+- Kodi Community Forum (https://forum.kodi.tv)
+-- Forum: Support (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=33)
+--- Forum: Add-on Support (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=27)
+---- Forum: Program Add-ons (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=151)
+---- Thread: How I solved Failed to install from .zip message (/showthread.php?tid=326846)
How I solved Failed to install from .zip message - Arpi - 2018-01-09
This forum has been incredibly helpful to me whenever I have had trouble with things related to Kodi, so when I finally found a solution that I had not seen published before (and granted, I might have missed it if it was indeed already published), I felt I should create an account and share. If this information belongs somewhere other than where I have placed it, by all means please relocate it with my thanks.
So, I recently experienced the issue that I was attempting to follow instructions that started off with adding a new source through the file manager, and then doing the "Install from zip file" from the Add-Ons menu, then pointing to the newly added source, and selecting the file referenced in the instructions... but then a few moments into that (like maybe 10-30 seconds), I would get the message that Kodi "Failed to install from .ZIP" or something along those lines.
Now, a smart responsible person would have checked the logs to see "What's up?" but I am not always that person and this was one of those occasions. Instead, I had the idea that I would take that original source the instructions had me add, and put that right into a web browser. Sure enough, the browser pulled up a page that looked a lot like what you'd expect from a FTP server, and there was the file that had failed to install, right there in my browser.
So I figured, "Why don't I just download the file right here, and then tell Kodi to look for it wherever I save it to?" and in theory that should have worked (and it did work), but what I noticed, is that it took FOREVER to download. Maybe the server where the file was kept was busy? Maybe my internet connection sucked? I dunno. Either way, though, because it took like... 10 minutes to download (and it wasn't a big file), I then guessed that the reason for the failure with Kodi attempting the install, was the super-slow download speed.
In fact, the speed was so slow, I ended up using a download accelerator to speed up the download.
So, there, hopefully I've helped by giving back to the community that has been so helpful to me.
TLDR: try downloading the file in a browser and point Kodi to the locally saved copy, if trying to install from the source URL fails.