Have you wondered how to use the “Download” feature in many of the popular Kodi streaming add-ons? Or maybe you’ve tried to use it, but can’t get it to work?
In this post, I’ll show you how to set it up and how to use it to download TV shows and movies to your hard drive.
I received this question from a reader in the forum. Rick said…
Currently using Real-Debrid through Exodus and it is working well.
I have tried to set up “Download” using your “Ultimate Guide – How To Set Up Kodi The Right Way” but it doesn’t seem to be working for me.
Wondering if you could publish a definitive step-by-step system for dummies on how to set up Download and also how to use it once it is correctly set up.
Thanks
Rick
Well, Rick, thanks for the suggestion. I’d love to!
How to Enable Downloading in a Kodi Streaming Add-on
Pick your favorite Kodi streaming add-on. Most of them are Exodus forks, so there is a ton of overlap in functionality. Most of them have the download feature. Note: Seren does not.
For the sake of this tutorial, I’ll be using Exodus.
Open the Exodus video add-on in Kodi and go to Tools > Exodus : Downloads. (or any of those because the shortcut to the correct tab usually doesn’t work).
Now, click on the Downloads tab.
Here will you need to toggle the “Enable downloads” to the ON position.
You will also need to set the paths for BOTH Movies AND TV. This is where people fail to set both paths and wonder why it doesn’t work. Even if you only plan on downloading Movies or TV, you need to set the paths for both.
Then select OK.
Tip: If you intend to mainly use the download feature and won’t be using the auto-play feature, then you should change playback to “Directory” instead of “Auto-play”. While still in the add-on’s settings, go to “Playback”. If playback is showing Dialogue, or Auto Play, you can change it to “Directory”.
How to Use the Download Feature in Kodi Streaming Add-ons
Once you have enabled the Downloads feature, use the same add-on to browse for a TV show or movie.
*** Tip: To open a context menu, either right-click on a mouse, or press “c” on a keyboard, or press a menu button on a remote.
Find the TV episode or movie you want to download. If you your playback setting is set to “Directory“, then just select the movie or episode to have it search and display the list of sources available for that video. Otherwise, if it is set to “Auto-play“, then you’ll need to open the context menu*** and select “Play using…”
Now, after the add-on finishes scraping, you should see a list of source links with lots of information on them.
Highlight a source link that you want to download, and open the context menu ***.
You should see a Download link in that context menu. Select it.
You will then be prompted to confirm that you want to download that video file. It will let you know how big the file is. Click Confirm.
Wait for the download to complete in background. When it finishes, it will show you a message saying “Download succeeded“.
What To Do With a Video Downloaded from Kodi?
If at this point, you’re wondering, “now what?”, then read on.
The video file has now been downloaded to your device at the storage path that you selected in the settings. If you use any file browser, you should be able to find that path to see and open that video file.
Or, you can use the Kodi library to browse and play your downloaded videos.
Just go into your Kodi “Files section” and select Add videos… then browse to the same path that you selected to download videos to. Doing that creates a source for your video library. New files downloaded there automatically get picked up by Kodi and will show in your TV shows or Movies library.
Legal Implications with Downloading Copyrighted Videos
One more thing before you leave to go start downloading every video ever made…
There is a big difference legally between streaming copyrighted videos and downloading copyrighted videos. Read more about those legal differences.
So, if you’re going to be downloading, be sure to use a VPN to keep yourself safe. You should also read my 4 Reasons Why Kodi Streamers Need a VPN!
Not sure what has happened to my downloading capability, but for some time now I am unable to find ANY downloaded file after going through the motions. It LOOKS like it’s working normally, and takes a long time (as per usual) to D/L a video, but all I find after it reports having completed the D/L successfully is an appropriately named directory (folder) including the year the movie was released. But the folders are always EMPTY!
Oh! That’s not good. Which add-ons have you tried? Which device/OS are you running Kodi on?
Well, this is going to be less than helpful. After futzing around for quite awhile I discovered a few of what I had THOUGHT to be failed D/Ls. I have NO idea how they could have been HIDDEN from my sight, or what change enabled me to see that they were there. Strange brew, indeed!
I was working with Exodus, running Kodi on a RPi3 running ODBC.
Having gotten in your face with it, I must vehemently apologize for my inability to give you REAL evidence, or something well documented and repeatable. I certainly appreciate your taking the time to RE to what turns out to be a waste.
So sorry!!!
It’s no problem at all, Jay. I’m just glad you got it working.
Well, that was then, but this is now:
like the Answer Grape post I am going through the motions of D/L movies (clear through seeing a report that the D/L was successful) only to find NOTHING THERE (in my specified AND PREVIOUSLY WORKING folder) – confirmed by there being NO CHANGE to the reported free space on that drive! Must have tried & failed like this a half dozen times. Pretty mystefying!
@Nathan Kinkead – For the download process to work, a very necessary step was omitted in your tutorial. It baffles me why your site, and others, omit this needed step. Users will think that they did something incorrectly or that there is some[form of]software glitch, which causes them to think that the manifested outcome is “garbage”, “a waste of time” etc. The following should be added for the downloading process to work:
While still in the addon’s Settings(Exodus in this case or any Exodus forks) go to “Playback”. if playback is showing Dialogue, or Auto Play , it must be set to “Directory”. The downloaded movie or tv program, will now be set to the path to go to the designated folder, as mentioned in your directions. Users can then proceed to follow your instructions on downloading programs and then view them, in kodi or other external players, at their leisure.
I’m no techno geek or kodi nerd. I’m just a retired individual who has been using kodi for 5 years and learned how to download programs 5 years ago. Would you consider updating your tutorial so that is is more effectively helpful to future visitors? Have a good day.
Wow, you’re totally right! I don’t know how I missed that. Updating the post right now.
Iam using kodi 19 with exodus redux and real debrid works great but there is no download button on it to download videos did they take it off the kodi 19 version
Kirk, Exodus Redux apparently hasn’t been updated for well over a year, so I’m sure they don’t have another different features for Kodi 19. It may be that it need some compatibility updates to work properly with Kodi 19.
I have a question. When looking for a provider that can download a video, I sometimes get a curious content box that states “Complete file is 0MB”. Is there something I am doing wrong? Other providers will list something like “Complete file is 218MB”, and is downloadable. Why bother to say “0MB”? I just learned how to download from your April 2020 video, thanks for that info.
I don’t know. Have you tried to download one that says “0MB”? That would tell you if that link is actually bad or if it’s just missing the metadata that says how big the file is.
Yes, I tried one with 0MB and there was nothing there. It went through the motions, but nothing happened. I have discovered one thing that seems to help. When using a laptop, when the various providers come on screen, I check to see if their video will even play. If it does then I will stop the player, go back and make sure my cursor is on that provider and then right click for the download box and when it shows a value then I press enter. That seems to get me around all those that don’t work. It’s also useless to try and download on weekends.