(2021-06-14, 04:23)raspberry_pd Wrote: Recently, if not mistaken, Amber changed to using the long-established "Backup" addon. Having trouble getting this to do simple restoration of (at least) Amber settings, such as Vertical menu.

Is there a way to manually SFTP ("SSH") the `settings.xml` file into the `skin.amber`folder and get Amber to read it? Tried this but Amber seems to overwrite and or ignore it! Even after restarts and so on.

Also tried a broader / default "Backup" but although I know I can, and have, set specific data ("add on data" is never switched on by default) to be backup up, there must be a secret or many secrets to this. Or I am just missing something?

(2021-06-14, 22:20)bsoriano Wrote:

(2021-06-14, 04:23)raspberry_pd Wrote: Recently, if not mistaken, Amber changed to using the long-established "Backup" addon. Having trouble getting this to do simple restoration of (at least) Amber settings, such as Vertical menu.

Is there a way to manually SFTP ("SSH") the `settings.xml` file into the `skin.amber`folder and get Amber to read it? Tried this but Amber seems to overwrite and or ignore it! Even after restarts and so on.

Also tried a broader / default "Backup" but although I know I can, and have, set specific data ("add on data" is never switched on by default) to be backup up, there must be a secret or many secrets to this. Or I am just missing something?

@raspberry_pd , install the latest version of Amber from the Amber repo.  That is 3.2.139 for Leia.  I have added back the use of the skin.helper.skinbackup addon for backup/restore of skin settings, since that addon is being maintained again.  The addon is NOT in the Kodi repo, so you will need to install the following repo, from where you can install the addon:  https://github.com/kodi-community-addons/repository.marcelveldt/raw/master/repository/repository.marcelveldt/repository.marcelveldt-1.0.3.zip

The way Kodi works, a skin's settings.xml file is always overwritten when Kodi quits, so just copying over a settings.xml file will not work.  Try the addon I mentioned above.

Regards,

Bart

(2021-06-15, 15:30)raspberry_pd Wrote:

(2021-06-14, 22:20)bsoriano Wrote:

(2021-06-14, 04:23)raspberry_pd Wrote: Recently, if not mistaken, Amber changed to using the long-established "Backup" addon. Having trouble getting this to do simple restoration of (at least) Amber settings, such as Vertical menu.

Is there a way to manually SFTP ("SSH") the `settings.xml` file into the `skin.amber`folder and get Amber to read it? Tried this but Amber seems to overwrite and or ignore it! Even after restarts and so on.

Also tried a broader / default "Backup" but although I know I can, and have, set specific data ("add on data" is never switched on by default) to be backup up, there must be a secret or many secrets to this. Or I am just missing something?

@raspberry_pd , install the latest version of Amber from the Amber repo.  That is 3.2.139 for Leia.  I have added back the use of the skin.helper.skinbackup addon for backup/restore of skin settings, since that addon is being maintained again.  The addon is NOT in the Kodi repo, so you will need to install the following repo, from where you can install the addon:  https://github.com/kodi-community-addons/repository.marcelveldt/raw/master/repository/repository.marcelveldt/repository.marcelveldt-1.0.3.zip

The way Kodi works, a skin's settings.xml file is always overwritten when Kodi quits, so just copying over a settings.xml file will not work.  Try the addon I mentioned above.

Regards,

Bart

Hi Bart. Thanks for your post.

Installed skin.helper.skinbackup via the Marcel Veldt repo.

When I try to update Amber though, from within the LibreELEC 9.2.6 Addon Browser, the latest version available is 3.2.123 via the Kodi Add-on repository.

What is the "Amber repo" you referred to? I tried to find it via the Amber GitHub but could not see it, if indeed a reference to the "Amber repo" is there

Thanks again!

(2021-06-22, 21:08)igz5000 Wrote: Hi Bart,

I'm running into the same issue as the OP, but in addition to that, I'm not able to fully restore my heavily customized home menu with its submenus and shelves.
I am running Matrix 19.1 on an AFTV cube.
I originally installed from the Kodi Add-ons repo, and the backup produced by script.xbmcbackup nearly worked as far as restoring the menu.
I was able to restore after removing a lot of irrelevant addons from the backup dir that made the file enumeration take long enough to make me unsure it was working...
The menu looked good but the skin settings did not come with it, as the OP pointed out, so I re-applied them manually - vertical, static, colors, etc.
But upon going to edit the home menu again, I found it being loaded from some alternate source, with none of my customizations applied...
Wanting to find a solution where I could make an edit on any of my devices, then sync to the others via restore, I stumbled upon this thread.
Installed skin.helper.skinbackup from Marcel Veldt's repo and upgraded Amber via the Amber repo on the source device (AFTV box gen2, Matrix 19.1), performed a backup.
The new backup amounted to a much leaner zip, with just the shortcuts dir and a guisettings file.
Installed same repos and add-ons as above on the target device and attempted to restore.
Not sure if skin settings replaced the ones I applied manually, but found the same problem when trying to further customize the home menu.
Any minor change and the home menu regenerates something entirely different.
For what it's worth, I found that I can revert those changes by overriding 'script-skinshortcuts.xml' and 'script-skinshortcuts-includes.xml' in the 'addons/skin.amber/1080i' dir with the ones from the script.xbmcbackup backup.
But cannot for the life of me figure out where the home menu is getting rebuild from when I go to edit it on the device where I restored it.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

(2021-06-23, 17:05)bsoriano Wrote:

(2021-06-22, 21:08)igz5000 Wrote: Hi Bart,

I'm running into the same issue as the OP, but in addition to that, I'm not able to fully restore my heavily customized home menu with its submenus and shelves.
I am running Matrix 19.1 on an AFTV cube.
I originally installed from the Kodi Add-ons repo, and the backup produced by script.xbmcbackup nearly worked as far as restoring the menu.
I was able to restore after removing a lot of irrelevant addons from the backup dir that made the file enumeration take long enough to make me unsure it was working...
The menu looked good but the skin settings did not come with it, as the OP pointed out, so I re-applied them manually - vertical, static, colors, etc.
But upon going to edit the home menu again, I found it being loaded from some alternate source, with none of my customizations applied...
Wanting to find a solution where I could make an edit on any of my devices, then sync to the others via restore, I stumbled upon this thread.
Installed skin.helper.skinbackup from Marcel Veldt's repo and upgraded Amber via the Amber repo on the source device (AFTV box gen2, Matrix 19.1), performed a backup.
The new backup amounted to a much leaner zip, with just the shortcuts dir and a guisettings file.
Installed same repos and add-ons as above on the target device and attempted to restore.
Not sure if skin settings replaced the ones I applied manually, but found the same problem when trying to further customize the home menu.
Any minor change and the home menu regenerates something entirely different.
For what it's worth, I found that I can revert those changes by overriding 'script-skinshortcuts.xml' and 'script-skinshortcuts-includes.xml' in the 'addons/skin.amber/1080i' dir with the ones from the script.xbmcbackup backup.
But cannot for the life of me figure out where the home menu is getting rebuild from when I go to edit it on the device where I restored it.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

@igz5000 , the skin.helper.skinbackup addon should backup your menu/sbumnenu/widget configuration, since it backs up the entire <userdata>\addon_data\script.skinshortcuts folder.  Some considerations on getting the same menu/submenu/widget configuration in the target machine:

a. The "script-skinshortcuts-includes.xml" file in the 1080i skin folder in the source machine has the menu/submenu/widget configuration from the source machine.  You should ensure that file is copied over to the target machine.
b. All files with "skin.amber" in the name in the <userdata>\addon_data\script.skinshortcuts folder in the source machine are required to replicate the menu/submenu/widget configuration in the target machine.  So, ensure those are copied over as well.

You need the conjunction of a and b above in order to have the exact menu/submenu/widget onfiguration.

Given the above, it is important to note that if neither a or b are in the target machine, Amber will build a menu/submenu/widget configuration based on the defaults for the skin.  Those defaults are contained in the *DATA.xml files in the skin's shortcuts folder, as well as the overrides.xml file, which is also in the skin's shortcuts folder.  I do not advise you to delete any of those files, since the menu/submenu/widget sytem will not work properly without them.

So, if you want to make sure that you will have the exact Amber configuration in the target machine, I would do the following manually without the use of any addon:

Source machine:

1. Quit Kodi.
2. Copy the "settings.xml" file from the <userdata>\addon_data\skin.amber folder in the source machine to a location where you will be able to copy it to the target machine.
3. Copy the files described in a. and b. above to a location where you will be able to copy them to the target machine.

Target machine:

3. Start Kodi, and switch to a skin other than Amber.
4. Uninstall Amber.
5. Quit Kodi, make sure that there is no <userdata>\addon_data\skin.amber folder, and no <userdata>\addons\skin.amber folder
6. Delete any file with "skin.amber" in the name from <userdata>\addon_data\script.skinshortcuts folder
7. Start Kodi, install Amber from GitHub or from the Amber repo.
8. Switch to Amber.
8.1.  Let Amber build its default menu.
9. Quit Kodi.
10. Copy the settings.xml file from the source machine to the <userdata>\addon_data\skin.amber folder in the target machine.  Make sure to overwrite the file already there, or delete it before copying the one from the source machine.
11. Copy the script-skinshortcuts-includes.xml from the source machine to the <userdata>\addons\skin.amber\1080i folder in the target machine.  Delete the one from the target machine before copying.
12. Copy the "*skin.amber*" files from the source machine to the <userdata>addon_data\script.skinshortcuts folder in the target machine.
13. Restart Kodi

The configuration should be identical, including all skin settings, plus the menu/submenu/widget configuration.

I hope this information is useful to you.  Please let me know how it goes.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart