Needing help for SMB shares

1st Official Post

    I've tried asking for help on the Kodi and Rpi forums and nobody was able to help.


    I've literally got a fresh install of the latest Kodi on LibreElec on my Rpi4. I go to add a SMB share and none of the shared folders on my Windows computer appear. With all other devices, they're there and working fine. So, what do I do to connect with them. My Rpi4 is connected to my home network via ethernet. Until now I've been running a Rpi2, same setup, LibreElec and Kodi, and everything with SMB has always been fine.


    If anyone can help, I'd really appreciate it. Otherwise I'll just have to return the RPi4.

    • Official Post
    Quote from tinpanalley

    and nobody was able to help.

    I doubt that, but there is also that thing that "it takes two to tango". And, Microsoft shouldn't have made a mess of the SMB upgrade process with varying/changing parameters.

    SMBv2+ has network browsing disabled. Meaning, you will have to enter connection details manually in Kodi's source options. Officially the Windows user doing the sharing also requires a password on its account, however various alternative solutions are floating around as well.

    In the Kodi services there are minimum and maximum SMB versions you can set. There is also the difference in setting up SMB sources. You can either use Kodi's internal SMB client service, or create your own external SMB connections.

    For the record, I'm not using Windows or SMB connections myself. It's also not impossible that some settings on your Windows machine have changed during its updates. Here I have the same Linux file server doing an NFS connection with XBMC/Kodi for some 10-11 years now. The RPi4 is not the problem here (you can always use it for other computer solutions), other devices running Kodi 19 will likely show the same symptoms in your network.

    • Official Post
    Quote from tinpanalley

    I go to add a SMB share and none of the shared folders on my Windows computer appear.

    Because the current implementation at kodi is highly missleading, if you use Windows network (SMB) it means the super old protocol that is EOL since decades and Windows10 automatically disables it. Ofc nobody should use SMB1 at all, it has several problems (hickups while streaming and whatnot).

    legacy smb implementation still at the gui · Issue #18840 · xbmc/xbmc · GitHub

    Windows XP SMB1

    15 yrs ago Windows Vista SMB2

    Windows 8 SMB3

    Windows 10 can handle SMB2 + SMB3

    So you need to use "add network location ..." to enter the ip where your share is located. User+password is needed.

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    Quote from CvH

    So you need to use "add network location ..." to enter the ip where your share is located. User+password is needed.

    Ok, thanks, I'll try that. I'm not married to SMB by the way, I simply didn't know there was another way to do it.

    Ok, so (and sorry if I'm restating the blatantly obvious) I need to add a network location, enter the IP and on my computer give my shares a name and password for access? What kind of connection do I choose when I add network location where it asks above the address for a type?