Scan of Library for new files lost all my metadata

[KenLinder 4]

I did a scan for new files inside one directory of one library.  Now none of the files in that directory have any EMBY metadata; no images, nothing. Give that EMBY gets the metadata wrong about 70% to 80% of the time I get to do all that work again manually for nearly 8000 media files.

Oddly enough the EXISTING files that EMBY already knows about do not need to have THEIR metadata tampered with in order to tell the server that other files exist too.

I now have about 8000 media files with no metadata because of the amazing stupidity of the software people involved in this project.

FYI, I was senior IT for a long time. This is just... sad code all the way around. I'd swap to Plex but it's worse.

[pwhodges 2012]

2 hours ago, KenLinder said:

EMBY gets the metadata wrong about 70% to 80% of the time

This is usually because the naming guides for the media have not been followed sufficiently closely.  As a former senior IT person, you'd know well how important adhering to specifications is for reliable operation.

[KenLinder 4]

3 hours ago, pwhodges said:

This is usually because the naming guides for the media have not been followed sufficiently closely.  As a former senior IT person, you'd know well how important adhering to specifications is for reliable operation.

1) have you ever heard of the Just World Falicy? You are jumping to conclusions that cater to your biases instead of thinking things through.

2) The server has a function for updating the metadata. It is not "Scan Library Files". To update the metadata you use "Refresh Metadata" not "Scan Library Files". There is no circumstance in which scanning for new media files ought to change the metadata for preexisting files already known to the server. Claiming otherwise is just illogical.

3) Suspecting user error in a solid application would make sense, but EMBY isn't a solid application. It's buggy as all hell.

EMBY identifies 30 second clips of video as 90 minute porn movies. It makes no effort to compare a media file's length to the length of the item EMBY says it is. It has the necessary links to do this, and it doesn't. It grabs the length of the item is THINKS is has, and places that in the metadata (it's on display for each item).  "Oh look a 30 second commercial, and EMBY identifies it as David Lynch's Dune (must be a new version that's only 30 seconds long).

EMBY does regularly manages to find and point to the correct entries on imdb,com and thetvdb.com (set in the metadata correctly) and good for that.

But then EMBY ignores those links. Having found the right movie by the name (which is clear in the name of the file) EMBY goes on to set the name (Title, Original Title, Sort Title) to text that does not match anything. It also uses images that have nothing to do with the IDs it has for IMDB or thetvdb or any of the other sites it uses.

On windows EMBY server occasionally changes the access privileges on media files such that it can no longer see the media files at all. There is a steady stream of complaints on file privilege issues; and this from a piece of software that has no business changing the privileges on those files ever.

When it does this it will often lose the ability to write srt, nfo and bif files to the directory containing the media, so (having made it impossible EMBY to write files in those locations) it them puts them into AppData where it can still write data.

EMBY can even make it so that my windows user (the one I installed EMBY with) cannot delete files that I put into a library subdirectory. I have had to use EMBY to delete those media files. EMBY can manage to do this so well that only a couple of files (of many) can be seen in a directory - and all of them were viewable the day before. There is absolutely no reason for EMBY server to screw around with file permissions, and yet it does.
 

Edited February 18, 2023 by KenLinder

[pwhodges 2012]

9 hours ago, KenLinder said:

3) Suspecting user error in a solid application would make sense, but EMBY isn't a solid application. It's buggy as all hell.

You say that for you Emby gets the metadata wrong 70%-80% of the time.  For me the error rate of the same program is well under 5% - I'd say about 2%.  Maybe your library consists almost entirely of items that Emby considers pathological cases.  Or of course, if it's nothing to do with the users, their data, or their systems, it must be the phase of the moon.

Paul

[Happy2Play 9783]

Do you actually have an example of your metadata/images that were not used/lost?  

[KenLinder 4]

11 hours ago, pwhodges said:

You say that for you Emby gets the metadata wrong 70%-80% of the time.  For me the error rate of the same program is well under 5% - I'd say about 2%.  Maybe your library consists almost entirely of items that Emby considers pathological cases.  Or of course, if it's nothing to do with the users, their data, or their systems, it must be the phase of the moon.

Paul

Really mate? Phase of the moon? If you have to stoop to mocking ad hominem's to make your point, it isn't a technical point. It's an emotional point. Maybe you get a sense of power or superiority out of mocking other people but that's not exactly the best behavior in a support environment.

I checked on the permissions of the files; a thing you didn't even mention - you went straight for snark and assumptions of incompetence.

An application has been changing the ownership (at the very least) of my EMBY libraries. Not me, an application. They are now owned by "Account Unknown(S-1-5-21-4193190889-2122530177-140414812-1000)". That's the work of an application, and it isn't effecting anything OTHER than my EMBY libraries. So guess what Occam's razor says is the most likely reason.... the only application that is focused on those sundirectories - - EMBY.

[Happy2Play 9783]

Sounds like a two way street as you have yet to provide an issue or any proof.   But Emby will not change permissions on anything.  If created by Emby it will be by the User your running Emby as.  But hey you must be doing something different then the thousands of other users.

How to Report a Problem

 

[pwhodges 2012]

Occam's razor is a hard tool to use, and even then is only an indication of where you might start checking.  More Emby users don't have this problem than do have it - applying Occam's razor to that thought suggests that the problem is not with Emby but with some other part of the affected systems.

I appreciate that tracing the change of a permission is extremely difficult.  But I would also point out that the chief developer of this program (whom you have accused of not debugging it) has stated on other occasions that he has included no code for changing media files in any way..

Paul

[pwhodges 2012]

1 hour ago, KenLinder said:

"Account Unknown(S-1-5-21-4193190889-2122530177-140414812-1000)"

Have you investigated how this entry comes to exist?  That could give a clue as to the source of the ownership claim.

Bear in mind also that "Account unknown" is not "Account non-existent"; it merely means the current OS doesn't know that SID.  I know nothing of your setup, but if there are any other machines which have remote access to these folders, what do the permissions look like when viewed from them?

Paul

Edited February 19, 2023 by pwhodges