2019-02-23, 20:26
Sony XBR850D automatically udgraded from Kodi 17.6 to 18.1, which seemed OK until I tried to add a network share in the same manner as I've always done...add..Browse...SMB Windows network, which would always show my Windows network shares (2 WD MyClouds with added external drives and 1 WD MyBook on the network).
After the 18.1 upgrade, I tried to add a new folder from one of the MyClouds, and went to add...browse...SMB...and it just shows the 'return' beneath, which gives me no way to browse the network. It still has access to all the files from my previous Kodi installation, so it still is accessing these network drives, but what was once a simple straightforward way to add new locations no longer works.
I did some searching and found various answers, some old, some new, but I find it hard to believe that this was an intentional change to Kodi...things should get easier to use or remain the same, not get more difficult. I would uninstall and side load Kodi 17.6 and shut off updates, but the only way I can find is to shut off all automatic app updates, rather than just disable Kodi updates. Plus, last time I uninstalled (with a 17.0 issue) I had to rebuild the entire database and re-enter all of the shares, which is a lot of time and work.
Is there a fix for this, or is it being worked on? If the answer is to set up password-protected shares, reconfigure Samba somehow, and have to manually enter network share locations with ip addresses etc., it's ridiculous to "improve" Kodi this way. The myriad of old and new answers I found wasn't much help...some assume your're an IT professional, others just give wrong information. Network access was working fine until the update, and it's still accessing the network fine, but for the above.
After the 18.1 upgrade, I tried to add a new folder from one of the MyClouds, and went to add...browse...SMB...and it just shows the 'return' beneath, which gives me no way to browse the network. It still has access to all the files from my previous Kodi installation, so it still is accessing these network drives, but what was once a simple straightforward way to add new locations no longer works.
I did some searching and found various answers, some old, some new, but I find it hard to believe that this was an intentional change to Kodi...things should get easier to use or remain the same, not get more difficult. I would uninstall and side load Kodi 17.6 and shut off updates, but the only way I can find is to shut off all automatic app updates, rather than just disable Kodi updates. Plus, last time I uninstalled (with a 17.0 issue) I had to rebuild the entire database and re-enter all of the shares, which is a lot of time and work.
Is there a fix for this, or is it being worked on? If the answer is to set up password-protected shares, reconfigure Samba somehow, and have to manually enter network share locations with ip addresses etc., it's ridiculous to "improve" Kodi this way. The myriad of old and new answers I found wasn't much help...some assume your're an IT professional, others just give wrong information. Network access was working fine until the update, and it's still accessing the network fine, but for the above.