Portable Kodi needed running from a USB on multiple computers
#1
Hi. I searched for some hours to find a way to assign a specific drive letter to my USB device or remounting it to a specific drive letter on windows so that my kodi TV Library isn't giving the error message of cannot find the content. I found a few tools but couldn't make them work for me. 

Folder structure: 
USB Device\Kodi (Installed onto USB)
USB Device\Media folder\TV Show (TV Shows are stored in their own series folders within TV Shows folder.)
USB Device\Kodi.ink (Shortcut to launch Kodi in portable mode)

I like to assign my USB and library to letter X: as this drive letter is rarely used on computers. Idea would be to be bale to have a media center that can be plugged into any windows computer at will and be able to play things from the library.

If there is a forum that i didn't find already covering this please let me know. 

Thanks in advance for any help on this.
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#2
(2021-04-06, 00:01)GergelyVas Wrote: Hi. I searched for some hours to find a way to assign a specific drive letter to my USB device or remounting it to a specific drive letter on windows so that my kodi TV Library isn't giving the error message of cannot find the content. I found a few tools but couldn't make them work for me. 

Folder structure: 
USB Device\Kodi (Installed onto USB)
USB Device\Media folder\TV Show (TV Shows are stored in their own series folders within TV Shows folder.)
USB Device\Kodi.ink (Shortcut to launch Kodi in portable mode)

I like to assign my USB and library to letter X: as this drive letter is rarely used on computers. Idea would be to be bale to have a media center that can be plugged into any windows computer at will and be able to play things from the library.

If there is a forum that i didn't find already covering this please let me know. 

Thanks in advance for any help on this.
A friend of mine made a gui using python to replace the drive letter in sources.xml file but that didn't solve the library getting updated to play videos on startup from different drive letters. Is there a way to automatically update the library so that when Kodi is started you can just play videos from the USB on any computer from any drive letter?
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#3
(2021-04-06, 02:20)GergelyVas Wrote: Is there a way to automatically update the library so that when Kodi is started you can just play videos from the USB on any computer from any drive letter?

There is no "automatic way" for that. And manually: only if you know how to execute queries in a SQLite database file. Kodi's usage is not that flexible in that regard.
Kodi wasn't really designed to take it on the road in a portable manner, and be used on different computers.
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#4
(2021-04-06, 12:53)Klojum Wrote:
(2021-04-06, 02:20)GergelyVas Wrote: Is there a way to automatically update the library so that when Kodi is started you can just play videos from the USB on any computer from any drive letter?

There is no "automatic way" for that. And manually: only if you know how to execute queries in a SQLite database file. Kodi's usage is not that flexible in that regard.
Kodi wasn't really designed to take it on the road in a portable manner, and be used on different computers.
Thanks for the reply. I did find the wiki on replacing the needed columns in SQLite. However the path in my database can start with any letter and I am not sure how to do the replace action in SQL when the drive letter is unknown. If someone knows how to replace an unknown character in SQL column I would definitely appreciate the info on that. The path to my media is like this: (USB Drive Letter):\Media\TV Show
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#5
(2021-04-08, 05:36)GergelyVas Wrote: when the drive letter is unknown.

Isn't there are tool for Windows to ensure the same drive letter for USB devices?
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#6
(2021-04-06, 00:01)GergelyVas Wrote: Hi. I searched for some hours to find a way to assign a specific drive letter to my USB device or remounting it to a specific drive letter on windows so that my kodi TV Library isn't giving the error message of cannot find the content. I found a few tools but couldn't make them work for me. 
Strange you didn't find anything as I get this as top result on a Google search.

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/assign-...e-windows/

3rd result was this https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/windo...nal-drive/ which gives some more things to check, and on provides details for a service tool as an alternative.
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#7
(2021-04-08, 08:25)Klojum Wrote:
(2021-04-08, 05:36)GergelyVas Wrote: when the drive letter is unknown.

Isn't there are tool for Windows to ensure the same drive letter for USB devices?
There is but only if you have administrative privilege and the drive letter that is in the database is free. I have figured out in the mean time and created a batch file that uses FART.exe (Find And Replace Text) tool and SQLite3.exe inside the batch file. Just tested it and videos are playing back from the library no matter what drive letter the USB is assigned.
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#8
(2021-04-08, 19:34)jjd-uk Wrote:
(2021-04-06, 00:01)GergelyVas Wrote: Hi. I searched for some hours to find a way to assign a specific drive letter to my USB device or remounting it to a specific drive letter on windows so that my kodi TV Library isn't giving the error message of cannot find the content. I found a few tools but couldn't make them work for me. 
Strange you didn't find anything as I get this as top result on a Google search.

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/assign-...e-windows/

3rd result was this https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/windo...nal-drive/ which gives some more things to check, and on provides details for a service tool as an alternative.
Yes I did find this but this only works on a single computer and the USB doesn't carry the data onto other computers. In other words you have to do this everytime you are at a different computer. However, I have figured out in the mean time and created a batch file that uses FART.exe (Find And Replace Text) tool and SQLite3.exe inside the batch file to replace all file path fields both in sources.xml and in myvideos*.db file. Just tested it and videos are playing back from the library no matter what drive letter the USB is assigned.
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