brand new instance doesn’t import metadata from .nfo files

[dance4ever 11]

I created a brand new container and all my movies have .nfo files (created by Emby).

Here is an example of metadata not being imported during the initial scan:

  <isuserfavorite>true</isuserfavorite>
  <playcount>2</playcount>
  <watched>true</watched>
  <lastplayed>2024-03-12 03:48:30</lastplayed>
  <resume>
    <position>2049.88</position>
    <total>7144.704233</total>
  </resume>

When I created the Movie library, I made certain to check “nfo” as a metadata provider.

What is the right way to configure Emby to import this metadata?
 

 

[Luke 37099]

H, Emby doesn't support reading user watch info from nfo files. That data is write only.

[dance4ever 11]

ok good to know current state of Emby.

is there an official place to log feature requests? (and possibly vote on them?)

I'd like to request full initialization of an Emby database (all fields) from its nfo files.  clearly it's already reading more cumbersome metadata to recreate like tags (thankfully! )

This would be very useful in rebuilding installs that eventually get foobared & need a complete refresh & rebuild.

The process shall also read .nfo files created for people (eg. to restore favorite actors & directors)

The rebuilt Emby instance should be precisely what it was it was prior (last nfo snapshot) without all the clutter (file system & database wise)

This would make migrations simpler esp with schema changes both in the database & file system (eg. like the recent a-z sub directories under metadata/people)

Just let the rebuild process put everything where it belongs given the version number (esp useful for those who need to rollback because of a bug)

Edited April 20 by dance4ever

[GrimReaper 3308]

5 minutes ago, dance4ever said:

is there an official place to log feature requests? (and possibly vote on them?)

Yes.

Feature Requests - Emby Community

 

[Happy2Play 8296]

User info is problematic in nfo as it can only apply to one user.

[Happy2Play 8296]

But don't really follow as everything except watch status is already done as mentioned no way to do this via nfo for every user on the system.

[dance4ever 11]

1 minute ago, Happy2Play said:

User info is problematic in nfo as it can only apply to one user.

point taken (now understand one of the reasons the nfo agent is disabled by default). I'll include this point in my feature request.  Perhaps if nfo files are found, ask the user if they wish to import them & to choose a user.

[Happy2Play 8296]

This is where the old backup plug was useful as you could restore Users and Userdata.  The new plugin is not that granular as there is no way to restore only users and userdata.

But rebuilding is quite simple as I disable providers and everything is imported from existing images and metadata.  The reenable providers once initial import is done.

But maintain full backup of /metadata/people folder as it is quite tedious working on over 200,000+ people images and metadata.

[dance4ever 11]

53 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

But rebuilding is quite simple as I disable providers and everything is imported from existing images and metadata.  The reenable providers once initial import is done.

is this a workaround to force Emby to read all its info from .nfo files?

I do not use any providers - all my metadata is custom and successfully exported to .nfo files.  It’s just a matter of getting the metadata back into Emby.  I am fine with .nfo files being slightly out of date as it beats trying to recreate all the metadata by hand again.

Edited April 20 by dance4ever

[Happy2Play 8296]

2 minutes ago, dance4ever said:

is this a workaround to force Emby to read all its info from .nfo files?

I do not use any providers - all my metadata is custom and successfully exported to .nfo files.  It’s just a matter of getting the metadata back into Emby.  I am fine with .nfo files being slightly out of date as it beats trying to recreate all the metadata by hand again.

Sort of as this relies 100% on existing metadata and additional looks are not needed per provider to validate existing data of missing data.

But to a point there is no way to 100% not use providers as People/Actors need looked up unless you do .actors I guess but that seem like a waist of space as you could end up with dozens of the same actor across your library.

 

[dance4ever 11]

21 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Sort of as this relies 100% on existing metadata and additional looks are not needed per provider to validate existing data of missing data.

However, as Luke said above, Emby inherently does not have support for importing “user watch info” so I’ll be sure to be specific about this in my feature request then.

Thanks for all your extra input.

[Happy2Play 8296]

True I guess someone could build a plugin to read the data and apply it to a specific user.  As the only client that uses this info I believe is Kodi.

[pünktchen 1259]

1 hour ago, dance4ever said:

However, as Luke said above, Emby inherently does not have support for importing “user watch info” so I’ll be sure to be specific about this in my feature request then.

Emby used to read the user info from nfos until some years ago. I don't think it will come back.