List Cache Keeper

Kodi Service

Reshow media plugin lists faster.

Keeps media plugin list's cache files so they can be used to reshow lists faster. Lists can be automatically expired after a specified number of hours or manually refreshed via context menu or keymap.

Once installed you can find this addon in the Services section of My Addons.

My Addons -> Services -> List Cache Keeper -> Configure

On Linux the chattr command needs to be available to protect cache files and either root access or permission to sudo chattr. Most Kodi operating systems like LibreELEC work out of the box.

Keeping lists

Kodi caches most plugin lists but only keeps the cache files for going backwards to the previous list. This addon runs as a service in the background, protecting cache files it encounters for video, music and picture plugin lists so they are reused rather than deleted. Cached lists are much faster to load as they don't need to start any scripts or access the network which is beneficial for lower performance hardware and internet connections. Faster systems can also benefit from virtually instant list reshow.

Cached lists will not refresh when they are shown unless they have expired, so any changes like new items, favorites, categories or search results will not be seen until the list is manually refreshed.

Plugins can prevent their own lists from being cached, typically this is done for hard-coded lists or lists that load quickly, some plugins make it optional. Accessing lists remotely with JSON RPC does not use cache files so there is no benefit.

On startup and when displaying cached lists, the log will show errors as Kodi tries and fails to delete the protected cache files, this is normal and expected behavior.

Expiring lists

Lists that have exceeded the specified expiry age are automatically refreshed when they are displayed. File links may change over time causing the cached ones to stop working, so it is best not to set the expire time too long. Lists that contain only folders are less likely to need regular refreshing so can be given a separate and much longer expire time.

Changes to the current list can be detected in the background, if the list has changed the user can be prompted to refresh or it can be done automatically.

Expired cache files are cleaned when the system starts and periodically when the system is idle so that they don't accumulate. If a cache file has expired but is still available when its list is shown, it will briefly appear before being automatically refreshed. This behavior can be changed so that it prompts before refreshing so the expired list can be retained. Expired cache files can also be manually cleaned in the settings.

Manually refreshing lists

Lists can be manually refreshed with the "Refresh list" context menu item (Jarvis 16+) or by key mapping.

Assign cache operations to buttons by editing the keymap file userdata/keymaps/keymap.xml. The standard refresh operation Container.Refresh won't work and requires functions provided by this addon. The following example maps "Refresh list" to the F5 key, "Expire now" to the F6 key and "Delete all list caches" to the F8 key.

<keymap>
  <global>
    <keyboard>
      <F5>SetProperty(service.plugin.listcachekeeper.doRefreshList, true, Home)</F5>
      <F6>SetProperty(service.plugin.listcachekeeper.doCleanExpiredCaches, true, Home)</F6>
      <F8>SetProperty(service.plugin.listcachekeeper.doDeleteAllCaches, true, Home)</F8>
    </keyboard>
  </global>
</keymap>

Notes

When updating Kodi it is possible for the cache file format to change which will break any cached lists from the previous version. This may cause strange errors when these lists are displayed but is easily fixed by deleting all cache files.

Lists will stop being refreshed if the service crashes for whatever reason, disabling and re-enabling the addon will restart the service.

Disabling/Uninstalling

Before disabling or uninstalling this addon it is important to delete all list caches to avoid being stuck with old lists. This can be done in the addon's settings, if you forget you can always temporarily re-enable or re-install the addon.

Alternatively you can manually delete the list cache files. The files have extension *.fi and are located in the cache/archive_cache folder (cache folder prior to Krypton 17.0). On Windows they are protected by a read-only flag and can be simply deleted in File Explorer. On Linux the chattr command needs to be used to remove the immutable flag before they can be deleted.