How to install Elementum on Kodi 18.1 Leia

Elementum is an addon for Kodi that uses BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol, to stream movies and TV shows in great video quality. Due to its P2P nature, it uses both download and upload bandwidth while you’re watching a video. Depending on your location, you might need a VPN to protect your privacy while using torrents.

Forked from Quasar, Elementum uses a new torrent engine with extra storage features like streaming directly to the device’s memory, downloading to a NAS or FAT32 systems, and more.

In this tutorial we’re going to install Elementum on Kodi 18.1 Leia, let’s begin.

Table of contents

Downloading Elementum
Preparing Kodi for Elementum
Installing Elementum on Kodi
Using Elementum
[Optional] Elementum WebUI
[Optional] Change Elementum storage method
[Troubleshooting] Elementum can’t find torrents, provider time-out.

Downloading Elementum

First, let’s download Elementum’s zip file from it’s official website.

1. Go to Elementum’s official site and download the proper package for your system. Remember the folder where you download the file, we’ll be using it later.

FireTV and most Android Boxes should download the Android arm package. Nvidia Shield and modern tablets/smarthpones uses the Android arm64 package. Raspberry Pi 2 and 3 running Raspbian use the Linux arm7 package. If you’re not sure about your device specifications download the All-in-One package.

Preparing Kodi for Elementum

Before installing Elementum we must allow the use of 3rd party addons on Kodi and we also need to allow Kodi to communicate with other applications via json-rpc so it can talk to the torrent engine.

2. Open the System menu by pressing the cog icon near the top left corner of the Home Screen.

3. Select System settings.

4. Select the Add-ons tab and enable Show notifications and Unknown sources.

Enabling Unknown sources will allow installation of 3rd party addons that are not available in the official Kodi repository, we also recommend enabling Show notifications since most addons use them to display important information.

5. Go back to the System menu and this time select Service settings.

6. Highlight the Control tab and activate Allow remote control from applications on other systems.

Installing Elementum on Kodi

Now we are ready to install Elementum on Kodi.

7. Go back to the System menu and select Add-ons.

8. Select Install from zip file.

9. Locate the installation file downloaded earlier and click on it to install Elementum and the Elementum Repository.

10. Wait a couple of seconds and you’ll be prompted to install Elementum Burst. Burst is a multi-provider addon responsible for searching torrents on several indexing websites. Press Yes to install Elementum Burst.

Sometimes Elementum Burst fails to install, in that case restart Kodi and you’ll be prompted to install Elementum Burst again. If the automatic installation fails you’ll have to do it manually, please read How to install Elementum Burst.

Using Elementum

11. Go to the Home Screen and highlight the Add-ons tab. Press on Elementum to open the addon.

12. Use the menu to find Movies or TV Shows, in this example we’ll select Movies.

13. Select a category, we’ll choose Trending.

14. Pick a movie, Elementum Burst will search for torrents on several websites. After a couple of seconds you’ll see a list of available torrents, select one.

15. Elementum will connect to other peers and download a small buffer before start playing the file. It should take about 10 seconds.

Now you’re ready stream videos on Kodi with Elementum. If you can’t find any torrents please read the troubleshooting section below.

To use Elementum with the library please read Library Integration with Elementum and Kodi. You can also use it to get access to your Trakt.tv account, please read How to use Trakt with Elementum for more information.

Elementum supports automatic subtitles but if you need more control over the subtitles selection process please read How to enable subtitles on Kodi.

[Optional] Elementum WebUI

Elementum features a web interface to remotely manage your torrents from a smartphone or other devices on your local network.

I. Using a web browser go to http://kodi_local_IP_address:65220/web/ to access the Elementum WebUI.

There are a couple of addresses that shows extra information on Elementum. To see the torrent engine’s status go to http://kodi_local_IP:65220/info.
To check Elementum’s debug information use http://kodi_local_IP:65220/debug/all, you can also see the debug info together with Kodi’s log using http://kodi_local_IP:65220/debug/bundle, this information is very helpful when reporting bugs.

[Optional] Change Elementum storage method

By default, Elementum will use the device’s RAM to temporarily download fragments of the file while streaming. If you want to keep files on the hard drive you can change the storage method using the add-on’s settings.

I. Go to the Home Screen, highlight the Add-ons tab, open the Context Menu on Elementum and select Settings. (Use C on the keyboard, Menu Key on the remote, long-press on touch devices or right-click with the mouse to open the Context Menu).

II. On the General tab, change Download storage type to Use files.

The downloaded videos will be stored inside a folder used by Kodi to store its own files, the location of this folder is different depending on your platform. You can specify your own folders to store the videos.

[Troubleshooting] Elementum can’t find torrents, provider time-out.

Sometimes Elementum Burst returns no results when selecting a movie or show and the providers just time-out. If you’re having this issue try disabling the built-in HTTP proxy.

II. Select the Proxy tab and deactivate Enable built-in HTTP proxy.

Try selecting a movie or TV show again and you should now get results when searching for torrents.

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