Emby Metadata will not load with Split Tunneling

[Astronut 5]

I use split tunneling on my desktop where I run Emby. Everything works fine except for one thing, metadata will not download while the VPN is on. When I turn the VPN off, it works instantly. I can access the website externally while the VPN is on from both my browser and my phone, so the split tunneling works to some degree at least. I have the EmbyServer and EmbyTray applications both in the exception list. Does Emby use another process I should exempt for metadata to work? Thank you!

[Abobader 3335]

Hello Astronut,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[Luke 40007]

Hi, that's strange. Those are the only two processes.

[Astronut 5]

10 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, that's strange. Those are the only two processes.

Is it possible Emby is listing the PC's Source IP (which would be the VPN's I think) as its Source IP? If those are the only 2 processes I can't think of how else it could be getting muddled up. I tested split tunneling on other applications and they work so I'm doubtful the issue lies on Mullvad's end.

Edited May 23, 2022 by Astronut

[Chiefmas 30]

Is any of your stuff on a NAS? A Synology or the like? It sounds to me like what can happen if you have network storage and haven't also added system processes to the VPN exception list. If you have any local resources you access, I'd say it's better in those cases to do IP level split-tunneling instead of app level, and add your local subnet, rather than trying to get every process that needs to touch network resources. 

 

[Astronut 5]

6 minutes ago, Chiefmas said:

Is any of your stuff on a NAS? A Synology or the like? It sounds to me like what can happen if you have network storage and haven't also added system processes to the VPN exception list. If you have any local resources you access, I'd say it's better in those cases to do IP level split-tunneling instead of app level, and add your local subnet, rather than trying to get every process that needs to touch network resources. 

 

I only need QBit (unsure if allowed to say the entire app name) on the VPN. But I'm not using any NAS. The files are all on an external SSD hooked up to my PC. I will look into IP-level split tunneling. Thank you!

[Chiefmas 30]

16 minutes ago, Astronut said:

But I'm not using any NAS. The files are all on an external SSD hooked up to my PC. I will look into IP-level split tunneling. Thank you!

Ok, it's probably not what I was thinking then- all the files would be local to your PC. With network storage, it can get tricky because the system level processes are actually what pull files from remote. It's still worth looking into a subnet split tunnel if you do have anything else on your network though, but if you only have the one computer then I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Astronut 5]

I don't know if it is my VPN not playing nice with Emby, or Emby not playing nice with my VPN, but I tried another one and it works fine, at least for now. A bit upset about this since I've used my current one for how many years but it is what it is. If anyone else runs into this issue with a VPN please try another one. Thank you Luke and Chiefmas for taking the time to reply I appreciate the help.

[BlavkEntropy 1]

Hi Astronut, 

Is the vpn mullvad?  I have had the same issue for the last month.

I don't think it is a Emby issue, but more a mullvad issue.

[Chiefmas 30]

3 hours ago, BlavkEntropy said:

Hi Astronut, 

Is the vpn mullvad?  I have had the same issue for the last month.

I don't think it is a Emby issue, but more a mullvad issue.

Could be Nord VPN's client as well. Nord's client is known to have broken app level split tunneling, it's probably the most common complaint in the subreddit for them.

@Astronut - it seems like you probably are using an app level split tunnel(that is, using the provider's app). It doesn't seem uncommon, even for big, well known providers, to have broken split tunneling. App level split tunnels just seem unreliable or difficult to implement well. I'm not sure which.

Either way, I always do my split tunnels at the network level(route rules), and I use OpenVPN rather then their own app. Every provider I've seen has stand alone openVPN instructions, they are often running OpenVPN, just with their own interface and modifications to add features like app level split tunneling. I often see people complaining about the apps for this provider or that, but I've almost never had any issues, but as I said, I use the standard OpenVPN client and configure the tunnel myself. I'd suggest you do that to avoid the issues altogether.

 

[Swames 3]

While searching for a solution to this problem, I found a solution on the Jellyfin reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/jellyfin/comments/xyuhdt/comment/ish6ewz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

With Emby you would do it like this;

1. Go to C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system
2. Edit EmbyServer.runtimeconfig.json
3. Under configProperties, go to the end of the last existing line and type a comma "," press enter and paste "System.Net.DisableIPv6": true

Should look something like this:

{
  "runtimeOptions": {
    "tfm": "net6.0",
    "includedFrameworks": [
      {
        "name": "Microsoft.NETCore.App",
        "version": "6.0.29"
      },
      {
        "name": "Microsoft.AspNetCore.App",
        "version": "6.0.29"
      }
    ],
    "configProperties": {
      "System.Reflection.Metadata.MetadataUpdater.IsSupported": false,
      "System.Net.DisableIPv6": true
    }
  }
}

This works for me with Mullvad VPN split tunneling. Only problem I noticed is that this file resets after every update, I haven't had time to test but maybe this can be remedied by making the file read only? Hopefully the devs find this post and implements some sort of fix so this wont be necessary. 

 

 

 

[Scobra 10]

On 5/8/2024 at 6:08 AM, Swames said:

While searching for a solution to this problem, I found a solution on the Jellyfin reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/jellyfin/comments/xyuhdt/comment/ish6ewz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

With Emby you would do it like this;

1. Go to C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system
2. Edit EmbyServer.runtimeconfig.json
3. Under configProperties, go to the end of the last existing line and type a comma "," press enter and paste "System.Net.DisableIPv6": true

Should look something like this:

{
  "runtimeOptions": {
    "tfm": "net6.0",
    "includedFrameworks": [
      {
        "name": "Microsoft.NETCore.App",
        "version": "6.0.29"
      },
      {
        "name": "Microsoft.AspNetCore.App",
        "version": "6.0.29"
      }
    ],
    "configProperties": {
      "System.Reflection.Metadata.MetadataUpdater.IsSupported": false,
      "System.Net.DisableIPv6": true
    }
  }
}

This works for me with Mullvad VPN split tunneling. Only problem I noticed is that this file resets after every update, I haven't had time to test but maybe this can be remedied by making the file read only? Hopefully the devs find this post and implements some sort of fix so this wont be necessary. 

 

 

 

HEY THIS WORKS! All this time I thought it was an issue with Nord's Split Tunnelling feature. Thought it might be since Nord actually enables ipv6 even if they don't support it. You can see this in the adapter properties.

I suspect this to be the issue because when I disconnect my VPN, Emby has no problems getting metadata. It's only when I connect to a VPN server that issues arise, even with split tunnelling disabled. Editing the config file and then restarting Emby Server solved the issue.

 

EDIT: I should note, I did not enable IPV6 in properties before. It is disabled on my main Wi-Fi adapter. Not sure why it's enabled for Nordlynx/NordVPNs Tunnel.

Edited September 14, 2024 by Scobra
Minor Spelling and Added more Info.

[Luke 40007]

Thanks for following up !

[Edrock200 49]

I wonder if this would work as an env var for linux docker containers. I don't use VPN but sometimes, at random, metadata will fail to load when it attempts to use ipv6. Disabling ipv6 on the host resolves but would rather find a more granular tune.

Edited September 16, 2024 by Edrock200

[Edrock200 49]

It does appear this can be set as an env var:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/fundamentals/networking/ipv6-overview

[sa2000 390]

@Edrock200 @Scobra@Swames@Astronut @MoLoveEnt

We have added a preference in system.xml for disabling outgoing ipv6 requests. I would like to know if this would resolve your issue - as an alternative to the suggested solution of editing the "\System\EmbyServer.runtimeconfig.json" file outlined here.

If you do run the beta Emby Server, please install the latest beta version 4.9.0.41, and:

1. Whilst Emby Server is shutdown, remove your edit to the "\system\EmbyServer.runtimeconfig.json" file and removing the line 

"System.Net.DisableIPv6": true

in the "configProperties" block

2. Launch Emby Server and confirm that the issue with the vpn is back

3. Shutdown Emby Server

4. Edit programdata\config\system.xml and change this line, changing the value from false to true

<DisableOutgoingIPv6>false</DisableOutgoingIPv6>

5. Launch Emby Server to test if this resolves the problem. 

Edited March 13 by sa2000

[Tank_Killer 5]

is there any way to add the emby process responsible for fetching metadata to the split tunneL

[Tank_Killer 5]

is there any way to add the emby process responsible for fetching metadata to the split tunneL

 

although disabling my VPN or IPV6 doesnt seem to fix my metadata problem.  it just stopped working for no reason, bummer.

[Luke 40007]

@Scobrahave you tried the config option?

[Scobra 10]

On 3/11/2025 at 11:11 PM, Luke said:

@Scobrahave you tried the config option?

I changed VPN providers and since then haven't had this issue. So I can't test this.

[Tank_Killer 5]

I think this happened after a nord VPN update

how can I fix meta data without editing configs?  is there a simple way in the regualar config menu

[Luke 40007]

14 minutes ago, Tank_Killer said:

I think this happened after a nord VPN update

how can I fix meta data without editing configs?  is there a simple way in the regualar config menu

Hi, what is the problem exactly?

How to Report a Problem

 

[Luke 40007]

@Tank_Killer?

[Edrock200 49]

On 3/4/2025 at 3:50 AM, sa2000 said:

@Edrock200 @Scobra@Swames@Astronut @MoLoveEnt

We have added a preference in system.xml for disabling outgoing ipv6 requests. I would like to know if this would resolve your issue - as an alternative to the suggested solution of editing the "\System\EmbyServer.runtimeconfig.json" file outlined here.

If you do run the beta Emby Server, please install the latest beta version 4.9.0.41, and:

1. Whilst Emby Server is shutdown, remove your edit to the "\system\EmbyServer.runtimeconfig.json" file and removing the line 

"System.Net.DisableIPv6": true

in the "configProperties" block

2. Launch Emby Server and confirm that the issue with the vpn is back

3. Shutdown Emby Server

4. Edit programdata\config\system.xml and change this line, changing the value from false to true

<DisableOutgoingIPv6>false</DisableOutgoingIPv6>

5. Launch Emby Server to test if this resolves the problem. 

Does appear to work. Thanks! 

[sa2000 390]

On 21/03/2025 at 23:15, Edrock200 said:

Does appear to work. Thanks!

Great. Thank You. The development team will look into making this setting available in the Server Network Settings UI