XBMC all platforms FAQ

XBMC Media Center is an award-winning free and open source cross-platform software media player and entertainment hub for digital media for HTPCs (Home theater PCs). It uses a 10-foot user interface designed to be a media player for the living-room, using a remote control as the primary input device. Its graphical user interface (GUI) allows the user to easily browse and view videos, photos, podcasts, and music from a harddrive, optical disc, local network, and the internet using only a few buttons. The XBMC project is managed by the non-profit XBMC Foundation, and developed by volunteers located around the world. Since its creation in 2003 more than 60 software developers have contributed to XBMC, and 100-plus translators have worked to expand its reach, making it available in more than 40 languages.

XBMC was originally created as a media center application for the first-generation Xbox game console (no longer supported) but is now officially available as a native application for Android, Linux, Mac OS X, iOS (iDevices and Apple TV 2), and Windows operating systems, running on most common processor architectures.

• See Installation and select the OS for your device for installation instructions.
• The current stable build of XBMC is v12.1 "Frodo".

• To completely uninstall XBMC, or to preform a fresh reinstall, you will need to delete the userdata folder and the containing XBMC home folder that holds the userdata folder, in addition to deleting/uninstalling the XBMC application.

• In the default skin go to: XBMC main menu > System > Lower submenu > System info. (For a nightly build, note the build date.)

See: XBMC Quick Start Guide

See: Frodo FAQ

• This is considered an advanced/experimental feature.
• See HOW-TO:Sync multiple libraries to sync your library between XBMC devices (for any platform) using MySQL.

•  Editor note: Lead-in to a dedicated remote control FAQ? 

• See: Keyboard controls for default Keyboard controls.
• See Keymap#101 on keymaps on how to make changes.

XBMC supports multiple user profiles, much the same as setting up individual users on your home computer. These individual profiles allow you to customize the environment for multiple users, allowing for such functionality as:

• Customized view settings such as skins for each user
• The ability to lock folders, such as network shares on a per-user basis
• Separate media libraries for each user
• Unique RSS feeds for each user
• Unique keymapping for each user
• Unique network settings

All options stored in the userdata folder can be customized per profile, allowing for an amazing amount of flexibility.

• Weather in older version of XBMC (including v10) is broken due to changes outside of our control. To have working weather you must update to XBMC v11.
• To change between Celsius and Fahrenheit go to  Settings -> Appearance -> International  and select your location under "Region".

• To toggle between windowed mode and full screen mode, press the \ button on a keyboard. (This, or any keyboard button, can be assigned to a remote control button if you wish. See Remote controls for more info.)
• If you have backed out of a playing video and see it behind the GUI, you can toggle back by pressing Tab ⇆.

As of XBMC v11. There is no longer a library or file mode. Instead of being "modes" they are now "views". You simply navigate to the library and "Files" rather than use a toggle. While in File view you can now use library features, such as summaries, cover art, etc, just navigable as folders and manual organization.

By default XBMC v11 and up will replace file names with library titles when it has scanned that file into the library. You can turn this off by changing the settings:
 Settings -> Videos -> File Lists -> Replace file names with library titles 

As of XBMC v11, it's gone. It was believed that it wasn't useful due to the amount of information it would add to the file (none - apart from name). If you want the file in the library then use nfo files, they allow more information to be added and there are many programs available to make them on a variety of platforms.

• XBMC has some support for this, and more is planned for the future. Normally XBMC is meant to be ran on a computer/supported-device that is directly connected to the TV by a video cable.
• Some files can be shared from XBMC using the built-in UPnP server and files scanned into the Video library. XBMC will not currently transcode any files, so only file formats that your TV/device can natively playback will work. This will only work with video (so you won't see XBMC's GUI) and currently does not work with add-on content.

• Not to be confused with XBMC4Xbox, which is the continued effort to run XBMC on original Xbox hardware.
• No. The required reverse engineering (to get access to the video acceleration hardware, among other things) has not happened on any of these game consoles. Further more, no one on Team XBMC feels that it is worth the effort to port XBMC to any of them, as it would be a huge undertaking.

• Team XBMC no longer officially supports the original Xbox, but the group over at XBMC4Xbox does.

• To use your video files with "metadata" like summaries, cast info, DVD covers, thumbnails, and more, you need to add those video files to the video library

There are several ways you can scan your movies into the Video library:

• Choose automatic scan when you set the content for the source.
• Select the item in file view and either press I on the keyboard, or bring up the contextual menu (press C) and select "Movie information" or "TV show information"
  • If the file is already scanned in, you can also use the info screen to refresh/update that entry in the library.
• You can select the share/folder that your videos are in and choose "Scan for new content" from the contextual menu (press C), which scans all files in that share/folder.
• In Library view you can choose "Update library" from the contextual menu (press C).
• Have XBMC scan for new items upon start up by going to  Settings -> Video -> Library -> Update library on startup 
• Add-on:XBMC Library Auto Update can be used to schedule automatic updates to the library.
• Add-on:Library watchdog can be used to watch folders for new files to trigger library updates.

See: Adding videos to the library/Incorrect and missing content

A common question people have after setting up their library is how can they separate their library so not everything is just in one big section, and how to have that as an option on the home screen in XBMC.

XBMC can already filter and separate library items using a number of methods mentioned above, and combined with a skin that supports custom home items, the library can be laid out exactly was you want, right from the home screen.

• XBMC can playback unencrypted bluray discs and bluray images. There is limited support for some bluray menus.

• Officially, no.
• Currently, the only 3D content that XBMC will correctly play is SBS (side-by-side). Showing two images side-by-side (split screen). XBMC's interface and things like the on-screen-display and subtitles will not render in 3D.

• XBMC's file stacking feature handles your multi-part videos in a clean, intuitive manner. File stacking combines your multi-part files into a single item in the file list or library. Playback of stacks is completely transparent to you as the user, all parts are automatically queued for playback in order. Stacking is a view option available in videos file mode window. It is always applied when scanning movies into the library.
• File stacking is currently only available for movies and not for TV shows or music videos.

• XBMC Movie Scrapers include support for sorting your movies into sets for better organization. This is especially movies that are sequels or are apart of a directly related movie series. If sets are a part of your collection, you can find them easily with the Sets node in your Video Library. As of version 11.0 ("Eden") XBMC can determine if movies are part of a set or collection when using The MovieDB or IMDb movie information add-ons.

• There are a few ways to add/remove a movie from a movie set. One easy way is to use the XWMM add-on. To remove a movie from a set using XWMM, simply delete the text in the "movie set" field for that movie and save.

• As of XBMC v12 you can turn on automatic playing of the next video by going to  Settings -> Videos -> Playback -> Play next video automatically 
• While selecting the video you wish to start at, bring up the contextual menu (press C) and select "Play from here".
• You can also play all items in a folder by selecting the folder and selecting "Play" from the contextual menu (press C).

XBMC adds music to the library by scanning music files to extract identifying information from tags in the files. In order to be able to include information on your music collection in the music library, XBMC needs your music to be tagged. When your collection is scanned, XBMC stores all the tagging information (artist, album, year, genre, etc) in the database which allows you to efficiently search and manage your music collection.

Your audio files MUST have a valid ID tag for them to work properly in the XBMC music library. There are third party applications available for download from the internet that allow you to add and manage ID tags in your music files.

• Most of the information for music is pulled from the embedded music tags inside the file. Make sure your music files are tagged correctly.
• Some tags might show up in other programs, but might still be damaged or invalid for the tag standard, causing issues in XBMC.
• You can use a program such as MusicBrainz Picard to easily tag files or fix broken tags. See also Category:Music tools for other programs.

• Add-ons are a way of extending XBMC's functionality easily. Common add-ons include: Skins, Scrapers, Video Add-ons, Subtitle downloaders but many more are available.

• For a picture step by step see Add-ons#How to install Add-ons.

• Add-ons not included in the official XBMC repository can be obtained by using unofficial repositories or installing the add-on using Install from Zip file option. The two main sources for finding unofficial repos and add-ons are 3rd party add-on repositories and the XBMC Add-on support forums.

See Empty repositories listing

• You can get help with add-ons at the XBMC Add-on support forums, with some add-ons even having dedicated threads with FAQs, and more. For skins see the XBMC Skin support forums, which has sub-forums for several skins as well as general help threads. Be sure to use the search function to see if your question has been answered before.

• Both Netflix and LoveFilm use silverlight, making it all but impossible to play inside of XBMC directly, even with an add-on. Sometimes there are add-ons for XBMC that will launch a web browser to load the service, but you will require an OS that has silverlight support (Mac OS X or Windows).
•  Editor note: Know of a guide for Advanced Launcher, or a working add-on for launching Netflix or LoveFilm? Feel free to add that info/links here 

• While XBMC does not have Flash video support directly, very often videos can be extracted from the Flash video stream/file container. Some sites also have non-flash video streams that can be accessed from within XBMC. Sometimes these streams/files can be accessed by using a STRM file, while others are more complicated and need an add-on to access the content. For example, there is an add-on for Hulu and Amazon Prime video services (see Bluecop's add-on repo for both). Be sure to check out Category:Video add-ons and the XBMC forums to see what is currently available.

See: PVR

• To enable XBMC's AirPlay server go to:  Settings -> Network -> Services -> Allow XBMC to receive AirPlay content 
• For the Apple TV 2: Be sure to disable the native ATV2 AirPlay server in the ATV2's settings. Using the native AirPlay server will crash XBMC.

• For how to report bugs in XBMC see: HOW-TO:Submit a proper bug report.

• Android FAQ#Troubleshooting
• iOS FAQ#Troubleshooting
• Linux FAQ#Troubleshooting
• Mac FAQ #Troubleshooting
• Windows FAQ#Troubleshooting

• Raspberry Pi FAQ#Troubleshooting

• Check out the Help and Support forums or the #xbmc IRC chat channel on irc.freenode.org
• Also check out the platform specific FAQs:
  • Android FAQ
  • iOS FAQ
  • Linux FAQ
  • Mac FAQ
  • Windows FAQ
  • XBMCbuntu FAQ
  • Raspberry Pi FAQ

• This message refers to the playback cache that XBMC uses when a video is loading/streaming from the network (local or internet). It indicates that the video is loading too slowly for XBMC to play it back smoothly, and XBMC can't fully buffer it without having to buffer again as the video plays. The common cause for this is simply a slow connection to the file, often on the server's connection.
• The cache is loaded in RAM and is cleared out every time a video is stopped. While it is possible to increase the amount of RAM that XBMC uses for the cache, it is generally not recommended as it will eat a lot more RAM and won't make the video load faster over-all.

See: Adding videos to the library/Incorrect and missing content

• Bring up the side menu (arrow over left or right on a keyboard or remote) and toggle the "Hide Watched" option.

See: XBMC v12 (Frodo) issues It also links to possible workarounds where any exist or known.