[AbRASiON]

It's been a VERY long time, since I ran Kodi with a network based storage of the database.
I own a Chromecast.
I hate the Chromecast internal storage, so small

I want to store the database *AND THE THUMBNAILS* on the LAN, not the Chromecast, with absoloute certainty.
I only want Kodi to take 1 - > 800MB disk storage of Chromecast, NOT gigabytes thanks to my massive media metadata thumbnails / fanart actor etc.

Can someone smart, intelligent, experienced, please confirm for me, if setting up advancedsettings.xml with MariaDB (or whatever it is nowadays?) and network based database where are the thumbnails? Do I need to manually force them to be on an SMB share, or will they go inside the DB?


Thanks so much for your time ♥

[Klojum]

Do I need to manually force them to be on an SMB share, or will they go inside the DB?

Yes, and never. Thumbnails are stored on the Kodi storage device by design. Storing thumbnails into the database would make the databases file as big as the cache thumbnails folder itself, and painfully slow.

There is an option to use pathsubstitution and redirect the thumbnails to an alternate location. It just isn't a 100% foolproof solution for every setup judging from varying users' experiences.

xml:
	<pathsubstitution>

		<substitute>

			<from>special://masterprofile/Thumbnails/</from>

			<to>/your/server/folder/thumbnails/</to>

		</substitute>

		<substitute>

			<from>special://profile/Thumbnails/</from>

			<to>/your/server/folder/thumbnails/</to>

		</substitute>

	</pathsubstitution>

There is also this option: https://googlechromecast.com/how-to-expa...google-tv/

[AbRASiON]

Do I need to manually force them to be on an SMB share, or will they go inside the DB?

Yes, and never. Thumbnails are stored on the Kodi storage device by design. Storing thumbnails into the database would make the databases file as big as the cache thumbnails folder itself, and painfully slow.

There is an option to use pathsubstitution and redirect the thumbnails to an alternate location. It just isn't a 100% foolproof solution for every setup judging from varying users' experiences.

xml:
 <pathsubstitution>

<substitute>

<from>special://masterprofile/Thumbnails/</from>

<to>/your/server/folder/thumbnails/</to>

</substitute>

<substitute>

<from>special://profile/Thumbnails/</from>

<to>/your/server/folder/thumbnails/</to>

</substitute>

</pathsubstitution>

There is also this option: https://googlechromecast.com/how-to-expa...google-tv/

AGREE! Thank you, someone else told me thumbnails go into the DB, I was sure they didn't.  I thought I would double check.
I'll need to use path substitution.


I have done EVERYTHING in the Google guide on expanding storage, I have 2 hubs, tried 2 USB sticks, 2 MicroSD.
FORCING the Android OS to push the DATA directory (not the install directory) to the USB, simply doesn't work.  It just doesn't work, very annoying.


Maybe I can leave the DB local (500MB max at a guess) and just push the thumbnails to SMB instead?! Might save me hassle.  I recall mySQL being a nightmare to configure.

[Klojum]

Maybe I can leave the DB local (500MB max at a guess) and just push the thumbnails to SMB instead?! Might save me hassle.  I recall mySQL being a nightmare to configure.

You can run the database on any accessible other device doing MySQL/MariaDB, that's up to you. Configuring MySQL/MariaDB depends a bit on what you use as a database application and as server (f.e. MySQL 5.7 on Ubuntu works OOTB).
Create the thumbnail folder on a NAS and copy the current thumbnails from the AndroidTV device to the NAS, and update the advancedsettings.xml with the pathsubs.
To check if it actually works, rename the local Thumbnails folder on the AndroidTV to something else.

[jmgibson1981]

You can store them on the server somewhere if you want with path sub easy enough. Here is an excerpt from my advanced settings.xml

Code:

  <pathsubstitution>
    <substitute>
      <from>special://profile/Thumbnails/</from>
      <to>nfs://192.168.1.2/backups/kodithumbs/homewreckerwin/</to>
    </substitute>
  </pathsubstitution>

Note that you can't use the same shared folder for each device. I have like 10 or 12 folders of thumbnails on my server, all probably contain near the same stuff. But it works fine that way.

[Klojum]

Note that you can't use the same shared folder for each device.

Hmm... I got 4 Kodi setups (3x Kodi/Ubuntu & LibreELEC) here using the same shared thumbs NFS folder. So far it seems to work. YMMV i guess?

[AbRASiON]

You can store them on the server somewhere if you want with path sub easy enough. Here is an excerpt from my advanced settings.xml
 

Code:

  <pathsubstitution>
    <substitute>
      <from>special://profile/Thumbnails/</from>
      <to>nfs://192.168.1.2/backups/kodithumbs/homewreckerwin/</to>
    </substitute>
  </pathsubstitution>

Note that you can't use the same shared folder for each device. I have like 10 or 12 folders of thumbnails on my server, all probably contain near the same stuff. But it works fine that way.

Thanks - I did this years ago.  It's been a long time.
I only have 1x Kodi device in the house, with a local storage issue (Chromecast sucks) so if I just offload the one I'm fine.

Is "homewreckerwin" name of a machine? and you have like "kodithumbs/chromecast" and "kodithumbs/kidstv" and "kodithumbs/HTPC" etc?

One dumb question - is it just "profile/thumbnails" - will that do
Actor, fanart, cover, box, etc? ALL thumbnails or only one TYPE of thumbnails.

Thanks again.

[jmgibson1981]

thats the name of my shared folder on my nfs server that has the thumbnails for that specific machine. can be whatever you want.

[jmgibson1981]

Note that you can't use the same shared folder for each device.

Hmm... I got 4 Kodi setups (3x Kodi/Ubuntu & LibreELEC) here using the same shared thumbs NFS folder. So far it seems to work. YMMV i guess?

I don't know honestly. I never bothered to test it really. I had always seen warnings against sharing the thumbnails so I suppose I don't know for sure.

[Klojum]

I had always seen warnings against sharing the thumbnails so I suppose I don't know for sure.

AFAIK, path substitution didn't work well with passworded network locations, but that may have quietly changed over time.
Just give it a try and rename the local Tumbnails folder to something else to find out the remote location works for you.

[scott967]

I don't know about Chrome, but I have had success by mounting the network folder to a local drive and then using symbolic / junction link from this location to the expected Kodi thumbnail folder.

scott s.
.