How to backup my xbmc to usb stick.

[Darren Smith]

Hi.....so I have finally got my xbmc install just how I want it for now on my T8 box.
But I really want to back it up to a USB stick, so if I have to reset to factory settings I can restore it to its present state with my addons etc.
Now I have installed the xbmc backup addon and tried To do it with an sd card. When I pressed backup, it went through the preparing all my backup and when it said complete I removed the SD card and popped it into my laptop to see if it did copy the data. But upon opening my sd card, there was nothing in there.
So I thought maybe the sd card I had was faulty......so I want to try this time with a USB stick.......the trouble is im a real newbie to all this xbmc stuff.
Could someone( silently screaming ) walk me through how I go about it please.....I.E.... starting with if the usb stick needs to be formatted etc.

Any help will be really appreiciated.
Thank you

 

[ChrisM]

I tend to stick to copying files these days. I've never had much luck with automated systems (even Titanium Backup Pro fails me sometimes. Or I could just be lacking in time and knowledge to get tricky scenarios backed up right).
Using ES File Explorer,

or whatever you feel comfortable browsing around your files with, if you head to
/mnt/sdcard/Android/data/org.xbmc.xbmc

If you've got a different XBMC installed on your device, the bit in bold could be different.
Anyway, once there, long click on the "files" folder (this is assuming you're using ES File Explorer)

and then click on the more menu, now select Compress

Change the default name of "files" to something like "2015Feb27XBMCBackup" or whatever you'll remember.
If you're getting low on storage space (to temporarily hold this archive), you could change the Compress level to Best.
Click OK

You'll see something like the following:

Go and make a couple of cups of tea and [strike]plan world domination[/strike] change your will to donate to charity.

Once complete, long click the new icon (WHATEVERyouCALLEDthisFILE.zip) on the screen and select the Cut button at the bottom
Now click on the LOCAL menu again, and select the External SD card or USB device that you want to store this on. Navigate to the folder you want, and click the Paste button.
You've now backed up a lot of your settings, add-ons, downloaded skins/add-ons etc.

Restoring.
If you follow the steps above, you can guess the rest.

For everyone else...
Delete the "files" folder from the same location as above (/mnt/sdcard/Android/data/org.xbmc.xbmc or similar)
Using ES File Explorer, click on the ZIP backup you previously made, (find the device it is stored on by expanding the LOCAL menu and clicking the device there) and then ES ZIP Viewer
Wait whilst it loads, then long click the "files" folder. Click the extract button at the bottom.
Now select Choose path and click on /sdcard/. Change the destination by navigating to /mnt/sdcard/Android/data/org.xbmc.xbmc

or wherever your XBMC/SPMC installation stores files. Your screen will look the same, but without the files folder and the ZIP there.
Click on OK, then wait for the archive to be decompressed into XBMC's directory. Now start XBMC again, and hopefully your data will have been restored once more.


Samba Filesharing For Android
See this post for details on the app - http://droidboxforums.com/threads/local-network-based-apps.101/ . Once up and running, you can copy files to/from your PC in Windows Explorer (My Computer) by entering \\IMX6ANDROID or whatever NetBIOS name you set in Samba.