Why Backup?
Just like any reasons for backing up, backing up in LibreELEC is a must. It just saves your hard work. Can you imagine going through all the customizations and then losing it? All the remote control customizations, all the add-ons you spent time researching, fine tuning. The wallpapers, screensavers, icons. All the tweaks to make your player truly yours, gone in a blink of an eye. It’s enough to make your eyes water (nose too). Good news is that it’s really easy to do it. Let’s start!
What you’ll need
Just a USB flash drive, or somewhere to save your backup file. You can also save to the micro SD where LibreELEC is installed, which is what I’ll be doing here.
Backup
1. Go to Settings
2. Go to LibreELEC
3. Go to System → Backup → “Create System and Kodi Backup”
4. Choose where to save your backup file.
Select the folder you want to save your backup file into. You have to enter the folder and click on the OK button. Here, you can see that I chose /storage/backup found inside the micro SD with LibreELEC. This is the default backup folder of LibreELEC.
Below, I’ve boxed the full path / location where the backup will be saved. This changes as you change your save location.
Note: The “..” will bring you out of the current folder. If, let’s say you want to save the file on a USB, you just keep clicking “..” until there’s no more “..” to click. Then you should see your USB’s name. Go in there and click “OK” to save it in the USB.
5. Backup in progress.
Just wait for the progress bar reach 100% 🙂 How long it will take depends on how much you have to back up.
6. Where’s the file?
The file is now created! Its name should date followed by the time the backup was created. In this example, I backed up July 24, 2017 11:51:55 AM, so my file is named 20170724115155.tar.
Restore
1. Go to Settings.
2. Go to LibreELEC
3. Go to System→Backup →”Restore Backup”
4. Choose file to restore.
Locate your file and click it.
5. Wait for LibreELEC to finish extracting the backup file.
6. Confirm restore – Yes. (Nothing else to do but wait after this step)
You will be prompted, “Are you sure you want to restore?” Yes will reboot the system and restore the file. Time to sit back and relax. You’ve done it. The steps 7-9 left are just what to expect.
7. Countdown to reboot (1st reboot).
Countdown from 10 … 9 …
8. Restore in progress. DO NOT INTERRUPT!
his will take quite a while depending on how large your back up is. At this point, I keep myself entertained by watching the bar at the end of the “Restoring…” rotate. It will go around like |, /, -, \, |. It’s sort of my guilty pleasure. Like popping bubble wrap. No judging please 🙂
9. Complete! Another reboot.
Restore is now complete. The system will reboot in 5 seconds. And you will have everything restored. Add-ons, media library, settings, and even your resume point for each video 🙂
I hope this tutorial has been helpful. If you liked it, please leave a comment below and follow us on Facebook or subscribe to our mailing list.
Thank you for the back up and restore information. Very helpful!
Would you know how I can delete old back ups, so I can create a new one.?
Hi Jeff. My pleasure. Thanks for your expressing your appreciation. The backups delete just like any other files. If you’re deleting it from your LibreELEC machine, you just head over to your settings -> file manager, look for your backup file, activate the context menu and click on delete. Unlike most PCs now, the delete here is final. Hope this helps.
Did I understand your question correctly? Please let me know 🙂 Thank you for writing, Jeff!