[andrzejls]

The problem is that we are being FORCED to update

Really, forced by whom? No, Android users are ignoring to disable auto-update functionality of their Android device.

while NO add-ons work in it.

Again: WHICH add-ons? Don't bother nagging about 3rd party add-ons. Developers have warned almost 1.5 years ago to adapt their add-ons. Now that moment is here.

New version comes up, GREAT, let us decide if we want it or not.

Disable auto updates in Android. We have no control over Android's application distribution.

i forgot to address WHICH add-ons. and nagging about 3rd. party add-ons. Without 3rd. party add-ons Kodi is no better than PLEX or Emby. In reality, it is not a questoins about add-ons, it is a question about WHY Kodi is updating by it self even if is told in "Settings/System/ADD-ONS  UPDATES- "Never check for updates" and in Google Play Store NOT to auto-update. I also set my Nvidia to NOT auto-update, so tell me WHY kodi is updating?

[andrzejls]

The problem is that we are being FORCED to update

Really, forced by whom? No, Android users are ignoring to disable auto-update functionality of their Android device.

while NO add-ons work in it.

Again: WHICH add-ons? Don't bother nagging about 3rd party add-ons. Developers have warned almost 1.5 years ago to adapt their add-ons. Now that moment is here.

New version comes up, GREAT, let us decide if we want it or not.

Disable auto updates in Android. We have no control over Android's application distribution.

i forgot to address WHICH add-ons. and nagging about 3rd. party add-ons. Without 3rd. party add-ons Kodi is no better than PLEX or Emby. In reality, it is not a questoins about add-ons, it is a question about WHY Kodi is updating by it self even if is told in "Settings/System/ADD-ONS  UPDATES- "Never check for updates" and in Google Play Store NOT to auto-update. I also set my Nvidia to NOT auto-update, so tell me WHY kodi is updating?

I might have to apologize, I found settings for the user in Google Play on Nvidia with setting Auto-Update apps and an option to NOT to auto-update apps. If that works then I have to admit Kodi guys were right, it is NOT Kodi it is Nvidia.

[Klojum]

Perhaps it looks to be not a simple matter, but:

- The Android Play Store handles the updating of the Kodi main application. This is done via the Android OS system.
- Add-ons inside Kodi are updated by the Kodi main application. This is done inside the Kodi application.

The crux is that both can be set to "not update", but this needs to be done separately.

[DarrenHill]

I might have to apologize, I found settings for the user in Google Play on Nvidia with setting Auto-Update apps and an option to NOT to auto-update apps. If that works then I have to admit Kodi guys were right, it is NOT Kodi it is Nvidia.

Thank you for the update and confirmation.

The only thing that we have internally is a version check addon, which will tell people if a new version is available. But we deliberately do not to anything to download it or update from it as we appreciate that should be a user choice. The fact that other vendors do not do that by default is unfortunate in some instances (like this one), but arguably also understandable on security grounds for many users who would never update anything if their devices didn't do it for them, potentially leaving all sorts of security holes unfixed.

[Beldis]

Not all the addon in the official repo are written by Team Kodi, indeed probably most of them aren't.

So even if they're included in the Leia repo, if their author has not updated them and submitted that update then they won't be available in the Matrix one.

Being in the repo means we (Team Kodi) have checked them and verified their security and adherence with our piracy policy (wiki). It doesn't mean we maintain or authored them...

Hi!
I understand what Team Kodi do . My problem was that none of the base addons in Matrix got autoupdated including Version Check so after update from Kodi 18 None of the addons worked.
And when I check for addons or updates the list was empty.

I fixed my problem downloading Version Check from http://mirrors.kodi.tv/addons/matrix/ and installing it manually with other dependecies. After that and rebooting again all works fine.

I don't have now any problem with any addons since I use few and all from Kodi Repo.

Thanks to all Kodi Team for your work.

[vgto]

So you talking about security risk in old versions and disabling auto-updates, which mostly are about security in all other apps: D that's funny ...
I made clean install of Kodi 19 and it have the same functionality as Kodi 18 and working good, maybe little slower ... So it could go well, but upgrade process just messed up my (and other users) profile so I had to reinstall whole thing and start over with setup ... Just admit that pushing 19 as standard update wasn't such a good idea or at least it was way too early
To be clear I really appreciate your work and thank you for making my media center working great (most of the time)

[FXB78]

Just admit that pushing 19 as standard update wasn't such a good idea or at least it was way too early

So when should they have done it? 12 months down the line? 2 years? 3 years? Whenever it was done the python 2 addons would be incompatible, and it's been through alpha, beta & RC testing so why not release it? When exactly do you think it should have been released?

[DarrenHill]

Python 2 has been under sentence of depreciation for 10 years now, and was finally given the chop at the start of this year.

So the switch-over from Python 2 to Python 3 had to be done at some point, and the longer it was put off after the depreciation, the larger the security risk becomes as it's longer with it not being updated and more time for security risks to become known and used by the denizens of the darker side of the internet.

We announced that we would make the switch in 2018 (here) with beta versions of Kodi with Python 3 over a year ago (here). So addon authors have had plenty of time to take the action of upgrading. Some have, some haven't, and there's nothing more we can do to progress that switchover. If your favourite addon stopped working, go ask the author of the addon to update it rather than complaining to us about it - the team do not create or maintain most of the addons that are available for Kodi, it's a community driven ecosystem.

So yes, some addons no longer work as they haven't been upgrade, but if we waited until all addons are upgraded, then it would never happen and we would be letting our users down by exposing them to the security risks involved with Python 2 now (not to mention the fact that it seems some OS suppliers are planning to remove Python 2 for the same reason, and block any app that relies on it).

Yes the upgrade is painful, but it's needed. And it's not done lightly, as you can see it has to be done. It wasn't way too early, in fact given Python 2 was depreciated before we did it, it's arguably even slightly late.

Similarly SMB1 has been depreciated for about 6 years now, and even Microsoft are actively trying to kill it off. Hence we switch the default to SMB2 and SMB3, but this one is less impactful as Kodi is an SMB client rather than an SMB server. But having it around is still not a good idea on your network.

But in both cases, human nature will be that even with all the warnings in the world, people won't do anything about it unless they are forced to. And those same people would be the first to come after us if Kodi and the Python 2 it was using was a vector for their devices to be security breached.

[rarki72]

hm...
MiBox S, AndroidTV OS:
- after the update, all settings are reset...
- a media library of approximately 3,000 films has disappeared
- Kodi does not see the windows network, so it does not reach the NAS
Do the Add-Ons not work?
no problem, who cares..

As noted, Matrix uses Python 3 whereas Leia used Python 2. So any addon which has not been updated to Python 3 will no longer be compatible. If you can give some examples of addons which don't work, we can see what's what.

The Windows network (SMB) has been covered by several threads in this section, which contain solutions to resolving that one).

The library item - was it stored locally on the device or elsewhere via MySQL (wiki)? Did you uninstall Leia before installing Matrix, or was it done as a direct upgrade via the Play Store or APK install without any uninstall?

Are you sure the settings were reset, or is it just that you were using a skin that is not Matrix compatible and so you've fallen back to the default Estuary skin?

"As noted, Matrix uses Python 3 whereas Leia used Python 2. So any addon which has not been upda..."  -> "Do the Add-Ons not work?  no problem, who cares..."   what can't be understood ...?
"The Windows network (SMB) has been covered by several threads in this section..." -> in the previous version, too, a simple user had to solve it ... yeah, no...
"The library item - was it stored locally on the device or elsewhere via MySQL (wiki)" -> " so it does not reach the NAS" and MySQL (wiki) what is this?
"Did you uninstall Leia before installing Matrix, or was it done as a direct upgrade via the Play Store or APK install without any uninstall?" -> I had no chance of anything. i launched the app and updated itself automatically without question...
"Are you sure the settings were reset, or is it just that you were using a skin that is not Matrix compatible and so you've fallen back to the default Estuary skin?" -> 1., I have never used a skin other than the default skin 2., 
the new version didn't get any worse... the new version has become unusable!
the existence of the application is now meaningless...

[DarrenHill]

Firstly Kodi does not update itself, as I've now had to say on several threads in this section, including this one. Kodi is updated by the Google Play Store, or whatever app store or manager your device is running. The auto-update setting is there, and is entirely outside Kodi. It's a user setting that we cannot control.

Secondly concerning addons, those for Matrix need to be written now in Python 3, compared to previously (from Leia and before) the language used was Python 2. The update had to be done as Python 2 is now no longer supported by its authors (since the beginning of the year), is depreciated and is now a security risk as a result as it is not getting any updates. This update was advertised over 2 years ago, with early versions of Matrix available to authors (and anyone else) for over a year so that updating could be done.

Some addon authors did the update and have made Matrix versions of their addons available, some have yet to do so and other addons have been abandoned by their authors and (unless forked and taken over by someone else) will not get updated and will not work with Matrix or any future version of Kodi.

So if you have addons that are not working, then you need to either wait for them to be upgraded by their authors, or perhaps make contact with them and see if they are going to do so (many addons and authors have threads and presences here). The creation and support of addons is mostly a community effort here, something that we take as a very great positive for the project. But it does mean that we (Team Kodi) did not write most of them, and are not responsible for their upkeep and maintenance.

[galeforce]

Notwithstanding all these comments and arguments, it is still a MAJOR change. I, too, am on Android TV, and discovered yesterday, without ANY warning, that my finely tuned and very stable Kodi setup was ruined, my skin (Artic Zephyr 2) didn't work, and very few of the addons I was using worked either. I had no idea there was a new version of Kodi, or that it would have such an impact on its configuration. Backups are no use because they are Leia ones.

I have spent 4 or 5 hours so far trying to find out how to get a modified version of AZ2 working, and even then the menus don't update, the settings can't be backed up because it has the wrong skin helper scripts, and it won't exit Kodi naturally. It is a temporary fix by somebody who won't be supporting it, and the original developer has not committed to making it work on Matrix, despite being asked by a number of people.

All through the forums it is the same story, other people struggling to get their systems working again. Rolling back to Leia may be my only option - at least it was stable.

[kinggo]

.....so how about doing some scheduled backups? That is something that is under YOUR control. So whatever happens, you are just a few minutes away from where you were.
I am also on Android TV, but every and all "auto" crap is disabled, just like on the phones, tablet..... And I run Matrix for a while now, don't see it as unstable or worse than Leia was. Sure, some addons don't work, but that was expected since many of them are actually abandoned and have not seen any updates for years.

[thewarm]

I have a Sony Bravia 2016 (XBR810C) and was running 18.9. I already had my Windows 10 server set up manually (I use a Windows login/password). I knew this update was coming, so the only addon I have been using was PKScout's Estuary skin mod. The update went smoothly for me. I just had to get the updated skin.
Thank you Team Kodi.

PS - I wish someone would develop the extended info addon for 19. I really miss that feature!

[FXB78]

PS - I wish someone would develop the extended info addon for 19. I really miss that feature!

Didn't it pretty much get replaced by TMDB Helper & Embuary Helper? Perhaps try one of those instead.

[sierramike]

All of this is quite interresting but I have to say, hiding behind the excuse "Google Play does it, it's not our fault" is a bit too easy. YOU Kodi team know that Google Play does that. You cannot just tell users "please disable auto-update". Firstly because I will not disable auto-update for ALL my apps juste because Kodi doesn't handle breaking changes the nice way. Secondly because I'm a frequent user of Kodi, but not a geek reading the Kodi forum all day long to get those fancy tips to prevent technical changes that break my user experience.

I admit that you cannot wait until billions of add-ons are made compatible, but now I see I have no choice of skins at all beside the default one on my Nvidia boxes. I don't want to know if it is related to an official repository thing, if manual install with an USB key or somewhat would help, I'm an IT guy, I would know how to do it, but like non-IT guys, I have a lot of things to do in my life, I just want to setup something and have it working, I don't have the time to spend on each piece of hardware or software that lies in my house. Obviously, you released a version of Kodi without taking care of having at least a nice list of add-ons available, referenced and upgradable.

And regarding such a breaking change, you SHOULD display a message once a week, for at least two months, on Kodi start, so that users KNOW that something will be broken, and they may need to disable auto-update before the date if they are unsure. I repeat : "NOT EVERYBODY IS A GEEK READING THE KODI FORUM ALL DAYS FOR SUCH NEWS".

That is clearly another point regarding the difference between commercial products and open source products. The latter are missing "end-user consideration".