[AGLyons]

I have been using multiple systems sharing the DB. In my recent updates across my systems (multiple LibreELEC systems), I noticed that all my sources had disappeared.

I had configured advancedsettings.xml to redirect the sources.xml file to a shared DIR on the server with the media but all the systems still had that file in the userdata folder.

Once I cleaned things up so that sources.xml was no longer on the client itself, I lost all sources in the systems.

Digging around, I noticed a flag on the docs (https://kodi.wiki/view/Advancedsettings....bstitution). It states, "Note: Path substitution for "sources" and profiles is broken, and will NOT be fixed." But on the Path Substitution main page (https://kodi.wiki/view/Path_substitution), it's announced that "Note: Path substitution for "sources" and profiles only works from v18.3."

Is this still broken in Kodi v20, or is the previous warning for an older version? 

If it has been fixed for v20, I think I ran into a bug, as the path redirect does not seem to be working.

[Klojum]

In my experience, path substitution works best on system network shares (not Kodi internal network links) that need no (direct) password verification, such as NFS.

I have path substitution for a couple of things in Kodi 20, in Ubuntu Linux but also with running LibreELEC, but I do not it for the sources.xml file.
I use a couple of system network shares on LibreELEC that are being created at boot time using the autostart.sh file.

[AGLyons]

Hey @Klojum 

So all my media is on NAS shares. I have two x86 boxes and an RPi4. My intention was to have all of them have the same experience; that was the purpose of getting the MariaDB going again. 

Even with the path mapping for the sources.xml pointing to a share on the NAS, it seemed that Kodi ignored it and created a new blank XML with only the local TV and Movie folders present.

So I have to keep the sources.xml on each of the 'heads'. How can ensure that the sources on each head stay in sync, other than manually copying that over to each head whenever there is a change?

You mentioned NFS shares as a possibility for the path subs to work reliably. I've tried setting up NFS shares from my Synology and couldn't wrap my head around how that actually works (as in, it never did work, lol). I was keeping passwords.xml on each head, so they should have no problem accessing the share for the path substitution entries. But maybe that was me assuming how things work again, Doh!



Just to dream for a bit, a total long shot, I know, but I think it would be pretty awesome if there were a Kodi function that made it into either a server or a slave. You'd then flip a switch in the other Kodi heads to mirror what has been configured on the server. Addons (A tough one, I understand, all the different platforms, yikes), sources, skins, menu layouts, basically, all of it. Then all the admin is managed on the one 'server', and all the other heads are identical.

One can dream.......