[menkalos]

I had an NFS NAS, but lost it.  I have files I want to watch on a drive on my Windows 11 computer.  What's the best way to access those from my XBox based KODI?  I don't see an SMB option on the Kodi Add Media Network browser.  Any help is appreciated.

[Joom]

You have to enable SMB in My Addons >> VFS. After that, you can add shares as sources through Settings >> Library.

[menkalos]

Perfect!  Thank you!

[Klojum]

Thread marked solved.

[menkalos]

I'm sorry, but this is NOT quite solved yet....

I did see an SMB option (though it was not named VFS), and I was able to add the "//servername/movies" share. 

However, now the "Add media source" option has disappeared after I added that once source.  I need to add another one for my "tvshows" share.  Why did the Add option disappear?

Thank you!

[Joom]

Yeah, it's not named VFS, it's in the Virtual file systems section of addons. And how are you trying to add it? You should be able to just go to Settings >> Library >> Videos >> Add videos...

This will bring up the option to browse all of your sources. Navigate to "Windows network (SMB)", and you should see your PC's hostname. From there, you should see all of your shares, provided they all use the same credentials. All you have to do from here is pick one of your category folders (movies, shows, anime, whatever), and then it'll ask what kind of content is in this folder. This is where you set your scraper options. After that, it'll scan in everything it can.

Also note that you do not have to add your SMB shares as a source in the Kodi file manager. The library manager handles it all.

[DarrenHill]

The better way is not to use "Windows Network (SMB)" but "Add Network Location..." (the bottom item in the list) and put in the SMB credentials in that screen.

The Windows Network one will try and use SMB1, which these days is not recommended to be used. If your server is SMB1 then it will show up there as Joom says, but if it is a more modern one that uses SMB2 or SMB3 then it won't. Browsing and name broadcast is a feature only in SMB1, and that is a depreciated protocol as it's full of security holes (search for Wannacry if you want more details).

In "Add Network Location..." you can set up SMB and all sorts of other protocols, and there you do it by manually entering the server details and credentials, which will work for all versions of SMB (and whatever other protocol you may choose to select in the screen, using the top line entry).

[menkalos]

Yeah, I think this is a bug.   After I add my first "movies" source, I then try to go back to Settings >> Media >> Videos >> and there is no option to "Add" another source at all.  Only my existing source are listed.  The "Add" is missing any time after I add the first one.  If I remove it, then the option to "Add" comes back, but I lose it again whenever I add that first source. 

 (Note - you said "Library", but my Xbox version says "Media" under "Settings".)

Thanks!
Dave

P.S. - @DarrenHill - you're right, I used the technique you describe to successfully connect to my Windows server. Thanks!

[Joom]

The Windows Network one will try and use SMB1, which these days is not recommended to be used. If your server is SMB1 then it will show up there as Joom says, but if it is a more modern one that uses SMB2 or SMB3 then it won't.

I wonder what's different about my set up, then, because I explicitly use SMB3. I'm using an Ubuntu host, so maybe that's it. If that's the case, then my apologies. Didn't think there would be a difference in the protocol depending on OS.

Code:

sudo smbstatus

Samba version 4.13.14-Ubuntu
PID     Username     Group        Machine                                   Protocol Version  Encryption           Signing
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
322150  joom         joom         <redacted> <redacted> SMB3_02