[wolpertinger]

After I updated a working Kodi 17.6 with Confluence skin to 18.2 on my Mac Mini, all the settings are gone and I get the above message.
Searching on the Internet sugggested that it has to do with the changed default skin, so I tried to reinstall Confluence as per the instructions on the Kodi wiki, but the version shown in the repository (3.1.43) fails to install with a dependency error.

On another Mac where the update from 17.6 with Estuary skin to 18.2 was successful, in the "Kodi Add-on Repository", the Confluence version is shown as 4.6.3

How do I get my settings back?

Thanks!

[Klojum]

all the settings are gone

All settings... Really all of them, or only certain settings? I doubt it if -all- settings are gone, just because you use a non-default skin at the time of the upgrade. It will be a fiddly challenge to figure out what is still working and what is not.

How do I get my settings back?

It's recommended to make backups of your settings before attempting big upgrades, because Kodi itself does not do that for you. Making backups in general is a good idea.
If you didn't do that, and the Kodi upgrade didn't go as planned, you will have a problem.

Either use a copy of your other Mac machine with the working upgrade and alter it, or simply start from scratch on your problem Mac. You can of course copy the working objects (video database, thumbnail cache... those sort of things) to your new setup.

But since this thread's title is "Your library is currently empty", it's safe to assume that the database upgrade failed. You should still have the old database on your disk, assuming you work with Kodi's default local SQLite database files. If you go for a fully new/clean setup, you can still place a copy of that old database in Kodi's new profile for a new attempt of upgrading that database.

[wolpertinger]

But since this thread's title is "Your library is currently empty", it's safe to assume that the database upgrade failed. You should still have the old database on your disk, assuming you work with Kodi's default local SQLite database files. If you go for a fully new/clean setup, you can still place a copy of that old database in Kodi's new profile for a new attempt of upgrading that database. 

I have two Macs with Kodi sharing a common MySQL/MariaDB database. I first upgraded the Mac with the Estuary skin, and the upgrade showed a message like "Migrating database" or something similar. On this Mac I can still access all the information in the database after the upgrade without problems.
Would you recommed that I copy the settings from this Mac to the other that has the issues? Or should I restore the settings of the 17.6 version from backup?

[Klojum]

It would have been nice if we had all that additional information in your initial post as well.

Is the working Mac still running Kodi 17.6? If so, it will still be using the older database.
Kodi 17 and 18 use separate databases, hence the "Migrating Database..." text.
The new MyVideos116 database will need to be dropped for a new attempt for a database update.

Copying settings to the other Mac will only apply if the other Mac runs Kodi 18 as well.
Database-wise, the settings in the advancedsettings.xml should already be the same.

[wolpertinger]

It would have been nice if we had all that additional information in your initial post as well.

Sorry, I do not know which informations are relevant to this issue and which are not.

To reiterate:

Setup: Two Macs with the Kodi installations sharing a common MySQL database.

Upgrading steps I took in order:

Mac 1: macOS 10.13.6, Kodi 17.6 with Estuary skin. Running Kodi 18.2 installer -> Message about Database migration -> All Settings like Plugins, "Movies", "TV Shows", "Music" from previous version are showing.
Mac 2: macOS 10.13.6, Kodi 17.6 with Confluence skin. Running Kodi 18.2 installer -> No error messages during upgrade -> Only Addons remain, "Movies", "TV Shows", "Music" from previous version are gone. ("Your Library is currently empty")

Copying "advancedsettings.xml" from Mac 1 to Mac 2 has no effect on the issue, as this obviously had not been modified during the upgrade, judging by the "Date created" timestamp. I also checked "advancedsettings.xml" on Mac 2; it still has the settings pointing to the MySQL server and database.

The only thing I was able to do successfully is to reinstall the Confluence skin on Mac 2.

What would be the next steps to troubleshoot/remedy this issue?

[Klojum]

Two things were a problem: confluence and database access. The first one is solved, for the 2nd one we'll need the debug log (wiki). Enable debugging as well as the Database component to view any possible extra hiccups. Then restart Kodi and do your thing. After that provide the new kodi.log file as per instructions.

[wolpertinger]

Two things were a problem: confluence and database access. The first one is solved, for the 2nd one we'll need the debug log (wiki). Enable debugging as well as the Database component to view any possible extra hiccups. Then restart Kodi and do your thing. After that provide the new kodi.log file as per instructions.

OK, it seems I was able to solve this:

Looking at the log file of Mac 2, I saw a lot of lines like

Code:

2019-06-18 07:56:35.731 T:123145495928832   ERROR: Unable to open database: xbmc_video116 [1129](Host '192.168.1.112' is blocked because of many connection errors; unblock with 'mysqladmin flush-hosts')

Even though none of those xbmc_... databases actually exist on the MySQL server, I ran 

Code:

FLUSH HOSTS;

for the

Code:

xbmc

database in phpMyAdmin.

When I then started Kodi on the Mac 2, it updated all of the information; all of my movies, tv series and music are showing again.

Thanks!

[Klojum]

The name 'xbmc' was officially dropped some 4 years ago (i think).
I'm guessing you never changed that database prefix in your advancedsettings.xml file for a long time.
The default name is 'MyVideos116'.

[Klojum]

Thread marked solved.