Movies Folders Stopped Adding New Content

[Omphalos 3]

I've been using Emby for about 6 months and it has always worked fine, until just recently where my Movies folder stopped adding new content that is added to the movie folder. Even when I do a manual scan it still doesn't add any of the new movies. It works fine for every other media folder I have set up for auto-monitoring, just not the movies anymore. And I haven't changed anything in terms of any settings or configurations, it just stopped working out of nowhere. I'm updated on the latest release, and I've tried restarting the Emby Server program as well as the server system. Still no luck. Any ideas what might be wrong? 

[Happy2Play 8281]

Can you post a server log showing a library scan. 

Other similar topics would suggest a issue with a specific item within that media folder.  Unfortunately it can be had to find the exact item.  You may have to setup a new library with new Name and Folder and gradually move items from old library to new to find the item/s that could be causing this issue.

 

[Omphalos 3]

I can post a log in a bit. But as for the point you brought up, would it be safe to assume the movie which was added to the movie folder immediately after the most recent one showing up in the library would be the movie at fault? 

Edited July 19, 2020 by Omphalos

[Happy2Play 8281]

8 minutes ago, Omphalos said:

I can post a log in a bit. But as for the point you brought up, would it be safe to assume the movie which was added to the movie folder immediately after the most recent one showing up in the library would be the movie at fault? 

Possibly, but depends on the "Date added behavior for new content:" setting on Dashboard-Library, Advanced tab.

[Carlo 4330]

On Windows you can often find an offending folder/file by just dragging a whole folder to another location.  It's not uncommon to get an error doing this.  I usually shut Emby down first so that it doesn't start going crazy doing directory scans.  I've done this a few time remotely finding issues like this.

So if you had c:\media\movies you could drag the movies folder to c:\movies.  Once it moves everything if you didn't get an error drag it back.  Hard to believe but this work a lot.

The other method is to split a library.  For example create a movie2 library and start to move media from movies to movies2 while testing scanning of both libraries to see which has the issue and using process of elimination to find the fault.

If you do find a problem file, save it and let us know.  Devs could use this to improve scanning by being able to handle the situation causing the problem and allow scanning to continue vs stopping.

[Omphalos 3]

15 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

Possibly, but depends on the "Date added behavior for new content:" setting on Dashboard-Library, Advanced tab.

I have it set to sort by date the file was created, so I moved a handful of the files that were created immediately after the last one was added but it didn't change anything. I even moved that last file as well in case maybe that was causing an issue, still no luck. 

Edited July 19, 2020 by Omphalos

[Omphalos 3]

16 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

Can you post a server log showing a library scan. 

Other similar topics would suggest a issue with a specific item within that media folder.  Unfortunately it can be had to find the exact item.  You may have to setup a new library with new Name and Folder and gradually move items from old library to new to find the item/s that could be causing this issue.

 

I ran a scan, and the scanning library message only stays on the screen for a few seconds and this is all that shows up in the log: 

 

2020-07-19 10:09:09.345 Info HttpServer: HTTP GET http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XX:8096/emby/Sync/Items/Ready?TargetId=8d5967930cb58e65. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 10; SM-G988U Build/QP1A.190711.020)
2020-07-19 10:09:09.347 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 200 to XXX.XXX.XXX.XX. Time: 2ms. http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XX:8096/emby/Sync/Items/Ready?TargetId=8d5967930cb58e65
2020-07-19 10:09:09.394 Info HttpServer: HTTP POST http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XX:8096/emby/Sync/data. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 10; SM-G988U Build/QP1A.190711.020)
2020-07-19 10:09:09.395 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 200 to XXX.XXX.XXX.XX. Time: 1ms. http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XX:8096/emby/Sync/data
2020-07-19 10:09:15.107 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/83.0.4103.116 Safari/537.36
2020-07-19 10:09:15.109 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 200 to ::1. Time: 2ms. http://localhost:8096/emby/Library/VirtualFolders
2020-07-19 10:09:15.116 Info HttpServer: HTTP GET http://localhost:8096/emby/Users/8aa1fe90655a4081b0fefbc39c179111. UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/83.0.4103.116 Safari/537.36
2020-07-19 10:09:15.117 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 200 to ::1. Time: 1ms. http://localhost:8096/emby/Users/8aa1fe90655a4081b0fefbc39c179111
2020-07-19 10:09:16.481 Info HttpServer: HTTP POST http://localhost:8096/emby/Items/f137a2dd21bbc1b99aa5c0f6bf02a805/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/83.0.4103.116 Safari/537.36
2020-07-19 10:09:16.482 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 204 to ::1. Time: 1ms. http://localhost:8096/emby/Items/f137a2dd21bbc1b99aa5c0f6bf02a805/Refresh?Recursive=true&ImageRefreshMode=Default&MetadataRefreshMode=Default&ReplaceAllImages=false&ReplaceAllMetadata=false

Edited July 19, 2020 by Omphalos
IP Address redacted

[Omphalos 3]

I just tried removing a bunch of movies which had recently been added, and when I run a scan it doesn't remove them from the library. I also tried removing the entire "Movies" library but I can't even remove it. So it seems the library is just stuck and won't let me add, remove, or change anything. 

Edited July 19, 2020 by Omphalos

[Carlo 4330]

Try doing what I mentioned above which might mean moving the whole library to figure out what the offending file/director is.

[Omphalos 3]

1 minute ago, cayars said:

Try doing what I mentioned above which might mean moving the whole library to figure out what the offending file/director is.

I was trying to essentially do that by removing the library, and I was then going to move the 100 most recent movies to another directory on the drive, and then create the library again and add them back one by one until I found the problem file. But I can't move the entire content of the movies folder to a different directory since I have other programs which access those files in their current location and moving them would mess a lot of things up. 

[Carlo 4330]

The things is that it may not be a recent file but could be an older file causing the issue.  Stuff happens, drives develop bad spots and files get corrupted which can cause havoc.

BTW, you can often find a problem file outside of Emby.  Just moving the folders will often show an error if FAT related.  I typically just move the whole mount point and see what happens as it's quick and easy to move right back again.

Edited July 19, 2020 by cayars

[Omphalos 3]

2 minutes ago, cayars said:

The things is that it may not be a recent file but could be an older file causing the issue.  Stuff happens, drives develop bad spots and files get corrupted which can cause havoc.

Ah, gotcha. I was assuming it would have been a recently added file that would be causing the issue since all the other files are static and don't change. But you're right, I guess a file corruption could cause an issue since a monitored file might be recognized as being changed. 

[Omphalos 3]

So an interesting thing happened. I finally was able to remove the movies library, I moved all of the files to a different sub folder, then started moving movies back - and it won't recognize & add a single movie. Not one. So I don't think it is a file corruption issue, it has to be something else. Any other ideas? 

Edited July 21, 2020 by Omphalos

[Carlo 4330]

When you performed a scan did you just scan just that one new library or did you do a global scan?

Did you see any scanning in the log file?

[Omphalos 3]

11 hours ago, cayars said:

When you performed a scan did you just scan just that one new library or did you do a global scan?

Did you see any scanning in the log file?

I performed a scan on just that library, and the log looked just like it did before - basically it didn't do anything. 

However, I just tried moving the movies to a new folder called Movies2 and pointed the library to that folder and VOILA! It immediately recognized all the movies. All the same files that were in the previous library. What would cause it to not recognize movies in that folder any more, when it was working just fine for the longest time and I didn't change anything? Seems like a very odd glitch. 

[Carlo 4330]

Yea, that's why I said earlier to create a Movies2 Library and move files to the new location.

I honestly haven't figured out what causes this, but have found this is a fix.  There seems to be what ever is underlying causing this and corrupt files that seem to cause this condition.

In neither case do I yet have anything to give the devs to help isolate the issue.

[Omphalos 3]

1 minute ago, cayars said:

Yea, that's why I said earlier to create a Movies2 Library and move files to the new location.

It just isn't an ideal solution since my Plex library also points to the Movies folder and I have been using that for years and have manually customized the metadata for a lot of those movies, so I'd have to do that all over again if I leave it this way. 

[Omphalos 3]

Do you think I would have any luck moving all the files to that new folder (I only moved a handful to try it out), then delete the Movie folder, and then move them all back? If it's something to do with that folder being corrupted then I'd think doing this could fix it? And if I do it while Plex is shut down, it may not recognize them all as new movies when I start it back up since the files themselves won't have changed at all - just the main folder creation date. 

Edited July 21, 2020 by Omphalos

[Carlo 4330]

Keep moving movies.  You could still have a file that is corrupt in the Movies1 library.  Just move a bunch at a time and scan both Movies1 and Movies2 to see which works and which doesn't.

In the end you'll find the culprit and will be able to move everything back to where it was, thus not screwing up the other system. 

[Omphalos 3]

Here's what I did:

1. Moved ALL the movies to the new Movies2 folder
2. Deleted the original Movies folder, emptied the recycle bin and restarted the system for good measure.
3. Ran a manual scan on the new movie library (which is pointed to Movies2), and every single movie showed up.
4. After the initial scan was done I added another new movie, and it showed up within a few minutes. Works just like it used to! 

That tells me the folder itself and every file inside of it should be fine, right? Now, to get everything back into the "Movies" folder so it doesn't change anything in Plex, I simply changed the name of the "Movies2" folder to "Movies", then redirected the newly created library from Movies2 to Movies, and.....same problem. Won't add new movies. I even then tried deleting that new library and creating it again from scratch pointed to the newly renamed Movies folder, which worked just fine when it was called Movies2, and it won't import a single movie. 

WTF. It seems to me that something is hung up in the software when it comes to a folder named "Movies", because it worked just fine when that same folder was called Movies2. 

Edited July 21, 2020 by Omphalos

[Carlo 4330]

Any chance you could install TeamViewer and allow me to take a look at your system with you to assist?

If so send me a PM.

[Luke 37057]

@Omphalos were you able to resolve this with @cayars ?

[cvananden 6]

On 7/19/2020 at 2:33 AM, cayars said:

On Windows you can often find an offending folder/file by just dragging a whole folder to another location.  It's not uncommon to get an error doing this.  I usually shut Emby down first so that it doesn't start going crazy doing directory scans.  I've done this a few time remotely finding issues like this.

So if you had c:\media\movies you could drag the movies folder to c:\movies.  Once it moves everything if you didn't get an error drag it back.  Hard to believe but this work a lot.

The other method is to split a library.  For example create a movie2 library and start to move media from movies to movies2 while testing scanning of both libraries to see which has the issue and using process of elimination to find the fault.

If you do find a problem file, save it and let us know.  Devs could use this to improve scanning by being able to handle the situation causing the problem and allow scanning to continue vs stopping.

I know this is an old post, but I recently had this happen. I did exactly what cayars said, and it fixed the library. This was after I tried rescanning, removing & readding, and moving files out of the root folder and then back in. Once I created a new folder, put the movies in there, and pointed emby to it, everything was suddenly fine again.

[Luke 37057]

14 minutes ago, cvananden said:

I know this is an old post, but I recently had this happen. I did exactly what cayars said, and it fixed the library. This was after I tried rescanning, removing & readding, and moving files out of the root folder and then back in. Once I created a new folder, put the movies in there, and pointed emby to it, everything was suddenly fine again.

Hi, thanks for sharing your experience.