The big question everyone always seems to have when a new Fire TV update rolls around is if it negatively affects Kodi in any way. You’ll be happy to hear that several people who were lucky enough to be among the first to receive the new update have chimed in to let us know that Kodi is still fully functional. You can still sideload and launch Kodi just like before. Even better is that Kodi can fully access and play media files stored on an attached USB drive (as reported by Peter, Hitcher, and Cabe). Additionally, it appears that you can move Kodi itself onto an attached USB drive, but Kodi’s data, where the large thumbnail directory is stored, does not get moved to the USB drive. Keeping the thumbnails on the Fire TV’s internal storage is ideal for smooth scrolling through your Kodi library, however it’s likely possible to move the thumbnails to USB storage as well by editing Kodi’s advanced settings. I’ll look into this further and create a guide if it is in fact possible.
@AFTVnews
AFTVnews
It should be possible to move the thumbnails but it will be slower –
“Example 2 – changing where thumbnails are stored
Note: This will slowdown thumbnail loading, but might be worth it for low-memory devices such as the ATV2.
special://profile/Thumbnails/
PROTOCOL://YOUR_NETWORK_SHARE/xbmc/userdata/Thumbnails/
“
You can change the thumbnails path by using the tag in the advancedsettings.xml file.
special://profile/Thumbnails/
G:\Other Drive\
For more information on use, check http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Reduce_disk_space_usage#Move_cached_images_to_another_drive
http://kodi.wiki/view/Path_substitution
oops,
my post removed the tags
”
special://profile/Thumbnails/
G:\Other Drive\
“
Hey could you please correct your headline “Kodi fully compatible with Fire TV update 51.1.5.0 and USB Storage” ?
Because as far as what I’ve read (XDA,posts and several german android forum posts) its only a mediocre hdd-solution that “amazing amazon” has offered the non-rooted fraction.
Only fat32 formated drives supported. So no really solution for all the people with hdd’s filled with the modern and hefty hd-content that doesn’t fit the 4gb limitatins of fat32.
Thanks.
I have have dumb question, but what’s so great about Kodi? If it just plays media, doesn’t the amazon fire do that already?
A fully customizable UI, network attached storage, almost universal audio & video codec support, add-ons, live tv, upcoming emulator support… everything. There are plenty of youtube videos that review xbmc / kodi and it’s abilities. Kodi is amazing software, give it a try.
Kodi in it self with no addons yes it just plays media. But the fire tv doesnt play media that you have stored. Plex can but it requires your cmputer to be on. KODI will play it from a networked hard drive with no other server.
Then you add all the addons you get live tv, live sports, FREE PPV events, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of movies and tv shows from old to new. Prime which is the only free solution on the FIRE is like 40K movies and tv.
I have been cable free for over 2 years with KODI/ XBMC and i could not do that with no monthly cost any other way
Best of all, even if your computer needs to be on, is that the all the decoding is done via the fire tv (unlike with plex), so you can have your movies streamed via a network drive even in your router (which is probably always on), instead of a PC.
I have been using it this way in an Asus router with no problems.
How is prime free?
How is prime free??
in the UK it is legal to convert/copy your bought and downloaded video media as a personal backup to ensure you don’t wear out your original media. Kodi allows you to keep all your media in one place i.e Indexed Jukebox Player with person storage. And then play it on the TV. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/10/its-now-legal-to-make-backups-of-movies-music-and-e-books-in-the-uk/ Kodi is fantastically good at doing just that. How you convert/copy etc though is still subject to some debate.
Just to clarify what noiprocks said, FAT32 has a 4 gb file size limit, not partition limit. Even at that, the official FAT32 partition size limit is only 32 gigs which is still pretty useless. Hopefully this is fixed at some point.
Note: this utility is supposed to be able to make a FAT32 partition larger than 32 gigs. I’ve not used it though.
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/format-fat32-drives-beyond-32gb-limit/
What about exfat ? Aint it supposed to allow file sizes that are much bigger? Did you/someone ahve the chance to test exfat formatted storage on the ftv?
to make paritions bigger then 32GB on Fat32 you just need to use a different program then Windows Format. The Mini Partition Tool is great. Just need to make the cluster size bigger the 512, I usually go with 32k.
Have a 230 GB FAT32 harddrive hooked up to my wii, plus a few 64gb SD cards formatted Fat32 for my 3DS.
I currently have a Rooted FireTV and am running Kodi. I have the advancedsettings.xml set up for the thumbnails and its working just fine. I have a 64GB flash drive I am using and I did not format it so it should be using exfat. It sounds like the new update only allows FAT32? Are they really blocking everything else besides fat32? just odd to me… thats all…. Guess that’s the power of root.
Hello
Could you please tell how you change the Advanced settings on the Fire Tv
I am an totally newbie when it comes to XML files …
Should I update or wait for a rooted ROM version?
why would they even bother? who uses fat32 anymore? and then what about games that take up almost 4gb of space like asphalt? Then doesnt that mean youd have to have several different sticks?
I never really used fat32 so forgive my stupity
To clarify: the size limit of 4GB is ment per single file (e.g. a single 4GB movie clip). I doubt that a game has a singel file of 4gb, so you should be fine and don’t have to juggle sticks ;)
Only barrier that might occur someday: games that need more than 32gb of space in total. But I guess when that day comes, amazon might give us a new update with “true” usb hdd support.
Most of the time if you do manual updates by flash drive to set top boxes, TVs, receivers, etc, they only take FAT32. Even your aftermarket car stereo only takes FAT32 when listening to music through USB.
Here’s what hasn’t been cleared up for me. I’m reading conflicting answers that the Fire TV won’t support an HDD drive and that the limitation is 128GB’s and for use with usb flash drives only. Has anyone tested USB external Hard drives powered by a power adapter or hard drives powered by the Fire TV’s USB port to see if a FAT32 formatted hard drive full of movies can be played through the USB port of the Fire TV either using Kodi or the vimu app which can be purchased through the Amazon store. I’m reading no sideloaded apps can work with the USB port, so that rules out B.S player for me which works well with wireless hard drives throught the fire tv stick. Was hoping that the usb port with the update was going to be a simple plug and play with hard drives, but it seems like there’s limitations.
I’m running a 1TB 3.5″ external powered hard drive no probs.
Hi, if i am pre rooted with one of them clockworkmod firmewares e.t.c and everything is running great is there any point me upgrading to this?
or do i wait for a new prerooted firmware just like before
thanks
Well after receiving the new update, HDD drives not working with the Fire Tv, whether they’re adapter powered USB drives or USB powered USB drives, turns out to be true. Tried about 10 of them powered and usb powered and none of them are recognized. Got pretty much all my USB flash drives to work in Kodi as well as on the sideloaded B.S player, but this kind of answers all my questions about hard drive compatibility that the USB port is very limited.
Looks like my trusty WDTV live will continue to be the main box for viewing movies on an external hard drive. The Amazon fire TV can still work with Network drives and my seagate wireless 2TB hard drive as they can with the fire stick, but I was hoping that the USB update was going to allow my WD My book 4TB drive to connect to it directly.
At least I can put the Fire TV into sleep mode a lot faster now with the home button. I suppose that’s something.
For someone who has the update: If you plug in a flash drive larger than 32G, does the device format it and allow you to access the entire drive (i.e., not limit it to 32G)?
FAT32 supports drives larger than 32GB. Microsoft Windows does not allow you to format a drive as FAT32 and have a single partition larger than 32GB. Windows should still be able to work with them, however. It’s just the format tool that doesn’t allow you to do it.
FAT32 just isn’t very efficient managing space on larger drives.
At least this is my understanding.
Fat32 partitioning tops out at 2tb. I’ve just reformatted my toshiba canvio 2tb external powered hard drive and gave it a try with a movie file and it worked fine. But most of my bluray rips are way over the 4gb size that Fat32 tops out at as far as file size transfer.
Does this mean it’s zero cache time?.. Also does this mean you can load amazon apps onto the external harddrive.
Just a little heads up, with SPMC (a Kodi fork) you can change the location from the whole “.kodi” data folder https://github.com/koying/SPMC/wiki/How-to-specify-the-location-of-SPMC-data%3F
Here’s my take; if your device is already rooted, don’t apply the update, wait for a rooted-Rom. You’ll end up losing a lot of the USB features.
My current rooted AFTV device is great! Works with most external HDs with 3.0 USB. It recognizes all formats – FAT, NTFS, etc.
Plays all media with no issues on performance.
just installed and side loaded Kodi on my friend FireTV last night. I was able to get Kodi icon on FireTV screen through Apps session. When I pointed at it I see option to upgrade, tried it and it failed to install upgrade. Anyone has same thing? I installed the least version of Kodi RC2.
I connected a USB drive to the device and I can see it in Kodi.
Anyway I can share this drive from the firetv so I can access it from my PC and copy files?
Just picked up a AFTV and took it back because I thought something was wrong with the USB port. I have a few AFTV. Some rooted and some not rooted. All of my AFTV with older firmware rooted or not will allow me to plug a wireless mouse and or keyboard. The box with the newer firmware will not detect wireless devices or flash thumb drives. I’ve even gone as far as hardware rooting this newer box and stickmount will not even detect a drive.
I had to plug in my usb3 stick and factory reset the AFTV.
Stick detected and working.