Solved Mac not streaming to Android devices/TV
#1
Hi,

I have an android TV that's using Kodi 18.2 and it used to work GREAT. For some reason its stopped allowing me to stream files from my computer - files that have always worked (see video)
I am using SAMBA on my mac and can see the files but they won't play.

I have reinstalled it from scratch and still the same problems happen. I click the video I want to play - the spinning wheel comes up and goes away and nothing happens:



As I mentioned nothing changed - it went from working on day to not working the next. It's also happening on my Samsung Tablet.

What could be causing my Mac(catalina) to stop streaming video to my devices? Other programs like Plex and Emby work but its no where as good as Kodi.
Keep in mind I am only streaming from the Mac I am not running Kodi on it and it all used to work.

Any help would be great.

Thank you in advance.
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#2
(2019-11-21, 10:52)oneseventhree Wrote: Hi,

I have an android TV that's using Kodi 18.2 and it used to work GREAT. For some reason its stopped allowing me to stream files from my computer - files that have always worked (see video)
I am using SAMBA on my mac and can see the files but they won't play.

I have reinstalled it from scratch and still the same problems happen. I click the video I want to play - the spinning wheel comes up and goes away and nothing happens:



As I mentioned nothing changed - it went from working on day to not working the next. It's also happening on my Samsung Tablet.

What could be causing my Mac(catalina) to stop streaming video to my devices? Other programs like Plex and Emby work but its no where as good as Kodi.
Keep in mind I am only streaming from the Mac I am not running Kodi on it and it all used to work.

Any help would be great.

Thank you in advance.

I hear you brother!

I'm running with Kodi 8.4 on a 2017 Nvidia Shield and I have the same issue - the Shield just instantly bombs out when I try to play a video or music file.

Long story short - I think the issue was caused by Catalina, which dropped support for the vulnerable SMB 1.0 protocol. Unfortunately the suggested workarounds for the ensuing SMB disconnections are in their initial stages, and they didn’t work for me, so I plan to rest a bit as I’m a bit tired of my fumbling in the dark, and it makes sense to see if better solutions flow from others (or Apple).  In the meantime I’ll take your advice and post to the Kodi forum, and I’ll include a list of the fumbling I’ve done over the weekend in case it’s helpful or at least amusing for someone else…(a lot of this fumbling was done before I realised that the SMB protocol change in Catalina might be the culprit)…

I have tried the following today, all to no avail...

* Kodi update to 8.5
I have been on Kodi 8.4, which is the latest version the playstore has, so I sideloaded 8.5… Unfortunately it didn’t change anything, and then (this is my silly fault) I thought I should uninstall and ensure I use what’s on the playstore, and I lost my Kodi set-up and I suspect my backups…oh man. Lesson: move backups out of the default location….

* Increasing the Shield’s buffer log to maximum didn’t work…
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2881173

* …so I turned off IPv6 (it was on) because of this post…
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2825524
…no difference…
(I avoided resetting the modem, as I *think* my ISP needs to do that for me, and I just didn’t want to meddle…I will ring them if I have to, but I’ll try other things first…)

* So then I checked the Scanning setting as per this post…
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2673930
..but “Scanning always available” was already off

* …so I tried setting a static IP on the Shield, but that broke the internet connection and I just couldn’t reinstate it, so I went back to DHCP
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2827646
…and the playback still didn’t work….

* …then I tried turning off packet signing for SMB2 and 3
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=348747
didn’t work either…

* Catalina - this post helped me understand the Catalina upgrade is causing issues for people…
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=348418
(I am still not 100% sure I have a connection issue per se though, as I can get Emby for Kodi on my Shield to load in library files from my Mac Emby server, I just can’t open them on Kodi on my Shield)

* …and then saw a post by roenthomas suggesting Shield users just should use Android File Sharing to get SMB working…
https://www.reddit.com/r/kodi/comments/d...a/f6rf91u/

* …but Android File Sharing wouldn’t work for me…it just hung…and this thread explained that Plex was somehow needed for the Shield’s OS to connect, so I re-enabled my disabled Plex applications, and AFS worked…but playback *still* instantly dropped out! (for what it’s worth, if you want to get AFS working on your Shield, see below for links on what to do and what NOT to do)
* To get AFS working DO THIS: re-enable plex - https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/for...mentPage=2
* To get AFS working DO NOT DO THIS: restore Shield to factory - https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/for...mentPage=2 (I imagine a factory reset does work, but I suspect that’s only because it re-enables Plex applications if you’ve disabled them)

* a search showed the Shield still doesn’t support SMB3…so perhaps I’m stuck until they doHuh
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/for...mentPage=2

* …then this article got me thinking about the SMB protocol settings within Kodi
https://www.techarp.com/software/macos-c...s-failure/
…so I set the minimum SMB protocol within Kodi to 3.0…
https://kodi.wiki/view/Settings/Services/SMB_Client
…but my video playback still instantly bombs out…

* …and this article says something about setting up afp (see second last post), but I don’t know how to connect Emby for Kodi to it and I was getting pretty tired of all this by this point…
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250725782

…so then I got a beer and decided it was too nice a day for all of this. I’ll post on a Kodi forum and rest for a week or so and see what comes up.

(FYI - the full thread with the above list of actions and my discussions with the Emby developers is at https://emby.media/community/index.php?/...n-refresh/)
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#3
It's just strange because Plex works fine for me. 
I just HATE plex. Kodi is far better for me. I wish they could fix this!
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#4
This thread explains why the issue has appeared for you (and me) suddenly with Catalina - it dropped support for an older smb file sharing protocol, and from what I can tell (I'm no expert) Kodi seems not to have kept pace with that change. The suggested workaround didn't help me, but I hope it might help you...

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2902909
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#5
(2019-11-25, 11:00)ptvminix Wrote: This thread explains why the issue has appeared for you (and me) suddenly with Catalina - it dropped support for an older smb file sharing protocol, and from what I can tell (I'm no expert) Kodi seems not to have kept pace with that change. The suggested workaround didn't help me, but I hope it might help you...

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2902909
sadly didn't work for me either. I replied to the guy on the threat who said he solved it so hopefully Kodi catches up or he can tell us how he fixed it
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#6
(2019-11-26, 09:16)oneseventhree Wrote:
(2019-11-25, 11:00)ptvminix Wrote: This thread explains why the issue has appeared for you (and me) suddenly with Catalina - it dropped support for an older smb file sharing protocol, and from what I can tell (I'm no expert) Kodi seems not to have kept pace with that change. The suggested workaround didn't help me, but I hope it might help you...

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2902909
sadly didn't work for me either. I replied to the guy on the threat who said he solved it so hopefully Kodi catches up or he can tell us how he fixed it 

Hey thanks for the update. I found that reply of yours, but I see he hasn't replied yet. I'll take some time out from this for a few days and do some fresh searches to see what I can uncover. I'll let you know if I find anything. Warm wishes
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#7
I made a tutorial. You can use NFS if you want. That would work

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=349844
H96 Pro+
Xiaomi Mi S 4K
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#8
(2019-12-06, 16:29)myfranco Wrote: I made a tutorial. You can use NFS if you want. That would work

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=349844
doesn't apply to Catalina
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#9
Has anyone yet found a work around? I wish I could just go back but its nightmare to go back to Mojave
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#10
(2019-12-02, 13:43)ptvminix Wrote:
(2019-11-26, 09:16)oneseventhree Wrote:
(2019-11-25, 11:00)ptvminix Wrote: This thread explains why the issue has appeared for you (and me) suddenly with Catalina - it dropped support for an older smb file sharing protocol, and from what I can tell (I'm no expert) Kodi seems not to have kept pace with that change. The suggested workaround didn't help me, but I hope it might help you...

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2902909
sadly didn't work for me either. I replied to the guy on the threat who said he solved it so hopefully Kodi catches up or he can tell us how he fixed it   

Hey thanks for the update. I found that reply of yours, but I see he hasn't replied yet. I'll take some time out from this for a few days and do some fresh searches to see what I can uncover. I'll let you know if I find anything. Warm wishes  

I found the solution to my problem and I hope it helps you too:

In Kodi client---Settings---Services---Advance(if you haven't already)---SMB Client---adjust Minimum protocol version to SMB1--Do not reset-- Set Maximum protocol version to SMB1, and reboot Kodi.

After this in Kodi you must enter manually the video source in first box after "Add Video sources". Example: smb://192.168.1.12.
You can get this info in "Sharing tab" of System Preferences of MacOS Catalina.

I didn't do this but may help you: Also on MacOS Catalina---enable Guest in Users & Groups preferences tab.

Keep in mind I also did this during my troubleshooting stages: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205926
So if the above doesn't help give this a go too as I am not sure if it helps or not.
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#11
(2019-12-24, 19:14)nhr594 Wrote:
(2019-12-06, 16:29)myfranco Wrote: I made a tutorial. You can use NFS if you want. That would work

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=349844
doesn't apply to Catalina 
Do you mean NFS doesn't work in Catalina or NFS Manager? If NFS Manager doesn't work in Catalina, you can edit my sample "exports" file and use it. It should work in Catalina if NFS is natively supported.
H96 Pro+
Xiaomi Mi S 4K
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#12
(2019-12-27, 01:15)oneseventhree Wrote:
(2019-12-02, 13:43)ptvminix Wrote:
(2019-11-26, 09:16)oneseventhree Wrote: sadly didn't work for me either. I replied to the guy on the threat who said he solved it so hopefully Kodi catches up or he can tell us how he fixed it   

Hey thanks for the update. I found that reply of yours, but I see he hasn't replied yet. I'll take some time out from this for a few days and do some fresh searches to see what I can uncover. I'll let you know if I find anything. Warm wishes   

I found the solution to my problem and I hope it helps you too:

In Kodi client---Settings---Services---Advance(if you haven't already)---SMB Client---adjust Minimum protocol version to SMB1--Do not reset-- Set Maximum protocol version to SMB1, and reboot Kodi.

After this in Kodi you must enter manually the video source in first box after "Add Video sources". Example: smb://192.168.1.12.
You can get this info in "Sharing tab" of System Preferences of MacOS Catalina.

I didn't do this but may help you: Also on MacOS Catalina---enable Guest in Users & Groups preferences tab.

Keep in mind I also did this during my troubleshooting stages: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205926
So if the above doesn't help give this a go too as I am not sure if it helps or not. 

Hey thank you, and sorry for the long delay. I needed a break from this. I appreciate your help, and I am glad you got it working. I was going to give your suggestion a try, but then I thought I should look up the security of this old SMB1 protocol, and it doesn't look good. I think I'll stick with the default method of file access, or use the Emby app on my Android TV box. Thanks though, warm wishes
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