[AlanDogg]

Hi folks,
I have a current setup on my droid-box (kodi 14.1) which I would like to put onto my kids boxes. Using the default skin Confluence. I can clone my current setup to their boxes without any issues using sd/usb backup wizard . However I have changed the skin on my box from Confluence to CCM Helix and added a few menus etc. When I backup my box and restore it on my kids units the skin is there but the settings of the skins ie my menus etc from mine are not.

MY QUESTION
How can retain skin settings when restoring to another box or my own box for that matter should I need to reflash it?

Many thanks in advance ?

[Jeroen]

I think backing up guisettings.xml in your profile should do the trick.

[AlanDogg]

Thanks bud will give it a try

[AlanDogg]

Gave that a try bud but made no difference The full backup is ment to contain these settings in the first place so not sure why they are not appearing on the unit i restore it to. Everything else restores fine just not the settings within the skin.

[AlanDogg]

Any other suggestions @ Jeroen? Anyone else? Any help is much appreciated.

[Piers]

guisettings.xml should be enough, the other option (if you're formatting and keeping everything where it currently is/drive letters are the same etc.) is to back-up your entire user directory. I did that recently for a format and all items were restored. It's not ideal.

[AlanDogg]

Hi guys,
Thanks for your help. I have tried this over and over again but still the skin references to the individual back grounds are not there and the shortcuts are all gone. If i set to the default kodi skin everything is there. Just does not seem to retain the CCM Helix skin settings and shortcuts This is sending me off my rocker as surely a skin setting or the full backup should remain intact?

[McButton]

Hold on buddy, I got you. First off, when you restore Kodi, it will always default the guisettings.xml. Always. If you drop your previous settings into kodi via a network folder, it will still reload it to default upon restart. Do the following:
1) Download some stuff and install these suckers:
-- PUTTY
-- WINSCP
2) Turn on your sharing/ ssh and whatever else...settings. Just make it so your Kodi machine can communicate with your network on all channels. Don't set any additional passwords. Leave it all default to make life easy.
3) Make a tester. Pick a skin, change a few settings.
4) Find and copy your guisettings.xml file (usually storage/.kodi/userdata/guisettings.xml). Put it on your desktop or something so you can grab it easily.
******Reset/wipe/whatever you need to do to wipe your settings. Make sure the stuff you just did is now back to default or different than what you do. We're testing your backup now.
***Ok. All the easy stuff is done. Here comes the technical biz***

5) Open up PUTTY.
A. SSH using PUTTY to the IP Address (Find it in your Kodi settings or your PC settings of the network folder) of your media center
[username: root Password: openelec (if you use openelec)(otherwise, it's blank or whatever shows in your ssh settings in Kodi)] Sometimes, after you put in the username and hit enter, your won't see your key presses for the password. Just put it in and enter it.
B. Type "systemctl stop xbmc.service" - Your screen will go black! This is normal. If it doesn't, something didn't connect.

6) Open WinSCP. Same IP, same username, same password. Host name is whatever you want it to be. **Note: IF you get a popup about caching a host key, just say no for now.
A. Once logged in, navigate to the appropriate folder (usually storage/.kodi/userdata/) and drop your EDITED BACKUP guisettings.xml. You will get . a popup asking if you want to overwrite the file. You'll know they're different, because the file sizes will be different. If they're the same, you probably copied the same or default file :\
B. Hit the refresh button OR file/refresh to stick the file.
**NOTE: Your screen is still black at this time.

7) Hop on back to PUTTY and type in the following command "systemctl start xbmc.service"
**Your box will now reset. At this time, you'll either be back on your current skin or Confluence. If it's Confluence, change it back to your skin, and see if your old settings are there.

That, my friend, is it. It's a pain at first. I've had to do it enough times that I can do this whole process in about 2 minutes now. It's super easy.

Bonus round: Make sure you use the Kodi Add-on, XBMC Backup (or BACKUP as it's called now) and autosave 3 instances to a network folder or dropbox or somewhere that you can access. The settings in the Add-on will guide you. That way, you can drag the guisettings.xml file at any time based on the date. Plus, if your whole system gets killed, you can restore a backup from the addon (except the skin settings), INCLUDING addons, favorites, watchlist, etc. It's great stuff.

If you have issues, hit me up. I've tried dozens of other ways, this is the easiest.

[tayzer]

I was having the same problem and to fix it in the end I found out you need to copy the following directories from your backup to your new kodi install. I am using Aeon Nox 5 skin in the example below.

Userdata/addon_data/script.skinshortcuts
Addons/skin.aeon.nox.5

Including the file:
Userdata/addon_data/guisettings.xml

Then when I restarted Kodi it did the usual updating shortcuts but this time all my backed up skin settings and sub menus remained so I was good to go . If you don't restore the skin.shortcuts directory it will always try to rebuild it when you restart Kodi and the restored backup configuration gets overwritten.

[Concestly]

After restoring, does i need to install all skin again? or it will be directly appear to box?

[tayzer]

Before the restore I do install the skin is am using first.
I then quit Kodi.
Then I restore the backup.
Restart Kodi if you were using the app to restore and it should startup with all the settings restored.

[systematic92]

Tayzer,

Please could you give the absolute idiots guide on how i can simply restore ONLY the menu and sub menus I created in AEON please? I tried to follow the above steps but I was falling over. If you could tell me how to backup and then how to restore only the menus, that would be great

Thank you

[BobCratchett]

There are two different Aeon's on the repo - what you need to backup/restore varies between Aeon variants and Kodi versions:

Aeon MQ, Kodi 15 or earlier - (whilst Kodi isn't running) backup/restore guisettings.xml
Aeon MQ, Kodi 16 - (whilst Kodi isn't running) backup/restore userdata (wiki)/addon_data/skin.aeon.mq.whatever.else.the.skin.adds.to.the.foder/settings.xml

Aeon Nox 5, Kodi 15 or earlier, the guisettings.xml for the main menu, and userdata (wiki)addon_data/script.skinshortcuts/* for the submenu
Aeon Nox 5, Kodi 16 - the settings.xml in userdata (wiki)/addon_data/skin.aeon.nox.5 for the main menu, and userdata (wiki)/addon_data/script.skinshortcuts/* for the submenu

No need for Kodi not to be running whilst backing up/restoring Skin Shortcut settings.

(And, if you're using Nox 5, for the highly-recommended Nox 5 Silvo mod - just userdata (wiki)/addon_data/script.skinshortcuts/* for all menu items)

[ctsouri]

Hello my friend,

Thank you for very usefull advice.
Just on quick question...
I can't connect to android box through Putty. How do i open the ssh on the Android Box?
I have a MXIII - G TV Box.
I have searched though the internet but couldn't find anything -.-
I would appreciate any help!!

Regards,
Constantins

Hold on buddy, I got you. First off, when you restore Kodi, it will always default the guisettings.xml. Always. If you drop your previous settings into kodi via a network folder, it will still reload it to default upon restart. Do the following:
1) Download some stuff and install these suckers:
-- PUTTY
-- WINSCP
2) Turn on your sharing/ ssh and whatever else...settings. Just make it so your Kodi machine can communicate with your network on all channels. Don't set any additional passwords. Leave it all default to make life easy.
3) Make a tester. Pick a skin, change a few settings.
4) Find and copy your guisettings.xml file (usually storage/.kodi/userdata/guisettings.xml). Put it on your desktop or something so you can grab it easily.
******Reset/wipe/whatever you need to do to wipe your settings. Make sure the stuff you just did is now back to default or different than what you do. We're testing your backup now.
***Ok. All the easy stuff is done. Here comes the technical biz***

5) Open up PUTTY.
A. SSH using PUTTY to the IP Address (Find it in your Kodi settings or your PC settings of the network folder) of your media center
[username: root Password: openelec (if you use openelec)(otherwise, it's blank or whatever shows in your ssh settings in Kodi)] Sometimes, after you put in the username and hit enter, your won't see your key presses for the password. Just put it in and enter it.
B. Type "systemctl stop xbmc.service" - Your screen will go black! This is normal. If it doesn't, something didn't connect.

6) Open WinSCP. Same IP, same username, same password. Host name is whatever you want it to be. **Note: IF you get a popup about caching a host key, just say no for now.
A. Once logged in, navigate to the appropriate folder (usually storage/.kodi/userdata/) and drop your EDITED BACKUP guisettings.xml. You will get . a popup asking if you want to overwrite the file. You'll know they're different, because the file sizes will be different. If they're the same, you probably copied the same or default file :\
B. Hit the refresh button OR file/refresh to stick the file.
**NOTE: Your screen is still black at this time.

7) Hop on back to PUTTY and type in the following command "systemctl start xbmc.service"
**Your box will now reset. At this time, you'll either be back on your current skin or Confluence. If it's Confluence, change it back to your skin, and see if your old settings are there.

That, my friend, is it. It's a pain at first. I've had to do it enough times that I can do this whole process in about 2 minutes now. It's super easy.

Bonus round: Make sure you use the Kodi Add-on, XBMC Backup (or BACKUP as it's called now) and autosave 3 instances to a network folder or dropbox or somewhere that you can access. The settings in the Add-on will guide you. That way, you can drag the guisettings.xml file at any time based on the date. Plus, if your whole system gets killed, you can restore a backup from the addon (except the skin settings), INCLUDING addons, favorites, watchlist, etc. It's great stuff.

If you have issues, hit me up. I've tried dozens of other ways, this is the easiest.

[kihn2d]

I'm kihn and I'm happy to be here! I really appreciate all the replies here.







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