[User-3023]

I had some problems when my Windows Profile became corrupted.

The Kodi folder under Windows is stored, %APPDATA%\kodi\userdata

%APPDATA% = C:\USERS\username\Appdata\Roaming

My Windows Profile folder = C:\USERS\username, where username is the currently login ed user.

I needed to create a new admin user because my old profile isn't working correctly.

After logging into using the new admin username and windows profile I then copied the Kodi folder to the new user directory %APPDATA% then re-installed Kodi.

Upon executing Kodi, Kodi showed no installed add-ons so I re-installed kodi which deleted the previous installation and then copied the Kodi folder into the newuser's %APPDATA% directory which is C:\USERS\NEWUSERNAME\APPDATA\ROAMING

The new install of Kodi still doesn't show any add-ons installed.

In the past I've copied over the Kodi directory from other folders, hard drives and partitions and never had this problem. Kodi was always able to use the newly copied Kodi directory

After inspecting the video add-ons in Kodi I'm finding they are still installed and "enabled" however the "Open" in their configuration properties is greyed out.

Am I going to need to re-install all the ad-ons?

[PatK]

Am I going to need to re-install all the ad-ons?

Most likely, and it would be the smarter way of handling this issue given your statements. The add-ons are split between two folders (the actual code Roaming\Kodi\addons and the settings Roaming\Kodi\userdata\addon_data) Installing fresh, Kodi recreates the folders at first run. Copying over the entire Roaming folder with a previous install would have given you what you wanted if the iteration of Kodi and path was identical. In this case the admin name changed (hence the path is changed).

[User-3023]

Am I going to need to re-install all the ad-ons?

Most likely, and it would be the smarter way of handling this issue given your statements. The add-ons are split between two folders (the actual code Roaming\Kodi\addons and the settings Roaming\Kodi\userdata\addon_data) Installing fresh, Kodi recreates the folders at first run. Copying over the entire Roaming folder with a previous install would have given you what you wanted if the iteration of Kodi and path was identical. In this case the admin name changed (hence the path is changed).

Ok, I'll do a re-install of the addons for the newly created admin user Kodi installation. I did read something about some people have run multiple users by using the -p switch as a standalone mode. They first installed Kodi to a separate USB driver, hd or partition. Created a shortcut in the kodi installation folder with a kode.exe -p. I can't remember what else was done other than made certain the Kodi folder was in the Kodi program installation folder. After they were done other users could use the standalone kodi folder with userdata and addon_data.

something like quoted below, since I've never tried this I don't know if it will work alright.

(quote)
" log in as admin - or let me call it 'your-initial-xbmc-user' -, start XBMC and configure it jump into the folder where your XBMC is installed and create a folder 'portable_data' there now move all files and folders from 'C:\Users\your-initial-xbmc-user\Appdata\Roaming\XBMC' to 'C:\Program Files\XBMC\portable_data' (or 'C:\Program Files (x86)\XBMC\portable_data' if you're running 64bit Windows) get the properties of XBMC's folder 'portable_data' and edit its security settings to give write access to every user existing on your pc manually create a shortcut to xbmc.exe in 'C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu', edit its preferences and add the command switch -p behind xbmc.exe within the line 'Target'

Now all users can access this shortcut in the start menu, start XBMC and use the exact same settings you want.
Problem is: all users with write access can manipulate XBMC entirely, f.e. breaking your setup and databases, so you still might consider looking into XBMC's profile mode anyway. But you'd have a single seat configuration for multiple users using the same setup
" (unquote)

And then Kodi has the ability to create multiple profiles. However I'm not certain if a single "Kodi" folder with userdata and addondata is used.

http://kodi.wiki/view/Profiles

These individual profiles allow you to customize the environment for multiple users, allowing for such functionality as:

Customized view settings such as skins for each user
The ability to lock folders, such as network shares on a per-user basis
Separate media libraries for each user
Unique RSS feeds for each user
Unique keymapping for each user
Unique network settings

All options stored in the userdata folder can be customized per profile, allowing for an amazing amount of flexibility.
__________

However there's nothing in the article about sharing the addons folder

Another option I remember reading about is to use a centralized database using MySQL however the instructions how do it was for under Linux.

I've read about other options such as using a symbolic link, but never actual examples.

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/co...-or-linux/

Anyway I don't really have a need for multiple users. I still have the original user account with a damaged Windows profile I'm able to log into and run Kodi, but I would prefer to eventually delete the damaged admin account, so it may be simpler to just re-install the add-ons under the new user.

All the same files from the original installation's Kodi folder appear to be there in the new Kodi installation. I think I'll need to first uninstall the add-ons and install a second time.

[PatK]

Not thinking too deeply, at least to follow along some TDL post about how someone else does things. Portable install is dead easy to set-up with the -p switch, you can have multiple installs, each will have their own library and userdata set-up. You can only use one at a time. Each Kodi installation can have multiple profiles, and in that multiple settings for each, limits are laid out in the wiki.

I suggest you get windows sorted first, then consider portable installs to play around with. Most of the references to symbolic links, MySQL are all in wiki's but are pretty sophisticated functions used in setting up NAS and multiple libraries, dig in if you have the time.

[User-3023]

Not thinking too deeply, at least to follow along some TDL post about how someone else does things. Portable install is dead easy to set-up with the -p switch, you can have multiple installs, each will have their own library and userdata set-up. You can only use one at a time. Each Kodi installation can have multiple profiles, and in that multiple settings for each, limits are laid out in the wiki.

I suggest you get windows sorted first, then consider portable installs to play around with. Most of the references to symbolic links, MySQL are all in wiki's but are pretty sophisticated functions used in setting up NAS and multiple libraries, dig in if you have the time.

Yes if I have the time I may play around with Windows and Kodi. I'm not worried about the Windows Profile being damaged as another user with new profile was easily created. However any encrypted files can't be accessed from other users unless the file encryption key was backed up. I believe I have a cert. key backup somewhere.

I've been playing around with PCs for more than 35 years and I must say in some ways things have become much easier while in other ways things have become less easier. My first PC used 64k memory with a 4 Mhz cpu. First started using a computer everyday back in 1981.

First purchased an Osborne One. then eventually an Osborne Executive and Osborne Vixen. Afterwhich I must have had several other brands of cpm and Dos pcs including an IBM XT on through to today's multitasking PC's.

I use to belong to a computer user group where we use to have weekly and monthly meeting to discuss Osborne and other CP/M machines. The name of the group was FOG (First Osborne Group) in Seattle, Washington.

IBM OS/2 actually did alot of the early development of a multitasking OS. I've owned several OS/2 machines in years past. Wasn't too bad of an OS considering available GUI OSs of it's day. Was at one time ahead of Windows OS development. There was some partnering and outsourcing back then so both MS and IBM worked on various GUI OS's of that time period.

As for speed early text based pcs weren't all that bad, no slowdowns as found with many modern GUI PC's. Text based machines may have not been able to multi-task but they were fast and never required huge amounts of code. The first programs I wrote were in basic and asm.

Anyway I found after setting the previous user's Kodi folder security to the newuser, I was able to copy the olduser Kodi folder to the newuser Kodi folder and the add-ons then showed up enabled.

I had previously copied the Kodi folder under administrator account without giving folder and file permissions to the new admin user, which seems was able to copy the addons disabled when kodi was run under the new admin user account.

[scott967]

OS/2 was the best in particular warp 4 and spanked Win95.

I only run -p portable mode. Among other things, I can share my Kodi folder and administer it from a different machine. Unless you need multiple windows users each with their own protected appdata I see no advantage to the default install.

scott s.
.

[PatK]

@User-3023 Nostalgia; you took me down a bit of memory lane. Desktop computing has lost its glitz for me, but Kodi still gives me that old smile; dig in and enjoy what you used to like best, the rewards are worth it.