[themusj]

I just wrote a lengthy explanation and when I clicked on the "Got it" cookies button I lost it all. :-(

Well thank you all for your help. Yes, getting Kodi and Backup to see the shares was very challenging. I found SMB for Kodi I have to type exactly the path; no browsing to it. Backup would not see SMB, but nfs it did when typed specifically the path. Even then I had to make sure I picked the right level in the folder structure. My media is on several WD MyClouds.

I had to use Rufus to get my USB key to be seen by Kodi and Backup. My TV always wanting to format it and when it did the apps didn't see it. I just ignored what my TV requested and then Kodi and Backup saw it {but just a "number" and not its assigned name.}

I really do not know or fully understand what was different about my install of Backup that Kodi barked at the dependencies. Seems like I installed it as I have all other add-ons. I was relieved I could do them manually after what I shared earlier in this thread about many add-on's complaining about installing dependencies. I spent quite a bit of time online trying to figure out what the problem was only to finally give in and remove Kodi and start fresh. And then the problem continued until I followed the exact steps above.

As I shared I left out backing up the thumbnails which made the process much quicker. By not backing up the thumbnails, I am not sure what I was / am missing. I have exported everything to my NAS units except the actors. Is that the thumbnails that gets backup up and restored? I did find in order for my Vatse app to again show thumbnails, I had to scroll through every movie in Kodi, and let it refresh the background. Once I went through all 300 plus movies, Vatse was rebooted and it displayed all of the thumbnails again. Not sure what is going on behind the scenes there. 

In this journey I saw Kodi 19 is on the horizon and a new version of Backup. I almost downloaded the beta version thinking that might solve the problem. Then found it was for the upcoming version of Kodi.

Thank you all for you help and always great assistance. I have had Kodi three years now up and running. No issues at all until this week. Glad I was on vacation! Have a great and blessed New Year.