Best way to move entire library to a new volume

[Ceten 27]

Hi, I'm in the process of expanding my DS918+ with a DX517 and 4 new hard drives.
I'll create a separate volume with the new drives and would like to move all my TV series to the new volume.
Is it enough to just update the folder in the library settings to /volume2/Series when the move is complete?

And will this keep all existing metadata and just update the paths or will it trigger a rescan for everything in the library?
Or is there a better way to go about this?

[Happy2Play 8296]

Emby does not have move media options so it would remove all items and reimport.  As for metadata/images if not saved with media it will be lost. 

Playstate/Userdata is not as it is tracked by item providerids.

 

Only other way is manually with Emby off updating paths in the database and library config file. (ensuring you have a backup of Emby programdata if this goes wrong)

Old example but general idea along with image path updated discussed in that topic.

 

[Luke 37116]

@Ceten has this helped?

[Ceten 27]

@Happy2Play, thanks for pointing me to the existing topic.
@Luke, I've read the other topic and asked for some clarification there as there seems to be no real benefit in manually editing the database over just updating the path in the UI.
If you could please answer the question there that would be great and would help me decide on which road to take.

Edited March 9, 2023 by Ceten

[Luke 37116]

We don't currently have a quick change function, so yes, it will rescan. It's something we plan to add in future updates. Thanks.

[Ceten 27]

Just to recap how I've done it in case anyone else is in the same situation.
I've read through the topic @Happy2Playmentioned and found that manually editing the database has no advantage as Emby will do a rescan anyway.
Luckily for me I've always stored the metadata (as nfo) and images in the media folders which made the move quite easy.

I managed to migrate the complete series folder and update the metadata in Emby using the following steps:

1. Attach the DX517 and create a new volume2
2. Shutdown Emby
3. Rename the shared folder "volume1/series" to "volume1/seriesold" (you can't have 2 shared folders with the same name)
4. Create a new shared folder "volume2/series"
5. Copy all the files from "volume1/seriesold" to "volume2/series" (did this in batches to prevent issues copying +20TB at once, not necessary but it felt safer )
6. Do a comparison of both folders to be sure
7. Start Emby and remove the "volume1/series" folder from the library settings (I thought it was editable but you can only add or delete folders)
8. Add the new "volume2/series" folder to the library
9. Trigger a media library scan and wait till it's done (may take a while depending on the size of your library)
10. All media was added again using the local metadata I had before, including images and locked metadata

Warning, this will only work if you had the setting for saving the metadata and artwork in the media folders already enabled!
@Luke, I presume enabling this will only create the nfo files for newly scanned files.
Is there a way to create the local metadata and images for existing items for people who didn't have the setting enabled already?

[strupie 0]

Thanks for clearing that up Ceten, I for one don't have the setting for saving metadata in the same folder (I like clean folders).

So now I'm faced with the problem that whenever I move my library and edit the db manually, either way a library scan will be triggered eventually and in doing so loosing all my metadata and media. That's not what's supposed to happen, right? There's tons of work and effort that went into the personalisation (mostly artwork), I don't want to loose any of my work at all.

@Luke You're saying for years now that a solution will be looked at, but nothing happens. The same question appears again and again... what will you do?

Edited May 31, 2023 by strupie

[Luke 37116]

11 hours ago, strupie said:

Thanks for clearing that up Ceten, I for one don't have the setting for saving metadata in the same folder (I like clean folders).

So now I'm faced with the problem that whenever I move my library and edit the db manually, either way a library scan will be triggered eventually and in doing so loosing all my metadata and media. That's not what's supposed to happen, right? There's tons of work and effort that went into the personalisation (mostly artwork), I don't want to loose any of my work at all.

@Luke You're saying for years now that a solution will be looked at, but nothing happens. The same question appears again and again... what will you do?

HI, yes it's on the to do list. Thanks.