Directory Bind and AFTV2 - Fire TV Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm trying to bind the "Android" folder on my Fire TV 2 to the "Android" folder on my HDD but it doesn't seem to work using the all "directory Bind". Has anyone been able to bind directories on the 4K Fire TV after acheiving Root access?
Edit: OK, I'm stuck. I tried Directory Bind with absolutely no luck. Then I tried Folder Mount but that required a bind of every individual folder. That's just not happening! Lastly I tried Link2SD but this app will not pickup on my USB drive. this really sucks. What's the point of having a 1tb hard drive and root access if I can't bind the damn drive. Hell, even the OUYA doesn't have these issues. WTF Amazon?!

Updated Findings for "Directory Binding"
I guess nobody around here gives a damn that the storage on the Fire TV 2 is seriously gimped. With that said, here are my findings.
NOTE: THIS IS ALL ABOUT THE AFTV2
Directory Bind
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vanpit.android.directorybind
DOES NOT WORK
Folder Mount
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.devasque.fmount
Works with some MAJOR limitations on the Fire TV side of the fence.
* First off, Folder Mount has a issue where you can't add your license for the full version onto your Fire TV. This is due to there being no proper Google Play solution. I've already sent an email to the developer so hopefully that person can help me around the issue.
* Secondly, with the free version of Folder Mount you can bind up to three games. Sadly you cant do the whole "Android" folder as well as "data" and "obb"
* You can however, bind a game's individual folder WITHIN "data" or "obb". The catch is, you need to have a "stub" (to use a term from the Wii hacking scene) folder in the original location.
For example​
Let's use Asphalt 8. The meat of this game (BEFORE binding) is within this location: storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com/gameloft.android.AMAZ.GloftA8AS
the folder is 1.56 GB
- before binding, copy/paste this folder onto your desired location within your external USB hard drive.
- Go back to the original folder and erase everything out of it. By doing this, you are creating the "stub" that the Fire TV needs so it can believe that the files are still in the proper location
- head back to Folder Mount and create a binding, giving proper folder locations and...
- Start game and play.
If you check your internal storage within the Fire TV settings, you can clearly see that the space the game used to occupy has now been freed. This alone would be a perfect solution if it wasn't for one thing. We need a place to stick the original APK files. I tried mapping the ASEC folder. - needless to say, it was a f***ing mess! From what I can see, the ASEC folder is used primarily for apps that have been pushed to the SD card. The moment I tried binding that folder, most the apps pushed to SD was in a "not found" state for Fire OS. If someone could figure out where apps are "installed" to, on the Fire TV 2, I would be willing to test a bind.
Speaking of the SD cards Fire OS does this hocus pocus bulls**t with them. Bind the ASEC folder and you might get 2 or three SD removed apps to show but all others will be "not found". Try binding the entire SD card to a folder of your choice and Fire TV will get VERY "sometimey" with you. Sometimes you might have a card at the capacity of whatever card you have (in my case 4GB for testing). Sometimes it will show that you have a card inserted with NO space available. See what I mean? utter bull****! It's as if the Fire TV reads the physical capacity and locks things there.
One more note. The freggin Fire TV 2 is obsessed with stub folders. It makes things a pain in the ass when you're trying to figure out which folder is the "real" one. At one point I had stubs in three locations. Talk about an annoying patchwork system for file management. Ugh!
I'm done for now. Hopefully this will give someone a starting point for helping this community fix the biggest problem with this Android device. Seriously, the team behind the 4K Fire TV should be kicked in the rear end for this screw up! I get wanting to lock things to some degree but at least let me install as many games from YOUR store that I want and not limit me to 5 really good ones at a time.

Have you tried using ln from an adb shell? Was able to get this working for a single file earlier today with this method, not sure how well it works for directories.

thepacketslinger said:
Have you tried using ln from an adb shell? Was able to get this working for a single file earlier today with this method, not sure how well it works for directories.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't tried ADB shell yet. I'd like to see what others can come up with at this point. I'm also waiting for a response from the dev of Folder Mount. Hopefully I'll get a response within a few hours. Otherwise I'll be waiting for someone to bring property Google Play support so that I can use my Folder Mount license.

@lightykd thanks for sharing your findings. The tiny storage of the Amazon FireTV has always been an annoyance. It became a hindrance once I started using an app that downloads media files. FolderMount seems to work for my purposes. It has allowed me to pair the local media folder ("source" in FolderMount terminology) with a matching folder on my SD card ("destination") so that files written to and read from the source are transparently redirected to the destination.

Related

[Q] How to free up space on amazon fire tv?

Hi all,
I rooted my fire tv. i downgrade firmware and installed CWM, install rbox bootloader, then upgrade pre-rooted firmware by rbox. Now when i check under setting --> system -> about i see 3.61gb free space from 5.49gb available space. I don't have a lot app installed in my rooted fire tv so i didnt think what i have installed would taken up 2gb. Here is what i have installed.
Google play store, kodi, llama, es file explore, busybee box, supersu, chrome, firefox and the whatever was required to gain root access, upgrade and downgrading firmware and whatever app is pre-installed from pre-rooted firmware.
Is there way to check which apps and files are taking up the most space and how do you free up space?
Also, does this sound right that only 3.59gb is left. At one point during my root process when i was pushing update.zip file thru adb to downgrade firmware, it took a very long so i exit out of adb (i simply click on "x" bar to close the connection) and started again but i am not sure maybe i installed update.zip file 2x. How do i check? How do ensure i don't have any unnecessary file on fire tv internal drive.
Thank you
I have 3 FireTVs, all rooted and they have between 3.0G to 3.4G free space so I say your free space is within reasonable range
lowbee said:
I have 3 FireTVs, all rooted and they have between 3.0G to 3.4G free space so I say your free space is within reasonable range
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi thanks for posting back. Makes me feel better but still out of 8gb user only has 3.5gb, not ideal. i wonder where did the 5gb go.
I am curious to hear from others to see how they cleaned up space, if there are any methods.
I'd have to say kodi might be the culprit taking a lot of space with excessive data storage.
Anything similar to xbmc can be a resource hog for storage.
ashsha7877 said:
hi thanks for posting back. Makes me feel better but still out of 8gb user only has 3.5gb, not ideal. i wonder where did the 5gb go.
I am curious to hear from others to see how they cleaned up space, if there are any methods.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't get 8GB of usable space. I think it is only about 5GB. So you are using about 1.5 GB for apps. Not too bad if you are running Kodi.
An easy way to check where files are taking up space is to use the "sdcard analyze" function in esfile explorer. Its under the tools section. Also, with esfile explorer, you can push files from your phone to the firetv pretty easy too. Select whatever file you want to send on your phone, under options choose send, and make sure esfile explorer is open on the firetv too. The firetv prompts you for where you want to save the file.
ashsha7877 said:
Hi all,
I rooted my fire tv. i downgrade firmware and installed CWM, install rbox bootloader, then upgrade pre-rooted firmware by rbox. Now when i check under setting --> system -> about i see 3.61gb free space from 5.49gb available space. I don't have a lot app installed in my rooted fire tv so i didnt think what i have installed would taken up 2gb. Here is what i have installed.
Google play store, kodi, llama, es file explore, busybee box, supersu, chrome, firefox and the whatever was required to gain root access, upgrade and downgrading firmware and whatever app is pre-installed from pre-rooted firmware.
Is there way to check which apps and files are taking up the most space and how do you free up space?
Also, does this sound right that only 3.59gb is left. At one point during my root process when i was pushing update.zip file thru adb to downgrade firmware, it took a very long so i exit out of adb (i simply click on "x" bar to close the connection) and started again but i am not sure maybe i installed update.zip file 2x. How do i check? How do ensure i don't have any unnecessary file on fire tv internal drive.
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can free up quite a bit by pushing these advanced settings to
<advancedsettings>
<pathsubstitution>
<substitute>
<from>/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/files/.xbmc/userdata/Thumbnails/</from>
<to>/storage/usb/drive1/xbmcthumbnails/</to>
</substitute>
</pathsubstitution>
</advancedsettings>
You need to amend to kodi instread of xbmc if you're running 14.0 or higher AND my external is mounted by adbFire mount drives persistent. If you're using stickmount it would be sda (forget exact path?)
Once pushed and confirmed working, all your thumbnails will dissapear. Just go into userdata/database and delete textures13. Then restart xbmc.
Afterwards I also delete the thumbnails folder on internal. Oh yes...make sure you have a folder on external named xbmcthumbnails.
This should immediately clear about 600 mb and keep in mind you typically add more to your library so the amount it saves long term could be huge.
KLit75 said:
You can free up quite a bit by pushing these advanced settings to
<advancedsettings>
<pathsubstitution>
<substitute>
<from>/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/files/.xbmc/userdata/Thumbnails/</from>
<to>/storage/usb/drive1/xbmcthumbnails/</to>
</substitute>
</pathsubstitution>
</advancedsettings>
You need to amend to kodi instread of xbmc if you're running 14.0 or higher AND my external is mounted by adbFire mount drives persistent. If you're using stickmount it would be sda (forget exact path?)
Once pushed and confirmed working, all your thumbnails will dissapear. Just go into userdata/database and delete textures13. Then restart xbmc.
Afterwards I also delete the thumbnails folder on internal. Oh yes...make sure you have a folder on external named xbmcthumbnails.
This should immediately clear about 600 mb and keep in mind you typically add more to your library so the amount it saves long term could be huge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that going to make loading thumbnails A LOT SLOWER??
Neo3D said:
Is that going to make loading thumbnails A LOT SLOWER??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's actually a good question. I've been using these so long I don't have a memory of exactly how fast they loaded before. I'll say this--they populate fast enough for me to keep using them. I use usb 3.0. I think it's essential based on how big my library is and the fact I use aeon nox with additional fanart.
But, I'd be very interested in seeing if you or someone else sees a significant lag in load times. You can always delete the xml if you find it slow.
Just an fyi I got these from an xda member awhile back. Since then lots of people have tried them and so far I haven't hear complaints, but I'd still like feedback from someone who can compare.
Another suggestion is to pre-scrape all the necessary support files with a media manager of your choice (e.g. fanart, icon, content info, etc.) and switch to local info only on the scraper for the collection. It depends also on how you have your collection organized from a folder perspective.
I found this to be fastest and lightest on local storage (obviously because the "library" is already built) especially when you have a household of streamers. You have all the content centralized on your NAS already. It's silly for streaming box to build the library and re-download the content each time from the Internet (especially if your like me as a perpetual media player tinkerer).
Edit: For clarity, I mean a "Library manager." Look on the Kodi wiki for links to various clients on your preferred OS.
t3ch42 said:
An easy way to check where files are taking up space is to use the "sdcard analyze" function in esfile explorer. Its under the tools section. Also, with esfile explorer, you can push files from your phone to the firetv pretty easy too. Select whatever file you want to send on your phone, under options choose send, and make sure esfile explorer is open on the firetv too. The firetv prompts you for where you want to save the file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know this. Are there any other setup steps required to be able to do this? Or do you just have es file explorer installed and opened on both phone and FTV?
RuKuS4Life said:
Good to know this. Are there any other setup steps required to be able to do this? Or do you just have es file explorer installed and opened on both phone and FTV?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's it. As long as the two are on the aame network, it should pick up the firetv as a target.
To clarify, on the phone, long click the file to send, and select send. The firetv ip adress will show up and allow you to send the file. When the prompt shows up on the firetv(provided that esfile explorer is the active and open app), accept the transfer and select tge location to store the transferred file.
t3ch42 said:
That's it. As long as the two are on the aame network, it should pick up the firetv as a target.
To clarify, on the phone, long click the file to send, and select send. The firetv ip adress will show up and allow you to send the file. When the prompt shows up on the firetv(provided that esfile explorer is the active and open app), accept the transfer and select tge location to store the transferred file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got sdmaid. It recovered about 1.5gb. Get the pro version from google play.

Accessing an NTFS drive via Fire TV 4k

Hello!
Just purchased a Fire TV 4k to replace my WDTV Live and I've run in to a bit of a problem. I have successfully rooted the machine and I installed Stickmount to be able to access my NTFS-formated external hard drive but Stickmount appears to be unable to see the drive. The drive is a Seagate 4TB, powered by a separate PSU but it does not appear to turn on at all either when plugged in to the Fire TV or when trying to mount it.
Is there something silly that I am overlooking? Is there a known issue with some drives or perhaps I am just really unlucky and this one won't work? Are there alternatives to using Stickmount?
All I want to do is have a nicer looking, better performing version of the WDTV to play my media... Why must you make it so tricky Amazon?
Anyway, really appreciate your help and patience!
okay so, turns out switching off debugging via USB allowed the drive to power up but it still doesn't seem to be mountable or, perhaps, i can't see the drive's contents on kodi.
any idea where that stuff usually goes?
I only rooted two days ago. Stickmount hasn't been useful for me. Paragon exFAT, NTFS & EFS+ however has been great with my NTFS hard drives. It seems to run and do most stuff automatically, it does have a couple of options. If your drive is alive after installation this is the process to get things working in Kodi.
1) Go into KODI and select the Video menu then Files below it.
2) Select Files from the menu then Add videos. A window called Add Video source should appear.
3) Click the Browse button. Select External storage. You'll see a folder named ParagonNTFS If your drive is mounted.
4) Select or Open ParagonNTFS then click OK on the right side of the screen.
5) The Add Video source window appears, click Add. Then OK
From there it's straight forward. Kodi will ask how you have your files stored, index them and other fun things. So far with hard drives I've found that the Fire TV 2 wants them to be powered or connected to a powered USB hub.
NutterNatter said:
I only rooted two days ago. Stickmount hasn't been useful for me. Paragon exFAT, NTFS & EFS+ however has been great with my NTFS hard drives. It seems to run and do most stuff automatically, it does have a couple of options. If your drive is alive after installation this is the process to get things working in Kodi.
1) Go into KODI and select the Video menu then Files below it.
2) Select Files from the menu then Add videos. A window called Add Video source should appear.
3) Click the Browse button. Select External storage. You'll see a folder named ParagonNTFS If your drive is mounted.
4) Select or Open ParagonNTFS then click OK on the right side of the screen.
5) The Add Video source window appears, click Add. Then OK
From there it's straight forward. Kodi will ask how you have your files stored, index them and other fun things. So far with hard drives I've found that the Fire TV 2 wants them to be powered or connected to a powered USB hub.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ah fantastic, i shall look in to this. what's the easiest way to get ParagonNTFS onto the Fire TV?
May I make a suggestion if this doesn't work out? Your router might have a USB port designed to allow a hard drive's contents to be a network share. Not only will Kodi be able to access the drive easier, every computer/Fire TV will be able to access it, too.
Sizzlechest said:
May I make a suggestion if this doesn't work out? Your router might have a USB port designed to allow a hard drive's contents to be a network share. Not only will Kodi be able to access the drive easier, every computer/Fire TV will be able to access it, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
unfortunately mine doesn't. i have found out that my old WDTV Live acts as a NAS server of some kind (i guess, it allows a harddrive to appear on the network anyway) so i am using that for now and able to view all my files. i will try out Paragon or otherwise buy the cheap usb-ethernet device i was linked to via Reddit.
Glad I found this thread.
Here's a Mac guide for this. It will cover formatting a drive in NTFS and the program you need on the Fire TV to mount the NTFS drive and how to make this work with Kodi.
http://marksmods.com/Hack-the-Fire-...e-Fire-TV-and-use-an-External-Hard-Drive.html
I'm loving this Fire TV more every day.
Just for hard drive?
Guys, being limited to fat32 and related file size < 4gb is the biggest issue that really sucks with ftv for me. I have some questions, as you already successfully removed this limt.
Does this way by paragon ntfs help even to mount an usb stick? Will stick be mounted as otg (as fat32 before) or do i will find it in the paragonntfs folder, same as the HDD?
What method you took for rooting?
If used kingroot, did you apply factory reset after finished , as i read of this recommendation?
Thanks and cheers
Meandi51 said:
Guys, being limited to fat32 and related file size < 4gb is the biggest issue that really sucks with ftv for me. I have some questions, as you already successfully removed this limt.
Does this way by paragon ntfs help even to mount an usb stick? Will stick be mounted as otg (as fat32 before) or do i will find it in the paragonntfs folder, same as the HDD?
What method you took for rooting?
If used kingroot, did you apply factory reset after finished , as i read of this recommendation?
Thanks and cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An external drive is an external drive. I don't see why there would be any difference to paragon whether you were using a flash chip or a spinning platter to contain your data files.
Rooted today and paragon app works well with flash chip. Anyone experience with CF stickmount? What's the difference to Paragon except it needs extfat formatted drives?
Paragon ntfs su notifications
Hi,
im on the latest prerooted rom on my 2gen fire tv with Paragon ntfs intalled.
But i always get these paragon su granted notifications on screen every 5-10min, which drives me crazy
Does anybody get the same notifications?
How do i get rid of them?

Writing to SD Card - FireTV 2

Hello,
Not sure if I should start a new thread or continue off the one that ended in July.
Spent a few hours last night trying to get Kodi and Retroarch to write to the MicroSD card. Read plenty of articles on xda and in other areas and it seems fairly simple:
1. Create a sandbox area for the program on the SD Card
2. Point the installs there
For example I have:
/storage/sdcard1/Android/data/com.retroarch/
From my understanding, retroarch should be able to write anything into the com.retroarch folder without permissions, yet no matter how many times I tried it could not save files to this location (save states, saves, configs, etc.). I tried with Kodi and the scraper for Rom Collection Browser (which unfortunately is useless, back to Gamesome) could not put any artwork in it's respective folder.
Am I missing something? Does having the program installed on the SDCard effect this at all?
What I ended up doing is setting up a save folder on the FireTV while loading the roms from the SD Card, not a big deal but between Kodi and the Rom artworks the FireTV is going to fill up fast, I would love to get them over to the SDCard.
Thanks for any suggestions.
I run my Kodi through the sd card switch trick to save my box data filling too quick cause all my data goes to my sdcard, then i create a sandbox inside my Kodi location where all the files are.
Heres the link mate -
http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-partially-or-entirely-move-kodi-data-to-external-usb-storage/
The only downside ive had with using this method is that when using Ares Wizard to install a few things (not addons) it wont download because its use to the original location so it throws back an error, if i need anything from there i just do it from a firestick & then transfer to the aftv2. For me id sacrifice that for more storage space plus most fire tv owners have more than one device in there household.
Hope this helps mate if so press that thanks button
Kodi can only write to it's own environment on the sdcard.
Create your directories you want to write to under -
/storage/sdcard1/Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/
then you can write just fine.
Thanks for the link, I had previously ran across that guide, followed it completely and was unable to open Kodi (it would go to a black screen and then crash back to the home page). I am sure it is something simple that I am missing, I think I will try clearing everything on the card and the FireTV and starting over.
Bevnrick said:
Kodi can only write to it's own environment on the sdcard.
Create your directories you want to write to under -
/storage/sdcard1/Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/
then you can write just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@ Bevnrick - I was never adding that last .kodi folder, maybe that was my issue?

DT2 ? Is it possible to sideload?

Hi Chaps....
Honestly didn't know where else to go for help on this one...
First off.... I've been happily playing DT2 with my amazon controller since I first got my Firetv box (non rooted) v 51.1.6.3,.... right up until today,... when i was met with "Please update your application with a new version" and I was quickly kicked back to the fire os screen. I tried contacting madfinger games but it seems they have dropped windows and Amazon support. Ages ago I had moved a lot of my apps to an sd card,... but due to DT2 writing to the card a lot it became corrupted... so i reinstalled it to the firetv box then moved it to the sd card, backed it up to my pc and then put it back on to the firetv. (hope your still with me).
I just wanted to know if it would be possible to sideload the latest version 2-1.2.0 onto the firetv box.
I really don't understand why they dropped support for amazon because it ran like a dream on my box. (also lost 2400 in gold as well).
I noticed that the original DT2 that i backed up was an apk that was just over 488mb in size,... but the new apk that i've downloaded is only 25mb. (I'm still in the process of downloading the OBB data files, although I don't know if they will be of much use.
Is this just a waste of time chaps or does anyone know if i can get this to work.
I'm okay with adb push pull, ect... so just need to know if it'll work.
really appreciate any help as playing a game on a tv is a hell of a lot better than burning my eye sockets out on a monitor.... lol
I have absolutely no idea how i done this, but i'll explain as best i can.
I uninstalled DT2,... luckily its still in the cloud if it all goes belly up. I then installed apps2fire on my phone and downloaded DT2.
I then sent the main apk to my firetv. (probably went wrong here) but i ran the apk.... DT2 started to run but then said that it needed to download some files (around 250mb) but failed with an error code of "Download Failed Because The Resources Could Not Be Found".
Unaware of what this meant i then managed to locate the obb files on my file and wrote down the name of the folder they were in.
using es file explorer i created the same named folder in the same place on the firetv.
I then created another folder called dt2 on the phone and moved the obb file into it. I then used apps2fire and located to obb file and sent it to the firetv. so far so good. next problem was "where was the obb file". I managed to locate it, but only after i changed the folder view in es file explorer. I then copied and pasted the obb into the folder i created ealier within the obb folder.
I then ran DT2 again, but this time is said that it required files from the google playstore. I had a choice for the software to download what it needed and I let it do it's thing.
This time when I ran DT2 it started playing the intro... I skipped all the first parts so that i could log back in with my own details.
This time the game ran but the images look different to the original firetv version. Don't get me wrong, they look great. plus the amazon controller works perfectly.
I then closed the game.
when I went to go back to play it, the icon said that there was an update available.... (I had already gone through this once before, and it never worked).. but this time it did. and the xmas version is now installed.
This was a rough way of doing things, but i did some google searches and used details from these sites... (hope i can post these)....
https://www.reddit.com/r/fireTV/comments/2g7cgy/how_would_i_go_about_sideloading_a_game_that_has/
http://www.aftvnews.com/sideload/
http://filehex.com/dead-trigger-2/
http://ouyaforum.com/showthread.php?8829-obb-files-and-dead-trigger-2
all of this was done legally using programs available on firetv and an android phone. no other apk's or obbs were used.
Hope this helps in some way,....
seems I was a little too quick to say it was working...... as soon as i went to play in a tournament the start button had become greyed out.
but the firetv game controller still worked and by pressing "B" i was about to back out of the locked screen.
Also the "there is an update available" has returned to the main dt2 icon, but it always fails right at the very end of the loading bar.
I managed to play the game for about an hour and then tried the tournament since then its been very buggy.
Would it be anything to do with google play services chaps?

[GUIDE] How to install Plex Media Server on external storage (Micro SD or USB Flash)

If you use Plex and Plex Media Server on your Nvidia Shield Android TV, as your library grows, you'll soon learn that Plex Media Server can eat up a lot of that fast, precious internal storage.
Please note the current limitation of Plex Media Server for Android:
Note: The server's data directory will always be placed on the original internal storage, even if you expand it with a USB drive or microSD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ran into this problem and spent days trying to figure out how to set the location of the metadata database to the external (adopted) storage. Unfortunately, Plex doesn't give Android users this option like they do for Windows users. Maybe in the future? Maybe if enough of us make a stink on the interwebs?
If you can't wait that long, here's a guide on how to install Plex Media Server directly to your external storage, be it Micro SD or USB Flash Drive. Just make sure your storage media is SUPER FAST. So, it's probably best to go with the fastest USB 3.0 Flash or SSD drive you can find.
IT IS CRITICAL TO DO THESE STEPS IN ORDER:
Root the Nvidia Shield 16GB Nougat (2015)
Insert Micro SD card or USB Flash drive (make sure it's fast) and adopt the storage.
Install ES File Explorer and use its Root Explorer or use ADB command line:
Code:
adb uninstall <package_name>
to remove the Plex Media Server app. Reboot and verify that it's truly removed.
Enable Developer Options
Install Plex Media Server from Google Play. Yes, this will install it in the Internal Shared Storage, but it won't be in the /System/ folder.
Go to: Settings > Developer options > Force allow apps on external (4th from the bottom)
Go to: Settings > Apps > Storage Used and move Plex Media Server to the external storage.
Reboot the Shield
*Start Plex, initiate Plex Media Server, do not build default libraries, and it should work
Reboot the Shield
Use the Plex web client to create your libraries
Enjoy!!
*Whenever you restart the Nvidia Shield, launch Plex using the Plex Media Server shortcut in SETTINGS > APPS because you have to wait 1-3 seconds for your Micro SD or USB 3.0 Flash Drive to initialize, so this makes sure the PMS is running before Plex is opened.
Thank you so much for this guide.
Damn son, You literally just did the impossible!!! People have been trying to achieve this since Plex came to Shield Tv. Over 9000 thanks to you for getting this done & for posting a guide!!!
I got this to work, But had massive trouble trying to remove PMS with both ES File Explorer & ADB. After a hour or 2, I was finally able to remove PMS with Titanium Backup Pro successfully. I've got as far as setting my libraries up now & it all apiers to be on my 3.0 SSD
I can't find the folder to place the channel bundles. Did the folder structure change from the plex server that is installed as a system app?
liqianghua said:
I can't find the folder to place the channel bundles. Did the folder structure change from the plex server that is installed as a system app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im looking to install a few plugins & it seems the folder has been moved from "/data/data/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb". Did you happen to find the new location of the appdata location?
EDIT: I have just managed to find it. Its located at.. "mnt/expand/RANDOM CODE/user/0/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb"
RANDOM CODE Seems to be the adoptive storage ID. I didnt include mine because chances are is that mine would be different & it is around 35 characters long.
BIFFTAZ said:
Im looking to install a few plugins & it seems the folder has been moved from "/data/data/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb". Did you happen to find the new location of the appdata location?
EDIT: I have just managed to find it. Its located at.. "mnt/expand/RANDOM CODE/user/0/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb"
RANDOM CODE Seems to be the adoptive storage ID. I didnt include mine because chances are is that mine would be different & it is around 35 characters long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you BIFFTAZ. I appreciate your reply. It was driving me crazy not finding it. I ended up resetting my device in frustration and will let you know once I get my Shield back up and running.
Thanks muchly, Neo3D!
It's been working fine for me for the last 10 days or so on my 2015 16GB. Netflix is still working too - I'd read somewhere that they'd made it stop working on rooted devices but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
Hopefully the setup will survive the next Plex Media Server update !
BTW, after much unsuccessful faffing around with ES File Explorer etc, in the end I removed the existing PlexMediaServer via:
Code:
adb shell # on your PC
su # you will have to grant superuser access when asked by the SU app
mount -o rw,remount -t ext4 /system # mount /system as read-writeable
cd /system/app
rm -rf PlexMediaServer
Does this method work for the latest version of Shield with the latest software (just got one last week) ?
If yes, do any of the steps above change for it, or can I follow them to the dot?
TIA for the help... and Thank you OP for the awesome work!
@Neo3D, tank you so mutch, your trick worked like a charm (on my Nvidia Shield TV 2017, 16GB, Nvidia Experience 6.2)!
I've been spent a lot of time searching a solution to the Plex server and 16GB Shield limitation, and finally I got Plex working on the adopted storage!
(I suggest to @snickler or others moderators, to post this solution as a sticky post)
I also made some R/W performance tests:
1) insternal Shield storage: 210/40
2) KingFast SSD, 30GB, 1,8 inch, mSATA III, MLC (adopted storage) + Inateck USB 3.0 SSD mSATA, USB 3.0: 210/97
3) SanDisk Ultra Fit, 32GB, usb 3.0 (adopted storage) : 80/30
BIFFTAZ said:
Im looking to install a few plugins & it seems the folder has been moved from "/data/data/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb". Did you happen to find the new location of the appdata location?
EDIT: I have just managed to find it. Its located at.. "mnt/expand/RANDOM CODE/user/0/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I have a question: did you managed to manually install plugins like Trakt or WebTools?
coolpal said:
Does this method work for the latest version of Shield with the latest software (just got one last week) ?
If yes, do any of the steps above change for it, or can I follow them to the dot?
TIA for the help... and Thank you OP for the awesome work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it works!
You can follow the step-by-step from the OP, in case of troubles uninstalling Plex server you can follow the steps provided by @Xaph0d.
When starting Plex server for the first time, pay attention to the pop-up asking for w/r permission.
Then profit it!
goose2600 said:
I also made some R/W performance tests:
1) insternal Shield storage: 210/40
2) KingFast SSD, 30GB, 1,8 inch, mSATA III, MLC (adopted storage) + Inateck USB 3.0 SSD mSATA, USB 3.0: 210/97
3) SanDisk Ultra Fit, 32GB, usb 3.0 (adopted storage) : 80/30
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you do this performance tests?
goose2600 said:
Yeah, it works!
You can follow the step-by-step from the OP, in case of troubles uninstalling Plex server you can follow the steps provided by @Xaph0d.
When starting Plex server for the first time, pay attention to the pop-up asking for w/r permission.
Then profit it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks.. was able to root it.
Had to splice two usb cables to make A to A cable.
Now stuck on deleting PlexMediaServer. Using the method suggested by @Xaph0d, and get a prompt from superuser which i granted, but still see "Read-only file system". Any ideas what could be wrong?
GrandStar said:
How did you do this performance tests?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just using A1 SD Bench android app.
It is not science, but crearly demonstrate as adopted storage can be fast.
coolpal said:
Now stuck on deleting PlexMediaServer. Using the method suggested by @Xaph0d, and get a prompt from superuser which i granted, but still see "Read-only file system". Any ideas what could be wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this:
Code:
adb shell
su
mount -o rw,remount -t ext4 /system
Thanks @goose2600
I am able to get it all working!
Can I migrate my existing PMS library metadata from Windows 10 machine to Shield?
coolpal said:
Thanks @goose2600
I am able to get it all working!
Can I migrate my existing PMS library metadata from Windows 10 machine to Shield?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably you can, but as I am new to Plex (and also re-reading the steps 9 and 11 of this guide) I don't know how Plex create the library, so I preferred to start from the scratch.
Now I would like just to find a way to install any unsupported plugins. If you will ever know the way, let me know
EDIT: To get unsupported plugins to works, we have justs to symlink the Plug-ins folder located in the data folder present in the external adopted storage (which is no writable) to a new folder located on the /sdcdard, which is writable.
I just graded to higher external HD from smaller HD. My device is not rooted and stock. I don't how I managed use my original HD as my plex server for all my movies. Now trying to figure out update it where the shield would recognize the new HD
Thanks for this guide, got it all working! Apart from one thing....
For some reason Plex is not downloading all the metadata, movie posters etc. It will only download maybe a handful or two, but not my whole library.
I had no issues when Plex was on the internal storage, but a nightmare now on the external storage. What can I do to fix this please?
Be sure to follow the guide step by step, even steps 9, 10 and 11.
Pay also attention to give the r/w permission when Plex will ask for them (it is pretty easy to dismiss the request).
I moved Plex data on two devices following this guide, and always worked without any troubles.
goose2600 said:
Be sure to follow the guide step by step, even steps 9, 10 and 11.
Pay also attention to give the r/w permission when Plex will ask for them (it is pretty easy to dismiss the request).
I moved Plex data on two devices following this guide, and always worked without any troubles.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've followed the guide exactly, especially those steps. Still don't get why it's only downloading some metadata and not all my library. Will have to post a screenshot later
Without root
I belive it shoud work also without root doing this:
1. Enable Developer mode
2. Enable ADB via usb in developer
3. run:
Code:
adb devices
4. Give permission on the screen
5. run:
Code:
adb shell
6. run:
Code:
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb
(this will uninstall the app from curent user 0)
7. Reinstall Plex Server form store

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