Metadata changes disappeared

[franekbg 0]

I have Emby server running on Centos8 and libraries are mounted using Samba. They are on a Buffalo NAS. This setup works great. Later on I spent several hours editing metadata using Metadata Manager to fix the issue of incorrect grouping of songs for several albums - the artist names were different. I saved the changes setting the flag "Lock this item to prevent future changes". I was happy to see it all work - until it did NOT. All albums were accessible and organized as i wanted. After i returned from my holiday trip i opened the app and saw all changes disappear. the Centos server and Emby server were restarted before i saw the changes lost. Tried to find file locations where these changes are stored by the number of directories being updated is overwhelming so i got stuck. Two questions:

1. Is the feature of saving metadata fully functional in the standard version of Emby? if so, did i miss something saving the changes?

2. What could have caused the data to be returned to the state i got after the initial scan and before my changes were made?

Franeik

[Happy2Play 9780]

Musics is driven by embedded tagging and currently does not use album nfo files.  So with music you should be editing track tags in a tagging program not EMBY.

Edited January 16, 2022 by Happy2Play

[Luke 42077]

@franekbg

You can use the metadata editor but we recommend editing the tags within the audio files and then running a library scan in Emby Server after doing taht.

Please let us know if this helps. Thanks !

[franekbg 0]

Used Picard MusicBrandz to manage the tags. All changes persist. Success!

One comment, there should be some clarification within Emby Metadata manager explaining what can and what cannot be done. I wasted several hours editing in Emby to find out it was a mistake.

 

• Thanks for your help

[Luke 42077]

Quote

One comment, there should be some clarification within Emby Metadata manager explaining what can and what cannot be done. 

Hi, yes that's a good point. Thanks for the feedback.

[franekbg 0]

I changed Centos to Ubuntu and reinstalled my Emby server. Forgot about the problem i had and ran into it again. The documentation for Music still directs to use Metadata manager for changing tags and as i found out it does not work properly.

[user24 312]

Upon re-reading the official Emby Music Naming documentation just now,  I think it does provide the correct information. But, I do also remember having quite a few false starts with Emby myself, before getting the hang of it, so perhaps some of the music metadata aspects could be made more obvious for the beginner or those not fully familiar with the music naming conventions?  I know you guys are super-busy on 4.10, so without rewriting the whole Music Naming documentation (which would then need a lot of checking) here is my attempt at a shortish new intro which may be helpful...???

Quote

 

Music Naming

Emby for music is completely tag-based which means all common Song-level information is read and imported from the tags directly embedded in your music tracks. This includes tags such as Title, Track Number, Artist, Composer, Album, Album Artist, Genre and Year. (Refer to Tagging Your Tracks below for more information.) Artist-level information, such as Artist Overview, is typically first fetched from your selected metadata downloaders, e.g. MusicBrainz.

Important note: It is recommended to update your Song-level embedded metadata using a third-party tagging application to ensure that Emby accepts and retains the changes. If you update this information within the Emby metadata editor only, then your changes may not be retained upon a Library rescan.

Folder Structure

Folder structure in Emby 4.6 and later versions is not mandatory but can be a useful way to organize your media.

The recommended folder structure for music is Artist\Album\Song

 

This intro now emphasizes the embedded metadata aspect and separates the Folder Structure into its own main section. Everything else below stays the same as it is now. Feel free to use this as is (I hope there are no errors) or alter as you wish...