HOW-TO:Share libraries using MySQL/Sync thumbails and fanart

NOTICE: You can skip this step entirely if you are using XBMC v12 "Frodo". Frodo will automatically take care of thumbnail caching on each client for you and keep them in sync.

NOTICE: Sharing thumbnails and fanart via path substitution can make loading the library significantly slower.

Using path substitution, the Thumbnails folder of multiple XBMC devices can be synced together. Syncing thumbnails and fanart is not required for sharing multiple XBMC libraries.

The Thumbnail folder in XBMC contains both thumbnails and fanart. If you have imported from pre-existing media libraries then you can use your old thumbnail folder to save time on re-downloading images, but only if you did not use local file paths and only had network shares on your exported library. Otherwise you will have to update your library to re-download thumbnails and fanart.

If your OS supports Symbolic Links then you can use them as an alternative to Path Substitution using these steps.

Steps

<pathsubstitution>
  <substitute>
    <from>special://profile/Thumbnails/</from>
    <to>PROTOCOL://YOUR_NETWORK_SHARE/xbmc/userdata/Thumbnails/</to>
  </substitute>
</pathsubstitution>

1. Share your existing Thumbnail folder or a new folder via NFS, SMB, or AFP (make sure have write access, not just read-only access). Most users to do this from the same computer/device as the MySQL server.
   • Windows XP: Documents and Settings\<your_user_name>\Application Data\XBMC\userdata\Thumbnails\
   • Vista/Windows 7: Users\<your_user_name>\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\userdata\Thumbnails\
   • Mac OS X: /Users/<your_user_name>/Library/Application Support/XBMC/userdata/Thumbnails/
   • iOS: /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/XBMC/userdata/Thumbnails/
   • Linux: $HOME/.xbmc/userdata/Thumbnails/
2. Copy the text from the right hand box and add it to your advancedsettings.xml file, but make sure you add the text before the </advancedsettings> tag at the end.
3. Note/copy the network path of your shared Thumbnails folder and use that to replace PROTOCOL://YOUR_NETWORK_SHARE/xbmc/userdata/Thumbnails/, for example an SMB share holding your thumbs use 'smb://NAS/share/videos/Thumbs/'
4. If your share requires a username and password, you can included it in the share path as follows: 'smb://USERNAME:PASSWORD@NAS/share/videos/Thumbs/'
5. Make sure all XBMC devices that are being synced have this addition to their advancedsettings.xml file.