Migrate Kodi Movie Databases to new device

JoeKing · January 20, 2024 at 10:27 AM

Hi,

I tried using the backup function on my RasPi4 but after restore and reboot on my RasPi5 there were display errors and I could not do anything anymore.

Apparently the backup function saves and restores _all_ settings, even hardware settings that are not valid on the migrated device.

So my question is: How can I _only_ migrate my movie databases, settings and watched statuses from one device to another?

I tried copying ~/.kodi/userdata/Database, Thumbnails and addon_data. My library was then visible, but the references were somehow broken I think. For example in the movie information window the last button is missing where it shows the pathname to the file.

Thank you!

**chewitt** · January 20, 2024 at 10:46 AM

The settings add-on provides a backup/restore function not a backup/migrate function so "everything is working as expected" from our perspective. You need to clean install on the RPi5 then copy the .tar file to the device, unpack it, stop Kodi, then selectively move the bits you care about to their required locations and restart. You may find that you need to create/setup a passwords.xml file to go with sources.xml if you updated from a much older release. Otherwise things should work. In library views the /path/to/file detail is only shown under the "refresh" icon.

JoeKing · January 20, 2024 at 11:04 AM

This is what I did:

1. Clean install of RasPi5 image on new card, booted this image once to let the setup enlarge the partition, everything was working fine so far.

2. Then I booted the RasPi4 device and created the backup tar archive in the LibreELEC settings.

3. Afterwards I copied this tar archive from the RasPi4-card to the RasPi5-card (into the backup directory).

4. After booting the RasPi5 device again I could execute the restore function without problems, the tar file was found and extracted.

5. The device rebooted and did some more restore actions during boot.

6. Then when I expected the GUI to come up, all I could see was distorted colors and noise. No navigation was possible anymore.

I could logon via SSH but did not know what setting was wrong and how I could fix this.

I now reformatted everything again and have a good working installation. The RasPi4 device has an up-to-date installation of 11.0.5 as well, but it is very old and was upgraded from several devices (RasPi2, 3 and their corresponding LibreELEC versions) continuously. There are probably some old and obsolete files/settings. So if possible I would like to selectively transfer only the movie databases and settings and keep everything else fresh.

All I need to know is which files/directories are required for this to work.

Thank you!

JoeKing · January 20, 2024 at 11:25 AM

Quote from chewitt

In library views the /path/to/file detail is only shown under the "refresh" icon.

That is what I meant: The refresh icon was not even shown!

I think I missed something while copying data to the new device. When I select some of my directories that usually have the setting "Series" for example to define the content, this was still set to "None". Where are these settings saved?

JoeKing · January 20, 2024 at 12:48 PM

Okay. I copied the database files again. This time it seems to have worked.

The only thing I don't know yet is why my TV still does not recognize more than 8bit color HDR videos even on the new RasPi5.