NFO Files Are Not Generating Alongside Media

[samstheman3 1]

Hello,

I am running Emby 4.7.8.0 on Ubuntu Server 22.04.1 LTS.

I have been wanting to backup all my metadata on my Emby Server (images, titles, album artists, etc.) recently, and after researching online it would seem the way to do that is to have the metadata be saved in the same directory as the media in a Nfo file.

I have been attempting to do just that, but the Nfo files don't appear to be generating.

Here's an example of my process:

1. I have a Music library with 'Nfo' checked underneath 'Metadata Savers', and 'Save artwork into media folders' checked as well.
2. I go into Metadata Manager, and navigate to... say 'Music/Alan_Jackson/Let_it_be_Christmas/Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas'.
3. I save the song 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' in Metadata Manager.
4. I check the 'Let_it_be_Christmas' directory on my server, and no Nfo file has been been created for that song.

These are the common fixes I've found online that didn't appear to work for me:

• I have been checking my logs and there doesn't appear to be any permission errors in regards to writing the .nfo files.
• I have tried refreshing the metadata for the song 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' as well, but that didn't appear to generate it either.

I am at a loss as to why these Nfo files aren't generating.

Am I looking in the wrong place? Do I not have something configured correctly?

[Luke 42078]

Hi, songs do not get nfo files, only albums and artists. To get nfo files for albums and artists, you'll also need to configure the music folder structure option at the top of the library settings dialog.

Please let us know if this helps. Thanks.

[samstheman3 1]

Ok I think I'm understanding...

The reason why songs don't get nfo files is because you can tag the .mp3 files themselves correct?

And as for configuring the folder structure, I have normal songs under artists -> albums -> songs, but I also have several video game OSTs under just video game name -> songs.

What folder structure would you recommend for that? Right now I have it on 'Other or unstructured'.

[Luke 42078]

41 minutes ago, samstheman3 said:

Ok I think I'm understanding...

The reason why songs don't get nfo files is because you can tag the .mp3 files themselves correct?

Correct, and also, given the often large size of music libraries, nfo's for every single song would add a lot of disk i/o to the library scan so that is a factor as well.

Quote

And as for configuring the folder structure, I have normal songs under artists -> albums -> songs, but I also have several video game OSTs under just video game name -> songs.

What folder structure would you recommend for that? Right now I have it on 'Other or unstructured'.

I would leave it on Other because if you tell the server you have a certain structure and but then your files don't actually match that, then you're most likely going to see various quirks caused by that.

You might be able to make it work with Albums -> Songs though.

[samstheman3 1]

I will give that a try, thank you for the suggestions.

You answered my original question though in regards to the nfo files for the music.

Looks like I'll need to go back through my library and start tagging the mp3s.

Thank you for the help!

[Luke 42078]

Let us know how you get on. Thanks.

[samstheman3 1]

It has been a minute but I figured I should give an update.

I have gone back through my music library and tagged all my .mp3's (hence the long time gap), so I have that going for me in terms of backup.

I thought I'd look back into maybe generating NFOs for albums and artists but I can't seem to find the setting to enable NFOs now.

I feel silly since I've obviously seen it before... just not now.

I looked under my Music library settings but I only found the 'Save artwork into media folders' setting.

Am I looking in the wrong spot maybe?

All in all, I'm happy that I got the music itself squared away, but getting the artists and album info backed up as well would be nice.

[Luke 42078]

On 11/17/2022 at 11:32 PM, samstheman3 said:

It has been a minute but I figured I should give an update.

I have gone back through my music library and tagged all my .mp3's (hence the long time gap), so I have that going for me in terms of backup.

I thought I'd look back into maybe generating NFOs for albums and artists but I can't seem to find the setting to enable NFOs now.

I feel silly since I've obviously seen it before... just not now.

I looked under my Music library settings but I only found the 'Save artwork into media folders' setting.

Am I looking in the wrong spot maybe?

All in all, I'm happy that I got the music itself squared away, but getting the artists and album info backed up as well would be nice.

@samstheman3

Hi, did you enable the artist and album nfo savers in your music library options?

[Happy2Play 9780]

On 10/3/2022 at 6:01 AM, samstheman3 said:

Music/Alan_Jackson/Let_it_be_Christmas/Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

@LukeWhat cause metadata to be saved in /metatadata instead of with media?

[Luke 42078]

For artists, you need to set the music folder structure option to artists\albums\track. 

And then the tracks need to be tagged with the album artist values, and these values need to match the artist folder name. The fact that his artist folder name has an underscore _ is OK, the server will treat that the same as a space so that won't throw off the comparison with the tagged value.

[samstheman3 1]

@Luke, thank you for detailing how that works.

I feel silly asking this, but where is the artist and album NFO savers in my music library options?

I have looked through my music library's settings (settings  -> library -> music) but there's not a mention of NFO settings in it.
I even looked back at my original post and I mention a 'Metadata Savers' section that I'm not seeing now.

I'm currently running the latest version: 4.7.10.0

Edited December 7, 2022 by samstheman3

[Luke 42078]

Hi, click on your music library in Emby library setup, and it's near the middle of the dialog. you'll need to have the nfo plugin installed in order to see those options, which it is by default. So just double check that you didn't remove it.

[samstheman3 1]

@Luke Ahhhh the plugin was the issue.
I now have the 'Nfo Metadata' plugin installed.
I guess I uninstalled it at some point, my bad.

Now, I have 'Nfo' checked under the 'Metadata Readers' and 'Metadata Savers' sections in my music library settings.
I have the music folder structure set to 'Perfectly organized into artist/album folders, with tracks directly in the album folders'.
So if I go to 'Alan_Jackson' in metadata manager -> refresh metadata -> search for missing metadata... I should be generating NFO files right? Or do I need to replace all metadata?

Edited December 8, 2022 by samstheman3

[Luke 42078]

I think either should be fine.

[samstheman3 1]

@Luke So it would appear the NFOs are not generating when I try that.
At this point, it would mean a permissions issue or a folder structure issue correct?

[Luke 42078]

11 minutes ago, samstheman3 said:

@Luke So it would appear the NFOs are not generating when I try that.
At this point, it would mean a permissions issue or a folder structure issue correct?

Can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks.

[samstheman3 1]

6 hours ago, Luke said:

Can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks.

Sure.

This is the following folder structure for my example:
Music library -> Alan_Jackson -> Let_it_be_Christmas -> MP3s

I have 'Nfo' checked under the 'Metadata Readers' and 'Metadata Savers' sections in my music library settings.
I have the music folder structure set to 'Perfectly organized into artist/album folders, with tracks directly in the album folders'.

I go to metadata manager -> Music library -> Alan_Jackson -> refresh metadata -> search for missing metadata.

I do not see any NFO files generate in the Alan_Jackson or Let_it_be_Christmas directories after the metadata refresh.

With that being said, not all of my directories are structured like this.
For example, I have several video game OSTs and movie scores that are just music library -> game/movie -> MP3s.
Will I need to get everything structured the same before NFOs can start generating?

[Luke 42078]

1 hour ago, samstheman3 said:

Sure.

This is the following folder structure for my example:
Music library -> Alan_Jackson -> Let_it_be_Christmas -> MP3s

I have 'Nfo' checked under the 'Metadata Readers' and 'Metadata Savers' sections in my music library settings.
I have the music folder structure set to 'Perfectly organized into artist/album folders, with tracks directly in the album folders'.

I go to metadata manager -> Music library -> Alan_Jackson -> refresh metadata -> search for missing metadata.

I do not see any NFO files generate in the Alan_Jackson or Let_it_be_Christmas directories after the metadata refresh.

With that being said, not all of my directories are structured like this.
For example, I have several video game OSTs and movie scores that are just music library -> game/movie -> MP3s.
Will I need to get everything structured the same before NFOs can start generating?

Try opening the metadata for that artist and just clicking save and see if that generates an nfo file.

And yes, you may run into problems with any content in the music library that doesn't match the folder struture. You should either reorganize those, or just go back to Other (Unstructured). There's no nfo support with that, but any folder structure will work.

[samstheman3 1]

On 12/9/2022 at 11:25 PM, Luke said:

Try opening the metadata for that artist and just clicking save and see if that generates an nfo file.

Just tried that, unfortunately no NFO files appear to be generating in the Alan_Jackson or Let_it_be_Christmas directories still.

At this point, I will probably go back and reorganize my library (it needs doing anyway).
This will probably be another long hiatus since this reorganization will take time but I'll update this thread with whether or not that will fix it.

Thank you very much for all the help you've been so far.

Edited December 14, 2022 by samstheman3

[Luke 42078]

Let us know how you get on. Thanks.