to Ask a Question and I would love to help you out.  Thanks!