Develop Bugs

[Q] Custom Background for firetv question help please ??

Hi all,
Running kodi/Helix 14.0 sideloaded on my non-rooted fireTV.... With no other extras or addons apart from my network attached HD.
Using IkonoTV as my launcher.
all updates blocked via opendns.
I just wanted to know if it was possible to change the background wallpaper on the main screen...
I know I have to go to System/Settings and then to appearance then go to skin tab and then to settings....then the tab for "Background Options" then "enable custom Background".
Once I have done this I then go to "Background Path:" and this is where I get stuck..... It's been a real pig... because the only two options I have are "External Storage" and "Root Filesystem". It's impossible for me to be able to change either of these directorys to anything else. And believe me, I've tried.
I've tried adding my photos "under the main photo tab" on the main screen held on my external storage HD and I have no problem with that...
Is the reason I cannot change the background because my firetv is not rooted, (root is not possible, due to when it was produced).
I would really appreciate any advice or help on this, as I'm googled out, and I've given up looking at the amount of tube vids telling me how to install kodi...
Is it possible for me to use adbfire to add images to the firetv somehow?
Weird thing is, nearly all of the folders I have looked in within "external storage" and "root filesystem" are empty...
One good thing is that I managed to find a tube video showing how to update kodi on a firetv without loosing ones settings using adbfire, as I wanted to update to 14.2.
Thanks chaps for reading my help request... as I seem to be all out of luck at the moment. (wish it was as easy to change the wallpaper on my firetv as it is on my laptop).

Install ES file explorer on fire tv via adb. Link it to your dropbox or Google drive account. Copy photos to your cloud account using your PC. Access from fire TV using ES file explorer and download to folder of your choice.

D33H said:
Install ES file explorer on fire tv via adb. Link it to your dropbox or Google drive account. Copy photos to your cloud account using your PC. Access from fire TV using ES file explorer and download to folder of your choice.
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Thanks for the info D33H...... cheers mate..
I have to admit, I did eventually manage to get it done by using adbfire, by changing the push folder to "sdcard" and pushing my photos that way.... not ideal as I would like them in a particular folder of my choice, but at least kodi can now see my images in "external storage"....
But I like the idea of using ES file explorer, so I might try it that way as well.
On a sidenote, is it possible to run kodi without ones internet on,..... I've tried but i only get a flashing orange light,.... would this be happening, because i have set a 4 digit code on my firetv.. (to stop anyone from making unnecessary purchases by mistake).
I only ask because if my internet goes down it would be nice to still be able to use kodi.

Copy Kodi configuration between FTV sticks?

Can anyone tell me an easy way of copying my Kodi setup between several FTV sticks? I have one setup up with all repos and addons to my liking and want to copy this to a few others that family have bought. I don't want to have to manually add repos and addons for each individual device. I have installed Kodi backup application and backed my own up to the device under /storage/emulated/0/download (from memory may not be correct). Can i use ADB pull to my PC and then push this onto the other FTVs? I haven't much experience of ADB other that installing apps with it. Or if anyone has any easier ways or suggestions i'd be grateful.
Thanks.

/storage/emulated/0/ = /sdcard/
Its just easier to type in /sdcard/ each time, instead of the full filepath.
-
Yes - its entirely possible, in fact its the way I also like to handle backing up and duplicating a Kodi installation.
All you need to do is
adb pull /sdcard/Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/ /PATH OF YOUR FOLDER ON THE LOCAL COMPUTER/
then adb push the same folder to another Fire TV (Stick), after you've installed Kodi there (adb install /PATH TO THE APK ON YOUR COMPUTER.apk) and started it once, then exited it - then:
adb push /PATH OF YOUR FOLDER ON THE LOCAL COMPUTER/ /sdcard/Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/
Thats it. .kodi is a hidden folder on the device (thats what the . stands for), thats about all.
---------- Post added at 05:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:17 PM ----------
An easy way to browse the Fire TV (Stick) over ADB on Windows is
Total Commander with the ADB filesystem addon: http://totalcmd.net/plugring/android_adb.html

If you use adbfire just hit backup(put the backup where you can find it again) and when it's done connect adbfire to the new fire stick and click restore and navigate to where you saved the backup, pretty simple

Yes and you have not even learn anything about Android file structure, because navigating through folders hurts peoples brains. Instead you'll learn how to push several buttons and put numbers into fields. You know, like in your dayjob (*sarc*). Thats fun.
Also - during the pull operation adb Fire performs, you'll see a nice infinite loop of a fake progression bar - while if you'd be using the real adb you'll see the files actually copying over. Fake progression bar gifs are much more pleasent to look at. They give you a sense of excitement - in not knowing if something is happening, or not.
I say - make everything a person knows as abstract as possible. As far removed from the real thing as it can be. It causes less thoughts. And therefore - less problems in the long run...
I hate this dependency on ADB Fire appraoch. Did so from the very beginning. The program is harshly laid out, end prevents people from gaining any below surface knowledge - its just recommended so much, because people have a hard time typing. I'm not against good GUI's in fact, I prefer them in almost all cases - but ADB Fire and its rivals are just a buttondump fest to prevent real learning.
When replicating an entire FIre TV (Stick) plain adb actually turns out to be faster, and more forward with the information it gives back to you. Because adb install *dragdroptheapk* turns out to be faster than installing apks through ADB fire. But then again - buttons are so likeable.
--
Also - before using adbFire or adb to do a backup - you could use texturecache.py ( http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=158373 ) to prune ( P ) your Kodi installation, which would delete unnecessary thumbnails that have accumulated in Kodis cache over the time. This will reduce the time the backup takes, as less files are copied over.

Thanks guys. I've never had any luck with the adb tool. It wouldn't ever work for me. Adb push/pull seems straight forward enough I'll try it out.

What I do all the time with all my android devices including Fire TV is use 'ES FILE EXPLORER' to copy the folder 'org.xbmc.kodi' from original device (location: Android/data) onto a shared folder on my network and then copy it from there (using the same ES file explorer on the other devices) back again onto the same location of the receiving device. Works perfectly every time.

Quick question, how is this any different from the "Backup" addon that is used on Kodi? What I usually do is load everything like normal, then when I have my setup just how I want, I go to the "backup" addon, backup all of my info, and then copy it to a flash drive. Once copied, I install Kodi on other Fire TV's and then copy over the backup onto them, load the addon, and click "restore". And boom bada bing, I have everything just like my original Fire TV. EXCEPT, for a few things like skin settings, like widgets, and RSS feeds, and subtitle options.

The easiest way to do it is to copy the addons folder and your user data folder to you PC using ES Fle Explorer. install any varient of XBMC/Kodi on the other Fire TV sticks and open XBMC/Kodi one time so that it sets up the data folder contained inside Android/data. So this is basically all you need to do
1)Install XBMC/Kodi on all your devices and open one time.
2)Install Filezilla on your PC and ES File Explorer on all of your devices.
3)Open ES File Explorer on the device that already has Kodi setup, and go to the Network tab and click on remote manager and turn it on
4)Now type in the IP address and port into Filezilla that it shows on ES File Explorer and navigate to Android/data and find the data folder for your version of Kodi.
5)Once there simply copy over the addons folder and the userdata folder to yor PC.
6)Once those two folders are copied to your PC, simply go to each of the other devices and connect to ES File Explorer and overwrite the addons and userdata folders with the ones you just downloaded to your PC and restart Kodi on each device.
When you turn on the remote manager in ES file Explorer it will give you an address like this ftp://192.168.0.105:3721, the numbers 192.168.0.105 will be the address you type into Filezilla and the port will be 3721. I am sure your IP will be different so use the numbers that ES File Explorer shows and not the ones I used as an example. Also, when you go into the remote manager in ES File Explorer it will say settings at the bottom, if you click on that it will say set root directory, that means that when you connect with Filezilla that the directory you set will be the directory that it shown first from your Fire TV. So if its set to SDCARD, when you connect to filezilla you would just navigate to wherever you need to go just like you would inside ES File Explorer if you were in the SDCARD directory.
Just a reminder if you are logged into Youtube or any other addon, when you copy your Kodi setup to another device it will be logged in on that device as well. So if you do not want people doing things on your account you will need to log out before or after copying to other devices.

Download adbfire and do a Backup. Then connect the others Fire TVs and do a Restore with adbfire. That Backup folder that gets created can be used to copy everything to as many fire TVs.

How do I jailbreak my fire stick? I just purchased it today.

What have I done wrong, connect to device press backup and get an error ' media center not installed'

speed ?
How fast does everyone get with this method ? I got only 5-6 Mbit/s when doing restore or backup .

How to Prune
I am looking into copying all the kodi addons and such from one firestick to another. How would i go about using the texturecache.py that you suggested.

You have to first install Kodi in the new Fire Stick before restoring the backup

hey i have been trying this today but when i try to restore the backup to another stick it just says wrong backup folder type or something??

D33H said:
Thanks guys. I've never had any luck with the adb tool. It wouldn't ever work for me. Adb push/pull seems straight forward enough I'll try it out.
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make sure your computer is wifi and connected to same wi-fi as your stick, I find usb connection to be a bit 'iffy'

n0ka25 said:
hey i have been trying this today but when i try to restore the backup to another stick it just says wrong backup folder type or something??
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latinotter2 said:
You have to first install Kodi in the new Fire Stick before restoring the backup
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Farva603 said:
I am looking into copying all the kodi addons and such from one firestick to another. How would i go about using the texturecache.py that you suggested.
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Click to collapse
richiec427 said:
make sure your computer is wifi and connected to same wi-fi as your stick, I find usb connection to be a bit 'iffy'
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Click to collapse
Heres another method -
Add the source Xfinity if you haven't already & install there repo (if you dont know how to add a source in kodi google it), install the Usb/Sd card backup add on inaddon, configure the backup location of your choice (aftv backup or name it what ever you wanna call it), then start the add on & select backup of your choice (full = is everything, addons = just the addons), wait, once finished put your backup on the new device then add source Xfinity on the new device, configure location Again, open add on & select restore, sometimes it hangs a while but works good, if using a different skin once you restored It change to the skin you were using, then restore again (sometimes it don't all stick first go), any backgrounds need to be loaded on if the location of the pics are on the root of the device? & note if it hangs on a 100% completion just force close using the select circle button & play/pause buttons held down for about 6seconds. Enjoy your new backup copy on your other device.
If this helped press that like button

deanr1977 said:
Heres another method -
Add the source Xfinity if you haven't already & install there repo (if you dont know how to add a source in kodi google it), install the Usb/Sd card backup add on inaddon, configure the backup location of your choice (aftv backup or name it what ever you wanna call it), then start the add on & select backup of your choice (full = is everything, addons = just the addons), wait, once finished put your backup on the new device then add source Xfinity on the new device, configure location Again, open add on & select restore, sometimes it hangs a while but works good, if using a different skin once you restored It change to the skin you were using, then restore again (sometimes it don't all stick first go), any backgrounds need to be loaded on if the location of the pics are on the root of the device? & note if it hangs on a 100% completion just force close using the select circle button & play/pause buttons held down for about 6seconds. Enjoy your new backup copy on your other device.
If this helped press that like button
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Click to collapse
Has the address for xfinity.xunitytalk.com changed? Hasn't worked for me for at least a week.

zaspears said:
Has the address for xfinity.xunitytalk.com changed? Hasn't worked for me for at least a week.
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yes mate heres the new source -
http://xunitytalk.me/xfinity
Press that thanks button if this helps

solorzano_felipe said:
Download adbfire and do a Backup. Then connect the others Fire TVs and do a Restore with adbfire. That Backup folder that gets created can be used to copy everything to as many fire TVs.
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When doing back up via adb fire ,dies it save the back up to my laptop and if so where ,I get kodi back up device data location and thumbnail location
Thanks for any help
---------- Post added at 10:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:21 AM ----------
Also how long does a back up take and do you get a message when complete,mine been running about 25 mins now ?

fire tv cloning

Hi i just recently bought a fire tv loaded...I'm using ftv app.. is there a way to extract all the files in the loaded fire stick and side loaded again?

If you sideload ES file explorer it can. You'll need to familiarize yourself with the navigation and set up an ftp, smb or cloud share bookmark before you begin.
Go to library-app then long press the app, once you see a check mark on the app select backup. It will save to sdcard/backups/apps. Navigate to that folder the long press select-more-(copy to or move to) the ftp, smb, cloud share bookmark you created.
Sounds like a lot but you can select multiple files when you do this. I backup all my apks because it is faster to setup this way then using amazons method after a factory reset. Not a clone though.
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Apk loader that can load multiple apks at once.

Hey guys I've been using adbfire pretty much exclusively since it came out but was just wondering if there is any apk loader program that lets you load multiple apks at once. My apk library is getting pretty big (about 30 or so) and I'm starting to get tired of loading them one by one when i'm setting up a unit does anything like this exist?

Really i'm the only person this lazy?

ES File Explorer. I keep everything I want for Android boxes and FireTVs in folders in Dropbox and ES is connected to my Dropbox account: I can select multiple items, download them all at once, then select just the apks and open them, ES will install them one by one (but you will need to give it permissions for every app).

Terry T said:
ES File Explorer. I keep everything I want for Android boxes and FireTVs in folders in Dropbox and ES is connected to my Dropbox account: I can select multiple items, download them all at once, then select just the apks and open them, ES will install them one by one (but you will need to give it permissions for every app).
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You sir are a friend. I'm gonna try this tomorrow I just ordered like 4 boxes for some fam. I also know that there is a way to access a folder on you pc with es file explorer have you tried that method or is Dropbox fastest?

I've done it both ways, in my setup there was no big difference in the speed: with Dropbox I'm limited by the combination of my FireTV wireless and my internet, direct from my PC I'm limited by the combination of my FireTV wireless and my PC wireless. If both the FireTV and the PC are wired, I expect direct from your PC to be faster than using Dropbox.
After thinking about it a little more, probably the simplest, fastest thing you can do is put everything on a flash drive and plug it into the USB port on the FireTV, then you don't even need to copy the files to the FireTV.
- Format the flashdrive to FAT32 first (required for the FireTV)
- Copy your library of apps to it, and plug it into the FireTV
- Open ES and go to Local/extUSB
- Long press one apk, in a couple of seconds it will show a checkmark
- Select all the other apks you want to install
- Go to the bottom right and click on More
- Select open
Then you will have to sit and tell it to install and give permissions to each app, one by one. I tried it with Dolphin browser, worked fine.

Terry T said:
I've done it both ways, in my setup there was no big difference in the speed: with Dropbox I'm limited by the combination of my FireTV wireless and my internet, direct from my PC I'm limited by the combination of my FireTV wireless and my PC wireless. If both the FireTV and the PC are wired, I expect direct from your PC to be faster than using Dropbox.
After thinking about it a little more, probably the simplest, fastest thing you can do is put everything on a flash drive and plug it into the USB port on the FireTV, then you don't even need to copy the files to the FireTV.
- Format the flashdrive to FAT32 first (required for the FireTV)
- Copy your library of apps to it, and plug it into the FireTV
- Open ES and go to Local/extUSB
- Long press one apk, in a couple of seconds it will show a checkmark
- Select all the other apks you want to install
- Go to the bottom right and click on More
- Select open
Then you will have to sit and tell it to install and give permissions to each app, one by one. I tried it with Dolphin browser, worked fine.
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Click to collapse
Doesn't es file explorer let you install the apks without transfering them?

Yes, that's what I did from the flashdrive. Over wireless, I go ahead and copy the files to the FireTV before installing just because I'm a little paranoid about an error in the transfer causing a problem.

Terry T said:
Yes, that's what I did from the flashdrive. Over wireless, I go ahead and copy the files to the FireTV before installing just because I'm a little paranoid about an error in the transfer causing a problem.
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I just tried it out on the box it works great thanks for the tip so much easier. It actually did crash when I selected install without transferring files first but I think it was because I was installing another apk over web at the same time lol. Anyway when it restarted it just picked up where it left off and asked if I wanted to overwrite some files.
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How to transfer / copy / backup app or game settings between two AFTVs?

I've got a non-rooted AFTV 1 with some games installed. Now I want to upgrade to a (non-rooted) AFTV 2. How can I copy my game settings from my AFTV 1 to the AFTV 2? I've tried whispersync option, but it didn't work for me. I don' want to start every game again from scratch.

jaydee 77 said:
I've got a non-rooted AFTV 1 with some games installed. Now I want to upgrade to a (non-rooted) AFTV 2. How can I copy my game settings from my AFTV 1 to the AFTV 2? I've tried whispersync option, but it didn't work for me. I don' want to start every game again from scratch.
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Click to collapse
I think if you go into your file system with something like "File Explorer or Es File Manager on Your AFTV or using ADB or an FTP server on your computer" & goto sdcard0/android/data & find the file there for your game just find the right name or the auther of the game? & copy that into your new AFTV in the same location (sdcard0/android/data) after you have already installed The game on it first though, & just copy/replace the old file. See if this works.... It should do?
If this helped don't forget to press that thanks button ?

Yes, I've tried that, with ES Explorer as a FTP server (remote manager). But there are no files in /sdcard/android/data/com.ratrodstudio.snowparty2/ for that game. Also i can't find any game settings folder for the game "Xenowerk". Where could that be?

jaydee 77 said:
Yes, I've tried that, with ES Explorer as a FTP server (remote manager). But there are no files in /sdcard/android/data/com.ratrodstudio.snowparty2/ for that game. Also i can't find any game settings folder for the game "Xenowerk". Where could that be?
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With adb try extracting the folders before sdcard0? I'd presume that the file your looking for maybe in system or sys then In the folder app? I'm at work now & not anywhere near a AFTV or a laptop so I can't help anymore than that at the moment
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App manager in settings app shows 5MB of game data, meaning there must be some files. I've searched again on device root, not only on sdcard. Also tried total commander, but could not find any game or app setting files. I'm not familiar with adb. how to extract folders as you mentioned?

jaydee 77 said:
App manager in settings app shows 5MB of game data, meaning there must be some files. I've searched again on device root, not only on sdcard. Also tried total commander, but could not find any game or app setting files. I'm not familiar with adb. how to extract folders as you mentioned?
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Click to collapse
Google ADB Fire, add the ip address & then find your device, press connect, then look for the part where it says push & pull, pull from where ever you need then push it back after you done what ever you want to add, when finished disconnect.
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I've think it's useless without root. i've got no access to /root/data/ folder where most app or game settings are stored. this is really pain in the ass for people using a Fire TV for gaming and upgrade their device, lose all game settings. Amazon should provide a cloud storage option to migrate devices.

jaydee 77 said:
I've think it's useless without root. i've got no access to /root/data/ folder where most app or game settings are stored. this is really pain in the ass for people using a Fire TV for gaming and upgrade their device, lose all game settings. Amazon should provide a cloud storage option to migrate devices.
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My fire sticks which are 1st & 2nd Gen are not rooted & I can use ADB Fire with those, I've not been trying to mess with game data but have modded/added & changed a few things?
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When trying to access /root/data/ with ADBFire or TotalCommander, i get an "access denied" message. ES Explorer shows the Bilder AS empty, which isn't the truth. Backup apps i've tried also can't create a backup of the data. You can do a data backup if the app or game use /sdcard/Android/data/ as storage location.

I tried the backup from adb
I connect with adbfire, then run ADB
adb backup -noapk com.ubisoft.rayman.fiestarun
the message in adb tells me to confirm the backup on my device. on my smartphone i got a black screen where I can confirm, decline or can type a password. After confirmation a file backup.ab is created in my adb folder on my client. The smartphone is not rooted and there is no need to do it.
On myaftv1 I never get that black screen where I'm asked to confirm the backup, so it s´doesn't start.
Is there anything I can do, like install some apks?