Movies doesn't scrape new files, fails on re-create

[SHO NUT 0]

I got a message from my parents (one of the many emby servers that I manage) that new movie files copied to the usual folders were not showing up in emby.  I had recently updated all the servers to 4.x, (this one is Version 4.0.2.0) so I thought it might be something to do with that, so I did a re-scan of the Movies library, but that didn't help.  Thinking that it might be a migration issue, I deleted the Movies library and re-created, but no titles appeared.  I tried a scan and a refresh, but no dice.  TV shows are updating fine.

 

 I did it again, and attached the log.

 

Movie library added as:

 

Content Type - Movies

Display name - Movies

Added Folder E:\Videos\Movies - this contains movie folders in the format of <movie name [year]>, each folder (generally) containing the name name, also with the year in the square brackets.  The square brackets instead of round brackets is the only deviation from the recommended naming, but this has never been a problem before.  The .srt files are also there with the same file name as the movie file, but with the .srt extension.

Preferred Download Language - English

Country - Canada

Movie metadata downloaders - TheMovieDb, The Open Movie Database

Automatically refresh metadata from the internet - Every 30 days

Metadata savers: Nfo

Movie Image Fetchers - TheMovieDb, FanArt, The Open Movie Database, Screen Grabber

Save artwork into media folders - checked

Subtitle Downloads - English

Subtitle downloaders - Open Subtitles - (pre-configured)

 

Then I did:

Scan Library - Replace all metadata / Replace existing images

 

Finally, I clicked:

Scan All Libraries

<End>

 

Movies library is still empty.  Any ideas?  Thanks in advance for your time.

embyserver - add Movies snippet.txt

[Happy2Play 8356]

Other topics suggest a migration issue.  If you were to make a "E:\Videos\Movies2" folder, create a new library and move a movie from the original folder to the new one does it appear?

 

If that does not work can you go over a specific example to include folder content, so I can attempt to reproduce.

Edited February 18, 2019 by Happy2Play

[SHO NUT 0]

Yes it appears, under the library Movies1 (I didn't change the new library name from the default).  So do I delete all the movie libraries, rename the Movies folder and re-create the library?  i.e. is the issue the directory name or the library name of 'Movies'?

 

Will the watched status be lost, or was that lost when I deleted the library the first time?

[Happy2Play 8356]

Yes it appears, under the library Movies1 (I didn't change the new library name from the default).  So do I delete all the movie libraries, rename the Movies folder and re-create the library?  i.e. is the issue the directory name or the library name of 'Movies'?

 

Will the watched status be lost, or was that lost when I deleted the library the first time?

 

If you do not change Library Movie name it auto appends a number.  This would appear to be a database issue.  As others have noticed renaming items allows them to appear. 

 

No watched statuses should be lost as they are tracked by providerids no path (unless they contain no providerid "imdb, tmdb, tvdb").

[SHO NUT 0]

After hours of trial and error and playing around over a very slow remote connection, I found the issue.  The new server version can't handle movie folders that it doesn't have write permission to - it just stops updating when one is added, or, in my case, when the server is updated to the new version, and there are existing folders in a library without write access, it stops updating, period.  Similarly, if you add a library that contains a movie folder that doesn't have write permissions, the library won't be scanned.  The older server version either just ignored the folders without write permission, or was able to read without issues.  I suspect the issue relates to the fact that the new server version writes .nfo files etc. to the movie folder, which the old didn't, at least the way I had it set up - nothing was ever written to the movie folders before.

 

This is why creating a new library with a single movie works - that single movie folder doesn't have the write permission issues, so it works just fine and updates like it should, and writes the .nfo file.  However, as noted, once you move a movie folder without write permission into that new library folder, updates stop.

 

To solve, I had to determine which folders had write permission issues, the easiest way to do this was to move all the movie folders to a new folder.  The problem folders will require administrator privileges to move - just skip those.  So move all the movie folders except the offending ones, and then, folder by folder on the offending folders, right click -> Properties -> Security -> Advanced -> Enable inheritance

 

This will cause each of the offending movie folders to inherit the parent folder permissions, including read/write.  Once this is done, the library can be scanned and the movies will be added properly.  If you want to be even more consistent about it, right click the parent folder the movie folders are in, -> Properties -> Security -> Advanced -> Replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object.  This will reset all the movie folder permissions to be the same as the parent folder.

 

It may be possible to do that last step straight away (replace child permission entries), at which point it will give error messages for the folders it can't write permissions to, thus identifying them without having to move all the movie folders to begin with.  I didn't test this method exhaustively, and at the end of the day, you still have to change the permissions of each of the offending folders anyway, plus you have to write the folder names down.  Moving the movie folders means the only movie folders left (skipped) after the move will be the ones needing work, which was simpler for me to just fix the remaining movie folders.

 

One final tip - when moving movies around, make sure that the server is shut down.  Otherwise it will be busy writing directories and .nfo files wherever it spotted a movie folder, even long after you've moved that movie folder back to the original location.  Once everything is back where it was, and the permissions are corrected, restart the server, and it should scan the library properly.

 

I also use Emby for Kodi and had to remove and add the Movies library in Kodi and re-add it, as it stopped updating, not sure if that was a byproduct of the process or not.

 

Hopes this helps someone else.

[Luke 37254]

Hi, thanks for the info. We will test this out this scenario and see what changes can be made. Thanks.

[SHO NUT 0]

Sounds good.  I think problem arose when my brother was copying movie folders to my parent's movie directory, and somehow the folder permissions got messed up.

 

Thanks again for the work you guys do.