Replace Emby-sourced images with external downloads automatically?

[serein 0]

Hi! I have been using Emby for about 6 months now, running on Unraid. Generally, my movies are in the standard folder naming convention, such as:

/media/Movies/Really Great Film (2007)/Really Great Film (2007).mkv

At most, there might be an external .srt file in there, but often just the film. Emby downloads primary/backdrop images via the built-in fetcher, to wherever they go if you don't check the "Save artwork into media folders" box. That works great, and no issues with the system.

Often, however, I end up finding other poster and/or backdrop images from external sources, such as theposterdb or tinymediamanager. Those get placed in the folders with the movies as poster.jpg and fanart.jpg. The question I have is, how can I get Emby to recognize that those are there, and prioritize those over the ones it previously downloaded through the fetcher? Right now, it definitely can tell the new images are there, as I can go to Edit Images on an item and it shows both backdrops, for example. But when I first open the media item, it still uses the Emby-sourced one first (and does a slow-slideshow-alternating in the background, at least on the web). If I have manually added external images, my goal is to have those be the only ones Emby uses from then on for that item, replacing the previously fetched ones.

Is there a setting or configuration or plugin I can use to make this happen? Thanks!

[Luke 42078]

Hi, just run a normal library scan and the images in the folders will get picked up.

[serein 0]

Right, that gets them picked up (and the scheduled scan does the same). But then it has both of the images in there, and I'm wondering if there's a way to only have it keep the one I externally added.

Example: https://i.imgur.com/LxFCuyG.jpg

Obviously, for an individual movie, I can just delete the Emby-fetched one there. But is there a way to make it do that automatically as a scheduled task or with a particular setting?

[Luke 42078]

Sorry there is no way to do that automatically at this time.

[serein 0]

Hmm, is there possibly a better workflow you could suggest then to achieve a similar outcome? Right now I get the movie file (ripping, arrs, whatever), the folder/filename set to be recognized, then it gets scanned in. Once every month or two, I peruse my movie folder for any items that are missing poster/fanart files (usually using TinyMediaManager), so it will show me all the new movies added since last time, and I get images for them.

Also, I've noticed that this double-image situation only seems to happen with the fanart.jpg files -- when I add a poster.jpg file to the movie folder, it seems to be prioritized in Emby (and Emby no longer lists the previous poster under Edit Images).

Edited to add: if I just ran a script say, once a week, to delete all files named "fanart.jpg" under the metadata/library folder...would Emby re-downloaded the files for movies I had not yet manually added a fanart for? Or would those just remain blank until I added one into the folder?

Edited July 2, 2023 by serein

[Q-Droid 989]

Do the fetcher settings "Maximum number of backdrops per item" have an effect on this? If you set it to 1 will it prioritize the image in the media folder and ignore the others? Or does this setting only control the downloads and still cycles (slideshow) thru the available images in metadata and media locations?

IF Emby prioritizes the images saved with the media and the backdrops per item controls both the fetch and the display then these might give you what you want.

 

[serein 0]

8 hours ago, Q-Droid said:

Do the fetcher settings "Maximum number of backdrops per item" have an effect on this? If you set it to 1 will it prioritize the image in the media folder and ignore the others? Or does this setting only control the downloads and still cycles (slideshow) thru the available images in metadata and media locations?

IF Emby prioritizes the images saved with the media and the backdrops per item controls both the fetch and the display then these might give you what you want.

 

I think it only controls the downloads, as mine is set to 1 (and always has been).

My idea to run a script might work, as I found that does remove the Emby-sourced one, but from what I can tell, Emby won't re-download a fanart for anything that didn't have one at that point. So I'd probably only want to run it if I knew all my current movies had all the images they needed. But it will accomplish the idea in the end.