Emby still going rogue on Music Library imports

[nospotify 149]

As @Lukerequested, I waited until release of 4.8 to revisit the puzzling, incorrect behavior of Emby Server when importing items to a Music library. Problems still remain. See screen shots below when importing several albums. Errors:

- Album Artist Name visible in MP3Tag differs from what appears in Emby (accent over E vs. no accent).

- Some Album Names match what is visible in MP3Tag while others do not (see punctuation/format difference "Ethiopiques 08: " vs. "Ethiopiques Vol.6").

- Title alphabetization is simply broken.

I removed all albums from Music library folder, rescanned Music library, restarted server, moved directory back into Music libraray location, rescanned. Last screen shot confirms there are no external metadata IDs listed in Emby's metadata screen for these albums. ALL data should be coming from embedded metadata, but it is not. What's going on and how can this be fixed?

 

  

Edited February 4, 2024 by wordlover

[nospotify 149]

Does Emby cache some library file information even after items are physically removed from  library? In the example above, when I look at all albums sorted by date added, only the half dozen albums that I added to my library recently appear at the top. The others in the series that I had imported to Emby months ago do not appear among the recently added albums, even though the full set was removed and then re-added as part of my debugging tests noted above. If there is some kind of unwanted metadata caching going on, that could account for some of the continuing naming problems as well, yes?

[Neminem 893]

@wordlover

Just a shoot in the dark here.

Can you go into the album, and multi select all songs and refresh metadata, and see what happens.

Had to do that, when I changed genre on an album.

Where 4.7 just updated it, no problem.

But 4.8 ignores album meta refresh, and only takes individual song meta refresh.

Not happy right now.

But hope this helps.

[nospotify 149]

8 minutes ago, jaycedk said:

@wordlover

Just a shoot in the dark here.

Can you go into the album, and multi select all songs and refresh metadata, and see what happens.

Had to do that, when I changed genre on an album.

Where 4.7 just updated it, no problem.

But 4.8 ignores album meta refresh, and only takes individual song meta refresh.

Not happy right now.

But hope this helps.

Thanks for the suggestion - tried it but unfortunately it made no difference.

[Neminem 893]

Sorry to here that, hoped that would help.

[nospotify 149]

@LukeWhat exact tag names does EMBY use: ALBUMARTIST, ALBUM ARTIST or ALBUM_ARTIST? And the same question for ALBUM TITLE, ALBUMTITLE, or ALBUM_TITLE?

Does EMBY use ID3v1, ID3v2, or APE tags? This problematic set of recently imported files has some albums as MP3 files and some as FLAC files, if that is helpful.

And if there are multiple tags for a field, which does Emby select?

These are my settings in MP3Tag. Some guidance, please?

Edited February 5, 2024 by wordlover

[jiggity 35]

1 hour ago, wordlover said:

@LukeWhat exact tag names does EMBY use: ALBUMARTIST, ALBUM ARTIST or ALBUM_ARTIST? And the same question for ALBUM TITLE, ALBUMTITLE, or ALBUM_TITLE?

Does EMBY use ID3v1, ID3v2, or APE tags? This problematic set of recently imported files has some albums as MP3 files and some as FLAC files, if that is helpful.

 

Emby uses ALBUM, ALBUMARTIST, ARTIST
and I have had no issues using
 

[nospotify 149]

@jiggityAre yours MP3 files or FLAC or both?

[jiggity 35]

Just now, wordlover said:

@jiggityAre yours MP3 files or FLAC or both?

I have a mixed music library of MP3, FLAC and M4A

[Happy2Play 9446]

In the end you would need to check what ffprobe is seeing on the files if Emby shows something different then your tag tool.

ffprobe -i "path to file"

But yes, there is an order of precedence when multiple tag versions are present.

[nospotify 149]

The problem seems to be that Emby is NOT actually updating metadata for files, even after multiple forced Library rescans and manual metadata refreshes, whether on whole directory or individual media file. I have repeatedly moved this whole album series out of Emby, rescanned Music Library, edited metadata, rebooted Emby server, rescanned Music Library (without these files), moved the edited files back into Emby, rescanned Music Library. No change. I then even created a whole new folder ("Ethiopique3"!) and moved all these subfolders and files, and did all the same metadata edit and file dance moves listed above. None of this gets Emby to actually reflect the new file metadata, even though it is adding these files from an entirely differently named folder than before.

And then I checked: when I look at any of the individual files/directories, the "date added" (in Emby's Metadata edit screens) is a week ago, when I first added these files and encountered these problems. So to be clear: no matter how many times and in how many ways I do the file move and rescan dance, Emby is NOT updating metadata that is new and plainly correct in MP3Tag, EasyTag AND Windows Explorer. @LukeWhy? How can this be fixed? 

[Happy2Play 9446]

Just now, wordlover said:

Emby is NOT updating metadata that is new and plainly correct in MP3Tag, EasyTag AND Windows Explorer. @LukeWhy? How can this be fixed? 

Emby relies on FFPROBE to read this info so the way all other tools show you info can be irrelevant as every one could be tagging in a different way.

[Luke 40113]

1 minute ago, wordlover said:

The problem seems to be that Emby is NOT actually updating metadata for files, even after multiple forced Library rescans and manual metadata refreshes, whether on whole directory or individual media file. I have repeatedly moved this whole album series out of Emby, rescanned Music Library, edited metadata, rebooted Emby server, rescanned Music Library (without these files), moved the edited files back into Emby, rescanned Music Library. No change. I then even created a whole new folder ("Ethiopique3"!) and moved all these subfolders and files, and did all the same metadata edit and file dance moves listed above. None of this gets Emby to actually reflect the new file metadata, even though it is adding these files from an entirely differently named folder than before.

And then I checked: when I look at any of the individual files/directories, the "date added" (in Emby's Metadata edit screens) is a week ago, when I first added these files and encountered these problems. So to be clear: no matter how many times and in how many ways I do the file move and rescan dance, Emby is NOT updating metadata that is new and plainly correct in MP3Tag, EasyTag AND Windows Explorer. @LukeWhy? How can this be fixed? 

What happy2play is suggesting is that maybe it is, but ffprobe is not pulling the expected data from the file because you might have a mix of id3 versions containing different values.

That's why it's probably a good idea to run some of these files through ffprobe to see what it reports as the album, artist, albumartist, etc.

[nospotify 149]

Is there a ffprobe gui version for a nontechie like me?

 

Edited February 6, 2024 by wordlover

[Luke 40113]

No, but from the command prompt:

ffprobe.exe -i "filepath" -show_streams -show_format -print_format json

On windows, run this from the same directory as embyserver.exe, that way you can test with our ffprobe build.

[nospotify 149]

I don't know how to do this. I have PM'd you several files @Luketo take a look.

Edited February 6, 2024 by wordlover

[nospotify 149]

Finally figured out how to run from CMD - here are results.

album_artist = Éthiopiques  in FFProbe but not in Emby. Why?

Input #0, flac, from '01mela.flac':
  Metadata:
    TITLE           : Erè mèla mèla
    ARTIST          : Mahmoud Ahmed
    album_artist    : Éthiopiques
    ALBUM           : Ethiopiques 07: Mahmoud Ahmed, Ere Mela Mela
    disc            : 01
    DATE            : 2000
    track           : 01
    TRACKTOTAL      : 15
    GENRE           : World, African
  Duration: 00:04:39.15, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 572 kb/s
  Stream #0:0: Audio: flac, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16
  Stream #0:1: Video: mjpeg (Baseline), yuvj420p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 500x499 [SAR 1:1 DAR 500:499], 90k tbr, 90k tbn (attached pic)
    Metadata:
      comment         : Cover (front)
    "streams": [
        {
            "index": 0,
            "codec_name": "flac",
            "codec_long_name": "FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)",
            "codec_type": "audio",
            "codec_tag_string": "[0][0][0][0]",
            "codec_tag": "0x0000",
            "sample_fmt": "s16",
            "sample_rate": "44100",
            "channels": 2,
            "channel_layout": "stereo",
            "bits_per_sample": 0,
            "r_frame_rate": "0/0",
            "avg_frame_rate": "0/0",
            "time_base": "1/44100",
            "start_pts": 0,
            "start_time": "0.000000",
            "duration_ts": 12310368,
            "duration": "279.146667",
            "bits_per_raw_sample": "16",
            "extradata_size": 34,
            "disposition": {
                "default": 0,
                "dub": 0,
                "original": 0,
                "comment": 0,
                "lyrics": 0,
                "karaoke": 0,
                "forced": 0,
                "hearing_impaired": 0,
                "visual_impaired": 0,
                "clean_effects": 0,
                "attached_pic": 0,
                "timed_thumbnails": 0,
                "captions": 0,
                "descriptions": 0,
                "metadata": 0,
                "dependent": 0,
                "still_image": 0
            }
        },
        {
            "index": 1,
            "codec_name": "mjpeg",
            "codec_long_name": "Motion JPEG",
            "profile": "Baseline",
            "codec_type": "video",
            "codec_tag_string": "[0][0][0][0]",
            "codec_tag": "0x0000",
            "width": 500,
            "height": 499,
            "coded_width": 500,
            "coded_height": 499,
            "closed_captions": 0,
            "film_grain": 0,
            "has_b_frames": 0,
            "sample_aspect_ratio": "1:1",
            "display_aspect_ratio": "500:499",
            "pix_fmt": "yuvj420p",
            "level": -99,
            "color_range": "pc",
            "color_space": "bt470bg",
            "chroma_location": "center",
            "refs": 1,
            "r_frame_rate": "90000/1",
            "avg_frame_rate": "0/0",
            "time_base": "1/90000",
            "start_pts": 0,
            "start_time": "0.000000",
            "duration_ts": 25123200,
            "duration": "279.146667",
            "bits_per_raw_sample": "8",
            "disposition": {
                "default": 0,
                "dub": 0,
                "original": 0,
                "comment": 0,
                "lyrics": 0,
                "karaoke": 0,
                "forced": 0,
                "hearing_impaired": 0,
                "visual_impaired": 0,
                "clean_effects": 0,
                "attached_pic": 1,
                "timed_thumbnails": 0,
                "captions": 0,
                "descriptions": 0,
                "metadata": 0,
                "dependent": 0,
                "still_image": 0
            },
            "tags": {
                "comment": "Cover (front)"
            }
        }
    ],
    "format": {
        "filename": "01mela.flac",
        "nb_streams": 2,
        "nb_programs": 0,
        "format_name": "flac",
        "format_long_name": "raw FLAC",
        "start_time": "0.000000",
        "duration": "279.146667",
        "size": "19963068",
        "bit_rate": "572116",
        "probe_score": 100,
        "tags": {
            "TITLE": "Er├¿ m├¿la m├¿la",
            "ARTIST": "Mahmoud Ahmed",
            "album_artist": "├ëthiopiques",
            "ALBUM": "Ethiopiques 07: Mahmoud Ahmed, Ere Mela Mela",
            "disc": "01",
            "DATE": "2000",
            "track": "01",
            "TRACKTOTAL": "15",
            "GENRE": "World, African"
        }
    }
}

[Happy2Play 9446]

6 minutes ago, wordlover said:

album_artist = Éthiopiques  in FFProbe but not in Emby. Why?

 

        "tags": {
            "TITLE": "Er├¿ m├¿la m├¿la",
            "ARTIST": "Mahmoud Ahmed",
            "album_artist": "├ëthiopiques",
            "ALBUM": "Ethiopiques 07: Mahmoud Ahmed, Ere Mela Mela",
            "disc": "01",
            "DATE": "2000",
            "track": "01",
            "TRACKTOTAL": "15",
            "GENRE": "World, African"

vs

Metadata:
    TITLE           : Erè mèla mèla
    ARTIST          : Mahmoud Ahmed
    album_artist    : Éthiopiques
    ALBUM           : Ethiopiques 07: Mahmoud Ahmed, Ere Mela Mela
    disc            : 01
    DATE            : 2000
    track           : 01
    TRACKTOTAL      : 15
    GENRE           : World, African

Little confused as AA is "Éthiopiques"

 

[nospotify 149]

Sorry, this is current screenshot - I have done so much testing and have no idea which changes stuck and why. 

Is the issue just the diacritical marks? How does/should Emby handle them?

[Happy2Play 9446]

@wordloverLuke would have to comment on that,

Does is show the same when you click on it?

Also do you have any metadata providers enabled for music?

[nospotify 149]

Metadata providers enabled, but no IDs connected to this album - see current screenshots below. Again, metadata in every other app shows Album Artist with diacritic above intial E, only Emby does not. 

Edited February 6, 2024 by wordlover

[Happy2Play 9446]

Not sure as your first screens show the accent vs now without.

What does Artist or albumArtist view show for that artist?  What providerids?

Can you PM that track so I can test. 

[nospotify 149]

As I said, the screenshots in the post immediately above are the only current ones. Please ignore what I posted at the top of this thread, as I have made lots of attempts to change. See below for the current information from MP3Tag, which appears identically in every other software (including what I just posted from FFProbe) with accent over ALBUMARTIST. But Emby does NOT show that version. Metadata edit screens for that ALBUMARTIST also posted below.

What more is there to test? I posted the full FFMProbe results. We're waiting for @Luke.

[Luke 40113]

Did you try to run the command line? What happened when you tried?

[Luke 40113]

So here's one: