[izprtxqkft]

I think it had a good run but in 2023 more users have trouble setting up WebDAV than those that are successful and most people don't use it anymore.

Request is to deprecate WebDAV and plan to remove it entirely.

Staged, first announce, then move it to where it can only be enabled from advancedsettings.xml and then entirely pull it.

Timeframe undetermined, depending on the outcry of the announcement.


End Goal (why do I care if I do not use it?), attempting to reduce Kodi's memory and cpu footprint when being run on limited devices (android specifically) by removing things that are either unusable or unuseful.

( Next up - Apple AirPlay )

Thanks for your consideration.

[Fuchs2468]

But I have a different opinion. I've been using WebDAV for years and it works great.
It is absolutely necessary for smooth access to the contents of the database via the Internet.
My hardware is a Synology NAS.

Where there are often problems is the use of a private Nextcloud server with WebDAV in conjunction with SSL certificates.
But that's not a Kodi problem.
 

You could use FTP but then you wouldn't have any stream details in the Kodi database (video code, audio code, ...).
So not really useful for video.

As far as setting up WebDav on a Syology NAS, I can give you instructions if you wish.
You will see it is very simple.
And the connection to Kodi works without any problems.

[izprtxqkft]

i was sure nobody used this anymore .. guess i was wrong
 

I can give you instructions if you wish.

i do appreciate the offer to help but i don't think i have ever even tried to use this in Kodi (or ever at all for anything)

[ashlar]

Considering it's quite a handy solution for using rclone on a small machine (Android, Vero, etc.), strongly no from me. You setup a plugin, tell rclone to serve through webdav and you're set. If there's an alternative, I'd like to know it.

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=354249

If there is no alternative, again, a strong no from me. I also wonder what would you get from removing an option you don't use it, fine. But if others are using it...
Are you sure memory is used if WebDAV is not?

[izprtxqkft]

trying to reduce features to make a better experience on Android

i think i spend too much time trying to "force" Kodi work the way i want and perhaps it isn't what i want at all

the jellyfin client for android works perfect except certain unsupported codecs so i keep going back to kodi for it's playback support

[ashlar]

trying to reduce features to make a better experience on Android

i think i spend too much time trying to "force" Kodi work the way i want and perhaps it isn't what i want at all

the jellyfin client for android works perfect except certain unsupported codecs so i keep going back to kodi for it's playback support

Yeah but, except for the memory thing (for which we would need to see numbers, in order to evaluate the difference it could make), how would taking away a protocol make for a better experience?

I am not saying there cannot be reasons, I would simply like to understand what they are. :-)

[izprtxqkft]

I am not saying there cannot be reasons, I would simply like to understand what they are

i have gone through Kodi end to end trying to get there

first i had a nice skin Embuary, everything enabled as per normal but it kept crashing (over a year ago before i came here to try and figure out why)

then removed the skin, saw improvements, removed addons, more improvements

customized estuary to get a more android streaming app experience, custom compile removing optional components for more improvements

recently i rooted my device and removed the home launcher to dedicate more for Kodi and got more improvements (an update took that option away)


but no matter how much i change it is still "clunky" so i look for ANYTHING extra and every time i see this mentioned in General Support it's not working, the Wiki page has been archived, google searches show most people have moved away from it

so that's the reason, i want something that feels as smooth as other android apps without delays or excessive memory usage but i think it will have to be a "native android" app not one cross compiled to "work with" android

[zsero]

Please do NOT remove WebDAV. It's by far the highest performance mode for networking in all devices. You can see that SMB, NFS, etc. can only do 1/5th of the transfer speed of WebDAV in lower powered devices. On computers of course this is not a problem, but it's true for almost all set-top-boxes and TVs!

For example, a typical value is something like 20-30 mbit/sec for SMB and 100+ mbit/sec for WebDAV!

[ponkotsu]

idk I pull near gigabit over NFS here. Only reason it's that slow is that I can't afford 10gbit equipment.

[zsero]

You probably have a strong processor in your equipment. Lower powered devices really struggly with SMB, FTP, SFTP and somewhat even over NFS.

[scott967]

WebDAV over http or https?  I would expect more overhead with https.

scott s.
.

[zsero]

HTTP is the fastest of course, but HTTPS is also much faster compared to the alternatives.

[mirko.meschini]

Please do not deprecate WebDAV, as it's my only option for now, for streaming from a remote server. SFTP/SSH is not natively supported and doesn't honor cache settings so very poor performance, and all other protocols are not suitable for wan access.

[izprtxqkft]

Please do not deprecate WebDAV, as it's my only option for now, for streaming from a remote server. SFTP/SSH is not natively supported and doesn't honor cache settings so very poor performance, and all other protocols are not suitable for wan access.

if you're using kodi remotely you're already using it as a non-standard installation, it's intended for local content
recommend a "Proper" media streaming server, Jellyfin, Emby, Plex, etc.