how to recover backup copy to my Pi3?

    Long story short my Pi3 crashed, but I have a full backup of it that I copied off to my windows machine (including all the hidden files. I did just a manual copy of the whole folder structure. I didnt realise LibreELEC had a backup feature) however, when I load up Ext2FSD to copy my backup back onto the Pi3 SD card, ext2fsd doesn't recognize the 15.5GB linux partition for me to access. it says it is RAW. if I try and mount it anyway, Ext2fsd crashes. It does let me mount the 500mb FAT32 partition however, but I take it this isn't enough to restore everything.

    do I have to tell the software which filetype it is? Or is there another piece of software that will let me copy my backup back onto the SD card from windows?

    thanks for your help

    Edited once, last by canaan (February 2, 2017 at 3:49 AM).

    If You install a clean LE and replace entire 'userdata' folder with the one from Your 'backup' You are on Your way.

    But trust me; Use the LE built-in backup feature and/or Kodi backup add-on. That makes Your life so much easier!
    (With the add-on You can schedule backups and store on separate storage...)

    Quote from Jocke.Sve


    If You install a clean LE and replace entire 'userdata' folder with the one from Your 'backup' You are on Your way.

    But trust me; Use the LE built-in backup feature and/or Kodi backup add-on. That makes Your life so much easier!
    (With the add-on You can schedule backups and store on separate storage...)

    thanks, yeah I'll try that for next time but I guess I am in deeper than that now!

    what info does the userdata contain though? just settings and paths? I take it it doesn't backup apps and things like transmission? I'll be bummed if I loose all my torrents

    Keep those folders in a separate USB stick or other pc, reinstall LibreELEC the normal way then you should be able to transfer all files or overwrite all folders back to your fresh install using Samba or File manager.

    Edited once, last by vitorp07 (February 2, 2017 at 8:13 AM).

    Quote from vitorp07


    Keep those folders in a separate USB stick or other pc, reinstall LibreELEC the normal way then you should be able to transfer all files or overwrite all folders back to your fresh install using Samba or File manager.

    thanks for your help man. maybe I'm not understanding it fully, but if I copied everything as a backup, when I stick a USB in and try and copy it all back on using File Manager in Kodi, how will it overwrite system files and settings when kodi is running? won't it encounter error or crash?

    Quote from canaan


    thanks for your help man. maybe I'm not understanding it fully, but if I copied everything as a backup, when I stick a USB in and try and copy it all back on using File Manager in Kodi, how will it overwrite system files and settings when kodi is running? won't it encounter error or crash?

    Because System is on another partition of the drive.

    If you do want to use Samba, enable "Show hidden files and directories" in Media settings.
    Then add this below to your "samba.conf" file.

    Edited once, last by vitorp07 (February 2, 2017 at 8:13 AM).

    I guess I'm so new to linux that I don't get where everything is stored. perhaps you can correct me if I'm wrong.
    my SD card is 16gb. 500mb or so of it seems to be allocated to FAT32 and it contains these files that I recovered using samba in windows.

    but my install also had transmission running on it, and I wanted be sure to get a backup of all of those install files and torrents so I didn't have to re-add everything. so I got an ext reader and copied everything I saw form the 15.5gb system folder which was these files. I searched through them and there seems to be transmission config files in there.

    is that correct? if I copy the system files back on I can restore the system and my apps including transmission?

    thanks for being patient with me

    When you install LibreELEC it creates 2 ext4 partitions "System" and "Storage", Storage is where all your addons, config and other files are saved.
    You can also try this;
    -Create a folder and call it "storage" without the quotes
    -Inside the folder "storage" copy these folder you saved: ".cache",".config" and ".kodi"
    -Using something like 7-zip right click on the "storage" folder and select 7-zip->add to archive
    -Select archive format "tar" click ok
    -Rename the archive something like "20170202030406.tar"
    -Copy the archive to your "backup" folder in LibreELEC
    -Use the built-in "Restore Backup" in LibreELEC, it should reboot
    -Copy the rest of the files/folders manually to respective folders

    Edited once, last by vitorp07 (February 2, 2017 at 9:46 AM).

    man I am having some back luck. I installed the Backup app in Kodi. I compressed the file in zip to a .tar file
    then when I tell the Backup program the file path of "20170202030406.tar" and ask it to restore it says that the folder is empty, and it just says "Backup - Backup Folder Name" and shows nothing. it sounds like an error that other people have reported on but I have yet to figure out a solution.

    edit: from my testing it looks like Backup doesn't recognise either the .tar or the folder that I created.
    edit2: I made a backup with the Backup software. then I took all of the files I wanted to restore and put it inside the folder structure and tried to restore it. Didn't work, gave me an error. I'm out of ideas

    Edited once, last by canaan (February 3, 2017 at 2:07 AM).

    Quote from canaan


    man I am having some back luck. I installed the Backup app in Kodi. I compressed the file in zip to a .tar file
    then when I tell the Backup program the file path of "20170202030406.tar" and ask it to restore it says that the folder is empty, and it just says "Backup - Backup Folder Name" and shows nothing. it sounds like an error that other people have reported on but I have yet to figure out a solution.

    edit: from my testing it looks like Backup doesn't recognise either the .tar or the folder that I created.
    edit2: I made a backup with the Backup software. then I took all of the files I wanted to restore and put it inside the folder structure and tried to restore it. Didn't work, gave me an error. I'm out of ideas


    Which files exactly? did you try with only ".cache",".config" and ".kodi" folders.

    Looks like not all files were copied when you created your backup in the first place, look inside your .kodi folder.

    Edited once, last by vitorp07 (February 3, 2017 at 2:53 AM).

    Quote from vitorp07


    Which files exactly? did you try with only ".cache",".config" and ".kodi" folders.

    Looks like not all files were copied when you created your backup in the first place, look inside your .kodi folder.

    Yeah, I did a backup with the software to a network folder, Backup called it "201702030354"
    Inside that folder was two folders "addons" and "userdata" and a file called "xbmcbackup"
    Inside "201702030354" I copied ".cache" ".config" and ".kodi". So now it looks like this

    Then I recovered that "201702030354" folder with Backup and nothing happened. it didnt even reset :/
    Nothing was changed.

    Did I mess up the folder structure? should the cache, config and kodi folders be in a subfolder?

    Quote from canaan


    Yeah, I did a backup with the software to a network folder, Backup called it "201702030354"
    Inside that folder was two folders "addons" and "userdata" and a file called "xbmcbackup"
    Inside "201702030354" I copied ".cache" ".config" and ".kodi". So now it looks like this

    Then I recovered that "201702030354" folder with Backup and nothing happened. it didnt even reset :/
    Nothing was changed.

    Did I mess up the folder structure? should the cache, config and kodi folders be in a subfolder?


    The screenshots you take don't show me the folder structure!
    addons and userdata folders should be inside the .kodi folder.
    Use the built-in LibreELEC Backup/Restore function for the .tar to work not the Kodi addon, if you want to use the kodi addon it's not the same process.
    Settings->LibreELEC->System->Backup

    Most important is that inside the .tar archive there is a folder called "storage" and inside "storage" these 3 folders, ".cache",".config" and ".kodi".

    Did you try what i suggested first, copy/overwrite the folders with File manager or Samba?
    Try that starting with the ".kodi" folder and reboot, make sure you "copy" not "move, or you might loose everything.

    Edited once, last by vitorp07 (February 3, 2017 at 4:58 AM).

    Quote from vitorp07


    The screenshots you take don't show me the folder structure!
    addons and userdata folders should be inside the .kodi folder.
    Use the built-in LibreELEC Backup/Restore function for the .tar to work not the Kodi addon, if you want to use the kodi addon it's not the same process.
    Settings->LibreELEC->System->Backup

    Most important is that inside the .tar archive there is a folder called "storage" and inside "storage" these 3 folders, ".cache",".config" and ".kodi".

    Did you try what i suggested first, copy/overwrite the folders with File manager or Samba?
    Try that starting with the ".kodi" folder and reboot, make sure you "copy" not "move, or you might loose everything.

    sorry man, i'll try and be more clear.

    First of all I didn't realise there were two backup programs, the LibreElec one and the Kodi one. I was trying to use the Kodi one. that was my bad, I'm an idiot.

    I finally got the LibreElec one working, and it downloaded my tar file, and then rebooted the Pi. but nothing seems to have changed.
    I took pics of all of the folder structure to hopefully make it clear.

    I created a tar file with 7zip called "201702030350.tar"
    - Inside that file is a folder called 'storage'
    - - Inside 'storage' is '.cache' '.kodi' and '.config'
    - - - Inside '.cache' is a bunch of folders I recovered that you can see, including bluetooth and transmission folders
    - - - Inside '.config' is some files i'm not familiar with
    - - - Inside '.kodi' are some folders including a subfolder called 'addons' and 'userdata'
    - - - - Inside 'userdata' are some other folders
    - - - - Inside 'addons' are a bunch of addons folders including transmission

    Like I said, i had LibreElec backup process this tar file and it downloaded and reset but nothing changed.

    I have tried to use Samba and the shares to manually copy the folders over, but I'm running into problems.
    Namely, I can't find .kodi in the File Manager. If I access /root/ I see /bin, /dev, /etc, /flash and so on, but no .kodi. nor in any of these subfolders. I saw what you said about "Show hidden files and directories" in Media settings. But where is Media settings? I looked in LibreELEC program settings, as well as in Kodi but didn't see it?

    I also tried to mount the EXT files in windows, but I couldn't get write access to this drive. then I also tried a linux usb boot stick, but I couldn't get that to work either.

    uuugh. I appreciate your thoughts because youre more patient than me! :s

    EDIT: I figured out where the show hidden folders/files setting was in the Kodi system preferences. I added the line you suggested to my samba.config file, and I am now copying the .kodi folder directly from my backup to the system. updates to come

    Edited once, last by canaan (February 3, 2017 at 5:46 AM).

    Show hidden files and directories(first turn settings level to Expert);
    In Krypton(Estuary):Settings->Media settings->General
    In Jarvis(Confluence):Settings->Appearance->File lists

    .kodi folder; /root/storage/.kodi

    ahhh, I am running Jarvis so that explains why I couldn't find it. I got it in the end though :)

    I was able to manually copy the directories over once I could view those hidden files.
    I had to re-install my transmission app as it wouldn't run, but when I did all of my torrents and settings were there thanks to the file copy.

    thanks so much for hearing me out and giving me tips, I never could have done it without them. ;) :D
    I will do a full backup now to make sure I keep everything and this never happens again.

    Do you recommend the LibreELEC backup or the Kodi one? I take it the LibreELEC is more comprehensive?

    Quote from canaan


    ahhh, I am running Jarvis so that explains why I couldn't find it. I got it in the end though :)

    I was able to manually copy the directories over once I could view those hidden files.
    I had to re-install my transmission app as it wouldn't run, but when I did all of my torrents and settings were there thanks to the file copy.

    thanks so much for hearing me out and giving me tips, I never could have done it without them. ;) :D
    I will do a full backup now to make sure I keep everything and this never happens again.

    Do you recommend the LibreELEC backup or the Kodi one? I take it the LibreELEC is more comprehensive?


    I prefer the LibreELEC Backup/Restore function.
    Glad it worked :)