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MCM resetting metadata


oldschool

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oldschool

I have one movie in particular that I've had to set the custom rating because it erases the metadata every day. I even unchecked the box for the Parental Rating to lock the metadata from being updated. I've recently locked all the metadata to prevent any problems, and it erases my changes the same way. To troubleshoot, I tried changing the actual parental rating from Approved to G (instead of adding a custom rating), and it seems pretty consistent that every morning I wake to it being changed back to Approved.

 

I've also seen movies that have their metadata locked erase the sorting name.

 

I'm on Version 3.0.5921.0

Edited by oldschool
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Do you have any 3rd party apps that deal with metadata?  Sonarr or MCM or anything...?

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yea that's most likely the issue, other software overwriting the file and not preserving custom tags.

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Angelblue05

So what does lock really do? Should it not preserve the data on server over any modification done by 3rd party apps? :/

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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So what does lock really do? Should it not preserve the data on server over any modification done by 3rd party apps? :/

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The lock itself is stored in the nfo, so not if something else overwrites the nfo entirely.

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i have an idea to help us get to the bottom of these scenarios. a setting to save a duplicate of the nfo file to a backup .bak file. Then if the nfo ever changes but the backup file stays the same, then we know that another program did it.

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Angelblue05

The lock itself is stored in the nfo, so not if something else overwrites the nfo entirely.

 

This explains so much. It's not uncommon for users to use third party apps for metadata. I use the lock on certain series/episodes, but it always gets overwritten at some point, it's so annoying. The server should have the "last word", if I set it to lock item to prevent any future changes as stated in the metadata manager, I kind of expect it to retain current server metadata, regardless or any changes done to the nfo externally that I may be unaware - usually it's all automatic background work.

 

 

i have an idea to help us get to the bottom of these scenarios. a setting to save a duplicate of the nfo file to a backup .bak file. Then if the nfo ever changes but the backup file stays the same, then we know that another program did it.

 

It is most certainly third party interfering. Putting the metadata lock into the nfo file sounds like more trouble, because it's really out of the server's control if the file gets completely overwritten.

Edited by Angelblue05
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Well the lock setting inside the nfo was not invented by us. Since there was already an existing convention for it, we decided to use that.

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Angelblue05

Well if something can be done in the long run, it would be great. Even if it's an existing convention, it is a flimsy approach; definitively prone to user error in the context of a server vs third party apps. :) Anyway, thanks for the replies, it definitively explains this frustrating problem.

Edited by Angelblue05
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oldschool

Yes, I do have MCM. I looked for a setting inside of there to prevent this type of thing, but I didn't find anything. Sounds like you guys have thought about this already though and are coming up with an Emby-only solution.

I only use MCM now days to process any new movies and to rename them. I was hoping that functionality would come from Emby. I know you introduced TV episode processing, and I was eagerly awaiting the same functionality with movies so I could use Emby exclusively to maintain my library.

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the thing that metabrowser has over mcm, and most other nfo-editing tools, is that it makes sure to preserve tags in the nfo that it doesn't utilize. if mcm doesn't do that then you're going to keep having problems and i would stop using it until they add that feature.

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Happy2Play

Unless you are refreshing metadata there is no way for either program to re-write the content rating field.  I have about 50 movies that have a Approved rating that I have modified in either MCM or Emby that honor the edited rating until a refetch or refresh is done.  MCM and Emby use different tags to lock metadata also.

 

MCM

<Locked>True</Locked>

 

Emby

<LockData>true</LockData>

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Well, we adopted the tags that metabrowser uses, and that's why we use LockData. The xml saving is kind of at a stable point where i don't really want to touch it anymore, so I'm hesitant to go back in and try and change that and then have to deal with whatever side effects pop up.

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The server should have the "last word", if I set it to lock item to prevent any future changes as stated in the metadata manager, I kind of expect it to retain current server metadata, regardless or any changes done to the nfo externally that I may be unaware - usually it's all automatic background work.

 

That is a very Emby-centric view of the world (not that there is anything wrong with that...) ;).

 

I don't know that we can claim absolute domain over a metadata file that is shared between multiple programs.  If some other program is summarily overwriting the file and not preserving tags it doesn't know about, that is an issue with that other program.  We shouldn't brute-force claim that we "own" the file and deny anyone else the right to write it (even if we could).

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Angelblue05

No - that's not what I meant. Leave the actual nfo alone and save the lock somewhere within emby's full control. This way, even if the nfo is modified/wiped, it keeps what was locked into place in emby - it was locked for a reason and I think that's all that should matter in the end. :) I thought the feature was bugged for the longest time because it's "unpredictable", but turns out my nfo were being completely rewritten. If emby was in full control, this kind of ambiguity could be avoided, I think? Emby should be #1 over third party when the item is locked. I hope that makes more sense, heh

Edited by Angelblue05
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Angelblue05

Just to clarify, I do not mean lock the nfo file in any way. I just mean lock what emby already has loaded. Would it be possible to associate the lock to the item id within the database? Then a quick verification before rescanning the nfo, otherwise skip over. This way you don't need any duplicate files, right? Anyway, you guys will find the right solution. As long as it's not this unpredictable behavior (out of emby's control)

Edited by Angelblue05
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Vidman

I'm with ebr on this. Locking metadata in Emby means just that locking emby from making changes... The onus should be on the user and the other metadata software they use to respect that as well.

If you want what you suggest you should just have emby s metadata saved to its own location rather than in your media folders right?

Edited by Vidman
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Happy2Play

@@oldschool, Is there a reason you are on an old beta v3.0.5921.0?  Could this be a configuration issue?  What is your Metadata Reader and Saver order?  Metadata-Services-select content type

 

I have changed Fort Apache with a rating of Approved to PG and performed a library scan and the rating never changed.

 

Also looks like MCM only locks the xml since it exports metadata to nfo so that tag is never written on nfo.

Edited by Happy2Play
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oldschool

@@oldschool, Is there a reason you are on an old beta v3.0.5921.0?  Could this be a configuration issue?  What is your Metadata Reader and Saver order?  Metadata-Services-select content type

 

I have changed Fort Apache with a rating of Approved to PG and performed a library scan and the rating never changed.

 

Also looks like MCM only locks the xml since it exports metadata to nfo so that tag is never written on nfo.

I update whenever it tells me to update, and I checked just on Saturday on the settings page if there was an update available, and it said it was up to date. Looks like just this morning there's 3.0.5930.0 available, so I'm not that far behind. I'll update this morning to the latest.

 

My metadata readers are: 1. Emby Xml, 2. Nfo.

 

Yeah, I have one scan scheduled during the day, and after the Emby scan it doesn't seem to change the metadata. That means it must be MCM, but I'm not sure how I can resolve my problem then. MCM seems to be causing more problems than what it's worth. I checked this morning and my "problem child" movie was reset back to the old metadata even though I locked all metadata using Emby. That probably means that MCM is making the changes.

 

MCM is running in the background all the time just to process any new movies that I dump into my scan folder. It's really only there to process and rename new movies. If Emby were to take over this functionality, then I would really have no need for MCM. All changes I make to metadata are using the Emby metadata editor.

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oldschool

It has a setting to "Generate Kodi/XBMC-compatible metadata (.nfo)". I can uncheck that.

 

But there's another setting for "Generate MediaBrowser metadata (movie.xml and series.xml, required for now)" that I cannot uncheck.

Edited by oldschool
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Happy2Play

My metadata readers are: 1. Emby Xml, 2. Nfo.

@@oldschool, what are your Metadata savers settings.  To me it sounds like you are editing metadata in Emby and it is written to nfo, but you have emby set to read xml that were created by MCM.  So your updates are not being read.

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oldschool

@@oldschool, what are your Metadata savers settings.  To me it sounds like you are editing metadata in Emby and it is written to nfo, but you have emby set to read xml that were created by MCM.  So your updates are not being read.

Hmm, on the Metadata > Services page inside Emby, the checkbox next to NFO is enabled for the Metadata Savers option. Is that what you're referring to?

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Happy2Play

Correct.

 

Emby is writing nfo and all your edits are going to Nfo, but you are reading MCM's xml first that don't have the changes you made. 

 

I use MCM xml so I added the XML saver plugin to only have to deal with xmls in both programs.

Edited by Happy2Play
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