userdata folder

Note: Manually editing the UserData Folder is an advanced topic in XBMC. New users normally don't need to Manually Edit files in the UserData Folder. XBMC does this for you, when you change the options in the XBMC GUI.

This is where all of your settings and customizations are stored.

1 Location of the UserData folder

• Windows XP: Documents and Settings\<your_user_name>\Application Data\XBMC\userdata\
• Vista/Windows 7: Users\<your_user_name>\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\userdata\
• Mac OS X: /Users/<your_user_name>/Library/Application Support/XBMC/userdata/
• iOS: /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/XBMC/userdata/
• Linux: $HOME/.xbmc/userdata/

2 UserData folder contents

Below are the elements contained in the UserData folder and their role:

• Database - This is where all of the databases required for your Music and Video Libraries are located, containing any downloaded (scraped) music or video information.
  • MyMusic18.db - Database file containing Music information.
  • MyPrograms6.db - Database file containing Program information.
  • MyVideos60.db - Database file containing Movie, TV Show and Music Videos information.
  • ViewModes4.db - Database file containing information on all XBMC views (viewmode, sorting etc.).
  • Addons15.db - Database file containing information on all XBMC addons (skins, scraper, video-addons...).
  • Textures6.db - Database file containing information on all XBMC textures (thumbs, fanart, posters...).
  • TV16.db - Database file containing information on Live-TV channels (experimental PVR-builds only!).
  • EPG5.db - Database file containing information on EPG for Live-TV (experimental PVR-builds only!).
• Playlists - This is where your playlists are stored. There are separate subfolders for mixed, music and video playlists.
  • mixed - playlists containing both audio and music videos, will show in both the Music and Video Libraries.
  • music - playlists containing audio only, will show in the Music Library.
  • video - playlists containing videos only, will show in the Video Library.
• Thumbnails - Cached Thumbnails (icons) are stored in this folder.
• Visualizations - All of your visualization settings are stored in this folder.
• keymaps - This folder is where your customized keymapping files reside (e.g. MyRemote.xml)
• advancedsettings.xml - This file, which may be created by a user in their UserData folder can contain additional settings, and can contain pre-defined values for the settings available in the GUI (thus removing them from the GUI settings screens.) Useful for advanced users and for installers.
• favourites.xml - This file, which may be created by XBMC or the user in their UserData folder contains items added via the Add to Favourites context menu option.
• guisettings.xml - This is where your settings configured in the GUI are stored (through the User Interface Settings).
• Lircmap.xml - This file which may be created can contain changes to the default Lircmap (Linux Only).
• LCD.xml - The LCD.xml file is used for customizing the output of the LCD Display.
• partymode.xsp - Defines the Smart Playlist to be used when using Party Mode for music playback.
• RssFeeds.xml - RssFeeds.xml is used to configure the RSS feeds displayed in XBMC.
• sources.xml - Defines your Media Sources and locations.
• mediasources.xml - Similar to sources.xml, but just for the "Browse for new share" window.