Does Emby write to media files in anyway on library updates/changes ?

[user5431 1]

I have my media library on my desktop and on a Debian Linux server it is currently around 16.7 TB  I periodically sync from the desktop to the server with rsync  -avut  -o -g --chown emby:emby  --no-perms  --progress --no-compress -e "SSH STUFF & FILE PATHS & OTHER OPTIONS". I have been doing this for years as a backup solution  i.e if one fails the other is still there and knock on wood, haven't lost anything YET.

I recently installed Emby on said server few weeks ago and today went to sync my media files ,I am NOW in the middle of a 14TB restore to the server .

It is partially/mostly my fault because I have --delete-before as part of my rsync options ( I think that is what happened to so much of the data , massive delete from rsync )

My question:   I notice Emby does a lot of ffmpeg and ffprobe stuff when the media library changes , is all that stuff Emby is doing passive reads or are the files physically being written to in some manner i.e writing metadata or moving atoms etc. that would trigger an update from rsync ? Changing the access/creation time or file size would do it no matter how little it actually changes . Music for sure was totally wiped out and most of the video library as well .

There is nothing else on the server that would touch those files.

Probably needless to say I changed the delete before option in rsync so I do not get a repeat (had it in there because disk space was low)  but I do need to know if Emby is physically writing to my files instead of just passively reading them for the library updates/scans.

If it matter all files are music.mp3 and video.mp4

One other reason I ask is MS media center/player did that, it would basically scan your system and re-write everything with the meta data it wanted right or wrong .mp3 was the worst . I hate to look back and remember how many times I had to redo my music collection until I figured that out. There are other media apps out there that do the same thing and usually without telling you they are messing with your files . Hopefully Emby is not one of them !
 

[Gilgamesh_48 943]

I have never known Emby to write anything to media files except for "conversions" and that has never caused me any problems.

Emby is very good at not messing with media files unless it is told to.

[Luke 37069]

Hi, the answer is no, Emby does not overwrite your media files.

[adminExitium 173]

Access time, by definition, is updated whenever a file is accessed (read or write) so Emby doing a ffprobe will update the time.

[rbjtech 4266]

Core emby no - but some Plugins may.    For example, MediaInfo for emby most certainly does - but this is clearly spelled out in the Plugin configuration.  Other plugins such as SubKiller also modify the source files - but again, clearly spelled out.

@user5431 - did you emby instance run any Plugins, if yes - which ones ?

[Lessaj 59]

10 hours ago, adminExitium said:

Access time, by definition, is updated whenever a file is accessed (read or write) so Emby doing a ffprobe will update the time.

Not necessarily, if FS has the option noatime when mounted it wouldn't.