[ExTechOp]

I've installed Android Kodi on my Sony TV (KE-48A9), even though only 1920×1080p60 resolution seems to be available. It works for most material I watch.

However, although I have set up Kodi to use an external MySQL/MariaDB database server using advancedsettings.xml, Android thinks the installation keeps growing and growing. I now have more than 4G of storage space used, and am unable to update to the latest Kodi because of this. I'm pretty sure if I were to remove all Kodi data I could reclaim storage, but it'd be nice to understand what is happening (not to mention, having to get advancedsettings.xml back in there, which I remember was a bit tricky).

Any ideas on how would I go about debugging where the storage is disappearing?

[izprtxqkft]

99% sure its going to be the thumbnails

if you intend on cleaning them up understand they are referenced by the textures(xx).db file and straight deleting them could lead to issues

i have had success redirecting the thumbnails folders to my nas with path substitution but as i understand it this is not supposed to work and could break things - https://kodi.wiki/view/Path_substitution

to completely start fresh you *could* delete the textures(xx).db and the entire contents of the thumbnails folder
this comes with downsides
1. kodi does not work without the thumbnails so it will regenerate them and the kodi gui will be slower while doing so
2. since it is being regenerated this is a temporary measure

if theres anything i could suggest with minimal impact its completely close kodi, move the thumbnails to the nas, add the path substitution to where you moved them before kodi is ever started again

my substitution is able to use smb://

[bgavin]

Just a thought.... if the Smart TVs use Flash RAM, it seems to me that the more this memory is written to, the sooner it will exhaust and brick the TV.
Is the option of an external USB drive an option?
These are far easier to replace than the TV flash memory.

[izprtxqkft]

Just a thought.... if the Smart TVs use Flash RAM, it seems to me that the more this memory is written to, the sooner it will exhaust and brick the TV.
Is the option of an external USB drive an option?
These are far easier to replace than the TV flash memory.

i agree it is worrying to be endlessly writing to a solid state that cant be changed, im unaware of the max number but i know there has to be one.

it would be case by case but sure its an option, heres one such method - https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid3142654

mine go to my nas on an nvme that is intentionally abused with nothing important on it for this very reason

[Klojum]

if the Smart TVs use Flash RAM, it seems to me that the more this memory is written to, the sooner it will exhaust and brick the TV.

You'd have a very old/simple TV is its Android OS wouldn't/couldn't apply any TRIM commands onto the memory modules.

[bgavin]

All flash ram has a finite write lifetime.
TRIM works OK when there are spare cells to reallocate.
However, most TVs are pretty short of storage to start with.

It seems silly to run the risk at all, if there are viable alternatives such as an external USB for storage, or NAS.
I have found KODI to be a huge space hog on my Firestick, so I moved it to a Windows workstation.

[ExTechOp]

99% sure its going to be the thumbnails

if you intend on cleaning them up understand they are referenced by the textures(xx).db file and straight deleting them could lead to issues

i have had success redirecting the thumbnails folders to my nas with path substitution but as i understand it this is not supposed to work and could break things - https://kodi.wiki/view/Path_substitution

I feel making this a part of a normal installation is something that really should be worked on by the Kodi developers! I'd be quite happy with stuff being stored where the large video files live (since Kodi includes its own implementations of Samba and NFS, this should be technically quite feasible), but having it pooping files into its own installation directory is just a nasty kludge harking back to single-user installations.

[izprtxqkft]

99% sure its going to be the thumbnails

if you intend on cleaning them up understand they are referenced by the textures(xx).db file and straight deleting them could lead to issues

i have had success redirecting the thumbnails folders to my nas with path substitution but as i understand it this is not supposed to work and could break things - https://kodi.wiki/view/Path_substitution

I feel making this a part of a normal installation is something that really should be worked on by the Kodi developers! I'd be quite happy with stuff being stored where the large video files live (since Kodi includes its own implementations of Samba and NFS, this should be technically quite feasible), but having it pooping files into its own installation directory is just a nasty kludge harking back to single-user installations.

i dont disagree at all but i believe it is left as is because it works for the 'average' user and the 'average' user is fine with it

i think you will find this method used overall with kodi, do what works best for most people and give options to change it for advanced users

whenever i get time i plan to dig in to the code for thumbnails cache and see if i can make a custom build that doesnt use caching at all to see what the impact is but i usually have more pressing things

[Hitcher]

HOW-TO:Change data location for Android