How to debug Kodi crash on Video Play

If Kodi keeps crashing on Video play, then you might check following things:

First thing to try is:
– Make sure Hardware acceleration is off here:
Settings -> Player -> Video -> Allow Hardware acceleration

– Next just try and look at your crash log dump here:

C:\Users\Abir\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\

Open it using Windows WinDbg Preview.
You can get it here and download it via Windows Store:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windbg-preview/9pgjgd53tn86?rtc=1#activetab=pivot:overviewtab

After downloading launch it and go to File -> Open dump file.

And open your latest dmp file here:
C:\Users\Abir\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\
Sort files using Date modified and find latest crash dmp.

It will take a few minutes to analyze your dmp file. You’ll see it in progress bar below while it downloads all necessary symbols, dlls, etc.

Ignore all warnings and look for errors or access violations like this:

Access violation - code c0000005

Under the stack trace you will see some dll or library causing the problem like this:

SYMBOL_NAME:  vfs_libarchive+6003
MODULE_NAME: vfs_libarchive
IMAGE_NAME:  vfs.libarchive.dll
STACK_COMMAND:  ~0s ; .ecxr ; kb
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  NULL_POINTER_READ_c0000005_vfs.libarchive.dll!Unknown
OS_VERSION:  10.0.18362.1
BUILDLAB_STR:  19h1_release
OSPLATFORM_TYPE:  x64
OSNAME:  Windows 10
FAILURE_ID_HASH:  {1ddf59e1-450f-4ad8-45b3-28fbccc7ab8a}

Once you figure out the library name, find the addon which has it and temporarily move the addon to another directory.

Addons folder: C:\Users\Abir\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons

Close and restart kodi and try running a video.

Detailed fix for this above issue is here:

Kodi crashes because of vfs.libarchive

But if you can’t make sense of the dmp file. Or cannot find the addon which has the library, then just rename addons folder to addons1

(Please note that doing this will disable all your addons. You’ll have to re-enable them all one by one later.)

Then try opening a video. If video plays now, means it is one of your addons. Kodi will create a new addons directory. Now close Kodi. Then bulk copy a bunch of addons back into addons folder. And start kodi again and play video. If it works fine, then bulk copy more addons and keep doing this until you find the culprit addon which is making it crash.

Once you know which addon either keep it disabled. And if you absolutely must use the addon then just create a topic on kodi forum:

https://forum.kodi.tv

And paste your crash log with the exact problem. I’m sure someone will help you solve it. Or suggest an alternative addon that you could use.

Hope this post helps you debug the problem a bit better 🙂