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sc1984 · 2018-12-11, 04:17

Hey all,

So I have been using Kodi for years on windows 7 PC's and had 0 issues connecting through SMB. How do I connect my Kodi Android box (LEIA) to SMB or whichever method is simplest? I've searched for about an hour online and can't seem to find anything that works. Sorry if this question happens a lot, but I did not see anything that worked on the search. Just trying to connect Kodi box to my PC that has all my movies over the network.

**DarrenHill** · 2018-12-11, 10:48

What are you connecting it to (on the server end)? Or are you wanting to connect to the Android box itself from a PC or somesuch?

If the latter, Kodi itself does not provide an SMB server, that's handled by the OS underneath (Windows 7 in your former case, Android now). So you may need to install a server app on your box in parallel with Kodi if its possible (there are several available in the Play Store for example).

sc1984 · 2018-12-12, 01:34

Sorry, let me be more clear. I have my PC acting as a server. Previously I could just use SMB to connect to the hard drives I wanted and spit them out all together. Now I have a Kodi box to streamline the process (or so I thought) and I cant seem to access the files on my main computer upstairs like I could before with a laptop and SMB. What is the best method to connect my android box to my movies on my main computer? Trying to recreate what I had where I clicked on videos and the folder that contained all the hard drives combined and be able to scroll through every movie I owned seamlessly. Any help would be appreciated. I've tried x plore and other such apps and cant seem to get it right. Looking for the simplest easiest way to get this end result

**DarrenHill** · 2018-12-12, 11:39

SMB would probably be simplest, although presuming the PC server is running Windows 10 then you have some additional hoops to jump through.

Due to security issues (search the web for "Wannacry" for details) SMB1 has been switched off in new Windows 10 installs. That was the standard one that was most used, and that Android boxes tended to support. Depending on your Android version (and Kodi version) it may be the only SMB version that your box supports. You can re-enable SMB1 support on Win10 (again search the web for how to do that) although it's potentially a security risk in doing so.

The other alternative is to ensure your Android box is up to date for both firmware and Kodi, and then use SMB2 or SMB3. But those do not have the browsing capability, so you will have to enter the IP address of your server PC to be able to find it (you can no longer just browse for it) and from there navigate to the shared folder(s) containing the media you want to access. Also the shares will need to be set up with a username and password, which you'll need to enter into the Android box as well. Again there are sticky threads here and web pages around that you can search for which will give you more details on setting up and accessing such SMB shares on Win10.

sc1984 · 2018-12-20, 02:05

Ok. I found a partial fix. I downgraded to krypton and kind of got it working. I managed to get my E: drive working but the other drives request a password. So i created a windows password and nothing. Found it was on a different workgroup so i changed it to match and still asks for password. Took password away and still asks. Double checked and all drives are shared to everyone with full control for permissions. Any idea why only 1 drive works out of 8? Any help would be appreciated

**DarrenHill** · 2018-12-20, 10:26

The simplest way is to create a second limited user log-in on the PC which has username, password and is granted access to the folders etc that you want to share. Then use those log-in credentials on your device and it should work.

The removal of anonymous access sharing is one of the other security fixes that MS applied due to Wannacry.

sc1984 · 2018-12-20, 18:10

That worked! It wouldn't even recognize the server anymore so I forced it by telling it the ip address and input the user password of another user and I got in. Thank you!!!

**DarrenHill** · (This post was last modified: 2018-12-20, 18:37 by DarrenHill.)

Source browsing is an SMB1 feature - it's not in SMB2 or SMB3. So you will always have to type either the IP address or server name. The latter of course also requires DNS resolution, so personally for me I would always use IP addresses (and make sure any devices such as NAS's have fixed IP addresses on your network, either set in your router (or whatever is doing the DHCP) or on the device itself) anyway as it's less reliant on external stuff - why look up the IP address from the name every time when you can just put it directly?

Anyway glad to hear it's working now for you Smile

Thread marked solved.

mwkurt · 2018-12-20, 19:29

Sounds like a permissions issue. Do you have sharing enabled and have "Everyone" as a user with permissions granted for making changes to files?

Mark