[ricimer]

Hi! I had to change my hard drive. I copied all movies and series as it was on the new hard drive. I am trying to figure out how to change the location of my collection in Kodi's settings so that the transition to the new drive has no impact on the catalogue. I'm on Mac and use version 17.6 of Kodi. I went to system, media, video, source and edit source to change the path. I restarted Kodi but then if I try to play a video it says the file is missing. I am sure there is another step I should have performed but don't know which one. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

[Klojum]

I am trying to figure out how to change the location of my collection in Kodi's settings

The video source location(s) is/are primarily stored in Kodi's video database, and secondary in the sources.xml file. Changing the database contents can be done via SQL commands, although not highly recommended to someone without any SQL knowledge.

Secondly, it would have been a benefit if you had done (at least once) a Video Library Export, so that .nfo files would have been created. With these you can easily import your video collection into a new database.

An alternative is to drop the current database, and rescrape your video collection from the new HDD/location.

[olympus]

I use path substitution for that.
This way when I need to change the paths the only thing to do is to edit my advancedsettings.xml
But you will need to re-scrape your library again and this will work for your future changes of your media paths.

My sources.xml has this as the "global" location for movies.

Code:

<sources>
    <video>
        <source>
            <name>Movies</name>
            <path pathversion="1">source://movies/</path>
            <allowsharing>true</allowsharing>
        </source>
    </video>
</sources>

Then in my advancedsettings.xml I set the real path of my movies.

Code:

<advancedsettings>
    <pathsubstitution>
        <substitute>
            <from>source://movies/</from>
            <to>C://MOVIES/</to>
        </substitute>
    </pathsubstitution>
</advancedsettings>

So when I need to change drives, change the location, I only have to change C://MOVIES/
This way I don't have to mess with SQL editors for changing the location of my media.
Yep, Kodi is that awesome and with endless possibilities

[ricimer]

Thanks a lot for the prompt reply! 
I still have the older drive with the library on it so I have set it back the way it was.
I just had a look at a help page for Kodi to see how to export a library. Seems pretty straightforward but strangely, in the library settings, I do not seem to have the option to export the library.
If I fail to export the library I will follow your last advice and drop the current database and rescrape. What is the most efficient way to drop the current database in one operation?
Thanks again!

[ricimer]

Sorry Olympus, I sent my reply at the same time as yours...

[ricimer]

Got it, advanced setting were not activated...
Done. I just cleaned and scraped anew. Thanks again!