Empty Libraries after Update, but content still accessible

[Tom_44 1]

Hi all,

Before I start with my problem on latest versions, I would like to say some words of thanks to the developers...
I've been using emby since 2017 and I enjoyed it every day. You're doing a great job and I say thank you so much for your work !

Most of the time I was behind the current version, but this granted a stable and reliable database with no problems. My database grew every week upto over 1500 entries. This is I don't want to get lost, especially the many handmade corrections. It worked perfectly with Kodi and the emby plugin.
Lately, I decided to perform an update from 4.5.4 to 4.8.3, because of the promissing new features and the hope of getting rid of some streaming/conversion issues when using on travel. But this became a terrible job. First, I was informed by the update, it can't longer use my old libc. So, I had to upgrade from Debian 8 to 12 in a step by step job. Meanwhile the system is stable and well after a few days of works. Then, I could upgrade to emby 4.8.4. The update did not show any error. I had some unresolvable trouble with OMV, which I finally deactivated.

What I recognized immediately, was the nearly empyt start page. Only "continue watching" and "my media". I had 4 libraries: movies, series, camera uploads (empty), collections. In neither was any content shown. What I discovered quickly: searching is doing well and all media is still there and even the database still seems to be there. I can search for a title and start viewing it w/o a problem. All details of movies, including my viewing state is available. Even the "View" section shows complete content of the database.

But, library content is empty, showing "0 entries" in the selection line. This is also a problem when Kodi request the library content, which is reported to be 0 entries. Kodi has deleted its local copy - not able to select any movie.

What I've tried so far...

- reading log: absolutely no suspicious entry
- rescanning libraries, metadata, thumbnails
- deleting library.db in data folder and rebuilding a new one.
- studying all forums for similar problems. Found some obviously equal over the years, but not leading to a solution.
- experimenting with file permissions (all emby:emby, trying emby:users, adding my login to emby group)
- comparing 4.8.4 library.db with 4.5.4 library.db, found missing entries in latest version. But, apparently with no effect to my problem.
- verifing all settings in the emby setup, especially user permissions
- updating to emby 4.9.0.8 beta

I don't have anymore ideas to get closer to a solution.
I appreciate any help or hint.

Thanks in advance

Tom

embyserver.txt

[jaycedk 382]

Since you are running Beta server, please post here.

Emby Server Beta - Emby Community

 

[Tom_44 1]

This is not a beta related problem. It was my last step, I've tried in hope it could be solved.

[Luke 37071]

Hi @Tom_44 the vast majority of the upgrade testing to 4.8 occurred from 4.7. There wasn't a whole lot of testing from the 4.5 version. In fact I would go so far to say that you may have some things that need to be setup all over again.

So some things to try:

• Have you tried running a library scan?
• Going into user access for each user and reviewing the libraries that they are granted access to, and clicking save on that screen
• Checking your user home screen settings

Please let us know if any of this helps. Thanks.

[Tom_44 1]

Hi Luke,

thanks for your reply. I really hoped you wouldn't say "setting it up all over again". This was the last thing I wanted to do.
I knew, it was a risk to upgrade from 4.5 to 4.8, but because no intermediate version is available anymore, I was hoping its ok.

• Have you tried running a library scan?

          Yes, I have scanned all the database files using 'sqlite3 <database>.db "PRAGMA integrity_check"' with result: ok.
          I even had a deep look inside the databases, looking for broken paths: all ok.

• Going into user access for each user and reviewing the libraries that they are granted access to, and clicking save on that screen

          This, I have tried just now to toggle the library permissions with save on each state for my single login: no effect.

• Checking your user home screen settings

          Yes, I've done this, changing home screen sections to show. Taking "My media" away and put it back on: no effect.
          This is not the point, cause "My Media" is available, but clicking on it leads to an empty library.

And, I have done many trials on Filters: setting one, clearing it, selecting other parameters, choose presentation type "listing".
There is one thing, I wonder about: the library type for movies says: mixed content. I cannot imagine where this comes from.

If only I could understand, which kind of problem it is - permissions, erroneous database entries ?
What prevents the library pages from showing entries ?! Maybe, because the libraries are expected to be empty. But why do I get "Suggestions" out of my complete database, and can search for any title with result, and "views" shows up all entries, and playing works ?

Thank you, taking your time thinking about my problem !

[Happy2Play 8282]

Have you tested with a different Emby User?

Created a new Emby user?

As there are similar topics where library setup showed library but home screen did not.  So yours is slightly different.

Are there any parental controls applied to the user?

Edited March 18 by Happy2Play

[Q-Droid 644]

Did you create a backup of Emby before the upgrade that you can restore to try again? 

Unless the Emby team can come up with a quick fix that might be your best option. To go back to 4.5 and upgrade thru each minor release up to 4.8.x. I say minor but with Emby the minors are pretty major. 

 

 

[Tom_44 1]

@Happy2Play

Yes, I've created a new user: same effect.
Thanks for the hint !

@Q-Droid

Shame on me..I just forgot to do that.

I have created a new library from scratch and compared it to my filled one. 4.8.3 has 9 fields less in table MediaItems, but even this makes no difference. A newly created library.db has the same effect of 0 entries in libraries.
Thank you so much for your offer to help me getting through this by step by step update. This would surely work, if only, I would have a backup. It worked so well with updating in the past.

I think now, the best will be to make a clean installation 4.9.0.8 (cause library.db is now fixed on it) and then try to implement db files one-by-one, until it brakes (then knowing the cause) or works. This requires to wipe any file of emby project before new installation. Hopefully I can manage this.

I will continue this thread to keep everybody informed about my progress.

[Luke 37071]

Quote

and then try to implement db files one-by-one

Hi, what do you mean by this?

[Tom_44 1]

I mean...

1. wipe emby off the system
2. do a clean install
3. create new db-files by scanning the media folders
4. if this works, I will move back the library.db in place
5. if this still works, move every current db-file back one-by-one, until it no longer works -> this will  isolate the root cause

Its still possible, that even up to step 3 won't work, because the problem is inside the OS... then I'm lost.

[Tom_44 1]

Hi everybody,

finally, I'm through. I have current version 4.8.3 running and have created a complete new database (library.db) with manual corrections.

What I've done in detail:

• backup of latest state (datadir)
• backup of configuration file /etc/emby-server.conf (with my settings for storage)
• removing emby installation completely using 'dpkg --purge emby-server' (checked all directories to be gone)
• new installation of version 4.8.3
      a problem occured: emby user has a different user id now (995, before 116) - once recognized, easy to solve
• when running server for the first time, some (maybe) deviations to first installation 2017 seen:
      now password required (none before)
      aggree license (cannot remember having this before)
      user profile has user PIN now
      logging shows: "user policies updated"
• now running with no plugins

=> after scanning my movie storage, all visible as expected in libraries

Now wanted to check, whether old library.db works, too (had a backup of early 4.8.3 state after update):

• exchanged file after server stopped, then restarted

=> again, no library content visible, same like all trials before

• done a new scan

=> took ugly long (1 hour=2%) => many errors in the log

Then, I decided to forget the old database and stay with the newly created one. This causes me to update about 200 movies by hand, which were faulty detected by media services. That took me about 10 hours and some information are lost (view state, own tags, votings -> can live without).

I'm happy now to have it all running fine !

Thanks a lot to the emby team !

Regards,
Tom

[Luke 37071]

Thanks for following up !