The good news is that Kodi/XBMC 21 has been released.  The bad news is two fold.  The first is that only 20 is still in the playstore.  The second is that if you have Android 11 or 12, the installation will undoubtedly fail due to permissions on Android OS greater than 10.

The first is easy to remedy.  Just ‘side load’ Kodi 21. The link for the .apk file is HERE. Just install it using the file manager.  If you are on Android 10 or earlier, you will be all set.  However, if you are using Android 11 or 12, continue reading for the fix.

After you install it, and even though you grant permissions to it, it will likely fail.  It will grant some permissions properly, but not all.  To check on what permissions got set, go to Settings, then Apps, then App Permissions.  Make sure Kodi got permissions in Files and Media as well as Microphone. For now, make them both “Allow only while using the app“.  Kodi actually needs the “Allow all the time” to be set, but if you set it here, it MAY reset when you power it off.  If it does reset when you power it off, you may need to manually set it under “See All Apps“. Not sure why it doesn’t properly set, or why it resets, but it may have something to do with additional security in Android 11 or greater.

Now, back out to Settings>Apps, and click on “See All Apps“. Then, find Kodi and click on it and select “Permissions”.  Now, click on “Files and Media” and select “Allow all the time“.

Now, if you power your device off and back on, you should see the settings stick to “Allow all the time” under Files and Media.  If you upgrade your Kodi 19.5 to either 20 or 21, it should successfully migrate your build and addons, but you will want to make sure to use the proper wizard if you want to update your build to a Nexus build from Matrix.

This has been tested on Android 11 and 12, and I strongly suggest that you install Kodi 21 over 20 as it contains bug fixes that I referred to in the last post.  The play store never posted 19.4 or 19.5, so I strongly suggest that they may not update past 20.  Time will tell.

For the last year or so, Kodi 19.3 Matrix was the last update in Google’s Play Store, even though version 19.5 was out.  The only way to upgrade to the latest version of Matrix was to ‘side load’ it…. This was due to Google’s API terms that requires apps to require Android OS 10 at a minimum, while Kodi only required Android OS 5.  The divide was continuing to grow, especially with the release of Kodi 20 rc1 around September. Then, in late December, the full release of Kodi 20 Nexus was released.  It still only requires Android OS 5, but somehow, Google pulled the stick out of their ass and allowed it in the Play Store sometime in January 2023. This kind of introduces some new issues.  I have experienced permissions issues preventing installation on Android 11, but not on Android 10.  If you have Android OS 11 and are experiencing these issues, you may have to settle for sideloading Kodi 19.5.  You can find the .apk for Kodi 19.5, as well as other versions for downloading by clicking HERE.  That also comes with potential issues as developers will slowly start requiring 20.0.  The Kodi developers have worked most of the bugs out of version 20.0, so this blog author is cautiosly moving forward. Good luck.