Having trouble accessing e-books & articles in recently added library

[RLanger7228 54]

I was excited to discover that Emby supports e-books & PDFs.

I have a collection of E-books on my NAS (some in epub format & some in pdf), and miscellaneous articles (all in pdf format).  Both of these formats are supported by Emby (SS 1 - Book Naming).  I added the appropriate shared folder to a new BOOK Library Under Settings.  I gave read/write permissions to Emby in the Shared Folder section of the Control Panel on my NAS.  I told Emby to rescan the library to incorporate the new content.  The items DO appear (though not Identified) when I open the library, but when I drill down to specific items, I am unable to access the actual content.  I included a SS of the metadata of a PDF & an epub item and what I see when opening an item (SS 2 - 4).

I understand why nothing is recognized/identified properly:  I am not using the book naming conventions listed in the knowledge database article in SS 1.  However, since the content items appear, I should at least be able to see/open the content itself, right?  The content IS in a compatible format (PDF & EPUB), but when I open individual items, I don't seem to be able to get to the content itself (SS 4).  What am I doing wrong?

 

[RLanger7228 54]

Additionally, when I tried to IDENTIFY a few items, putting in the title(s) said "No items matching your search criteria were found."

The 2 items I tried to identify were "Count of Monte Cristo" by Alex Dumas and "Fighting Man of Mars" by Edgar Rice Bourroughs.  These are both classic books that SHOULD appear in SOME database of identifiable books.  Again, What am I doing wrong?

[Luke 39653]

5 hours ago, RLanger7228 said:

Additionally, when I tried to IDENTIFY a few items, putting in the title(s) said "No items matching your search criteria were found."

The 2 items I tried to identify were "Count of Monte Cristo" by Alex Dumas and "Fighting Man of Mars" by Edgar Rice Bourroughs.  These are both classic books that SHOULD appear in SOME database of identifiable books.  Again, What am I doing wrong?

What metadata fetchers are enabled on the book library? Did you check what those fetchers have on their websites?

[RLanger7228 54]

10 hours ago, Luke said:

What metadata fetchers are enabled on the book library?

I looked into the settings of the BOOK library, and there are no data fetcher options listed (SS) as there are in the other library settings.  (BTW,, I updated to Version 4.8.11.0)

Identification issue aside, how the items appear is moot if I can't access the content itself.

[Luke 39653]

Have you explored the plugin catalog?

[RLanger7228 54]

36 minutes ago, Luke said:

Have you explored the plugin catalog?

I just looked through the catalogue.  The topics I explored were Top Plugins, Channels, General & Metadata.  I didn't look in things like Notifications, Sync, Subtitles, Reporting, or Live TV, which seemed unrelated.  I didn't see anything that looked like it was related to E-books or PDF content.  Do you know of a specific plugin offered that facilitates e-book or PDF reading within Emby?

[speechles 2001]

 

To read them you would download them onto the device through Emby then open them in your favorite ebook reader.

Edited March 15 by speechles

[RLanger7228 54]

18 hours ago, speechles said:

To read them you would download them onto the device through Emby then open them in your favorite ebook reader.

So, If I understand this correctly, the plugin is required to get a copy of the file from the Emby Server onto my device, then I will need to open the file with whatever reader I want to use on that device?

I found the plugin you recommended, from my Laptop (installed it & restarted the Emby Server), but when I went to the Emby app on my iPhone, I didn't see the Library Plugin under the Metadata or the Top Apps section.  I have an iPhone 15 ProMax (OS 18.3.2,  Emby server Ver 4.8.11.0,  App ver 2.2.36).  Do I need to install the plugin on each of the devices as well, or is installing it on the main server sufficient?

When I went to the Emby Media app on my iPhone I was able to find to the book library.  I saw items & could select them.  Once selected, there was an option to download.  When I clicked on that down arrow icon, I went to a new screen with "Download" at the top, but there was no other information displayed.  I clicked the Download link anyway.  I assume that when I download something, I would find it in the Downloads section of Emby?  When I went to the downloads section, there were no files there.  Is there anything I can do to rectify this?

I went to the Book Library on the Emby server through my laptop.  I selected an item.  There was no separate Download icon, but when I clicked the ellipsis (...) I saw there were 2 download options: Download & Download to...   When I clicked Download, the file was downloaded to the download folder on my laptop - I could open it in a reader from there.  When I clicked Download to... I went to another screen with a list of devices (I assume they are the devices that are registered in my Emby server account).  One of them WAS my iPhone.  I tried to download to my iPhone.  The Download section on my iPhone is still empty, implying the download was not successful.  I even went to the Files App on my phone & checked the Downloads folder.  It was not there either.  Is there anything else I need to do for the Download To...?

It seems that downloading directly from my iPhone and downloading TO my iPhone is not getting the files properly downloaded.  What else do I need to do?

[speechles 2001]

The plugin will pull in metadata for the books you have in your library. Then you can see the author, synopsis, some other details about the work. Rather than just the cover of the book you get the text too. That is what the plugin is for.

As far as downloading it just requires the Emby server you are connected to has Emby Premiere. Then it should just work.

The iphone is notoriously more difficult to share downloaded items among applications. If you were using Android it would just work. Apple is a different beast entirely. You probably need to make a post in the iOS/Apple section and ask specifically why downloads are not working on your device. I do not own anything Apple because of their gate keeping.

 

Also.. when using applications tied to app stores some plugins will not be shown. Because those plugins might be against the policies of those app stores. But I believe downloading is not against the iOS terms. I could be wrong. That is why it is best to make a new post in the iOS/Apple section.

Edited March 16 by speechles

[RLanger7228 54]

On 3/16/2025 at 4:42 PM, speechles said:

The plugin will pull in metadata for the books you have in your library. Then you can see the author, synopsis, some other details about the work. Rather than just the cover of the book you get the text too. That is what the plugin is for.

Does the plugin do its job when I select "refresh metadata", or when I try to "Identify" or both?

I have tried "Identify" on several book titles, including some classics that seem to me SHOULD be able to be identified, but it comes back "No items matching your search criteria were found." 

When I tried Refresh Metadata, it didn't identify any books.  This may be because I am not following the naming criteria:  Books are named: Author - title, so they sort by author in a file listing.

I tried renaming the titles of a group of books by the same author according to Emby naming rules (book title (year), all in a folder titled: author last Name, First Name).  I tried refreshing the metadata for that folder - none of the items were Identified.  I also tried to "Identify" one of the books directly, but it still came back "No items matching...".  This was for a group of books by Edgar Rice Borroughs, so they SHOULD be found in a literary database.

I don't understand why it is not able to pull in metadata.  The plugin is installed.  There are no settings for it, so it should just work.  While I can edit each item manually, the automatic "identification" is quite helpful.  What else can I do to get it to work?

[Luke 39653]

4 minutes ago, RLanger7228 said:

Does the plugin do its job when I select "refresh metadata", or when I try to "Identify" or both?

I have tried "Identify" on several book titles, including some classics that seem to me SHOULD be able to be identified, but it comes back "No items matching your search criteria were found." 

When I tried Refresh Metadata, it didn't identify any books.  This may be because I am not following the naming criteria:  Books are named: Author - title, so they sort by author in a file listing.

I tried renaming the titles of a group of books by the same author according to Emby naming rules (book title (year), all in a folder titled: author last Name, First Name).  I tried refreshing the metadata for that folder - none of the items were Identified.  I also tried to "Identify" one of the books directly, but it still came back "No items matching...".  This was for a group of books by Edgar Rice Borroughs, so they SHOULD be found in a literary database.

I don't understand why it is not able to pull in metadata.  The plugin is installed.  There are no settings for it, so it should just work.  While I can edit each item manually, the automatic "identification" is quite helpful.  What else can I do to get it to work?

try identify via isbn.

[RLanger7228 54]

15 hours ago, Luke said:

try identify via isbn.

I looked up the ISDN, and there are actually several - Hard cover, a few paperback editions & and e-book version.  I tried 3 and none of them yeild any results.

 

Also of note, when I tried to edit an item manually, though I could add metadata, when I edited the images on my iPad, there was no option to add one (?).

Edited March 20 by RLanger7228

[RLanger7228 54]

8 hours ago, RLanger7228 said:

Also of note, when I tried to edit an item manually, though I could add metadata, when I edited the images on my iPad, there was no option to add one (?).

When I got home & tried to add an image on my laptop, There WAS a + icon, allowing be to upload an image.  However, the icon was absent on my iPad.

[Luke 39653]

8 hours ago, RLanger7228 said:

I looked up the ISDN, and there are actually several - Hard cover, a few paperback editions & and e-book version.  I tried 3 and none of them yeild any results.

 

Also of note, when I tried to edit an item manually, though I could add metadata, when I edited the images on my iPad, there was no option to add one (?).

What metadata fetchers are enabled on the library? For whichever one is enabled, did you check their website and see if they even have the isbn that you entered?

[RLanger7228 54]

11 minutes ago, Luke said:

What metadata fetchers are enabled on the library? For whichever one is enabled, did you check their website and see if they even have the isbn that you entered?

There IS something called Open Library (the only option), so I selected it.  I first went to their website & found a book not found by Emby before Open Library was selected.  

When I went back to Emby & tried to Identify the same book, the search DID find it, but I had to add an image manually.  The metadata that I had previously manually edited remained unchanged.

When I tried to identify a different book in this series, it DID find the book, so I selected it & said to replace the images, but when it was done, there was no description or images for the item.

I tried going to the main library in Settings & Refreshing the Metadata (wholesale for the entire book library).  This did not retrieve any data for either books not properly named, nor the group of books I intentionally renamed according to the Emby naming convention [Title (year)], all stored in a folder named for the author.

I went to the Open Library website & directly searched for yet another book in this series.  It found the book by title.  I looked up its ISBN & searched the website using that, also found.  However, when I tried using Emby Identify with this same ISBN, it yielded no results, either with or without adding the year it was released.  When I tried to Identify the book by its title, It was then found.  Yet, when I selected it (choosing to replace images), no metadata (description, etc) or images were imported, except for the release date.

This is quite puzzling and frustrating.  Originally not having selected a metadata source, and not having the plugin installed seem obvious barriers.  Now that those were accomplished, I don't understand what could be the problem.  The book titles are are found at the source website and were recognized in Emby Identify, but insufficient data is imported.  Emby will not recognize a book by its ISBN, even when the source Open Library website does.

Another note:  Under metadata for Books, there is no section for People, nor a field for the author.  There IS a field for Studios, which is odd for books (screenshot).  How do I include the author for each item?

I am not sure how to proceed at this point, short of manually editing all the metadata & images.  Fortunately, I have a much smaller e-book library than for music & movies.  However, others seem to be able to identify their books without these issues.  I am wondering what I might do differently to achieve the same results.  Also, to those who have successfully identify their books, how are the authors noted?

Any suggestions?

[RLanger7228 54]

Entered in error.

Edited March 24 by RLanger7228
I already responded to the question

[Luke 39653]

Quote

When I tried to identify a different book in this series, it DID find the book, so I selected it & said to replace the images, but when it was done, there was no description or images for the item.

What image fetchers are enabled on the library?

[RLanger7228 54]

The only fetcher option is Open Library, and it is selected.  The books it wouldn't download data for WERE found when searching their website directly.

[Luke 39653]

14 minutes ago, RLanger7228 said:

The only fetcher option is Open Library, and it is selected.  The books it wouldn't download data for WERE found when searching their website directly.

Hi, try  using the manual image editor to see if it finds an image on Open Library.

[DarkStar1977 92]

On 3/16/2025 at 9:42 PM, speechles said:

 

The iphone is notoriously more difficult to share downloaded items among applications. If you were using Android it would just work. Apple is a different beast entirely. You probably need to make a post in the iOS/Apple section and ask specifically why downloads are not working on your device. I do not own anything Apple because of their gate keeping.

That's because the approach is incorrect for iOS. When emby downloads something it's downloaded into the emby container application, if it's a video can be played because emby has a player to play videos, the same with music but with books and comics, even the file is downloaded is not presented on the downloads screen and as there's no "player" for this files then you are just wasting space on your iOS device, because once donwloaded cannot even be deleted !

Meanwhile emby has not a player for books or comics, the approach must be done by instead of dowload, implementing "Open with" for the target url file, it's explained here and seems quite simple to implement:

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiapplicationdelegate/application(_:open:options:)

And here:

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/enabling-document-sharing

With this iOS users will have the choice to instead donwloading the fille into emby's container and do nothing, select a 3rd party application to open the file and will be stored into this app container (exampler: ibooks, adobe acrobat, simple comic, etc)

Edited March 26 by DarkStar1977

[RLanger7228 54]

On 3/25/2025 at 9:36 PM, Luke said:

Hi, try  using the manual image editor to see if it finds an image on Open Library.

I went to a book that was "found" by Emby Identify (though the only metadata that got imported was the year it was published).  When I went to Edit Images and clicked the Magnifying Glass to perform a search, the search came back empty.  When I performed a search for the book on the Open Library Website it shows a cover image, has a description and genre data, however IDENTIFY does not bring any of that data into my Emby item.

[RLanger7228 54]

On 3/25/2025 at 11:25 PM, DarkStar1977 said:

With this iOS users will have the choice to instead donwloading the fille into emby's container and do nothing, select a 3rd party application to open the file and will be stored into this app container (exampler: ibooks, adobe acrobat, simple comic, etc)

When I click the download option within Emby, a copy of the book is downloaded to my Mac in the downloads folder.  I'm sure I could open it using any reader software I choose.

Oddly, the image associated with the file (shown in FINDER on my Mac) is the same image of the cover I found when searching for the image on the Open Library Website, even though the image was not downloaded during the Emby IDENTIFY to be displayed with my Emby item.

[Luke 39653]

1 hour ago, RLanger7228 said:

I went to a book that was "found" by Emby Identify (though the only metadata that got imported was the year it was published).  When I went to Edit Images and clicked the Magnifying Glass to perform a search, the search came back empty.  When I performed a search for the book on the Open Library Website it shows a cover image, has a description and genre data, however IDENTIFY does not bring any of that data into my Emby item.

HI there, can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

 

[RLanger7228 54]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

can you please provide a specific example

OK.  I edited the file names of all these books to match Emby naming criteria [title (year)].  SS 1 is the folder with all the edited books. SS 2 is one of these books selected. SS 3 is the metadata for this book. SS4 is the choices I see when "Identifying" this book.  As you can see, there are a lot of options.  I selected the one in the upper left corner, since it matches the year of release for this book (I tried other options on another occasion as well - same results).  SS 5 is the data I see when I select that book.  I chose the "replace images" option & clicked "OK".  I come back to the same exact screen as in SS 2.  The metadata is also the same as in SS 3.  When I first tried to Identify this book, the only part of the metadata that changed was the year it was released.  It didn't retrieve the description or genres or images.  The search for images (magnifying glass) does not return any data, either.

I suppose I could manually edit the metadata images by pasting in data from a separate internet search, but it would be much nicer if the Identify function could pull all the data automatically, as it does for other media.  The search DOES return something.  I just can't figure our why the data is not being imported into my Emby items.

[Luke 39653]

Quote

It didn't retrieve the description or genres

It does not currently retrieve this. We'll have to look into whether or not open library makes this data available.