Photo library is empty - other libraries are OK

[warrencalvert 11]

As I explained, the cycling folder was only added as a test.  Sorry for the confusion.

I've gone back to the original configuration where I have only the "\\kryten\photo albums" folder in the library and this folder is not present in any other libraries.

 

Can anyone help to work out why this library contains no content?

 

thanks

[ebr 14959]

Have you made sure you are seeing hidden and system files when you are looking at the contents of that folder?  Have you shown us all the contents of that root folder?

[warrencalvert 11]

Yes, I've checked the source folder on the server and there are no files in the root folder.  I've moved everything out of the root folder for testing so it is completely empty.  There are no hidden or system files there either.

I have also tried copying a test photo from another folder in to the root so there is just one file there but again a library scan completes in about a second and says 'no items found'

[megamacx 3]

Hello there..

 

This is also happening to me. Not only with Pictures but also with Videos. (Coincidentally, Movies and Music gets scanned without issues)

 

I am a longtime Emby user, and I noticed new Videos were picked up by scans. I noticed this on the version before latest, but also on the latest.

 

Thinking that an Emby uninstall/reinstall would fix this, I reinstalled Emby.

 

Well, the library now is empty for Pictures and Videos, but is ok for Movies and Music. Every media source is a file share with the same permissions for years. I double checked permissions and everything checks out, but still can't pinpoint why the scan seems to just ignore Pictures and Videos. (Is there any particular log I can check for errors?).

 

I have rebuilt Emby 2 or 3 times, same result.

 

Thoughts?

Edited April 2, 2020 by megamacx

[warrencalvert 11]

Interesting to see its not just me.

 

Guys, what can we do to troubleshoot this?  Emby is a great product but having an empty photo library is really preventing me switching from Plex/Kodi.

 

thanks,

[ebr 14959]

Is this truly a root folder on a drive?  We have seen strange issues with those sometimes due to system files.

 

If you take what was your root photo folder and just move the whole thing under another folder, then point your library to the root of your photos as opposed to the actual root, does it work?

[warrencalvert 11]

Its not a root folder on the drive, the actual path on the server is several subfolders down but Emby doesnt see the actual path on the server, it only sees the share name and folders.

So I moved the contents of "\\kryten\photo albums" to "\\kryten\photo albums\photo folder" then scanned the library again (still with the folder "\\kryten\photo albums", with no files found.

Then I deleted the library and created a new one with only the folder "\\kryten\photo albums\photo folder" configured and scanned the library.  Again, no files are found.

 

The only way I can get it to display photos is to add one of the subfolders of this folder i.e. if I create a new library and have only "\\kryten\photo albums\photo folder\cycling" in the library then it shows the photos in this folder.

If I do this for other sub folders it shows them.

However this isnt a workable solution since I need to see the first level of folders - I cant add only the subfolders because that will present a mess of folders with no way of knowing which folder they belong to.

[ebr 14959]

That really seems to point to something in that root folder tripping it up.  What, exactly is in that folder?  Only sub-folders?

[warrencalvert 11]

Yes, the root folder is empty, it only contains subfolders.

I checked on the server that there are no hidden or system files so it is definitely empty.

I also tried adding a photo to the root folder in case it doesnt like it being empty but that didnt fix it either.

 

This is really strange.

[ebr 14959]

Okay, try adding each of the sub-folders to your library one at a time and lets see where it starts to have a problem...

[warrencalvert 11]

yes, I can try that but I do have a lot of folders and they contain a lot of photos so working through them all one at a time will be several hours' work.

 

Why is there no debug logging in emby to tell us what file/folder its having a problem with?

[ebr 14959]

Why is there no debug logging in emby to tell us what file/folder its having a problem with?

 

It is likely a condition we're not aware of.

[megamacx 3]

Forgot to mention that "TV Shows" is also experiencing the same issue as "Videos" and "Pictures".  This case is maybe more evident since the media is stored on drive on the same machine (not a network share).  The only thing I see in the log is here:

 

2020-04-02 13:21:50.313 Debug XmlSerializer: Deserializing file C:\Users\user01\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default\TV shows\options.xml

2020-04-02 13:21:50.314 Debug XmlSerializer: Deserializing file C:\Users\user01\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default\TV shows\options.xml

2020-04-02 13:21:50.315 Debug App: CollectionFolderImageProvider reports change to 11728 - C:\Users\user01\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default\TV shows

2020-04-02 13:21:50.315 Debug App: Running CollectionFolderImageProvider for C:\Users\user01\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default\TV shows

2020-04-02 13:21:50.391 Debug App: FolderImageProvider reports change to 11822 - D:\Recorded TV\TempSWMC

2020-04-02 13:21:50.391 Debug App: Running FolderImageProvider for D:\Recorded TV\TempSWMC

2020-04-02 13:21:50.392 Debug App: FolderImageProvider reports change to 11835 - D:\Recorded TV\TempSWMC\imageCache

2020-04-02 13:21:50.392 Debug App: Running FolderImageProvider for D:\Recorded TV\TempSWMC\imageCache

2020-04-02 13:21:50.393 Debug App: FolderImageProvider reports change to 11836 - D:\Recorded TV\TempSWMC\imageCache\channelIcons

2020-04-02 13:21:50.393 Debug App: Running FolderImageProvider for D:\Recorded TV\TempSWMC\imageCache\channelIcons

2020-04-02 13:21:50.393 Debug App: FolderImageProvider reports change to 11837 - D:\Recorded TV\TempSWMC\imageCache\programImages

2020-04-02 13:21:50.393 Debug App: Running FolderImageProvider for D:\Recorded TV\TempSWMC\imageCache\programImages

2020-04-02 13:21:50.394 Debug App: FolderImageProvider reports change to 11838 - D:\Recorded TV\TempSWMC\imageCache\userChannelImages

2020-04-02 13:21:50.394 Debug App: Running FolderImageProvider for D:\Recorded TV\TempSWMC\imageCache\userChannelImages

2020-04-02 13:21:50.395 Debug App: FolderImageProvider reports change to 11839 - D:\Recorded TV\TempSWMC\imageCache\userProgramImages

2020-04-02 13:21:50.395 Debug App: Running FolderImageProvider for D:\Recorded TV\TempSWMC\imageCache\userProgramImages

 

the folder "D:\Recorded TV" has .wtv files. 

 

Trying to come up with other ways to test, is there a way to install (or get) a previous build (maybe the last stable one from 2019) to see if this behavior change?

[Luke 37242]

yes, I can try that but I do have a lot of folders and they contain a lot of photos so working through them all one at a time will be several hours' work.

 

Why is there no debug logging in emby to tell us what file/folder its having a problem with?

 

Hi, there is. Have you explored the logs page in Emby Server?

 

Anyway please see if Emby Server 4.4.1 helps with this. Thanks.

[warrencalvert 11]

You'll be pleased to hear I've finally found the issue.

 

In my photo library share there is one folder containing confidential files which dont want shared publicly on the network so permissions are restricted and the media centre PC doesnt have access to it.  It appears that Emby cant handle this and says the entire library is empty.  I would expect Emby to behave like every other application I have including Kodi and Plex where it just skips folders it cant access.

 

I guess its an obscure bug that wont affect many people but you should add it to your to-do list.  Since the share is on a Windows server I enabled Access Based Enumeration so Emby no longer sees any folders it doesnt have access to and the photo library now scans succesfully.

 

I hope this is helpful for anyone else who encounters this - it took me a week to identify what was causing it.  

 

As a suggestion, a log file that said 'error scanning folder xxx' would have saved us all a considerable amount of time and effort.

[ebr 14959]

Thanks for the information.  Glad we finally got to the bottom of it.

[Luke 37242]

Thanks for the feedback.

[megamacx 3]

You'll be pleased to hear I've finally found the issue.

 

In my photo library share there is one folder containing confidential files which dont want shared publicly on the network so permissions are restricted and the media centre PC doesnt have access to it. It appears that Emby cant handle this and says the entire library is empty. I would expect Emby to behave like every other application I have including Kodi and Plex where it just skips folders it cant access.

 

I guess its an obscure bug that wont affect many people but you should add it to your to-do list. Since the share is on a Windows server I enabled Access Based Enumeration so Emby no longer sees any folders it doesnt have access to and the photo library now scans succesfully.

 

I hope this is helpful for anyone else who encounters this - it took me a week to identify what was causing it.

 

As a suggestion, a log file that said 'error scanning folder xxx' would have saved us all a considerable amount of time and effort.

Thanks Warren. You are right spot on. After reading your reply, I started looking at any subfolders with different permissions than it's parent folder had and the there it was, a folder several levels deep that had different permissions and caused Emby to stop indexing. In my case was difficult to pinpoint since everything was working fine until earlier this year when I noticed no new content was being indexed. I tried to recreate the folder in Emby and there was when I lost everything. I re-enabled permissions inheritance and things started working again.

 

This is something that definitely needs to be looked into. (no matter at what level in the hierarchy is the folder with different permissions, it will make indexing stop to the whole content folder).

[Luke 37242]

That's great info, thanks. We'll take a look at that.

[marky9074 1]

Hi there, just installed and also trying to come from Plex with photos holding me up. I'm running it on a Synology 716+ and believe it is either a conflict with photostation which is the owner of the shared folder or some permissions or ownership issues. Creating a new share, and copying over a token single directory of files works OK. The emby user has full read/write permissions on the stock /photo share created by photostation.

[Luke 37242]

Hi there, just installed and also trying to come from Plex with photos holding me up. I'm running it on a Synology 716+ and believe it is either a conflict with photostation which is the owner of the shared folder or some permissions or ownership issues. Creating a new share, and copying over a token single directory of files works OK. The emby user has full read/write permissions on the stock /photo share created by photostation.

 

Hi, yes this is almost always an issue of permissions.

[happpyg 19]

Thankyou!!!  I got stumped by this too for a while with nothing in the logs that I could see to indicate what was wrong.  Access Based Enumeration sorted it for me.  I agree with warrencalvert, something in the logs to indicate an access error would have saved me a load of time.

Thanks

[troed 0]

Oh wow - this bit me too. I've been fighting for days trying to understand how come first no new movies were picked up, and then why after removing and re-adding (incl. deleting database) absolutely nothing in my Movies folder was picked up.

Faulty group permission (on Linux) for one of the folders. And yeah, not a single helpful clue in the logs.

 

This thread saved my sanity, but this really can be handled better

[Luke 37242]

If the server fails to access the contents of your folders, then that should print an error message in the logs.

[PetraWebstein 0]

I am also not seeing any photos in there, looking through the folders, do you support .heic images?