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raymod2 · 2014-05-27, 03:29

With XBMC 12 I am able to use a Windows network path when adding a video source:

\\freenas\share\movies

With XBMC 13 this no longer works and it says it cannot find the path.

bluenote · (This post was last modified: 2014-05-27, 04:29 by bluenote.)

I don't recall this being allowed a couple of versions ago when I finally figured out the smb:// format.
Anyways, just use that. "smb://server/share"

raymod2 · 2014-05-27, 05:51

Can this be fixed so other users don't struggle with this? It seems like a regression.

**WiSo** · 2014-05-27, 09:32

Its no regression its intended. What bluenote said.

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2014-05-27, 09:45

I have heard of a lot of users having used XBMC for Windows and being able to use the backslash-"style" of addresses, but only for Windows. If this format is no longer usable then I guess that would explain the various reports (or at least some of them) about SMB issues.

**WiSo** · 2014-05-27, 12:40

It was usuable in the past but caused a lot of regressions as XBMC's internal routines expect url style paths. To prevent that we don't allow those paths anymore.

**Kib** · (This post was last modified: 2014-05-27, 20:46 by Kib.)

Why not just translate the UNC style paths when they are entered ?

Might be more user friendly. As far as i can see every \\server\path\to\share UNC path can be written as smb://server/path/to/share as well

raymod2 · 2014-05-28, 02:57

I agree with Kib. Your average Windows user is not going to have the technical knowledge required to convert UNC paths to SMB paths. Why can't XBMC do the conversion for him like it did in the past? The conversion only has to be done once.

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2014-05-28, 06:36

(2014-05-27, 12:40)WiSo Wrote: It was usuable in the past but caused a lot of regressions as XBMC's internal routines expect url style paths. To prevent that we don't allow those paths anymore.

Sounds fine to me, but I wish I had known about this so we could have warned users before upgrading (social media, blog posts, Gotham FAQ, etc).

C'est la vie

**WiSo** · (This post was last modified: 2014-05-28, 10:26 by WiSo.)

(2014-05-28, 06:36)Ned Scott Wrote: Sounds fine to me, but I wish I had known about this so we could have warned users before upgrading (social media, blog posts, Gotham FAQ, etc).

This is pretty old stuff and was communicated but probably not documented in the wiki (but you can find some old threads in the forum about it). All other platforms beside Windows had to use smb paths already as this just "worked" on windows. Didn't knew that this would be so challenging for windows users but I won't change it.

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2014-05-28, 10:35

Did XBMC do anything for existing UNC paths in the library database? As in, is this just an issue for users who are trying to enter new paths, or do users need to rescan their libraries in? I'd try this myself, but I'm out of town and don't have access to my Win computer.

raymod2 · 2014-05-30, 15:43

I opened Ticket #15265 to track this issue. I think there should be discussion before a basic usability feature is removed. It should be trivial to support UNC paths and removing support will cause a lot of grief for Windows users.

**jjd-uk** · 2014-05-30, 15:48

It is not a bug so more than likely that ticket will get closed.

**Martijn** · 2014-05-30, 22:47

(2014-05-30, 15:43)raymod2 Wrote: I opened Ticket #15265 to track this issue. I think there should be discussion before a basic usability feature is removed. It should be trivial to support UNC paths and removing support will cause a lot of grief for Windows users.

ok, then you code it back in, if it is that trivial.

(2014-05-30, 15:48)jjd-uk Wrote: It is not a bug so more than likely that ticket will get closed.

already closed

Jogee · 2014-05-31, 00:08

(2014-05-28, 10:35)Ned Scott Wrote: Did XBMC do anything for existing UNC paths in the library database? As in, is this just an issue for users who are trying to enter new paths, or do users need to rescan their libraries in? I'd try this myself, but I'm out of town and don't have access to my Win computer.

Ned, users will need to rescan their libraries when upgrading to Gotham, from my experience. While the library format gets migrated, the UNC paths do not get converted to the url style format. I suppose if you're handy with SQL you could write some script to change the paths. But that seems more work than rescanning.

I ran into this with the upgrade from 12.3 to 13. Neither library nor files navigating would pull up the file. Fortunately I backed up my userdata directory as I don't really want to loose my watched status. So I'll be reinstalling 12.3, restoring my backup userdata, exporing the library, and rescanning into Gotham with the import watched state advanced settings tag.

If not, I'll have to rescan from scratch. I don't begrudge the developers for making a clean break and keeping the code simple. It doesn't make sense from a coding perspective, especially against multiple OS'es.

This shouldn't require users entering new paths to remember the smb:// syntax, as that gets put in auto-magically if they use the BROWSE feature when adding a windows share. As I discovered.