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Quick question! Historically, I've always saved my metadata/nfo/artwork with my media files. More recently I have been experimenting with uploading my content to Google Drive through rclone. My question is, if it would be a good idea to continue saving the metadata with the media files (in this case Google Drive), or if it would be faster Emby experience if it was saved locally on the machine (in this case Nvidia Shield). The main reason I was thinking of saving it on Google Drive was because I will most likely have to update my media files as I expand my collection. For example, if I currently have a 1080p file and eventually purchase and upload the 2160p version, I will need to rename the files and metadata files as well as create folders for my content. My primary concern was internet speeds. My download speed is restricted 100mbps and even we are the only users, I wasn't sure if that would be fast enough to quickly load all the images on the front-end Emby app. Whereas if I were to save it locally on the server (Nvidia Shield), I would assume it would be very quick. I will be experimenting with this in most likely a month, but I wanted to get your experiences in the meantime.

As you can see in the picture below, the actor thumbnails are recorded in 2 different ways, local position and tmdb link. But what I really want is that all the actor thumbnail are recorded as a tmdb link, yes I would rather load the images every time I explore the series in the library because I don't see necessity having those on my local disk permanently. Is there any way to achieve my need?

Hi I've been experimenting with using my Google Drive for storing some of my media. I've been doing this using the Google Drive File Stream program, and pointing Emby to the mounted drive on my Mac. Generally speaking, it has been hit or miss as to whether this works successfully and I'm inclined to ditch this experiment. I've tried Rclone but could not get to grips with it at all and my library is not huge, I just wanted to free up some space on my external HDDs. The main issue I seem to find is that metadata can take a while to generate (if at all). I have my libraries setup with the Metadata saving in the local movie folders (so I can easily migrate if necessary in the future). But I'd like to understand the behaviours behind this to ensure efficiency. I'd sincerely appreciate some input/answers to the following if possible: 1. If I add a movie to my Google Drive and run a library scan, does Emby essentially force the download of the movie to generate the NFO file? 2. Would it be better to add and scan the files on a local directory on my Mac and move the movie and subsequently generated NFO/artwork files to the Google Drive? Or would Emby try and recreate these when it scans the Google Drive source? 3. If I turn off the Local metadata options on my libraries, where does this get stored on my Mac and could I easily access this to copy it/back up?

Hell to all my name is Matt. I am new to forums so I apologize if I am not posting correctly or in the right location, any help would be appreciated. So I have not used Emby in a couple of years, but when I did use Emby I remember that there was an option to hide additional files from being displayed in the folder that you added to Emby. After adding my folder to Emby yesterday I now have a bunch of nfo, bif, jpg files that are being displayed. The nfo option is unchecked in settings. So how can I hide these additional files from being seen? I have included a screenshot to show what it is that I am referring to. The icons that have little black squares with blue triangles in the lower right corners (movies) those I want to be seen and displayed in my folder, ALL of those other icons (nfo, bif, jpg) I want to have hidden. Where do I go and how do I accomplish this task? Thanks in advanced.

Hello, I’ve searched the Emby forums and have found very similar postings but without the clear answer I am searching for. My TV library stores each episode into a separate season sub-folder. So my library folder structure is similar to what is shown below. The parent series folder (Star Trek) has no actual episode files directly in it. Instead, the season sub-folders (Season 1) contains the individual episodes. When Emby goes to work on scanning the library: nfo files (i.e. tvshow.nfo) and image files are populated within the season sub-folders (Season 1). There are no nfo or image files in the parent series folder (Star Trek). As a result, Emby does not display the series folder art work for the series (Star Trek). ☹ As an experiment and to prove my theory: I manually copied a single episode from one of the season folders into the parent series folder and rescanned. Bingo, I got folder art work. So either I’m missing an important setting/configuration or Emby doesn’t support folder artwork for series and season sub-folders. I’m hoping someone can point out the missing configuration or tell me “No, your out of luck” so that I can stop spinning my wheels. TV Library ....Star Trek The Next Generation .......Season 1 .......Season 2 ......etc.. ....Star Trek .......Season 1 .......Season 2 ......etc.. As Always Thank you in advance, Julie

A few weeks ago, .nfo files started appearing in my main media folder. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly when. I'm guessing it started after one of the automatic sever upgrades. I've made no changes to any of the settings in Emby, nor made any changes to any paths. My metadata path is set to a folder under the main video folder. Nfo files just started appearing for newly added video files in the main media folder. I've never seen that before. Was something changed in the handling of .nfo files? Sorry I can't be more specific, but I don't really know when it started. Thanks, Dave

Let's talk about a real full migration and the separation of metadata and mediafiles. I know i know, you system architects of emby have had discussions and thoughts about this topic enough i guess...But i want to ask you to maybe rethink one or two things about the structure of emby. But hold on, before you think: great, another non-programming average Joe who thinks he knows things better than we do... just let me explain. The fact that i am here right now, writing this post about emby is because: i love it As a long time kodi-user i instantly fell in love with emby the moment i installed it and started using it. I mean, kodi gives me some more options and fine-control on how I want to structure my library where emby is limiting me, and emby has some little flaws here and there. But the overall feeling about emby is just awesome! So, i ditched Kodi for emby and never looked back...until now. I'm in a similar position as @@Kirk137 in his post https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/61721-best-migration-strategy/ or like @@flort in this post https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/47767-manual-backuprestore-userdata-and-changed-paths/ Due to some hardware and software-changes, i'm in the process of having to migrate from a emby macOS installation to a Ubuntu-based Linux installation. Even though my case is about macOS/Linux-migration, my problem is related with the general migration-process and metadata-management, and therefore belongs in the "general"-forum. So, as besides of the root-path from my mediafiles, nothing has changed and i thought: this won't be a big deal...just copying the database, correcting the rootpath for the mediafiles and boom it's done. Should only take one hour at best. But this was thought too short. I followed the instructions from https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/Backup and was a little shocked when i read this in the documentation: How can it be that a software like emby, so powerful and well written/supported, has no proper 100% backup/migration-process? I followed the instructions for a manual backup anyway and now i have a "partially" migrated/backed up new database. After the re-indexing scan of 1-2 hours, the files are there and users and everything else - but the manually edited, handcrafted movie-entries are ALL gone. And this is a huge bummer as i putted in A LOT OF TIME identifying the movies/videos/shows by hand while remaining their original filenames!(sometimes this is possible sometimes not) So, the whole migration-process took 4-5 hours by now and still isn't complete/finished and satisfying. And right now i don't know where to go or what to do to get this done. I for myself and i don't think i'm alone in this - need a proper way to backup and migrate a whole installation. And with whole installation i mean whole. This should not only include: Server configuration Users User data (playstates, favorites, etc). Installed plugins Plugin settings Playlists but also: library/index metadata views full cache(people,pictures,movieinfos,artistinfos) Manually edited, handcrafted movie-entries. When nothing besides the rootpath of my mediafiles and the paths to the config files have changed, i don't really understand nor can't i find good reasons why i should have to put my hardware, and my nerves to so much stress(io-workloads) re-indexing, re-downloading, re-editing and re-configuring the whole library when the data are already available somewhere(old machine). I mean, i can understand that from a programmers perspective a migration/backup-process is no simple task. But from a users-perspective it should not be extremely more than: Ok, ok, i know. It's not just a single button-press and everything is magically done in 2 minutes. And i am fine with copying config files by hand, and running well documented pre-written SQL-queries etc etc. But in the end a migration/backup-process should be 100%, and not just 50-60%-ish. And now comes the part about emby, that i completely dislike and reject: The structure of handling data and media. The idea about saving metadata with the mediafiles might seem appealing and easy first of all...but when you think about it its not that great at all. Here's why. I don't want any tool than my file-manager and my brain to get in the way of my structure and naming-conventions. Therefore i only mount my media-folders read-only for emby, kodi and other tools. I do this because i don't want any bug, user or coincidence to threatening me with the possibility of messing, deleting, renaming or restructuring my media-files/folders. I need to preserve the structure and names of my files and folders to some degree for archiving-and a lot of other reasons. So i don't want emby or other tools to write nfo-files all over the place or rename anything. Yes i know about the possibility of recognizing files by hash even when the filenames have changed, but this is no option as i need to preserve the original filenames. When you think about it, why would you want mix up two categories of datatypes(data and media)? For me personally it feels way more natural when i have the two separated. I have one place for data and one for media. The other really big problem i have is when this idea of "saving local metadata to media folders" is the only possible way of a given migration-process. Without another given option it feels like getting told: You ether swallow our nfo-mess in your file-structure or you have to redo the whole indexing and editing-process with every crash or system-migration! Ouch! Most of other media-libraries like itunes, kodi, subsonic etc. separate the two datatypes while maintaining full migration-ability. Sometimes emby is also forcing me to rename files/folders just to get indexed correctly. For example when episodes of a show are named E01 instead of EP01...or when a show/anime hasn't episode-numbers splitted by seasons etc. While you are reading this, you might be thinking: What do you want from me?! Let me tell you: First of all, i need help. Medic please! I need to get this migration-process done without the need of having to re-edit all the rare movies and videos i edited by hand(took me weeks to months!) I need a way(detailed instructed how-to) on how to migrate 100% of my library from one machine to another. Give us the ability to just change the root-path of already indexed files after a migration. This should avoid the need of reindexing. Maybe implement a routine that searches for filenames in case of files are restructured(but saves the metadata until the user deletes the metadata). I please you to rethink/rewrite/expand you backup/migration-process. So it becomes easier, complete and hassle/io-stress-free. I please you to overthink your thoughts on the handling of data (metadata,user,movie etc) and mediafiles. A clear separation is needed imho. A separation would also make a full true migration-process easier i guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Please give us the ability to index custom naming-conventions without the need of renaming files and or folders. Kodi is great starting point as it has given me this possibility. I'm pretty sure that i missed a lot of thought's i had but this is already long enough. I hope i described everything clearly, if not don't hesitate to ask me questions. I also hope that other users voice their opinion about this issues. Thank you for emby and for your attention. Cheers kaizo

Hi All I read that the NFO files used in Emby was following the rules of Kodi? Maybe something's has changed, but it looks like Emby is reading my local information? But if I change some NFO data in the folder and ask Emby to Refresh Meta data it does not re-read the local nfo file again? Example Movies: First Man (2018) -- fanart.jpg -- First Man (2018) [bluRay.1080p.x264.8Bit.DTS.6ch].mkv -- First Man (2018) [bluRay.1080p.x264.8Bit.DTS.6ch].eng.srt -- First Man (2018) [bluRay.1080p.x264.8Bit.DTS.6ch].nfo -- poster.jpg -- logo.png -- landscape.jpg -- disc.png -- banner.jpg Example TV Show: Almost Human -- Season 01 -- Almost Human - s01e01 - Pilot [bluRay.720p.x264.8Bit.AC3.6ch].dan.srt -- Almost Human - s01e01 - Pilot [bluRay.720p.x264.8Bit.AC3.6ch].mkv -- Almost Human - s01e01 - Pilot [bluRay.720p.x264.8Bit.AC3.6ch].nfo -- Almost Human - s01e01 - Pilot [bluRay.720p.x264.8Bit.AC3.6ch]-thumb.jpg -- season.nfo banner.jpg character.png clearart.png fanart.jpg landscape.jpg logo.png poster.jpg season01-fanart.jpg tvshow.nfo All these are created by the old "meta<browser/> tool and should still be Kodi compliant any way to force Emby to read these local files first? (Takes a pretty long time, compared to kodi where you tell it to scan for local nfo files only) Sorry if this is a NOB question - But I cant seem to get Emby to refresh any nfo data when first it have loaded them?

Hello Would it be possible to allow Emby to add multiple points of info into the same section? This would be helpful for other types of media where Emby doesn't currently save local metadata files. Something like being able to add multipole genres, tags, and studios by leaving a , between each. For Example: Being able to add Horror, Crime, Fantasy > save rather then Horror > save then Crime > save then Fantasy > save

I have a couple of films/movies where I would like to add extra information in the style of a list. I hoped to put this information within the <plot> tags, but it displays as a single block of text. Is there anyway I can achieve this? Thanks.

I'd really love some information on TV files on Emby Server and how I can edit the metadata. I am able to create nfo files using Emby for movies and then I am building a program to edit them simply and usefully. But I can't seem to find anywhere that nfo files are created for TV Shows. Does it happen? How does Kodi get the tag or genre information for them? And is there a way to get Kodi to notice that I have added more shows. If I go into them one at a time on my phone it notices them, one at a time. They have been there for 24 hours, it is never going to notice them unless I go to each show individually. Surely there must be something I can do on Emby Server to mark them as new? I am sorry, I hate posting in a forum and I really have searched for information. Emby for Kodi is very poorly documented. Sam.

I use emby as a server for large amount of pictures. I put all my pictures for emby to manage but I don't want some of them to be seen by my family so I tag my private folders with a tag named "priv" and I use the "block items with tags" to deny access (yes, I use parental control on my parents). However it would be more convenient for me if I could somehow add the tag from the filesystem level e.g. create a file named "folder.nfo" or similar and put the tags there. The advantage is that these files would be automatically backed up along with the content to some other drive. Other advantage: it's faster to copy a file than to click, scroll, type, click and click again in web client for every folder I want to exclude.

Hey there! Since there are multiple plugins, which can help you to manage your library like map your Genre to another one or fix any missmatch, is there anything like that for the age rating? E.g. if I would like to map all not rated movies to my maximal age rating 18, than I have to enter into every metadata of every movie and change it myself? Or is there a easy way to do it from the emby interface?

Tenho o seguinte cenário: Filmes separados por pastas e em cada uma delas possui as imagens e arquivos nfo com metadados. Porém quando efetuo o rastreamento da biblioteca, o emby busca na internet ao invés de buscar as informações que já estão salvas. Possuo a versão premiere.

Hi, I have a music video folder in my library, this contains folders for the artists with the video files in it. No I have enabled the nfo and the xml reader for this folder: So far I've created a folder.xml file for the artist metadata (with LocalTitle, SortTitle and Description in it), but as I'm trying to move to nfo files, I enabled also the nfo saver for music videos: While this works without problems for the video files, there is no nfo created for the artist folder, even if I edit and save the metadata. So this is, what a folder might look like: As you can see, no nfo for the folder, only the old xml file. But when I enter the metada editor in the emby web client, I can edit and save the data, but still no nfo file is created. Also, in the wiki there's nothing about the file names for (artist) folders nfo files, at least I couldn't find something. So what would be the right name for an artist folder nfo file? Also, does anybody know a tool for creating the metadata (nfo files) for music video files, as emby is really bad at automatically creating these (tried with one folder, artist Army of Lovers, video file Crucified (1991).mkv it created metadata for a comletely different artist and song (something with crucified in it's name) from 2003. It could be much easier, if the artist could be read from the tags in the video file (just as it is already done with title, genre and year)... Ciao, Alfred

Hi All, Small issue and annoyance with Timlord plugin, nfo’s and Kodi. TimeLord updates series data after every scan when no data has changed, season and episode dates remain unchanged. This causes kodi for emby to do a incremental sync every time after TimeLordrd is run, all tv shows have there nfo modified date changed. Included server log with manually triggered task done twice. embyserver2.txt in the log you can see: TimeLord :: Rework Series Dates Emby.Kodi.SyncQueue: "LIBRARYSYNC" Updated 387 items: Emby version: 3.4.1.0 TimeLordTV 18.2.19.932 Emby-Kodi (3.0.26) Kodi companion 2.0.3.0

From what I can tell currently videos within the "extras" folder do not get parsed automatically for online metadata, nor do any associated NFO files (from outside of Emby) get parsed. Following up on this post ( https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/40262-why-are-dvd-extras-limited-to-a-single-directory/page-2&do=findComment&comment=377431 ) I thought I'd go ahead and make a request here (and reiterate some of what I posted in the above thread). I'd be interested in NFO support for Extras, both support for writing to NFO, but also for reading an pre-existing NFO on import, like is done for regular items and automatically adding any available online metadata. However, given that the way extras are currently presented (ie, such that you don't really see/view much of their details), I can understand why there currently is not much support for additional details (and thus no NFO file support). Edit: Also, images named the same as a given extras video are ignored. It would be nice if these were picked up as well, like they are in non-extras contexts. Edit: An additional clarification: By "automatic" I do not mean that a external lookup should be automatically performed for every file in the Extras directory, as that would likely be a nightmare of mismatches. Rather, I just mean that if there is an NFO file that goes with a video file, and the NFO file contains metadata (such as IMDB ID, etc.) then an automatic lookup using that data should be performed in order to grab the corresponding metadata for that Extra. PS - If this is something you might like to see implemented, be sure to "Like" this top/first post (as well as any subsequent posts in this thread that highlight particular aspects of what you are interested in) -- "Liking" the top/first post helps the Devs to know how much interest there is in a given Feature Request.

Hi, I'm creating all metadata by myself, I used to use MetaBrowser but now switched to EMM. So now, I've changed from using movie.xml files to movie.nfo files. For 3D movies, I have a tag <format3d> in the xml file (HSBS, HTAB, etc) that ws auto created by MetaBrowser, which works with xml files. But if I insert the same tag into the nfo file, it seems to be ignored, the server doesn't show that the file is 3D, the Format3D field in the information is empty and I have to edit the information in emby manually. Is this a bug or is there a different 3D tag for nfo files? Thanks & Ciao, Alfred

I wanted to check where the Bluray nfo file should be located & how it should be named. Originally, I had these as movie.xml files in the root folder of the movie. I've upgraded to nfo files and removed xml but having this as movie.nfo was not displaying or refreshing. Some searching around the forums & wikis found that this should be now called index.nfo under the BDMV folder. I've tried this but still no data will refresh/display. If I manually refresh to fetch new metadata from Emby Theater for example it creates a file <foldername>.nfo. So I renamed my original nfo file to the folder name & refresh missing metadata & it displays as expected. Is this correct? (before I go through and manually update my other rips) Also, on a side question, should subtitle options display the name of the subtitle stream? They are present if I play this via an external player such as Media Player Classic but show as Und (Undetermined) in Emby interface. Many Thanks, AD

@@Luke Emby Server Version: 3.2.60.0 Recently added two (2) new TV shows and noticed that the TVSHOW.NFO file is not being written to the media folder as expected. I double-checked my entries in library and 'Save Artwork and Metadata into Media Folders' is checked. EPISODE.NFO and Series and Episode artwork are being saved into media folder. It is just the TVSHOW.NFO file that is not being written into media folder. It is being cached and is displaying the TV Series information. Just no local NFO file in media folder.

I've got a video (The LEGO Movie from 2014) in my Emby-library. For this video the emby-server did not generate an .nfo-file when I added the movie to the library and also not on rescan or actualize (metadata-manager) or on identify. It downloads the pictures for the movie (banner.jpg, poster.jpg and so on) and stores it in the folder where the movie stays. For other movies in the same library there is always an additional nfo-file. The metadata-manager does show the information of the movie (plot and so on) which are normally stored in the nfo! So somewhere (database?) it is persisted. But why is there no nfo-file in this special case? Reagrds

Emby no longer reads metadata from a xml file? Only nfo files can be used now? This has changed sometime in the last month I think. If you go to Server Manager > Library > Metadata and locate Metadata Savers option, only nfo is available now? This is no good, where did the xml option go? The main reason I choose to go with xml is Media Center Master creates the metadata in xml. I like that because I can manipulate the synopsis for example: "Former cop Brian O'Conner is called upon to bust a dangerous criminal and he recruits the help of a former Miami street racer who has a chance to redeem himself. Parental Rating Summary: MPAA Rating: PG-13 Sex & Nudity: 12 Violence & Gore: 25 Profanity: 1 mouthed and 1 muffled F-word, 2 obscene hand gestures, 3 sexual terms, 38 scatological terms, 24 anatomical terms, 30 mild obscenities, 1 religious profanity, 1 religious exclamation Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: 1 Frightening/Intense Scenes: 2" as opposed to the overlong: "Florida street racer Tej (Ludacris) is looking for a driver and calls Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) to a race. Brian is an ex-cop who has the hottest car now. He races against Suki (Devon Aoki), Orange Julius (Amaury Nolasco) and Slap Jack (Michael Ealy) and wins. The police arrive and give chase, capturing Brian. Agent Markham (James Remar) and... ON AND ON AND ON FILLING UP MY SCREEN" Can this be fixed or put back the way it used to be please? Please allow xml metadata files to be read or allow us to choose the type of synopsis is displayed.

I would love to have a setting that forces Emby to write the actor thumbs with the Internet addresses where they are located and not also use some local ones into the nfo. Some thumbs show: <thumb>D:\MediaBrowser Data\Metadata\metadata\People\.....jpg</thumb> I would like all nfos to be like: <thumb>https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/........jpg</thumb> It seems to happen if you refresh something from the "front-end" and then this actor seems to be locked-in to that path. Having this setting would make the nfo more portable. Thanks Mark

When one has Emby configured to store data in NFO files adjacent to their associated videos, and you then designate certain metadata fields to be "Locked" a XML field of <lockedfields> is added to the NFO file, containing a "|" delimited list of the metadata fields to be locked from editing. In my prior experiments I found that if I added this field to an existing NFO file (ie, one that Emby has already added data to) then Emby would read the NFO and lock the corresponding fields. I mistakenly thought then that I could add this XML field to my externally generated NFO files as part of my migration from a different media management system (my custom-built one). My hope was that Emby would take in the data from my NFO, and then subsequently lock the appropriate fields from further editing. However, <lockedfields> is being completely ignored on import, resulting in no fields being locked (though the other data, such as Tags, is correctly imported). The following is an example of the NFO file data that I'm generating: <movie><sorttitle>Voice Behind the Mouse</sorttitle><plot>Leonard Maltin interviews Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor, the voice of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. They talk about the characteristics of Mickey and Minnie that they see in themselves. They compare how Mickey's voice changed over the years, even within Walt Disney's run of doing the voice. Allwine and Taylor consider how Walt would probably embrace new technologies of today. Allwine does most of the talking, sharing anecdotes and touching on a wide array of other subjects related to Disney animation. Taylor, his real life wife, recalls how she prepared for her Minnie audition. The feature includes some clips of "Runaway Brain", older shorts, "House of Mouse", and even the costumed Mickey Mouse at Disney's parks, as well. It's a great supplement - both very informative and entertaining.</plot><lockedfields>Overview|Tags</lockedfields><tag>Shorts</tag><tag>Disney</tag><tag>Mickey Mouse</tag><tag/></movie> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408316/ Please pardon the formatting -- it seemed best to present it exactly as I'm generating it from my other program. Thanks! PS - If this is something you might like to see implemented, be sure to "Like" this top/first post (as well as any subsequent posts in this thread that highlight particular aspects of what you are interested in) -- "Liking" the top/first post helps the Devs to know how much interest there is in a given Feature Request.

Hi, i've just noticed, that all my *.nfo files contain the local (windows c:\...) path's for the actor images. I had a mapping from the local path to the unc path, which worked fine for month if not years, but now i cant find the entire "Path substituion" menu anywhere in the Webgui. I do still have the "Enable path substitution" checkbutton under Library -> Nfo Settings. Was this removed when a custom unc-path (Shared network folder under a Folder-Path in the library) was added? The only Forum-Article about this i could fin is https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/35508-path-substitution-setting-is-missing/&do=findComment&comment=334997 which basically just points to the Library-Setup-Wiki, which is not correct anymore... How can metadata still be substituted? Im i supposed to add this into Library -> Advanced -> "Metadata path"? There i seem to be unable to add a unc-path (after "Save" the circle icon appears and stays forever)... /hp Version 3.2.8.2 beta