Manually backup & restore issue

[Jaha 2]

Followed Emby Backup manually guide to migrate emby to a fresh OS install and have some problems.

All my libraries is empty, containing no paths, defaults to mixed content and seems to have default settings.

Only the name of the library is correct. 

 

Thanks if someone can give som tips how to fix?

 

Just for test i set up one library and the watch status was there, but i think it scanned it from NFO-file.

So other users will not get back thier watch status, where are watch status for users stored?

 

[Luke 42085]

Quote

So other users will not get back thier watch status, where are watch status for users stored?

Hi, in the server database, not nfo files. What exactly did you select to restore? What do you see in Emby library setup?

[Jaha 2]

Thanks for fast reply.
I tried to backup and restore exactly as the guide, so this folders:

• /ProgramData/config
• /ProgramData/plugins
• /ProgramData/data/collections
• /ProgramData/data/playlists
• /ProgramData/data/displaypreferences.db
• /ProgramData/data/users.db
• /ProgramData/data/library.db
• /ProgramData/metadata (not library and views)

Attached how it looks like in library setup. 

 

[Luke 42085]

OK that's strange. I would go ahead and setup the libraries manually then. We'll look into why this might have happened. Thanks.

[Happy2Play 9783]

@Luke Looks like \programdata\root\default is missing and the server is trying to recover libraries from database ie making everything mixed content as no library configs exist.

[Jaha 2]

I have setup the libraries again and it seems to work, users get watch status right, how does it work?
Relation beween items in library.db and users.db? Good to know next time i will do a fresh install.

The root folder is not a part of the manually backup/restore guide, in therory could it mess things up to include it when backup/restore?
I just starting to get my library right so dont wanna test it out for the time being.

[Happy2Play 9783]

14 hours ago, Jaha said:

I have setup the libraries again and it seems to work, users get watch status right, how does it work?
Relation beween items in library.db and users.db? Good to know next time i will do a fresh install.

Userdata use providerids to track watched status, but if item does not have providerids then it is tracked by a databaseid and is lost if item is ever moved.

User.db provides an id per user, in turn that userid is used in the library.db userdatas table.  So both are needed to maintain correct userdata to specific user.

14 hours ago, Jaha said:

The root folder is not a part of the manually backup/restore guide, in therory could it mess things up to include it when backup/restore?

It breaks all library content types as you have seen.  Ideally you need the entire Emby programdata folder to have a mirror copy of your install.  But yes items like the cache, logs, transcode-temp, sync, updates folders are not needed in a transfer.

Required would be config, data, root, but plugins and metadata are optional.  Metadata is somewhat required to maintain specific images for people, genre, library as images not saved with media.  Plugins are dependent on if you have additional plugins installed beside default.

Technically /data/collections info is obsolete as it is no longer used and moved to /metadata/collections

[Jaha 2]

@Happy2Play Alright, good to know how it works, thanks.

I do have some content without providerids, so need to look out here.

About the backup process: Next time i will test with your suggestions, with config, data, metadata, plugins, root and see how it goes.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Jaha