Photo library is empty - other libraries are OK

[warrencalvert 11]

Hi

 

Hoping someone can help with a newbie question.  I've just installed Emby server for the first time and created 3 libraries - one for Movies, one for home videos and one for photos.  The movie and home video libraries show all the content but the photos library is empty.  

 

The only thing I can see that's different about the photo library is that the folder name has a space in it.  

 

d:\media\movies              - this library works OK

\\server\videos                 - this library works OK

\\server\photo albums      - this library is empty and shows no items

 

both the videos and photo shares are on the same server (separate machine to that running emby) but access permissions are the same.

I know emby can see the contents of the photo albums share because when I add it as a folder in the library settings it displays all the subfolders.

I enabled debug logging and started a scan of the library but dont see anything useful in the logs, please see below.

 

Any ideas why the photo albums library is empty?

 

thanks,

Warren.

 

2020-03-23 19:30:39.762 Info LibraryMonitor: Watching directory D:\Media\Movies

2020-03-23 19:30:39.802 Info LibraryMonitor: Watching directory \\kryten\Photo Albums

2020-03-23 19:30:39.804 Info LibraryMonitor: Watching directory \\kryten\video

2020-03-23 19:30:41.843 Info HttpServer: HTTP GET http://localhost:8096/emby/Library/VirtualFolders. UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/80.0.3987.149 Safari/537.36

2020-03-23 19:30:41.845 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 200 to ::1. Time: 1ms. http://localhost:8096/emby/Library/VirtualFolders

2020-03-23 19:30:43.225 Info HttpServer: HTTP POST http://localhost:8096/emby/Items/9124b224b2ce89a7ad5bc744bac74f1c/Refresh?Recursive=true&ImageRefreshMode=Default&MetadataRefreshMode=Default&ReplaceAllImages=false&ReplaceAllMetadata=false. UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/80.0.3987.149 Safari/537.36

2020-03-23 19:30:43.226 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 204 to ::1. Time: 1ms. http://localhost:8096/emby/Items/9124b224b2ce89a7ad5bc744bac74f1c/Refresh?Recursive=true&ImageRefreshMode=Default&MetadataRefreshMode=Default&ReplaceAllImages=false&ReplaceAllMetadata=false

2020-03-23 19:30:43.327 Debug XmlSerializer: Deserializing file C:\Users\winmedia\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default\Photo Albums\options.xml

2020-03-23 19:30:43.329 Debug XmlSerializer: Deserializing file C:\Users\winmedia\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default\Photo Albums\options.xml

2020-03-23 19:30:43.333 Debug App: CollectionFolderImageProvider reports change to 114967 - C:\Users\winmedia\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default\Photo Albums

2020-03-23 19:30:43.333 Debug App: Running CollectionFolderImageProvider for C:\Users\winmedia\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default\Photo Albums

2020-03-23 19:31:39.576 Info HttpServer: HTTP GET http://localhost:8096/emby/Library/VirtualFolders. UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/80.0.3987.149 Safari/537.36

2020-03-23 19:31:39.577 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 200 to ::1. Time: 1ms. http://localhost:8096/emby/Library/VirtualFolders

2020-03-23 19:31:39.580 Info HttpServer: HTTP GET http://localhost:8096/emby/Users/833d0ba581bd4ab89478eefff19aae25. UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/80.0.3987.149 Safari/537.36

2020-03-23 19:31:39.581 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 200 to ::1. Time: 1ms. http://localhost:8096/emby/Users/833d0ba581bd4ab89478eefff19aae25

2020-03-23 19:31:41.283 Info HttpServer: HTTP POST http://localhost:8096/emby/Items/9124b224b2ce89a7ad5bc744bac74f1c/Refresh?Recursive=true&ImageRefreshMode=Default&MetadataRefreshMode=Default&ReplaceAllImages=false&ReplaceAllMetadata=false. UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/80.0.3987.149 Safari/537.36

2020-03-23 19:31:41.285 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 204 to ::1. Time: 2ms. http://localhost:8096/emby/Items/9124b224b2ce89a7ad5bc744bac74f1c/Refresh?Recursive=true&ImageRefreshMode=Default&MetadataRefreshMode=Default&ReplaceAllImages=false&ReplaceAllMetadata=false

2020-03-23 19:31:41.386 Debug XmlSerializer: Deserializing file C:\Users\winmedia\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default\Photo Albums\options.xml

2020-03-23 19:31:41.389 Debug XmlSerializer: Deserializing file C:\Users\winmedia\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default\Photo Albums\options.xml

2020-03-23 19:31:41.393 Debug App: CollectionFolderImageProvider reports change to 114967 - C:\Users\winmedia\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default\Photo Albums

2020-03-23 19:31:41.393 Debug App: Running CollectionFolderImageProvider for C:\Users\winmedia\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default\Photo Albums

 

 

[Luke 37231]

Hi, what format photos do you have?

[warrencalvert 11]

There are a large number of nested folders and subfolders with around 50000 JPG and 40000 NEF.

When I click 'scan library files' it says 'scanning library files' for about a second then stops.  It shows no items.  For the other folders, a library scan runs for much longer and shows all the content.

 

thanks,

[Luke 37231]

Can we look at an example?

[warrencalvert 11]

Sure, attached is an example photo.  This one is in the root folder.

I have at least a dozen over applications I use for managing, editing, processing and viewing my photo library and have been building this library for 20 years.  No apps have any issues accessing any of the photos.  So I can assure you there's no problem with the photo library or its contents.

 

thanks

Edited March 27, 2020 by warrencalvert

[Luke 37231]

What does the folder structure look like under \\server\photo albums ?

[warrencalvert 11]

 Attached are screenshots of the folder structure for the root folder and one of the subfolders.

They're all pretty similar - several levels of subfolders with a mix of JPG, NEF and occasionally a few other picture types.

 

I cant imagine why it would have a problem with any of these.

 

[ebr 14958]

I see a ".plexignore" in that folder.  There isn't also a ".ignore" file in there too is there?

[warrencalvert 11]

No, there's no file called ".ignore" either in the root or in any of the subfolders.

[Luke 37231]

I can't imagine this will matter, but just for testing purposes, if you remove the plexignore file, then run a scan, does that help?

[warrencalvert 11]

I've removed this file but a scan still returns no files from the Photo Albums folder.

For reference, I'm also running Plex on the same server as Emby.  Plex has no problem scanning all the photos in this network share.

It is odd because as I said before, there's another share for Videos on the same server as the Photo Albums share.  Emby sees all the content in the Videos share so its not a network/permissions issue.

 

It just doesnt make any sense.

[Luke 37231]

 

d:\media\movies              - this library works OK

\\server\videos                 - this library works OK

\\server\photo albums      - this library is empty and shows no items

So these are the only emby libraries you've created, and these are the folder paths you've used?

[Happy2Play 8351]

\\server\videos                 - this library works OK

\\server\photo albums      - this library is empty and shows no items

Just a guess but what are the actual paths to these folders?

[warrencalvert 11]

Thanks for the continued help, i'm trying to switch to Emby from Plex and pleased with what I see so far.  Photos is the only thing holding me back!

 

I did some more testing and found something interesting.  I created a brand new share on my file server and copied some photos across then added this to the Emby library.  It saw it and all the photos.  So I started copying some more.  Then all of a sudden Emby said the library was empty and  contained no files.

I figured out that if there is at least one .NEF file in the library Emby reports the entire library as being empty.  As soon as I remove all the NEF files the rest of the JPG photos reappear.

 

Since I have a significant number of NEF photos in my library this is a major bug for me and will prevent me from using Emby.  Are you aware of this bug and are you able to fix?

 

thanks,

warren.

[Happy2Play 8351]

Hmm, I have test .NEF images on my Windows test server in the root of the folder and within sub-folders without issue.

[Luke 37231]

Thanks for the continued help, i'm trying to switch to Emby from Plex and pleased with what I see so far.  Photos is the only thing holding me back!

 

I did some more testing and found something interesting.  I created a brand new share on my file server and copied some photos across then added this to the Emby library.  It saw it and all the photos.  So I started copying some more.  Then all of a sudden Emby said the library was empty and  contained no files.

I figured out that if there is at least one .NEF file in the library Emby reports the entire library as being empty.  As soon as I remove all the NEF files the rest of the JPG photos reappear.

 

Since I have a significant number of NEF photos in my library this is a major bug for me and will prevent me from using Emby.  Are you aware of this bug and are you able to fix?

 

thanks,

warren.

Hi, is this repeatable if you copy it in/out and run library scans each time?

[warrencalvert 11]

Unfortunately it doesnt appear to be repeatable or predictable.

I repeated the same test again today on the small test folder containing NEFs and the library displayed OK.

So I added some more folders and these worked too.  Then at some point it broke and the whole library was empty.

I have tried adding/removing folders one at a time but I've now spent hours doing this and its just completely unpredictable and random.  Sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt.  Its not the same folder each time that causes it to break.

 

I feel I'm spending hours just aimlessly doing random stuff with no clear way forward.  I think the only way we're going to fix this is for you to analyse some debug logs and work out where and how Emby is failing.  Is this something you can help with?

 

thanks,

Warren.

[warrencalvert 11]

I've just noticed something else, not sure if this is relevant or not.

While I was testing with one folder (adding/ scanning/ removing/ scanning/ then repeating with different folders), I got the usual random behaviour where sometimes it scanned the folders and showed the content, sometimes it didnt scan and said there were no files.

 

However once I sat for maybe 5 or 10 minutes trying to figure out what's going on then after a long delay it started scanning one of the folders.

Maybe this is the issue and for some reason the library scan process just doesnt run when I'm expecting it to.  When I click 'scan library files' I get a  pop  up in the bottom left of the screen saying 'scanning library files' but this disappears after a couple of seconds.  Sometimes I see a green bar at the top moving left to right which I guess indicates progress.  But sometimes this bar is just grey with no green progress and sometimes the bar doesnt appear at all.

 

So could it be a problem with the scanning process itself?  

I'm also aware that I have 90,000 photos in my photo library so would expect a full scan to take a long time but if there's no progress bar (not even an empty grey bar) it doesnt appear to be running at all sometimes.

 

I'm hoping there are some debug logs I can send to you so you can work out what Emby is doing (or not doing).  Please advise.

[warrencalvert 11]

In answer to the previous question about server paths, here's what I have

 

\\kryten\CD archive                       Music CDs - works OK

\\kryten\Video                               Home videos - works OK

\\kryten\Video\Movies                   Movie files - works OK

\\kryten\Photo Albums                  Photos - doesnt see any content

\\kryten\Photo Albums\Cycling     Cycling photos - just one example of one of the subfolders which sometimes works OK.  Sometimes I add subfolders and they work OK, sometimes I add subfolders and it says there's no content (even if the folder worked previously)

[ebr 14958]

\\kryten\Photo Albums                  Photos - doesnt see any content

\\kryten\Photo Albums\Cycling     Cycling photos - just one example of one of the subfolders which sometimes works OK.  Sometimes I add subfolders and they work OK, sometimes I add subfolders and it says there's no content (even if the folder worked previously)

 

You don't have two different libraries pointing to those two locations do you?

[warrencalvert 11]

No, the only other library folders I have configured are

  TV Shows         D:\Media\TV Shows     (a local drive, which works OK)

  Movies              D:\Media\Movies          (again, local drive which works OK)

 

There are no other libraries pointing to \\kryten

 

I only added the \cycling folder as a test because the root folder wasnt working.  I probably should also point out that subfolders (e.g. \\kryten\photo albums\cycling) only start to scan content when I remove the root folder.  If the root folder is listed then any subfolders I add show no content.  But as soon as I remove the root folder, then the subfolders start to scan.  In case you're wondering, I've tried removing all files from the root folder so its completely empty other than the subfolders but this didnt help.

[ebr 14958]

I only added the \cycling folder as a test because the root folder wasnt working.  I probably should also point out that subfolders (e.g. \\kryten\photo albums\cycling) only start to scan content when I remove the root folder.  If the root folder is listed then any subfolders I add show no content.  But as soon as I remove the root folder, then the subfolders start to scan.  In case you're wondering, I've tried removing all files from the root folder so its completely empty other than the subfolders but this didnt help.

 

So you pointed a single library to both of those folders?  That would probably be a problem because one of them is a subset of the other...

[warrencalvert 11]

yes, I see why the test didnt work.  Any ideas why the root folder wont work?

[warrencalvert 11]

well, I've subscribed to Emby Premiere now.  If you can just get the photo library working for me I would be very happy.

[Luke 37231]

 

\\kryten\Photo Albums                  Photos - doesnt see any content

\\kryten\Photo Albums\Cycling     Cycling photos - just one example of one of the subfolders which sometimes works OK.  Sometimes I add subfolders and they work OK, sometimes I add subfolders and it says there's no content (even if the folder worked previously)

 

Right this is not supported. Try removing that last one, then running a full library scan.