--- title: Tools description: Manage the add-ons installed in Stremio or Nuvio, hide Cinemeta's rows, copy watch history between apps, and export or import your library, all with a preview and a 24-hour undo. category: account order: 3 icon: wrench --- # Tools **Tools** is a set of utilities for the apps you actually watch in: Stremio and Nuvio. It manages the add-ons installed there, quietens Cinemeta, moves watch history between apps, and gets your saved library in and out of a file. None of it changes your StremShare groups or your StremShare add-on; that's what [Add-on Setup](/docs/help/addon-setup) is for. Find it at **Account → Tools**. The tab opens on four cards (**Addon Manager**, **Cinemeta control**, **Watch History Transfer**, **Library Import / Export**). Picking one replaces the cards, with an **All tools** link to go back. Each tool also has its own link: `/account?tab=tools&tool=addons`, `&tool=cinemeta`, `&tool=watch` or `&tool=library`. ![The Tools tab with its four tool cards](/docs/help/img/tools-hub.png "The Tools hub") Two rules hold for every tool: - **Nothing is written until you confirm a preview.** Every tool reads the current state, shows you the difference, and waits. - **Every write can be undone for 24 hours.** Before writing, StremShare saves what was there. See [Undo points](#undo-points). ## Which tool do I need? | I want to... | Use | |---|---| | Reorder, remove or add the add-ons in Stremio or Nuvio | [Addon Manager](#addon-manager) | | Back up my add-on list, or copy it to another app or profile | [Addon Manager](#addon-manager) (**Export JSON**, **Copy to…**) | | Get rid of Cinemeta's Popular / New / Featured rows | [Cinemeta control](#cinemeta-control) | | Move what I've watched from one app to another | [Watch History Transfer](#watch-history-transfer) | | Save my library (saved titles) to a CSV or JSON file | [Library Import / Export](#library-import--export) | | Load a Letterboxd, Trakt or IMDb export into Stremio or Nuvio | [Library Import / Export](#import-from-a-file) | ## Picking an app Each tool starts with **Which app?**, the same picker everywhere, grouped into **Stremio account**, **Stremio profiles** and **Nuvio profiles**. ![The Which app? picker, with apps that aren't linked yet greyed out](/docs/help/img/tools-which-app.png "Picking an app") Apps you can't use right now still appear, greyed out with the reason: - **Not connected yet** or **No Stremio account is linked yet**: link the app under **Account → Connections**. - **The connection expired. Reconnect it to use this target.**: reconnect it under **Account → Connections**. - **Nuvio is switched off for this account.**: Nuvio isn't available to your account right now. - **This profile is linked with a profile key. Reconnect with the main account.**: sign in to Stremio on the Connections tab with the main account's details. - **Enter this profile's PIN in App Profiles first**: a Stremio profile needs its PIN entered once under **Account → App Profiles**. See [App Profiles & Kids Limits](/docs/help/app-profiles). A Nuvio profile that shares another profile's add-on list says so (**Uses Profile 1 addons**), and changes you make there land on the profile that owns the list. ## Addon Manager *Order, add and remove addons.* Add-ons near the top take priority in Stremio. Pick an app and click **Load addons**. You get the installed list with each add-on's logo, name, id and URL. ### Reorder, remove, add - **Drag** a row to reorder it, or use its up and down buttons (handy on a phone or keyboard). - **Remove** takes a row out of the list when you save. - **Add an addon by URL**: paste the full `https://…/manifest.json` link. StremShare checks it's a real add-on and adds it to the end. Links to private or local addresses are refused. - On **Nuvio**, each row also has an on/off switch. Stremio has no such setting, so the switch only appears for Nuvio. Two kinds of row are restricted: - **Managed by StremShare**: the add-on StremShare maintains for this app. You can reorder it but not remove or edit it (StremShare would just put it back). Change what it shows in [Add-on Setup](/docs/help/addon-setup) or on App Profiles. - **Protected**: Stremio requires it (Cinemeta is the usual one). It can't be removed, but it *can* be edited, which is how [Cinemeta control](#cinemeta-control) works. ### Edit **Edit** on a row opens the entry as the app stores it. You're editing the app's copy, not the add-on itself. On Stremio you can change the **Name**, **Description**, **Logo URL** and **Background URL**, and work through the add-on's **Catalogs**: rename one, remove one to hide it from Board and Discover, or restore a removed one. A catalog's type and id can't change, and neither can the add-on's URL or id. On Nuvio there's only **Name**. **Reload from source** fetches the add-on's original details again and starts over from those. Edited rows carry an **Edited** chip until you save, and the save preview lists exactly what changed. ### Health check **Health check** contacts every add-on and reports back per row: **Healthy** with its response time, **Unreachable** with the error, **Renamed** when it answers under a different name, or **not checked** for local and private addresses. It only reads. ### Export and import JSON **Export JSON** downloads the list as a file. **Import JSON** loads one back. - **The export file contains every add-on's URL, and some add-on URLs have your debrid or API keys inside them.** Treat the file like a password: don't post it in a forum or chat. - **Importing replaces the whole list.** Anything installed that isn't in the file is removed when you save. You see the full difference first, and it's undoable for 24 hours, but it's a replace, not a merge. StremShare-managed add-ons are left out of the export, and the destination's own managed and protected add-ons are always kept. A Stremio export can be imported into Nuvio and the other way round; any add-on that can't be reached during the conversion is skipped and listed by name. ### Copy to… **Copy to…** puts this list straight onto another app or profile. Pick the destination and how to merge: - **Replace**: the destination ends up with exactly this list (plus its own managed and protected add-ons). - **Append missing**: keeps everything already there and adds only what's missing, matched by URL. ### After you save On Stremio the confirmation says **Restart Stremio to see the changes**, and it means it: Stremio only reads its add-on list at startup. Nuvio needs no restart; devices pick up the new list on their next sync. ## Cinemeta control *Suppress Cinemeta surfaces.* Cinemeta is Stremio's built-in metadata add-on. It supplies posters, descriptions and episode lists, and it also adds its own catalog rows. This tool turns those rows (and more) off without uninstalling it. Pick the app first: Cinemeta lives on both Stremio and Nuvio, but works differently on each (see [On Nuvio](#on-nuvio)). The status line shows **Default · all on**, or one chip per change you've made. ### Hide from Board / Discover *Impact: cosmetic.* Removes Cinemeta's catalogs from Board and Discover. The main switch covers all three; the sub-switches pick which: - **Popular**: stops showing as a row but keeps search working (if you also switch search off, it's removed completely). - **New**: removed. - **Featured**: removed. Cinemeta still supplies metadata as before. ### Remove meta responses *Impact: heavy.* Stops Cinemeta supplying metadata at all. **Only do this with another full metadata add-on installed** (TMDB, AIO Metadata). Without one, titles lose their poster, description and episode list, and several StremShare features rely on episode lists. The tool warns you when no other installed add-on provides metadata. ### Disable in search *Impact: light.* Stops Cinemeta answering global search. ### Reset to stock Fetches Cinemeta's original setup and puts everything back exactly. If that fetch fails, the tool says so rather than half-restoring. Try again in a minute. ### On Nuvio Only catalog hiding exists on Nuvio, where the card reads **Hide from Home**. Search and meta are greyed out because Nuvio always fetches Cinemeta's setup fresh, so there's nothing for StremShare to change. To silence Cinemeta completely on Nuvio, switch its row off in the [Addon Manager](#addon-manager). Hiding on Nuvio only affects that profile's Home screen; Discover and search are unaffected. Nuvio picks the change up on its next sync. Pull to refresh Home if it doesn't show. ### Wrapped copies If you have a "Cinemeta with Ratings" or similar copy installed, the tool flags it as **Wrapped copy installed** and leaves it alone. It only ever changes the real Cinemeta, so hiding a row there won't hide the copy's version. Edit or remove the copy in the Addon Manager instead. ## Watch History Transfer *Bring your watch history with you.* Copy what you've watched from one app to another. It **only adds**: nothing on the destination is ever removed or marked unwatched, which is also why running it again is safe. ### Where it can go **Copy from**: your Stremio account, a Stremio profile, a Nuvio profile, or StremShare (your whole history, or one profile's; each option shows how many plays it holds). **Copy to**: your Stremio account, a Stremio profile, or a Nuvio profile. StremShare can't be a destination: to bring history *into* StremShare, use the importers on **Account → Connections** (see [Watch Tracking](/docs/help/watch-tracking)). ### The preview **Preview** reads both sides and writes nothing. You get the counts (records read, movies and episodes, how many are **already there**, how many would be added, how many are skipped) and the first 50 plays that would be written. Anything skipped is counted under its reason: - **IDs we couldn't map to IMDb**: the source names the title in a way we can't match up (a Kitsu-only anime id, for instance). - **No watch date on the source**: we won't invent a date for a play that has none. - **Episode list unavailable from Cinemeta**: writing series progress into Stremio needs Cinemeta's episode list for that show. Without it, we leave the show alone rather than guess. - **Watched history we couldn't read safely (left untouched)**: the destination already has progress for that show that we couldn't read reliably, so we don't risk overwriting it. - **Changed in the app while the transfer ran (skipped)**: the title was changed in the app mid-transfer, so we left the app's version. - **Not a movie or series**: anything else. If a source holds more history than we could read, the preview says so rather than quietly reading half of it. ### Running it Click **Add N plays to** your destination, then **Start transfer**. The transfer runs in the background with a progress bar, so **you can leave the page**; come back and it picks the progress up again. When it finishes you get the written and skipped counts and an **Undo** button. Undo removes exactly the plays this transfer added and nothing else. On a Stremio destination, restart Stremio to see the changes. Nuvio picks them up on its next sync. ## Library Import / Export *Your saved list, wherever you want it.* "Library" means your saved titles (Stremio's Library tab, Nuvio's library), not what you've watched. Imports only add: nothing is ever removed from the destination. It has two tabs: **Export** and **Import / Copy**. ### Export Pick where the list comes from (a Stremio account or profile, a Nuvio profile, one of your StremShare groups, or the titles in your StremShare watch history), then click **Fetch**. You get a count, a note on anything skipped, and two downloads: - **Download JSON** keeps everything: titles, IMDb and TMDb ids, type, year, poster and added date. - **Download CSV** has the columns `Title,Year,Type,imdbID,tmdbID,AddedDate`. It opens in Excel, Numbers or Sheets, and it's what Letterboxd, Trakt and most importers read. ![The Library Export tab with a source picker and the Fetch button](/docs/help/img/tools-library-export.png "Exporting your library") ### Import from a file On **Import / Copy**, choose **From a file**, pick where the titles should go under **Add to**, and drop a **JSON or CSV** file on the drop zone (or tap to browse). It accepts: - StremShare's own export files. - Any JSON list of items, or an object with an `items` list. - Any CSV with a header row, including Letterboxd and Trakt exports and IMDb's `Const` column. Column names are matched loosely, so `imdb_id`, `IMDb ID` and `imdbID` all work, as do Title/Name, Year, Type, tmdbID and Date/Added/WatchedDate/Date Added. Each row is matched to a title in this order, and the summary shows how many matched at each step: 1. **By IMDb id**, when the row has one. This is exact, which is why a column of IMDb ids gives the best result. 2. **By TMDb id**. 3. **By title and year**, the least certain. The year (and the type, if the file gives one) must agree, and anything ambiguous is left out rather than guessed. Rows that match nothing are reported as skipped, with a few example titles. Limits worth knowing: - A file is read up to **5,000 rows**. A bigger file is cut off (the tool says so); split it and import the rest afterwards. - Rows with no IMDb or TMDb id are looked up by title, up to **500 lookups per file** within about a minute. Rows past that are skipped as **Over the 500-title lookup limit for one file (split the file)** or **Lookup timed out (try again)**. A file of mostly titles is noticeably slower than one with ids. Then **Preview** shows what would be added, **Add N items to** your destination opens the confirmation, and **Start import** runs it, with the same progress bar and undo as the watch transfer. ### Copy between apps Instead of a file, choose **From another app** and pick a source under **Copy from**. It works the same way, preview and all. When the source is a **StremShare group**, titles arrive in the group's own order, so "recently added" views in the destination match the group. On a **Stremio** destination, a title you removed from your Stremio library in the past is still remembered there, so importing it again makes it **reappear** in your library. The preview counts those and says so. ## Undo points Every write in every tool saves the previous state first. Undo points appear inside the tool that made them, and all together on the Tools hub, which is where to look when you don't remember which tool or profile it was. Each one names its app, its tool, when it was saved and what it would restore. - **24 hours.** After that it expires and the button disappears. - **Up to 25 at a time.** When you go past 25, the oldest are dropped first. Anything saved in the last 10 minutes is never dropped, so a transfer that's still running keeps its undo. - **One shot.** Undo puts back the state as it was at that moment. Anything you changed since (in StremShare or in the app) is replaced, not merged. - **What "restore" means depends on the tool.** Addon Manager and Cinemeta control put the previous list back. A watch transfer or library import removes exactly what it added and leaves everything else. - **The X deletes one undo point**, and with two or more you also get **Clear all**. Deleting only throws away the safety net; it never changes anything in Stremio or Nuvio. - Rarely, an old undo point can't be read back. The tool says so; if you need that state back, redo the change by hand. ## Good to know - **Only one tool job runs at a time per account**, across all tools. A watch transfer and a library import can't run together. - **Leaving a tool with unsaved changes asks first**: "You have unsaved changes in this tool. Leave and discard them?" This covers **All tools**, the Account tabs and leaving the page. ## Troubleshooting **A greyed-out app in the picker, or "That connection isn't available right now. Reconnect it in Connections and try again."** Link or reconnect the app under **Account → Connections**. A Stremio profile that says **Enter this profile's PIN in App Profiles first** also needs its PIN under **Account → App Profiles**, which is a separate step from linking the account. **"This list changed somewhere else. Reload before saving."** Something else changed that app's add-on list while yours was open: another device, the app itself, or a StremShare sync. Reload, redo your change on the fresh list, and save. The tool refuses rather than overwrite changes you never saw. **"Another tool run is already in progress for your account. Wait for it to finish."** One job runs at a time across all tools. Wait for the current transfer or import to finish, then start yours. **"That transfer is no longer tracked."** The server restarted during the run. Nothing is half-written: preview again, and a new run only adds what's still missing. **Changes not showing in Stremio.** Restart Stremio. It reads its add-on list at startup, and a restart also refreshes library and watched changes. **Changes not showing in Nuvio.** Nuvio syncs on its own schedule. Pull to refresh Home, or wait for the next sync. Nothing needs reinstalling. **An add-on won't add.** Use the full `http(s)` manifest link, and make sure it answers with a valid Stremio add-on. Links to local or private addresses are refused on purpose. ## Related guides - [Account, Connections & Notifications](/docs/help/account-settings) - [App Profiles & Kids Limits](/docs/help/app-profiles) - [Add-on Setup](/docs/help/addon-setup) - [Watch Tracking](/docs/help/watch-tracking)