Help with folder restructuring and playlists

[Tremas 106]

Now that 4.8 is out, I'm about to undertake a restructuring of my music video library.

When I first started this library, there was minimal documentation. In fact, I think at the time (several years ago) it was suggested to either put videos in artist folders or use title-artist(year).ext. Now, it's a weird movie like title(year).ext structure and title and artist are nolonger picked up from the file name. Anyhow, I started building this library with just a few items using a flat file structure, so all the videos would be in a single folder. Each of them have NFO files next to them in this big folder. I've been editing my own metadata for these with lots of customization to years, released date, parental rating, people, etc. However, some of my custom images have been lost over the years - either database updates, or metadata refreshes (self inflicted). To better preserve my custom images for the future, I would like to put all of the videos in their own folders and have the images saved with the media. Another note- the IMVDB is still not great, but I understand it is the only game in tow. That said, I would prefer not to use it and stick with my custom curated metadata.

Now that 4.8 has changed the way playlists are saved and I want to migrate all my xml playlists to the new m3u versions (which is great and more compatible across different players), I figured I will now embark on the folder restructuring. I'm in the planning stages, so I thought I would ask the community this:

• What would be the most efficient way to transfer a flat folder structure to an organized folder structure (one video with NFO and images per folder) while preserving playcounts, watched status, custom metadata, and playlists?

I assume that moving the media to a new sub-folder will cause it to be recognized as a new item in the database, correct? If so, then I expect this would break it's link to the playlist. Or is it possible that the media file an the NFO fill be considered the same database item and not break the playlist association? For some items, I have added an IMDB ID to the metadata, but I don't think that is used for a music video library. I'm happy to be proved wrong though.

Anyhow, if there is a way to change the folder structure while preserving the database ID and playlist link, then that will simplify things considerably. Otherwise, my plan is to batch copy everything to a new folder structure and start building a second library and gradually crank through re-creating all the playlists. I use this library often, so I want to keep a working version available if the transition is going to take awhile. Since all media has an NFO, will that metadata (date added, descriptions, release date, ratings, genres and people) be picked up on import? I ask because I got burned during a server move when NFOs for albums weren't imported (and sill aren't) causing me to loose lots of custom info and date added timestamps for music and audio books. I expect this will not be the case for music videos as no albums are involved, but I figured it would be better to ask ahead of time.

[Luke 37119]

Hi, have you updated to 4.8?

[Tremas 106]

Yes, sorry I didn't make that clear. I have updated to 4.8.3.0.

[Luke 37119]

So what I would say regarding playlists is move your files, and then when you're done you'll need to manually fix up the media paths in the playlist m3u's.

[Tremas 106]

Gotcha. I see that the m3u files were automatically created. The data/playlists folder has both xml and m3u for each playlist.

Could I use a text editor to manually edit the existing M3U with the new file structure and rescan, or would I have to create a new playlist file through emby (with new daytabase id) and then manually edit it? 

[Luke 37119]

Hi, yes you can do it with a text editor.