Jim Thomas

New Member
Dec 29, 2015
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After installing the new LibreELEC update I noticed the old problem of unwritable drives on the Android side of the box has reappeared. Edwin Williams has posted a warning not to try using SDFix (as before) to solve this issue. [Unfortunately, this was too late for me and I had to reinstall the OS].

Over the last week I have been testing the alternative SambaDroid approach to solving/bypassing this problem. See the link:

https://droidbox.co.uk/how-to/network-sharing-local-storage-for-kodi-and-dbmc/

In summary, the approach works well for the Kodi Backup Addon - backups can be written correctly to the internal drive (Udisk1), an exernal USB drive (Udisk0) or an external SD Card (SDCard1).

However, for other Addons with download options this method fails. In some cases there is no option in the Addon Download Settings to access SMB://Sambadroid/AllStorage, only the direct drive names are selectable (and we know from before that these links do not work). In other cases AllStorage is selectable but after testing you find that the correct sub-folders and media files are created but the actual media file is empty. These results appear to be consistent across many Addons.

Note: None of these issues occur in the LibreELEC version of Kodi. All connected drives are writable in the usual way.

One positive feature of installing SambaDroid I noticed, is that the folder SambaDroid/AllStorage is now visible across my entire home network. So in principle all the (internal and external) drives attached to my Droidbox are just as visible as my separate NAS drive and can be used to stream to/from my PCs.
 

8bitDev

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Jul 2, 2015
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After installing the new LibreELEC update I noticed the old problem of unwritable drives on the Android side of the box has reappeared. Edwin Williams has posted a warning not to try using SDFix (as before) to solve this issue. [Unfortunately, this was too late for me and I had to reinstall the OS].

Over the last week I have been testing the alternative SambaDroid approach to solving/bypassing this problem. See the link:

https://droidbox.co.uk/how-to/network-sharing-local-storage-for-kodi-and-dbmc/

In summary, the approach works well for the Kodi Backup Addon - backups can be written correctly to the internal drive (Udisk1), an exernal USB drive (Udisk0) or an external SD Card (SDCard1).

However, for other Addons with download options this method fails. In some cases there is no option in the Addon Download Settings to access SMB://Sambadroid/AllStorage, only the direct drive names are selectable (and we know from before that these links do not work). In other cases AllStorage is selectable but after testing you find that the correct sub-folders and media files are created but the actual media file is empty. These results appear to be consistent across many Addons.

Note: None of these issues occur in the LibreELEC version of Kodi. All connected drives are writable in the usual way.

One positive feature of installing SambaDroid I noticed, is that the folder SambaDroid/AllStorage is now visible across my entire home network. So in principle all the (internal and external) drives attached to my Droidbox are just as visible as my separate NAS drive and can be used to stream to/from my PCs.

Can you please add the location as a source in Kodi's File Manager, see if add-on's settings then list it as a location???
 
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sblabs

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Jul 18, 2016
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ill test SDfix on v107 now


update, SDfix installed fine in v107 BUT i still get the unwritable drives error when trying to backup to my SSD drive so it looks like SDfix dont work for us on v107:confused:
so just stick to the sambadroid pro trick for now.
 
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Jim Thomas

New Member
Dec 29, 2015
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Actually this is exactly how your colleague (SilentlyScreaming) set up the link to SambaDroid when he configured my Droidbox, i.e. setting up a Source (e.g. smb://sambadroid/AllStorage/udisk0/Downloads/) in File Manager. I then entered this location in the addon's download settings. When I then tried to download a media file, the media file with the correct name is indeed created (sometimes within a folder depending on the addon), but the media file is for some unknown reason empty when the download process is complete. Indicating that the unwritable drives issue is still present.

In the meantime, I think I have found a way round this issue, which at least meets my needs for now. Instead of pointing the download location to one of the droidbox drives (Udisk0, Udisk1 or SDCard1) through SambaDroid, I use a folder on my NAS (diskstation) drive and this seems to work reliably.Unfortunately not a very useful solution if you don't have a NAS drive.
 
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sblabs

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Jul 18, 2016
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Same here Jim i am using my NAS for backups now. shame SDfix dont work for us no more.
 

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