[Jackanory]

My ancient Acer Revo 3600 running 18.6 is still working okayish, but its replacement has arrived: Minix NEO Z100-0db.

Would anyone care to offer reasons either way on whether to upgrade to Omega on the Revo before migrating to minixNEO; -or- installing 18.6 on minixNEO along with my backup from Revo, then upgrading to Omega there? My worry about upgrading to Omega on Revo, is that I'm not sure how Revo would handle it!

Another approach might be to install a new instance of Omega on minixNEO, if it was then possible to have Omega automagically convert an 18.6 backup, outside the Kodi installation process ... is that a thing, and how would one go about that?

My septuagenarian brain is liable to cock things up either way, so I will of course be making backups aplenty.

Dave

[Karellen]

upgrade to Omega on the Revo before migrating to minixNEO; -or- installing 18.6 on minixNEO along with my backup from Revo, then upgrading to Omega there?

Neither.
I would install v21 on the minixNeo and start rebuilding a fresh setup.
There have been a lot of changes between v18 and v21, such as the upgrade to Python 3, changes to the skinning engine, complete overhaul of scrapers, changes to the database and lots of other new features.
If you bring your old setup to the new install for upgrade, you have bogged down your system with lots of broken addons. I would image a lot of errors popping up in your log after the upgrade and you will end up spending more time trying to fix the problems than it would have taken you to rebuild fresh.

[Jackanory]

Hi, and thanks for that ultra prompt response. I do like the idea of a fresh setup for the reasons you state. Wouldn't that though, leave me without all the valuable information from my old setup like: watched statistics, art choices, smart playlists, sets, and etc? I'd really prefer to have the 18.6 databases subjected to the conversion process!

[Karellen]

Wouldn't that though, leave me without all the valuable information from my old setup like: watched statistics, art choices, smart playlists, sets, and etc?

Export your existing library to Separate Files (nfo files). Watched statistics will be in the export.
The only downside to this is artwork. Artwork at TMDB has an expiry date, so you will find some artwork missing when you rebuild.
This is why I always recommend regular export to nfo files and using Artwork Dump to download the original artwork to the source folders.
You should run Artwork Dump now and you might be able to spot what will be missing. https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=360078

Smart Playlists are simple xml files. You can manually copy them over from your older setup. Nothing there has changed. As long as you don't start renaming sources and shifting around paths, the smart playlists should work as per normal.
Same goes for your nodes if you created any, advancedsettings.xml file and keyboard.xml files if you have them.

[Karellen]

You should run Artwork Dump now and you might be able to spot what will be missing. https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=360078

Oops. Artwork Dump wont run on v18. You will need to use Artwork Beef... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=258886

[Jackanory]

 Watched statistics will be in the export.

Thanks again. Before I export all my movies (I haven't yet seen an export 'this' movie option) do the watched statistics include watched progress? The included 'Recently Watched' playlist indicates that I have over 1000 movies in a partially watched state. Bad habit I guess, but I do like coming back to partially watched movies as my mood/time dictates.

I'm starting to think of 'broken addons' as a minor inconvenience, as I can count on one hand the addons that I've chosen to install, and could easily remove them prior to a conversion. Mind you, there are an awful lot that have installed themselves by default.

[Karellen]

Before I export all my movies (I haven't yet seen an export 'this' movie option) do the watched statistics include watched progress?

Yes
https://kodi.wiki/view/Import-export_lib...rate_Files

[Jackanory]

I didn't see anything concerning watched progress at that link, nor the links contained therein -- elderly brain, no doubt. However, I did see this:

If you use local artwork, do not export artwork as your original artwork may be overwritten with an inferior copy or duplicated if you use the short name format.

I imagine I'm not the only one to use a mixture of local artwork in amongst that retrieved from IMDB. My movie collection includes many older titles that have no art on IMDB (nor TMDB) Also, exporting Actor thumbnails for Actors who've appeared in dozens of movies seems inefficient at best.

Are the exported contents of .nfo files described elsewhere?

BTW, would incremental upgrades negate the migration issue, i.e. going from 18 -> 19 thence to 20, etc?

Though TBH, taking the 'if it ain't broke' approach is growing in appeal ATM, since I need a new PC more than I need a new version of Kodi! :o)

[Karellen]

I imagine I'm not the only one to use a mixture of local artwork in amongst that retrieved from IMDB. My movie collection includes many older titles that have no art on IMDB (nor TMDB)

Then run the export a couple of times. First time run to Export Artwork - YES; Export Actors - NO (if you don't want them); OVERWRITE FILES - NO
This will export artwork that is not already saved locally, thus filling in the gaps of missing artwork, without touching existing artwork.
If you don't have nfo files, these will also have been created.
If you do have nfo files, and want to update them, then run the Export again, answering NO to both artwork and actors, but answering YES to overwrite files.

Are the exported contents of .nfo files described elsewhere?

https://kodi.wiki/view/NFO_files

BTW, would incremental upgrades negate the migration issue, i.e. going from 18 -> 19 thence to 20, etc?

No

taking the 'if it ain't broke' approach is growing in appeal ATM, since I need a new PC more than I need a new version of Kodi!

Sure, that is one school of thought.
But Kodi v18 is not supported by us anymore. You won't receive any addon updates for v18 at all. In fact the Kodi repositories upto and including v18 are about to be closed sometime in the next fortnight, so once an addon breaks, it is broken permanently.
New pc, new Kodi is another school of thought.

[Jackanory]

BTW, would incremental upgrades negate the migration issue, i.e. going from 18 -> 19 thence to 20, etc?

No

Your disavowal of your own upgrade system makes me sad. Do you know specifically where the chain is broken? Would an upgrade from 18 to 19 work? That would at least get me past the forthcoming repository closure.

[Karellen]

I have advised you of my recommendation.
If you want to update from v18 to v21, go ahead as there is nothing stopping you.
But you did ask for "reasons" in your first post and I recommend you don't and gave my reasons. But go ahead. It might work without problem, or it will be fraught with problems and if it is, then you can decide to rebuild from fresh then.

[scott967]

Just did a test by installing Kodi 21 in portable mode and copying all the contents of Kodi 18.6 portable_data to the new install, then started Kodi 21.  Databases migrated without problem, got one OK notification that web server was disabled due to not having a password set, and a second yes/no dialog to rescan all my music file tags which I accepted "yes".  This on a "test"-level media sources, not 1,000s of entries so that needs to be considered.

The old 3rd party repos were disabled and could be uninstalled.  MyMusic database updated from 72 -> 83.

Code:

info <general>: Old database found - updating from version 72 to 83
info <general>: Update to version 83 successful

MyVideos from 116 -> 131

Code:

info <general>: Old database found - updating from version 116 to 131
info <general>: Update to version 131 successful

TVdb from 32 -> 44

Code:

info <general>: Old database found - updating from version 32 to 44
info <general>: Update to version 44 successful

EPGdb from 12 -> 16

Code:

info <general>: Old database found - updating from version 12 to 16
info <general>: Update to version 16 successful

So yes, direct upgrade is supported and doable, but with a tweaked Kodi 18 system there may be many new tweaks needed, so might be a good opportunity to use the export/import method to start fresh.

I have addon update set to "notify".  Restarted Kodi and uninstalled all the 3rd party repos.  Went to addons / available updates and had a slew of them.  "Update all" took quite a long time, actually had to do "update all" a couple of times until everything settled down with updated official addons.  Had a good number of 3rd party addons that were set "disabled" by Kodi.  These would need to be uninstalled, or updated versions hunted down from the 3rd party maintainers.

scott s.
.

[Jackanory]

With the intent of copying my movie repository, I've ordered a new external drive arriving tomorrow. I'll try out various scenarios on minixNEO in complete isolation from my old setup, bearing in mind your caveats. I've never incorporated my TV media into a library, and I've no problems with redoing my Music library, so I'll only have the one focus.

Unanswered: how to automagically have a fresh installation convert an old database? Would simply modifying the appropriate configuration file to point to a restored database prompt (say) Omega to initiate its conversion process when started?

[Jackanory]

Just did a test

...

scott s.

Thanks scott, I'll cross my fingers and hope to duplicate that!

[Jackanory]

Unanswered: how to automagically have a fresh installation convert an old database? Would simply modifying the appropriate configuration file to point to a restored database prompt (say) Omega to initiate its conversion process when started?

So, my new system is mostly configured, and awaiting the implant of its movie repository. My backup, rescued from Revo contains several MyVideos files:

04/30/2024  12:11 PM        45,361,152 MyVideos107.db
04/30/2024  01:16 PM       100,392,960 MyVideos116.db
04/03/2012  04:10 PM         5,855,232 MyVideos34.db
08/29/2010  11:49 AM           108,544 MyVideos34NewEmpty.db
02/02/2013  09:17 AM         6,915,072 MyVideos60.db
05/06/2014  04:46 PM        15,756,288 MyVideos75.db
12/24/2014  01:05 PM        17,843,200 MyVideos78.db
07/21/2015  03:29 PM        18,092,032 MyVideos90.db
03/21/2017  03:11 PM        34,478,080 MyVideos93.db
               9 File(s)    244,802,560 bytes

And my new Databases folder on MiniMEO contains this (presumably) empty MyVideos file:

04/29/2024 06:44 PM      921,600 MyVideos131.db

My guess, is that I should move MyVideos131 into my backup, then copy MyVideos116.db into my Databases folder. At which point, if I then open Kodi/Omega, it would do the automagical database conversion/construction.

Of course, this is just a guess, and it would be reassuring if one of you kind souls would either agree that this would be the triggering mechanism, or alternatively point out the error of my ways, and point me in the direction of the correct procedure!