Skip to content
Stremio Setup Guide - Complete Tutorial & Documentation

Navigation Basics

15 minBeginner

What You’ll Learn

This guide covers:

  • The main sections of Stremio’s interface
  • How to navigate between pages
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Tips for efficient browsing

By the end, you’ll feel comfortable navigating Stremio like a pro.

The Main Interface

Stremio’s interface has four main areas:

1. Sidebar (Left Side)

The sidebar contains your main navigation:

🏠 Discover — Browse content from your installed add-ons
📚 Library — Your personal watchlist and viewing history
🔍 Search — Find specific movies, shows, or videos
🧩 Add-ons — Manage installed add-ons and browse new ones
⚙️ Settings — Configure Stremio’s behavior

Tip

On mobile/TV, the sidebar may be hidden by default. Tap the menu icon (☰) to open it.

2. Top Bar

Contains:

  • Search bar (quick access without going to Search page)
  • Account menu (your profile, sign out)
  • Notification bell (updates, new add-on content)

3. Main Content Area

This is where pages load:

  • Rows of content on Discover
  • Your library items on Library page
  • Search results on Search page
  • Add-on lists on Add-ons page

4. Player (when watching)

Full-screen or windowed video player with:

  • Playback controls (play/pause, seek, volume)
  • Subtitle and audio track selection
  • Quality settings
  • Casting options (if available)

Discover Page (Your Home)

The Discover page is what you see when you first open Stremio. It shows:

Catalogs

Rows of content organized by:

  • Category (Movies, TV Shows, Channels)
  • Genre (Action, Comedy, Documentary, etc.)
  • Popularity (Trending, Top Rated, Popular)
  • Source (by add-on—e.g., “Trending on YouTube”)

How Discover Works

  • Content comes from your installed add-ons
  • More add-ons = more catalogs
  • Catalogs update automatically when add-ons are added/removed

Browsing Catalogs

  • Scroll horizontally through each row
  • Click “See more” to expand a row into a full page
  • Click any poster to see details
Note

If your Discover page is empty, you need to install add-ons. See Add-ons Explained.

Library Page (Your Collection)

Your Library has three tabs:

📖 Library

Content you’ve actively added to your collection:

  • Click the ”+” or bookmark icon on any title to add it here
  • Useful for tracking what you want to watch

👁️ Continue Watching

Shows and movies you’re currently watching:

  • Automatically added when you start watching something
  • Shows your progress (e.g., “S02E05, 15 minutes remaining”)
  • Click to resume where you left off

📜 History

Everything you’ve watched, in chronological order:

  • Automatically tracked
  • Can be cleared from Settings if needed

Library Features

  • Sync across devices (if you have an account)
  • Sort and filter (by date added, title, etc.)
  • Remove items (click the ”…” menu on any title)

Search Page

  1. Click Search in sidebar, or
  2. Use the search bar at the top (any page)

What You Can Search For

  • Movie titles
  • TV show titles
  • Actor names
  • Director names
  • YouTube channels (if YouTube add-on is installed)

Search Results

  • Results come from all your installed add-ons
  • Click any result to see details
  • If you don’t see what you’re looking for, check if you have relevant add-ons installed
Tip

Search is only as good as your add-ons. If you search for a movie and get no results, it means none of your installed add-ons have that movie in their catalogs.

Content Detail Pages

When you click any movie or show, you’ll see:

Top Section

  • Poster/Backdrop
  • Title and Release Year
  • Rating (from metadata add-ons)
  • Add to Library button

Tabs

Overview:

  • Plot summary
  • Cast and crew
  • Runtime, genre, etc.

Streams: (most important tab)

  • Available sources to watch from
  • Click a stream to start playback

Videos: (for TV shows)

  • Episode list organized by season
  • Track which episodes you’ve watched

Details:

  • Extended metadata (production companies, budget, etc.)
Note

No streams available? This means your add-ons don’t have a source for this title. You may need to install different add-ons or the content simply isn’t available.

Add-ons Page

Manage your content sources here.

Tabs

Installed:

  • Add-ons you’ve already installed
  • Click “Uninstall” to remove
  • Click the add-on name to configure (if it has settings)

Community Add-ons:

  • Curated list of popular add-ons
  • Browse by category
  • Click “Install” to add

My Add-ons: (if logged in)

  • Add-ons you’ve installed on any device
  • Synced across your account

Installing Add-ons

  • Click an add-on to see details
  • Click “Install” button
  • Confirm installation
  • Add-on appears in your Installed tab

See How to Install & Remove Add-ons Safely for detailed guidance.

Settings Page

Configure Stremio’s behavior.

Key Settings

General:

  • Language
  • UI theme (light/dark—note: use your browser/OS theme toggle for best experience)
  • Hardware acceleration

Player:

  • Default audio language
  • Default subtitle language
  • Subtitle size and position
  • Buffer size

Streaming:

  • Cache size
  • Torrent settings (connections, DHT, etc.)

Privacy:

  • Analytics toggle
  • Binge-watching notifications

Account:

  • View your email
  • Log out
  • Delete account (careful!)
Warning

Don’t change Advanced settings (like ports or proxy) unless you know what you’re doing. Incorrect settings can break streaming.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Speed up your navigation with these shortcuts (desktop only):

General Navigation

  • Home — Go to Discover
  • Ctrl + F (Cmd + F on Mac) — Focus search bar
  • Esc — Close current view/go back

Player Controls

  • Spacebar — Play/Pause
  • F — Toggle fullscreen
  • M — Mute/Unmute
  • Arrow Up/Down — Volume up/down
  • Arrow Left/Right — Seek backward/forward 5 seconds
  • Ctrl + Left/Right (Cmd on Mac) — Seek backward/forward 30 seconds
  • S — Toggle subtitles
  • Shift + S — Cycle subtitle tracks
  • A — Cycle audio tracks

Advanced

  • Ctrl + Shift + I (Cmd + Option + I on Mac) — Open developer tools (troubleshooting)
Tip

Learn just 3 shortcuts to start:

  1. Spacebar (play/pause)
  2. F (fullscreen)
  3. Arrow keys (seek/volume)

Mobile/TV Navigation Tips

Android/iOS

  • Swipe to scroll through catalogs
  • Tap to select
  • Long-press for more options (context menus)
  • Back button to go back (Android)

Android TV/Fire TV

  • D-pad to navigate
  • Select button to choose
  • Back button to go back
  • Menu button (if available) for more options

Common Navigation Mistakes

❌ Looking for content in Library before adding it

Why it’s bad: Library only shows what you’ve manually added.

What to do instead: Use Discover or Search to find content, then add it to Library.

❌ Expecting all content to appear automatically

Why it’s bad: Discover only shows content from installed add-ons.

What to do instead: Install relevant add-ons first. See Add-ons Explained.

❌ Clicking the first stream without checking alternatives

Why it’s bad: The first stream might be low quality or unreliable.

What to do instead: Click the “Streams” tab, review all available sources, and pick the best one.

❌ Not using search (browsing catalogs instead)

Why it’s bad: Browsing is inefficient if you know what you want.

What to do instead: Use the search bar for specific titles.

Customization Tips

Organize Your Library

  • Add only content you actually want to track
  • Use Continue Watching for in-progress items
  • Clear History periodically if it gets cluttered (Settings → Advanced → Clear cache)

Manage Your Add-ons

  • Uninstall add-ons you don’t use (reduces clutter on Discover page)
  • Organize by priority (can’t reorder, but you can uninstall/reinstall in preferred order)

Adjust Player Settings

  • Set preferred subtitle size and language in Settings
  • Enable hardware acceleration if playback is choppy

Next Steps

Now that you understand navigation, dive deeper into specific features:

Continue Learning

Need help?