[GUIDE] How to install Plex Media Server on external storage (Micro SD or USB Flash) - Shield Android TV General

If you use Plex and Plex Media Server on your Nvidia Shield Android TV, as your library grows, you'll soon learn that Plex Media Server can eat up a lot of that fast, precious internal storage.
Please note the current limitation of Plex Media Server for Android:
Note: The server's data directory will always be placed on the original internal storage, even if you expand it with a USB drive or microSD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ran into this problem and spent days trying to figure out how to set the location of the metadata database to the external (adopted) storage. Unfortunately, Plex doesn't give Android users this option like they do for Windows users. Maybe in the future? Maybe if enough of us make a stink on the interwebs?
If you can't wait that long, here's a guide on how to install Plex Media Server directly to your external storage, be it Micro SD or USB Flash Drive. Just make sure your storage media is SUPER FAST. So, it's probably best to go with the fastest USB 3.0 Flash or SSD drive you can find.
IT IS CRITICAL TO DO THESE STEPS IN ORDER:
Root the Nvidia Shield 16GB Nougat (2015)
Insert Micro SD card or USB Flash drive (make sure it's fast) and adopt the storage.
Install ES File Explorer and use its Root Explorer or use ADB command line:
Code:
adb uninstall <package_name>
to remove the Plex Media Server app. Reboot and verify that it's truly removed.
Enable Developer Options
Install Plex Media Server from Google Play. Yes, this will install it in the Internal Shared Storage, but it won't be in the /System/ folder.
Go to: Settings > Developer options > Force allow apps on external (4th from the bottom)
Go to: Settings > Apps > Storage Used and move Plex Media Server to the external storage.
Reboot the Shield
*Start Plex, initiate Plex Media Server, do not build default libraries, and it should work
Reboot the Shield
Use the Plex web client to create your libraries
Enjoy!!
*Whenever you restart the Nvidia Shield, launch Plex using the Plex Media Server shortcut in SETTINGS > APPS because you have to wait 1-3 seconds for your Micro SD or USB 3.0 Flash Drive to initialize, so this makes sure the PMS is running before Plex is opened.

Thank you so much for this guide.

Damn son, You literally just did the impossible!!! People have been trying to achieve this since Plex came to Shield Tv. Over 9000 thanks to you for getting this done & for posting a guide!!!

I got this to work, But had massive trouble trying to remove PMS with both ES File Explorer & ADB. After a hour or 2, I was finally able to remove PMS with Titanium Backup Pro successfully. I've got as far as setting my libraries up now & it all apiers to be on my 3.0 SSD

I can't find the folder to place the channel bundles. Did the folder structure change from the plex server that is installed as a system app?

liqianghua said:
I can't find the folder to place the channel bundles. Did the folder structure change from the plex server that is installed as a system app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im looking to install a few plugins & it seems the folder has been moved from "/data/data/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb". Did you happen to find the new location of the appdata location?
EDIT: I have just managed to find it. Its located at.. "mnt/expand/RANDOM CODE/user/0/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb"
RANDOM CODE Seems to be the adoptive storage ID. I didnt include mine because chances are is that mine would be different & it is around 35 characters long.

BIFFTAZ said:
Im looking to install a few plugins & it seems the folder has been moved from "/data/data/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb". Did you happen to find the new location of the appdata location?
EDIT: I have just managed to find it. Its located at.. "mnt/expand/RANDOM CODE/user/0/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb"
RANDOM CODE Seems to be the adoptive storage ID. I didnt include mine because chances are is that mine would be different & it is around 35 characters long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you BIFFTAZ. I appreciate your reply. It was driving me crazy not finding it. I ended up resetting my device in frustration and will let you know once I get my Shield back up and running.

Thanks muchly, Neo3D!
It's been working fine for me for the last 10 days or so on my 2015 16GB. Netflix is still working too - I'd read somewhere that they'd made it stop working on rooted devices but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
Hopefully the setup will survive the next Plex Media Server update !
BTW, after much unsuccessful faffing around with ES File Explorer etc, in the end I removed the existing PlexMediaServer via:
Code:
adb shell # on your PC
su # you will have to grant superuser access when asked by the SU app
mount -o rw,remount -t ext4 /system # mount /system as read-writeable
cd /system/app
rm -rf PlexMediaServer

Does this method work for the latest version of Shield with the latest software (just got one last week) ?
If yes, do any of the steps above change for it, or can I follow them to the dot?
TIA for the help... and Thank you OP for the awesome work!

@Neo3D, tank you so mutch, your trick worked like a charm (on my Nvidia Shield TV 2017, 16GB, Nvidia Experience 6.2)!
I've been spent a lot of time searching a solution to the Plex server and 16GB Shield limitation, and finally I got Plex working on the adopted storage!
(I suggest to @snickler or others moderators, to post this solution as a sticky post)
I also made some R/W performance tests:
1) insternal Shield storage: 210/40
2) KingFast SSD, 30GB, 1,8 inch, mSATA III, MLC (adopted storage) + Inateck USB 3.0 SSD mSATA, USB 3.0: 210/97
3) SanDisk Ultra Fit, 32GB, usb 3.0 (adopted storage) : 80/30
BIFFTAZ said:
Im looking to install a few plugins & it seems the folder has been moved from "/data/data/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb". Did you happen to find the new location of the appdata location?
EDIT: I have just managed to find it. Its located at.. "mnt/expand/RANDOM CODE/user/0/com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I have a question: did you managed to manually install plugins like Trakt or WebTools?
coolpal said:
Does this method work for the latest version of Shield with the latest software (just got one last week) ?
If yes, do any of the steps above change for it, or can I follow them to the dot?
TIA for the help... and Thank you OP for the awesome work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it works!
You can follow the step-by-step from the OP, in case of troubles uninstalling Plex server you can follow the steps provided by @Xaph0d.
When starting Plex server for the first time, pay attention to the pop-up asking for w/r permission.
Then profit it!

goose2600 said:
I also made some R/W performance tests:
1) insternal Shield storage: 210/40
2) KingFast SSD, 30GB, 1,8 inch, mSATA III, MLC (adopted storage) + Inateck USB 3.0 SSD mSATA, USB 3.0: 210/97
3) SanDisk Ultra Fit, 32GB, usb 3.0 (adopted storage) : 80/30
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you do this performance tests?

goose2600 said:
Yeah, it works!
You can follow the step-by-step from the OP, in case of troubles uninstalling Plex server you can follow the steps provided by @Xaph0d.
When starting Plex server for the first time, pay attention to the pop-up asking for w/r permission.
Then profit it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks.. was able to root it.
Had to splice two usb cables to make A to A cable.
Now stuck on deleting PlexMediaServer. Using the method suggested by @Xaph0d, and get a prompt from superuser which i granted, but still see "Read-only file system". Any ideas what could be wrong?

GrandStar said:
How did you do this performance tests?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just using A1 SD Bench android app.
It is not science, but crearly demonstrate as adopted storage can be fast.
coolpal said:
Now stuck on deleting PlexMediaServer. Using the method suggested by @Xaph0d, and get a prompt from superuser which i granted, but still see "Read-only file system". Any ideas what could be wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this:
Code:
adb shell
su
mount -o rw,remount -t ext4 /system

Thanks @goose2600
I am able to get it all working!
Can I migrate my existing PMS library metadata from Windows 10 machine to Shield?

coolpal said:
Thanks @goose2600
I am able to get it all working!
Can I migrate my existing PMS library metadata from Windows 10 machine to Shield?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably you can, but as I am new to Plex (and also re-reading the steps 9 and 11 of this guide) I don't know how Plex create the library, so I preferred to start from the scratch.
Now I would like just to find a way to install any unsupported plugins. If you will ever know the way, let me know
EDIT: To get unsupported plugins to works, we have justs to symlink the Plug-ins folder located in the data folder present in the external adopted storage (which is no writable) to a new folder located on the /sdcdard, which is writable.

I just graded to higher external HD from smaller HD. My device is not rooted and stock. I don't how I managed use my original HD as my plex server for all my movies. Now trying to figure out update it where the shield would recognize the new HD

Thanks for this guide, got it all working! Apart from one thing....
For some reason Plex is not downloading all the metadata, movie posters etc. It will only download maybe a handful or two, but not my whole library.
I had no issues when Plex was on the internal storage, but a nightmare now on the external storage. What can I do to fix this please?

Be sure to follow the guide step by step, even steps 9, 10 and 11.
Pay also attention to give the r/w permission when Plex will ask for them (it is pretty easy to dismiss the request).
I moved Plex data on two devices following this guide, and always worked without any troubles.

goose2600 said:
Be sure to follow the guide step by step, even steps 9, 10 and 11.
Pay also attention to give the r/w permission when Plex will ask for them (it is pretty easy to dismiss the request).
I moved Plex data on two devices following this guide, and always worked without any troubles.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've followed the guide exactly, especially those steps. Still don't get why it's only downloading some metadata and not all my library. Will have to post a screenshot later

Without root
I belive it shoud work also without root doing this:
1. Enable Developer mode
2. Enable ADB via usb in developer
3. run:
Code:
adb devices
4. Give permission on the screen
5. run:
Code:
adb shell
6. run:
Code:
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.plexapp.mediaserver.smb
(this will uninstall the app from curent user 0)
7. Reinstall Plex Server form store

Related

[Q] How to free up space on amazon fire tv?

Hi all,
I rooted my fire tv. i downgrade firmware and installed CWM, install rbox bootloader, then upgrade pre-rooted firmware by rbox. Now when i check under setting --> system -> about i see 3.61gb free space from 5.49gb available space. I don't have a lot app installed in my rooted fire tv so i didnt think what i have installed would taken up 2gb. Here is what i have installed.
Google play store, kodi, llama, es file explore, busybee box, supersu, chrome, firefox and the whatever was required to gain root access, upgrade and downgrading firmware and whatever app is pre-installed from pre-rooted firmware.
Is there way to check which apps and files are taking up the most space and how do you free up space?
Also, does this sound right that only 3.59gb is left. At one point during my root process when i was pushing update.zip file thru adb to downgrade firmware, it took a very long so i exit out of adb (i simply click on "x" bar to close the connection) and started again but i am not sure maybe i installed update.zip file 2x. How do i check? How do ensure i don't have any unnecessary file on fire tv internal drive.
Thank you
I have 3 FireTVs, all rooted and they have between 3.0G to 3.4G free space so I say your free space is within reasonable range
lowbee said:
I have 3 FireTVs, all rooted and they have between 3.0G to 3.4G free space so I say your free space is within reasonable range
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi thanks for posting back. Makes me feel better but still out of 8gb user only has 3.5gb, not ideal. i wonder where did the 5gb go.
I am curious to hear from others to see how they cleaned up space, if there are any methods.
I'd have to say kodi might be the culprit taking a lot of space with excessive data storage.
Anything similar to xbmc can be a resource hog for storage.
ashsha7877 said:
hi thanks for posting back. Makes me feel better but still out of 8gb user only has 3.5gb, not ideal. i wonder where did the 5gb go.
I am curious to hear from others to see how they cleaned up space, if there are any methods.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't get 8GB of usable space. I think it is only about 5GB. So you are using about 1.5 GB for apps. Not too bad if you are running Kodi.
An easy way to check where files are taking up space is to use the "sdcard analyze" function in esfile explorer. Its under the tools section. Also, with esfile explorer, you can push files from your phone to the firetv pretty easy too. Select whatever file you want to send on your phone, under options choose send, and make sure esfile explorer is open on the firetv too. The firetv prompts you for where you want to save the file.
ashsha7877 said:
Hi all,
I rooted my fire tv. i downgrade firmware and installed CWM, install rbox bootloader, then upgrade pre-rooted firmware by rbox. Now when i check under setting --> system -> about i see 3.61gb free space from 5.49gb available space. I don't have a lot app installed in my rooted fire tv so i didnt think what i have installed would taken up 2gb. Here is what i have installed.
Google play store, kodi, llama, es file explore, busybee box, supersu, chrome, firefox and the whatever was required to gain root access, upgrade and downgrading firmware and whatever app is pre-installed from pre-rooted firmware.
Is there way to check which apps and files are taking up the most space and how do you free up space?
Also, does this sound right that only 3.59gb is left. At one point during my root process when i was pushing update.zip file thru adb to downgrade firmware, it took a very long so i exit out of adb (i simply click on "x" bar to close the connection) and started again but i am not sure maybe i installed update.zip file 2x. How do i check? How do ensure i don't have any unnecessary file on fire tv internal drive.
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can free up quite a bit by pushing these advanced settings to
<advancedsettings>
<pathsubstitution>
<substitute>
<from>/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/files/.xbmc/userdata/Thumbnails/</from>
<to>/storage/usb/drive1/xbmcthumbnails/</to>
</substitute>
</pathsubstitution>
</advancedsettings>
You need to amend to kodi instread of xbmc if you're running 14.0 or higher AND my external is mounted by adbFire mount drives persistent. If you're using stickmount it would be sda (forget exact path?)
Once pushed and confirmed working, all your thumbnails will dissapear. Just go into userdata/database and delete textures13. Then restart xbmc.
Afterwards I also delete the thumbnails folder on internal. Oh yes...make sure you have a folder on external named xbmcthumbnails.
This should immediately clear about 600 mb and keep in mind you typically add more to your library so the amount it saves long term could be huge.
KLit75 said:
You can free up quite a bit by pushing these advanced settings to
<advancedsettings>
<pathsubstitution>
<substitute>
<from>/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/files/.xbmc/userdata/Thumbnails/</from>
<to>/storage/usb/drive1/xbmcthumbnails/</to>
</substitute>
</pathsubstitution>
</advancedsettings>
You need to amend to kodi instread of xbmc if you're running 14.0 or higher AND my external is mounted by adbFire mount drives persistent. If you're using stickmount it would be sda (forget exact path?)
Once pushed and confirmed working, all your thumbnails will dissapear. Just go into userdata/database and delete textures13. Then restart xbmc.
Afterwards I also delete the thumbnails folder on internal. Oh yes...make sure you have a folder on external named xbmcthumbnails.
This should immediately clear about 600 mb and keep in mind you typically add more to your library so the amount it saves long term could be huge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that going to make loading thumbnails A LOT SLOWER??
Neo3D said:
Is that going to make loading thumbnails A LOT SLOWER??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's actually a good question. I've been using these so long I don't have a memory of exactly how fast they loaded before. I'll say this--they populate fast enough for me to keep using them. I use usb 3.0. I think it's essential based on how big my library is and the fact I use aeon nox with additional fanart.
But, I'd be very interested in seeing if you or someone else sees a significant lag in load times. You can always delete the xml if you find it slow.
Just an fyi I got these from an xda member awhile back. Since then lots of people have tried them and so far I haven't hear complaints, but I'd still like feedback from someone who can compare.
Another suggestion is to pre-scrape all the necessary support files with a media manager of your choice (e.g. fanart, icon, content info, etc.) and switch to local info only on the scraper for the collection. It depends also on how you have your collection organized from a folder perspective.
I found this to be fastest and lightest on local storage (obviously because the "library" is already built) especially when you have a household of streamers. You have all the content centralized on your NAS already. It's silly for streaming box to build the library and re-download the content each time from the Internet (especially if your like me as a perpetual media player tinkerer).
Edit: For clarity, I mean a "Library manager." Look on the Kodi wiki for links to various clients on your preferred OS.
t3ch42 said:
An easy way to check where files are taking up space is to use the "sdcard analyze" function in esfile explorer. Its under the tools section. Also, with esfile explorer, you can push files from your phone to the firetv pretty easy too. Select whatever file you want to send on your phone, under options choose send, and make sure esfile explorer is open on the firetv too. The firetv prompts you for where you want to save the file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know this. Are there any other setup steps required to be able to do this? Or do you just have es file explorer installed and opened on both phone and FTV?
RuKuS4Life said:
Good to know this. Are there any other setup steps required to be able to do this? Or do you just have es file explorer installed and opened on both phone and FTV?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's it. As long as the two are on the aame network, it should pick up the firetv as a target.
To clarify, on the phone, long click the file to send, and select send. The firetv ip adress will show up and allow you to send the file. When the prompt shows up on the firetv(provided that esfile explorer is the active and open app), accept the transfer and select tge location to store the transferred file.
t3ch42 said:
That's it. As long as the two are on the aame network, it should pick up the firetv as a target.
To clarify, on the phone, long click the file to send, and select send. The firetv ip adress will show up and allow you to send the file. When the prompt shows up on the firetv(provided that esfile explorer is the active and open app), accept the transfer and select tge location to store the transferred file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got sdmaid. It recovered about 1.5gb. Get the pro version from google play.

[SCRIPT] Mount Samba/CIFS shares

I hacked up a script to mount a single Samba/CIFS share using adb shell directly on the firetv. This can be executed using any script manager (I use Rom Toolbox Pro's scripter) and if configured by your script manager it will in fact execute and mount the share on boot. If you have more than one share just use more than one copy of this script or feel free to hack it up yourself to extend it I am pretty much done with it at the moment but wanted to share.
Requires root and a script manager that can run scripts as root - also I have busybox installed on my firetv so that may be helpful as well.
https://github.com/mattgyver83/pyro
mattgyver83 said:
I hacked up a script to mount a single Samba/CIFS share using adb shell directly on the firetv. This can be executed using any script manager (I use Rom Toolbox Pro's scripter) and if configured by your script manager it will in fact execute and mount the share on boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome! Any chance that games/apps could be run off of the mounted SMB share?
What is the purpose of this? Can you not just use an app like ES File Explorer or another SMB app to browse to a shared LAN folder?
Thanks.
tdfsu said:
What is the purpose of this? Can you not just use an app like ES File Explorer or another SMB app to browse to a shared LAN folder?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately no. ES File Explorer lets you browse network shares but it does not let you mount them and this means that only ES File Explorer can see the contents no other application can see those files and that problem is two fold, not only is that because its not a feature of ES File Explorer but its because of the security implementation of Android even if they tryed to implement it. The purpose of this script is to mount the network share to a local folder on the filesystem so that within any application you can browse to that directory and see those network files so they can be used, this is GREAT if you have a device that has a small storage footprint like the FireTV and you are already sharing out files on your network.
onlinespending said:
Awesome! Any chance that games/apps could be run off of the mounted SMB share?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I thought I had already replied to this a few days ago but apparently I didnt hit submit or something. Yes, that is exactly what this script is for and for that use case it works very well.
Edit: Sorry, I incorrectly answered your question. You can't run or install android applications over the network with this but you can perhaps store data on your network and load it within the application. An example would be like installing an emulator on your firetv and browsing to a ROM share on your network and loading the rom over the LAN. It would be pretty complicated to execute games or applications and likely troublesome.
I think I get the basic idea but I have questions...
1. Will this make it possible for aftv to be seen in workgroup by my other devices or at least show up if added as a network share?(remembered I don't think android can be in workgroup)
2. If your aftv's external drive is already mounted with adbFire mount samba drives script, are there any potential conflicts? Busybox is installed through adbFire.
This is the last piece for me. Every xbmc device can connect to the others, all connect to server, but my 2 aftvs can't share local files over smb with any other devices or each other.
KLit75 said:
I think I get the basic idea but I have questions...
1. Will this make it possible for aftv to be seen in workgroup by my other devices or at least show up if added as a network share?(remembered I don't think android can be in workgroup).
2. If your aftv's external drive is already mounted with adbFire mount samba drives script, are there any potential conflicts? Busybox is installed through adbFire.
This is the last piece for me. Every xbmc device can connect to the others, all connect to server, but my 2 aftvs can't share local files over smb with any other devices or each other.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To answer your questions;
1. No, this doesn't implement samba which is what would make it seen on your network. The way that I personally achieve this on my firetv is by sideloading and running "Samba FileSharing", that will do exactly what your trying todo there.
2. Until you said that I had no idea that adbFire even offered this kind of feature and have never used it. I would have to play with it but assuming its doing things the same way then unless your using the same mountpoint then no there should be no issues.
edit: The adbFire thing intrigued me so I took another look at it - please correct me if I am wrong though. From what I gather it does not actually mount a network share, what it does is start a samba server to share out your attached USB drive as a network share. This is very different than what my script does as it just connects network shares to your fireTV locally. My answers remain the same then, it shouldn't hurt anything. What I think you are looking for is probably more along the lines of a Samba Server running on the FireTV and you would only require my script if you need the other fireTVs to be able to see the shared out files as if they resided locally on it for apps to use.
Hope that helps
mattgyver83 said:
To answer your questions;
1. No, this doesn't implement samba which is what would make it seen on your network. The way that I personally achieve this on my firetv is by sideloading and running "Samba FileSharing", that will do exactly what your trying todo there.
2. Until you said that I had no idea that adbFire even offered this kind of feature and have never used it. I would have to play with it but assuming its doing things the same way then unless your using the same mountpoint then no there should be no issues.
edit: The adbFire thing intrigued me so I took another look at it - please correct me if I am wrong though. From what I gather it does not actually mount a network share, what it does is start a samba server to share out your attached USB drive as a network share. This is very different than what my script does as it just connects network shares to your fireTV locally. My answers remain the same then, it shouldn't hurt anything. What I think you are looking for is probably more along the lines of a Samba Server running on the FireTV and you would only require my script if you need the other fireTVs to be able to see the shared out files as if they resided locally on it for apps to use.
Hope that helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I wish I could speak a little more confidently about it it but at this time I've got more to learn.
Yes. That's exactly what I want--aftv to act as a server just like my computers do. I didn't fully understand that function on adbfire so I did install 3rd party smb software on aftv. There was a conflict. I needed to uninstall the software. Now I can transfer files over sftp, I can ssh to aftv but my Mac won't connect to the smb://adbfire/USB/ I tried cifs as well. Adbfire's script DOES support this but I can't get it working with Mac. Normally I'd say user error but I'm not the only one who can't do it. And it doesn't work on the new aftv I just bought so definetly not something I messed up.
I hesitate just because adbfire uses the same binaries as one of the popular smb softwares on play store. So I don't want to potentially break things trying to make it better. But this would be a great feature to get working. I know, as you said, your script doesn't do that. But if I get samba working as it should your script might be useful.
Sorry. I'm probably just filling this with words that don't all apply. Apparently I could benefit from what your offering but not until I get samba working correctly. And I'd be appreciative for any info to get that going but it MIGHT be a little off topic here. Thanks a lot for the quick detailed response!
Hey no problems glad I could help get you sorted out, I'll PM you with some more specific information that I think you are after that should get you where you want to be.
mattgyver83 said:
Sorry I thought I had already replied to this a few days ago but apparently I didnt hit submit or something. Yes, that is exactly what this script is for and for that use case it works very well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perfect. Any chance you can share how you actually install Fire TV apps to the SMB share? This would be great given the limited internal storage
Any chance you can share how you actually install Fire TV apps to the SMB share?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use it in that way I just use it for accessing my current network shares from within applications on the fireTV, that is about all this script is intended for. To be honest I don't even think the way that the script is mounting the shares and in order for it to work would have to be implemented at the lower android levels so it could even properly boot that way. Its for the best though, networks generally are not as reliable as direct disk IO so I would suggest sticking to using internal storage, possibly checking out one of the external USB methods, and then just using your shares to house large data so you can basically make the most of all of your storage along the way. Hope this helps.
Edit: I just wanted to add that I looked back at our conversation and I see how I made it seem that might be possible. Sorry I clearly did not answer your question correctly for some reason what I read and what you said were two very different things, I was of the mindset that you were asking about loading ROMs persay over the network from within an emulation app and I have no idea why I thought thats what you were asking. That is not what your asking, no this wont load android applications over the network - Ill edit that post to make that distinction clearer.
mattgyver83 said:
I hacked up a script to mount a single Samba/CIFS share using adb shell directly on the firetv. This can be executed using any script manager (I use Rom Toolbox Pro's scripter) and if configured by your script manager it will in fact execute and mount the share on boot. If you have more than one share just use more than one copy of this script or feel free to hack it up yourself to extend it I am pretty much done with it at the moment but wanted to share.
Requires root and a script manager that can run scripts as root - also I have busybox installed on my firetv so that may be helpful as well.
https://github.com/mattgyver83/pyro
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works for me, thanks
Hi Mr Richard Dean Anderson
Magyver or O'neil?
..does this ciffs method depend on having fire tv i.e. a fire tv OS/kernel
What i mean is, can this script, potentially, be used, to work on "any" android, or does this only work for fire tv specifically?
banderos101 said:
Hi Mr Richard Dean Anderson
Magyver or O'neil?
..does this ciffs method depend on having fire tv i.e. a fire tv OS/kernel
What i mean is, can this script, potentially, be used, to work on "any" android, or does this only work for fire tv specifically?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like it should work for android where you can enable adb, must have root and busybox.
Thank you for the script. Got it working using your example, but with one caveat I can't figure out.
So here's what I was trying to accomplish using this. I have a large library in Kodi so I was going to move all the data to my NAS and point Kodi to it. I had originally moved everything to a usb disk but just preferred the NAS route. The share mounts to /mnt/obb/myfiles and if I'm logged in as 'su' I can see the directory inside myfiles. Problem is anything stored inside myfiles isn't viewable outside of 'su'. How do I setup the share to be viewable by the shell acct?

Kodi saving movie to usb

I have installed Kodi on my firetv (rooted)when I tried to save a film to my usb flash drive but it would not let me also the same with sdcard.
Thanks for any help z4
Cool, bro!
*silence*
Fat32 has a filesize limit of 4GB > movie was larger > *pity* > Android 5.x doesnt mount the sdcard2 as writeable by default anymore (not sure what it does with USB media) > if you used a program that cant pull root rights to remount the drive > *pity*.
(If you are looking for such a program: Total Commander (Amazon App Store).)
edit: If you are talking about moving a file to those two kinds of storage media from a PC or (have mercy) a tablet - and dont know about filesystems (fat32, ntfs, ...) or that the Fire TV devices are locked down to only be able to read fat32 by Amazon itself (there might be a workaround for rooted devices - search these forums) - thats entirely your fault.
Also at this point I would commend you for not using the words PC or the program you tried to use at all and just having clicked away the error message - because this makes our part of the question/answer game - so much easier.
Short answer for dudebros: Buy a NAS, or a router with an USB port (dd-wrt compatible ones cost 10-30 USD used) if the 4GB filesizelimt of fat32 is the problem - or wait until someone cares to tell you if there is a root solution to mounting different filesystems on a rooted Fire TV. Also if you have a Fire TV 2 and just have dropped the 2, because - why not - theres currently no such solution that has been publicly explored. Maybe tomorrow. But If there is not - *shrug* (Most of us (probably) use NAS boxes or network shares, you (probably) dont.)
I am a newbie with the fire tv so there is a lot I dont understand all I wanted to do was save a avi file from Genesis in Kodi to a usb flash drive.
z4
zephyr4 said:
I am a newbie with the fire tv so there is a lot I dont understand all I wanted to do was save a avi file from Genesis in Kodi to a usb flash drive.
z4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just like on the official kodi forums you won't get here any support for piracy add-ons.
https://kodi.tv/the-piracy-box-sellers-and-youtube-promoters-are-killing-kodi/
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Ok sorry, I never thought about that.

Hdd space shrinking fast on my Firetv box

FireTV Box Gen 1
S/W: 51.1.6.3 Rooted
About a week ago, I noticed I only had about 1.56 GB of space left on my box. I assumed Kodi was the culprit, so I removed much of Kodi's data, thumbnails, addons, etc. I got Kodi down to around 600 MB, but realized the extra space gained wasn't much, putting the storage capacity at 1.63 GB. So I removed a couple of apps leaving only 4 or 5 that together may take up 50 MB. I don't use anything on the Firetv but Kodi, so I can't figure out what is eating up all my space, and it has gotten worse. It now shows I only have 873 MB of 5.49 GB, yet Kodi is only using about 750 MB.
Running ES File Explorer's SD Card Analyzer shows that under the heading: Others - 3.73 GB is used. The problem is it will not let me view what is in it or delete any of it. I would love to know what is consuming all of this space. I tried other apps like, CCleaner, and SD Maid but they didn't even recognize this 3.73 GB of unaccounted data.
Any suggestions as to how to identify where all my storage space is going, and mostly, free it back up? I realize the OS uses some of the storage space, but I don't recall it ever being this much.
Thank you
Modify_inc said:
Any suggestions as to how to identify where all my storage space is going, and mostly, free it back up? I realize the OS uses some of the storage space, but I don't recall it ever being this much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a similar issue with my AFTV2 (see my post earlier in this forum). Clearly, the issue is in /data. Go to that directory and run the following as root in a shell: du -h -d 1
This will list the disk usage by directory. The biggest hogs will usually be: data, app, dalvik-cache, and media. Go to each of those directories and check the du. Rinse and repeat. In my case, it was the FTV Launcher (in particular, the file /data/data/com.amazon.tv.launcher/databases/mbcache.db). Yours could be different, but the disk usage will reveal the problem. If it's not obvious, compare the output of du -h -d 1 every 24 hours or so (you could cat it to a file) and you will find the culprit.
retyre said:
I had a similar issue with my AFTV2 (see my post earlier in this forum). Clearly, the issue is in /data. Go to that directory and run the following as root in a shell: du -h -d 1
This will list the disk usage by directory. The biggest hogs will usually be: data, app, dalvik-cache, and media. Go to each of those directories and check the du. Rinse and repeat. In my case, it was the FTV Launcher (in particular, the file /data/data/com.amazon.tv.launcher/databases/mbcache.db). Yours could be different, but the disk usage will reveal the problem. If it's not obvious, compare the output of du -h -d 1 every 24 hours or so (you could cat it to a file) and you will find the culprit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much!
The mbcache.db was also my culprit, at 3.11 GB. I deleted it and I now have 3.96 GB of free space. That size just seems ridiculous for a database. Not sure what caused it to get so big, but it had to go.
retyre said:
Go to that directory and run the following as root in a shell: du -h -d
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not very familiar with FTV yet. Would you share just how to do that? I have an unrooted FTV2/5.2.1.1.
Thank you.
---------- Post added at 06:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:11 AM ----------
Modify_inc said:
Thank you very much!
The mbcache.db was also my culprit, at 3.11 GB. I deleted it and I now have 3.96 GB of free space. That size just seems ridiculous for a database. Not sure what caused it to get so big, but it had to go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know what mbcache.db is created by?
That's so weird. This just started happening to me about a week ago with the same box and software. I also thought it was Kodi so I removed it and started from scratch, but that didn't solve the problem. I usually start with around ~2 GB free, but after watching a movie or show for a while (or sometimes doing nothing at all) the little box would pop up telling me to remove apps because I'm running out of space. It would often take hours for my free space to go back to normal and rebooting the box didn't help.
Thanks for the command, retyre. I'll give it a try next time this happens.
This works. Thanks
erased
Can someone please list step by step how to access and delete the mbcache.db file? Thanks
YOgun27 said:
Can someone please list step by step how to access and delete the mbcache.db file? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This worked for me: https://www.andryou.com/2017/01/04/amazon-fire-tv-fix-low-storage-error/
thanks for asking this question and for the replies. Exactly what I came here looking for!
I successfully deleted the mbcache.db file, and now I can't get most of my apps to work on the Fire TV, even if I use Firestarter. I tried to put the mbcache.db file back, and even tried a factory reset to no avail. Can somebody tell me how to get the Fire TV back to it's previous state, where I can access apps like Amazon Prime Video?
YOgun27 said:
I successfully deleted the mbcache.db file, and now I can't get most of my apps to work on the Fire TV, even if I use Firestarter. I tried to put the mbcache.db file back, and even tried a factory reset to no avail. Can somebody tell me how to get the Fire TV back to it's previous state, where I can access apps like Amazon Prime Video?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I upgraded to PreRooted FireOS 5 when I encountered the same problem after deleting some .dB files. Although my problem was only with YouTube.
I had locked my mscache.db back in January using the command chmod 0 mscache.db due to the massive space it was taking up. The Loading...Please wait message on the main page wasn't a big deal since I didn't use any of it.
Well, I finally got around to installing TWRP, which I then installed the pre-release 5.2.1.2_r1 update. It seemed to install without any issues, though I noticed I still had the Loading...Please Wait message, and the menu interface still looked the same as before. It doesn't look anything like the new interface as on the Gen 2 boxes (Isn't it suppose to?) Thinking it may have something to do with the mbcache.db still being locked, I checked the permissions on it and noticed it still had no permissions. Assuming the permissions should be the same as the other databases in the same folder, I typed chmod 660 mbcache.db. I verified it changed and confirmed the permissions matched with the other files in the database folder. I rebooted the box, and yet I still have the same continuous Loading... message, which always eventually says "We are currently unable to contact our servers."
Now that I have the mbcache.db unlocked, should I try reinstalling 5.2.1.2_r1 over itself or does someone have a better idea? Is it even safe to install the same version over itself?
Update: I confirmed the database files are being written to because the timestamps have changed from the previous date of 2017-01-03 to 2017-07-08 (current date).
Thank you
Y314K said:
I upgraded to PreRooted FireOS 5 when I encountered the same problem after deleting some .dB files. Although my problem was only with YouTube.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the input. Do you know where I can find a guide to upgrade to PreRooted FireOS 5? I can't seem to find it on AFTVnews.
YOgun27 said:
Thanks for the input. Do you know where I can find a guide to upgrade to PreRooted FireOS 5? I can't seem to find it on AFTVnews.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything I know is based on this guide:
http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-install-twrp-custom-recovery-on-a-rooted-fire-tv-1/
But I expand about my experience on updating from FireOS 3 to FireOS 5 from the 4th post here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/help/help-to-unroot-fire-tv-to-original-t3612898
Read the whole guide tread. And don't get started until you know what you are doing. Everybody's starting point is different. So everybody needs to mod the Guide to their situation.
New issue, I've updated and downgraded many times. Now when I try to upgrade to 51.1.6.3 from 51.1.6.2 I get an error message when trying to push the zip file. Here is the log:
[email protected]:/ # adb push /Users/user1/update.zip /sdcard/
cannot stat '/Users/user1/update.zip': No such file or directory
I've searched similar problems, and tried every fix I can think of to no avail. Is it possible to get this zip file in the sdcard directory any other way??
YOgun27 said:
New issue, I've updated and downgraded many times. Now when I try to upgrade to 51.1.6.3 from 51.1.6.2 I get an error message when trying to push the zip file. Here is the log:
[email protected]:/ # adb push /Users/user1/update.zip /sdcard/
cannot stat '/Users/user1/update.zip': No such file or directory
I've searched similar problems, and tried every fix I can think of to no avail. Is it possible to get this zip file in the sdcard directory any other way??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I normally just use a Fat32 USB drive with all the files I'll need organized in separate clearly labeled folders.
Y314K said:
I normally just use a Fat32 USB drive with all the files I'll need organized in separate clearly labeled folders.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean put the zip file on a USB drive, which I then plug into the Fire TV? If so, I do I then get to the boot loader screen if the USB drive is occupying where I would plug in the keyboard?
YOgun27 said:
Do you mean put the zip file on a USB drive, which I then plug into the Fire TV? If so, I do I then get to the boot loader screen if the USB drive is occupying where I would plug in the keyboard?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use a powerless USB hub to connect both at the same time.
Y314K said:
I use a powerless USB hub to connect both at the same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, I've made some progress and was able to use your program to update to 51.1.6.3. I also used the Downloader program to transfer TWRP 3.0.0-7.img. However now, i don't know how to install that without ADB. And when I put in the dd command, it says no such file or directory. Is there any other way to run this command?
Also, i can't seem to get out of [email protected], even if I run "adb shell" command. Could that be the issue?

Moving apps to USB storage and Official Updates, best way to do it?

Hi everyone,
On my 4k firestick and my firetv 3rd gen (dongle) I’m using an otg cable, and an external usb drive formatted using ADB partition command. In order to move the apps from the internal to external storage I either use de ADB move command or the MiXplorer, the downside on using the MiXplorer is that you have to copy the app to the downloader folder, uninstall it and then reinstall it from the folder and it goes straight to the usb partition, but this method looses al the login info, not a major drawback but nerveless a nuisance.
When it comes to update the apps from amazon’s official appstore we run in to an error if the app is located in the external drive, so the solution is either move it back to the internal storage, update it and move it back either by uninstalling it and downloading it again from the Appstore, moving with ADB command, or using the downloader app to find the newest version and install it over the old one, although this last method works it is prone to errors due to choosing the wrong apk version listed on those alternative sources (apkmirror and others).
So, my question is if there is an app with a graphic interface like MiXplorere that allows to move the apps to and from the USB storage in a similar way as the ADB command line? Is there a different method that I’m missing?
Thanks in advance,
London
london18 said:
Hi everyone,
On my 4k firestick and my firetv 3rd gen (dongle) I’m using an otg cable, and an external usb drive formatted using ADB partition command. In order to move the apps from the internal to external storage I either use de ADB move command or the MiXplorer, the downside on using the MiXplorer is that you have to copy the app to the downloader folder, uninstall it and then reinstall it from the folder and it goes straight to the usb partition, but this method looses al the login info, not a major drawback but nerveless a nuisance.
When it comes to update the apps from amazon’s official appstore we run in to an error if the app is located in the external drive, so the solution is either move it back to the internal storage, update it and move it back either by uninstalling it and downloading it again from the Appstore, moving with ADB command, or using the downloader app to find the newest version and install it over the old one, although this last method works it is prone to errors due to choosing the wrong apk version listed on those alternative sources (apkmirror and others).
So, my question is if there is an app with a graphic interface like MiXplorere that allows to move the apps to and from the USB storage in a similar way as the ADB command line? Is there a different method that I’m missing?
Thanks in advance,
London
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey,
Not sure if you've tried apps2sd Pro?
To use this this app you will have to set partitions on the extsdcard USB first.
If I remember correctly one partition is made ext4 and one FAT32.
The ext4 partition becomes apps adopted storage when mounted and the FAT32 partition becomes normal storage for downloads etc.
Hope this helps
Regards
Unfortunately, Apps2sd Pro only works in rooted devices, not the case here.
Any how thanks for the suggestion, let's if there is some other solution in this line.
Cheers,
London
london18 said:
Unfortunately, Apps2sd Pro only works in rooted devices, not the case here.
Any how thanks for the suggestion, let's if there is some other solution in this line.
Cheers,
London
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Apologies I guess I just assumed you were rooted as most on here use rooted devices.
The only other (known) way is described here :
How To Increase Storage On Firestick & Fire TV in 2022
This post will explain how to Increase Storage on Firestick & Fire TVs. The Amazon Firestick is the most popular streaming device available on the
troypoint.com
Apart from that I know of no other way to use adopted storage on fireos without root.
Regards
Bertonumber1 said:
Hi,
Apologies I guess I just assumed you were rooted as most on here use rooted devices.
The only other (known) way is described here :
How To Increase Storage On Firestick & Fire TV in 2022
This post will explain how to Increase Storage on Firestick & Fire TVs. The Amazon Firestick is the most popular streaming device available on the
troypoint.com
Apart from that I know of no other way to use adopted storage on fireos without root.
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is basically the procedure that I used to format the USB drive, but to move the apps he suggests to use ES file explorer, that was banned due to security concerns, so I was looking for an alternative...
Thanks again for the patience and attention.
London

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