How to delete Kodi addons safely

There are all kinds of reasons why you might want to delete Kodi addons. Perhaps you’re hoping to install an alternative from a different developer, or you just never use it anymore. If you’ve taken a break from Kodi, you might even come back to find that your favorite addons no longer work. In the worst cases, you may have heard that an addon you have installed has become compromised, making it all the more important that you remove them as soon as possible.

The good news is that removing a Kodi addon is quick and easy. Just follow our guide to completely delete unwanted Kodi addons in under a minute.

What is Kodi?

Kodi is free media center software from the Kodi Foundation that’s become extremely popular thanks to its versatility and multi-platform support. It can be installed on Windows, Mac OSX, iOS, Android, or Linux devices, including TV devices like Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Nvidia Shield.

This program is extremely customizable and can handle just about any media-centric task you can imagine, from scraping information such as cast lists to automatically syncing your watch history. It allows users to view content stored on their devices but also supports mini-apps called “addons” that gather content from a wide variety of streaming services.

Warning: Kodi should only be used for content to which you have the legal right to access. Neither the Kodi Foundation nor Comparitech advocates the use of Kodi for piracy.

Always use a VPN with Kodi

Whenever you stream video using Kodi or any other software, there are always risks to your privacy. You can prevent this by connecting to a Virtual Private Network (VPN). These services encrypt your data, rendering it completely unreadable to anyone who might be watching. As an added bonus, this encryption means your ISP can’t tell if you’re streaming or torrenting, and is much less likely to throttle your connection speeds.

We recommend NordVPN for Kodi users. It has an app for both Amazon Fire Stick and Nvidia Shield, as well as secure servers in around 60 countries. NordVPN boasts extremely high speeds and keeps no logs whatsoever, so you can stream Kodi without having to compromise on privacy.

How to delete Kodi addons safely

Here are the steps to completely remove a Kodi addon from your system:

1. From Kodi’s main menu, click Add-ons
2. Choose My Add-ons
3. Select All
4. Scroll down the list until you find the particular addon you want to get rid of
5. Right-click the addon and select Information
6. Click Uninstall
7. After the addon finishes uninstalling, go back to the main menu and select the gear icon. We’ll now delete the addon’s folder to completely remove all leftover files and data
8. Select Media settings
9. Move your cursor over General on the left side of the screen
10. On the right side of the screen, make sure the slider for Show hidden files and directories is set to the “on” position
11. Go back to the main menu and select the gear icon again
12. Select File manager
13. Choose Profile directory
14. Click addon_data
15. Scroll down the list until you find the folder for the addon you just deleted. In most cases, its title will be something like plugin.video.nameofaddon
16. Right-click the addon and select Delete
17. A warning box will appear to tell you that this will completely delete the folder. Click Yes to finish deleting the addon

How to delete separate scripts that are not in the addon’s folder

Although this process will delete all of the files in the addon’s folder, there may still be other dependencies or scripts that were installed along with this addon. If so, Kodi will usually have alerted you to this when you installed it. If you want to get rid of these extra files, go back into the file manager and find the folder for each of them in order to completely delete every file that was installed.

For example, many third-party Kodi addons rely on a script called “URLResolver” to function correctly. This script has its own folder which will stay on your computer even after the original addon’s folder has been deleted. To delete URLResolver from your device, you have to delete its folder separately.

Related article: Kodi not working? How to fix common Kodi problems

How to delete Kodi repos and sources

In some cases, deleting the addon and the files associated with it may not be enough. If you’ve found that the repo you installed the addon from is untrustworthy, you probably want to get it off of your computer as well. This was the case with the original TVADDONS.ag repository, for example, after it was taken away from the site due to a lawsuit. Many users believed the repository was turned into a honeypot intended to gather information from Kodi users.

In order to delete a repo from Kodi, follow similar steps to those for deleting an addon.

1. From the main menu, click Add-ons → My add-ons → All
2. Find the name of the repo you want to uninstall
3. Right-click and select Information
4. Click Uninstall
5. Click the gear icon, then click File manager
6. Click Profile directory
7. Select addon_data
8. Find the folder for the repo you want to delete
9. Right-click the folder and select Delete, then click OK

After uninstalling the repo, it’s best to also remove the source you used to download it. To do this, go to File manager and right-click the name of the source. Then, select Remove source. When the warning dialogue box appears, click OK.

Read more: How to use Ares Wizard to check Kodi error logs

Addons and repos you should delete from Kodi

Here is a list of a few Kodi repos that have recently gone offline and should be deleted right way, along with some of the more popular addons they previously offered. These addons should also be deleted.

• TVAddons – One of Kodi’s most popular repos has been officially shut down after its creator was targeted by lawsuits and subsequently stepped away from Kodi addon creation
• SuperRepo – This repo once offered thousands of addons but has since been abandoned by its creator
• Colossos repo – This repo was taken offline in 2017. Popular addons that it previously carried include: Covenant, CCloud TV, and Dr. Stream
• Smash Repo – This repo was also taken offline last year. Addons that should be deleted include: Bennu, Exodus, SALTS, and 1Channel.
• DandyMedia – This repo was taken offline for unknown reasons. Addons from this repo that should be deleted include: JAFMA, In The Movies, and Openload, amongst others.

We hope you’ve found this guide to uninstalling Kodi addons to be helpful. If you’d like more info about how to get the most from your Kodi, you may want to read some of our other Kodi articles. These include how to stop Kodi buffering, what to do when Kodi keeps restarting, and how to install Kodi skins, amongst many others.

Kodi addons: your questions answered