Kodi settings not restored

[alexhass]

i created a backup of kodi nightly v22 on a LG TV. That is the webos version and no other (e.g. official) version is working. I restored a backup to the exact same nightly.

But the backup is not fully restored!

All the many complicated kodi settings are lost. Addon settings have been kept from what I can say, but the others seems fully lost. If some settings of addons are also lost, cannot said for sure.

This is really bad now as I have no clue what I configured months ago and re-doing it again and again is also waste of time as it gets lost again.

Background - It looks like LG is deleting the app from time to time after webos updates or my kids are doing it - not 100% clear. I have no idea when this really happens, but in past 3 months it happened twice. So a backup is crucial.

Are you able to fix these data loss issues, please?

[robweber]

Do you have some specific types of settings that you can give as an example? I'd also recommend you read the guide for restoring system settings. The way Kodi handles the guisettings.xml file is a bit odd and it can't be restored directly while Kodi is running. As a result settings are set via the JSON-RPC interface. This has some limitations, as described in the above link.

If basic settings that should be restored are missing, that's a bug. If settings or GUI specific customizations aren't be restored, that isn't something that can be fixed. The FAQ does have a workaround but it requires some manual effort.

[alexhass]

That is a lot to list... I think everything that is Kodi Core ist lost.

• Kodi menu was reset to default. All the items i had disabled - reapeared.
• GUI Language setting lost (German switched to English)
• Country reset from Germany to Belgium
• Added custom network drive lost
• Kodi remote access is blocked...

I strongly guess - everything that is Kodi Core has been lost. I need to compare two backup files to find out. If I would know what is lost in the details - it would be great as I could reconfigure it :-(

Settings from user addons have all restored properly e.g. keymap, tvheadend settings, etc.

[alexhass]

Are you trying to say - Kodi Core Settings are not restored at all with “Always prompt to restore Kodi UI Settings” disabled? It is disabled here - as this is the default and I do not expect that this is required to get all settings backed up.

I’m wondering how libreelec does it’s internal backups and restores… i’m not familliar with the internals of a kodi backup.

That setting sounds confusing to me for a backup software and unexpected. The setting is off by default, too. I do not expect that this may end with a half-backup. Please clarify this important detail.

I’m sorry for not reading documentation at all as I think a backup need to work 100% intuitive without reading pages of documentation first.

[robweber]

I wanted to take some time to test out the various scenarios based on your information.

In regards to the "Always Prompt to restore..." setting it's pretty much exactly like it sounds. If it's disabled then you will not get prompted, the settings will just be restored. If it's turned on, then you'll always get prompted and can choose yes or no. This is an Advanced setting so it's meant to be used by advanced users that need that functionality. If you have your settings set to Basic or Standard you'll never even see it and the settings restore will just run.

I agree you shouldn't have to read a bunch of documentation. However, Kodi does some interesting things with the files and settings that in odd cases are worth knowing. For example, your sources are stored in a separate file and are not part of the normal settings. The same for Skin customizations, these are contained within the addon and not within Kodi's core settings. LibreElec has a rather different backup approach because they control both the software and the operating system. They can short-circuit some of Kodi's built in behaviors by having the OS do some file manipulation when Kodi isn't running. This addon has to work cross platform from within Kodi so I don't have access to the same level of OS control.

So I did test out some of the scenarios you mentioned. I didn't have any trouble getting my sources to restore after changing them. I did have to reboot Kodi though. For the settings I did find a bug. I messed with my regional settings and they didn't come back after the restore. I fixed this and will push a new version to the Kodi repo to take care of it. Expect a few days for the repo to have an updated version, or you can download and install via a ZIP file from GitHub.

[glitterhausmx-source]

Do you have some specific types of settings that you can give as an example? I'd also recommend you read the guide for restoring system settings. The way Kodi handles the guisettings.xml file is a bit odd and it can't be restored directly while Kodi is running. As a result settings are set via the JSON-RPC interface. This has some limitations, as described in the above link.

If basic settings that should be restored are missing, that's a bug. If settings or GUI specific customizations aren't be restored, that isn't something that can be fixed. The FAQ does have a workaround but it requires some manual effort.

you miserable jackass you cost me two days worth of work why would you reset the the application of default back to partial settings?! what asshat in their right mind would not engineer full settings to as the default to backup every time this thing updated defaults back to the shit settings I lost years of work you stupid retard

[glitterhausmx-source]

you miserable jackass you cost me two days worth of work why would you reset the the application of default back to partial settings?! what asshat in their right mind would not engineer full settings to as the default to backup every time this thing updated defaults back to the shit settings I lost years of work you stupid retard

[alexhass]

@robweber ok, but than it is not the Kodi UI setting for sure as all settings should have been restored automatically as you sayed.

All I have done is:

1. Deleted Kodi from LG WebOS
2. Installed fresh install with the same version the backup was taken from. WebOS v22 nightly (all kodi settings are default than)
3. Than installed your backup plugin.
4. Added the path to the remote backup back
5. Restored the backup
6. Rebooted.

Most if not all settings have been lost here. This was reproducible several times. I have for sure rebooted after the restore. I'm on an LG TV with Webos... may this explain something to you?

Have you tested it with v22? Maybe something changed?

I think I used this https://mirrors.kodi.tv/nightlies/webos/master/org.xbmc.kodi_20251213-8eafac48-master_arm.ipk (13th december 2025 nightly)

[robweber]

I guess what I'm saying is this is a legitimate bug. I ran a similar test as you described and the settings were not restored properly. I've pushed a fix as of yesterday so if you re-run a test using the new version it should work.

I've made a PR to update the Kodi repo. As soon as it's approved it will be there.

[alexhass]

Perfect, thanks!

[alexhass]

Just a side note… i have seen the xml format has somehow changed during v22… have you seen this? I hope it does not cause additional problems as you said you need to import setting by setting and you are not replacing the settings file 1:1… i thought first - this is the issue.

[robweber]

Thanks for the heads up. I wasn't aware of that but it shouldn't affect this process. I use the JSON-RPC interface to pull a list of all compatible settings and then store those as JSON during the backup. A restore uses the Settings.SetSettingValue method to restore the setting. Don't actually need to parse the settings files directly.

Ideally I'd just copy over the entire guisettings.xml file; however that doesn't work. Kodi dumps all current in-memory settings to that file on exit and only reads the file during startup. If you replace it when Kodi is running it just saves the old, incorrect, settings all over again.