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Renaming / restructuring folders > impact on emby library


hi2hello

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hi2hello

Hi there, 

for several reasons, I would like to restructure my Server, meaning I would like to rename and / or move paths/folders/directories that are (partly) related to emby’s library.

For example, I would like to rename the folder "Media" to "Video" (as I d like to split up audio and video into separate folders). 

I am supposing, such an action would have an impact on emby’s library, meaning media would no longer be found, etc.

But my question is, if I could fix this by just renaming/adjusting paths within the library/libraries or if this would lead to data/media no longer being found or any other impacts such as metadata being lost, etc.

 

In other words: 

- Can I adjust a media path within a library in emby? (for examle from "/Media/Animation/" to "/Video/Animation/"?

- What impact will such an adjustment have? (f.e. Meta-Data and / or Images being replaced, watch-states getting lost, …

 

Thank you in advance for your kind support.

 

Best regards,

hi2hello

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CassTG

As far as i can recall it will rescan and reprobe all items and treat them as new, i looked into this once including editing the database but it did not go well lol.

I am happy to be corrected but i think it would work as follows:

  • totally delete the library and add new paths = full rescan, existing items deleted first new items added new metadata downloaded
  • Change the paths whilst keeping the existing library, i believe it adds the same items in as new and then at the end of the scan removes the items assigned to the old paths leaving it open to people attempting to play media which may or may not work until the scans finished (i.e incorrect paths)

 

 

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hi2hello

In the meantime, I did find out, that library paths are not editable once set.

One could add a new path and than delete the old one, which leads to rescan and new entries.

The behaviour of watched states, meta-info and images are than depending on settings of the library. Unless images are stored separately (in the related folder(s)) and there are also .nfo-files present, everything stays (pretty much) the same. 
If images are stored in the db (which makes a lot of sense, if you have your meta on an ssd and the media files on an hdd), this would lead to a complete rescan with replacing all images. Same for meta if no .nfo is present. Still not sure, how watched-states get handled.

 

Not really what I was hoping for … Would have been a dream (and really easy), to be able just to adjust the library paths without any other changes being made. Honestly, I do not understand, why there is no option to do so.

Maybe someone would like to explain this to me.

 

Anyway @CassTG, thank you for your answer :)

Edited by hi2hello
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Happy2Play

Only way would have been shutting down Emby, making your changes, updating library config files and manually changed all the related paths in the database.

Otherwise Emby no longer sees the media in the original imported path and has to purge all items and reimport from new paths.

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hi2hello

Thank you for your reply. 

Though I know this might lead to a feature request: is there a reason why library paths cannot be changed once set? (The whole design looks like it would be possible,: paths shown in inputfields that are not editable?!)
Just trying to understand …

Edited by hi2hello
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4 minutes ago, hi2hello said:

Thank you for your reply. 

Though I know this might lead to a feature request: is there a reason why library paths cannot be changed once set? (The whole design looks like it would be possible,: paths shown in inputfields that are not editable?!)
Just trying to understand …

Ultimately we'd like to be able to do that, we just haven't gotten there yet, though some have found workarounds via database editing.

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hi2hello

Thank you for answering.

I really do hope that either you already got there or I will find and understand the available workarounds better next time I need to do changes on my server structure.
The least thing I would like to see happening is a rebuild or rescan of my whole emby library, finally losing data that I have already worked on quiet a lot to personalize, and that was evolving for years, but than being replaced by (in comparison) generic metadata / infos / images.

Is there any documentation for available workarounds here in the community?

 

Best regards

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On 4/1/2022 at 6:31 PM, hi2hello said:

Thank you for answering.

I really do hope that either you already got there or I will find and understand the available workarounds better next time I need to do changes on my server structure.
The least thing I would like to see happening is a rebuild or rescan of my whole emby library, finally losing data that I have already worked on quiet a lot to personalize, and that was evolving for years, but than being replaced by (in comparison) generic metadata / infos / images.

Is there any documentation for available workarounds here in the community?

 

Best regards

I like FileBot (requires Java) for this as it's pretty easy to use once setup and you pick the format/template to use.

Create a test library to use before touching a live library.  Once you're satisfied what you can do is setup a new location to hold processed media.  So first go through movies. Create a new storage area and add this mount to the library (so there is the old and new location).  Now you can process 5, 10, 100 or 1000 (whatever) in batches.  Filebot as part of the process can move the processed files to the new location hence why I'd use it.  This allows you to do your system in batches and when you forget where you left off it's obvious do to location.

I've always found the reprocessing of files that were already in the system previously is pretty fast and doesn't take long to process 500 to 1000 per batch. I've done batches as large as roughly 50K on TV episodes.

It's a pretty decent solution that doesn't have a big learning curve. It can rename your files and create the proper folder structure such as /mount-point/show-name (year)/season #xx/show name (year) - episode name - SxxExx.ext.  Same with movies /mount-point/movie name (year)/movie (year).ext

So give it a shot with a test library using copies of something you already have.  Better yet, spin up a new version of Emby so none of the media is already in the database (will take longer to scan in however).

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