How to update Emby server running on a windows server

[ddywz 2]

Currently running Emby Server version 4.7.14.0 on a VM, Windows 2022 server.  All is running perfect and no complains, remote  access works fine,
local access works very good and no performance issues. The problem I face is how to update Emby on this windows platform.  Always has been a challenge.

In my last attempt it failed miserably to the point I had to roll back (yes, beauty of a vmware snapshots)

I have couple of questions;

1. Is there a documented procedure that shows how to update Emby server on Windows, knowing that emby is running as a service?
2. Any progress with including the update process within emby interface (like in a linux setup)?

What I have tried that did not work;

1. My working directory for emby is C:\Emby-Server and there's two sub directories under it:
    a. programmdata
    b. system
    
2. I also run Emby premiere which allows me to use this "Backup and Restore" feature. I took a backup of Emby Server and see the file under my C:\Emby-backups
that is the directory where the backups are saved.  

After installing the new emby 4.8,  by default the installation goes to c:\users\user_name\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server and of course it asks you to start
from scratch. Shutdown services and moved the two directories from c:\users\user_name\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server to c:\Emby-Server and overwrote the two directories there. Started services and launched the web interface.

I went to Backup and Restore feature and to my surprise the backups taken from version 7.x are not visible from version 8,  so the backups
are kind of useless when you upgrade emby. Is that correct?

In addition to taking the backups, I have saved a copy of the two directories programmdata and system with services down yet on a new path c:\saved-data.

With services down, I copied the original directories from c:\saved-data to c:\Emby-Server to bring back the old metadata but at this point the server
was having all sort of issues with hanging and not responding to certain views.  I think there are more granular steps to accomplish this as only certain
data need to be copied back and not all the content of the two main folders.

I finally rolled back from the  vmware snapashot and all is working great but stuck on version  4.7.14.0

Looking for an upgrade path to preserve content and metadata.  Any help?

[Happy2Play 8296]

Emby should update without issue by launching the app vs starting the service.  As your custom portable path is irrelevant to updates as mine is A:\Emby-Server.

Or you manually get the zipped system folder from GitHub under version and assets, and replace/rename the current system folder.

Releases · MediaBrowser/Emby.Releases (github.com)

But there are a lot of changes from 4.7 to 4.8 with removing database info/columns that Emby will no longer use.

[ddywz 2]

Thanks for the quick reply  Happy2Play!   So if I get this right, if I get the system directory from that repository and overwrite the current system directory I have under C:\Emby-Server and start the services I should be running on version 4.8.3?

I will try this tonight and report back how things go. 

Again, is there a link that has a procedure on how to, for Emby update running on Windows OS?

Thanks again,

[Happy2Play 8296]

2 minutes ago, ddywz said:

So if I get this right, if I get the system directory from that repository and overwrite the current system directory I have under C:\Emby-Server and start the services I should be running on version 4.8.3?

Correct.

2 minutes ago, ddywz said:

Again, is there a link that has a procedure on how to, for Emby update running on Windows OS?

No as everything is automatic unless you are running as a Service then it prevents automatic updates and force you to update or manually launch Embyserver.exe so it can automatically update.

[ddywz 2]

It worked very good!  Thanks Happy2Play!  I marked your answer as the solution. 

[Happy2Play 8296]

I guess there sort of is documentation here with the warning of running as a service.

Running as Windows Service | Emby Documentation

But since you are using a custom location, the method mentioned will not work as the installer is only for default locations.

So your options become manually get from Github or manually launch Emby app (not service).