Emby Backup Question

[cgcmgr 28]

Hi all,

 

I have seen and been told that if I wanted to backup my Emby server, all I will need to do is copy the emby-server folder located here - /mnt/Poolname/iocage/jails/var/db to another location.  Then if something goes wrong, all I need to do is delete the Emby Jail, create a new Emby Jail and copy the emby-server folder back to the above location.  I used WinSCP to do this.

I've tried this and had mixed results.  The first time I did it, I actually copied back a emby-server folder from a different Emby server I have that I named primary.  I wanted the two to be exactly the same.  When it was done,  I launched Emby and was asked to pick a user and sign in.  No matter what I did, it failed the log in.  I went the route of invoking the "Forgot Password" for the admin user and was able to sign in without a password.  I then changed the passwords for the two users and everything was great, exact match as my primary Emby server.  I created a backup of the emby-server folder for this server.

I noticed I had a duplicate library on the new server, so I deleted it.  Of course, I deleted the wrong one and all the metadata was gone for that library.  It started to sync again, but I wanted an exact match to the primary server.  So I copied the new emby-server folder over and this time when I launched Emby I was again prompted to choose a user and sign in.  No matter what I did, I could not sign in.  I tried invoking the "forgot password " numerous times, but I could not sign in.  I then cleared the Chrome browser cache and now when I launch Emby, all I see if the Emby splash screen.  I did try other browsers, but the same thing, just the splash screen.

I have been going back and forth deleting the Jail and recreating it and installing Emby and copying the emby-server folder over and just experiencing different results. The last time I did it, hung on the splash screen so I deleted, installed and copied back the primary server's emby-server file.  This time it got beyond the splash screen and I was able to choose a user.  I signed in and did see my libraries on the home screen, but nothing else. I restarted the Jail and launched again.  Stuck at the Emby splash screen.

 

As I type this, I realized I did not try reinstalling Emby to see if it resolves the issue.  Going to try that now.

Otherwise, does anyone have any suggestions on how to successfully create a backup?

 

Chris

[cgcmgr 28]

Reinstalling did resolve the issue.

[Luke 42077]

Thanks for following up.

[cgcmgr 28]

Sorry Luke, my bad.  I meant to write DID NOT resolve the issue.  Still playing around with it.

[cgcmgr 28]

So I have a question regarding this.  Am I supposed to copy back everything within the emby-server folder as shown in the screen capture from WinSCP or just what's shown when I click on "show server info?", capture attached?  What I've been doing is copying the entire emby-server folder to the db folder allowing the emby-server folder to be overwritten.

Maybe I'm supposed to delete the emby-server folder and then copy it back?

Can anyone provide the correct process?

[Baenwort 118]

Have you tried the Backup & Restore plug-in?

This isn't an exact backup but it does preserve the important data and the rest rebuilds.

It produces: 

Which when you rebuild/install Emby you load this into an accessible folder, add the plug-in, and point it at it. (at least when I conducted my test a couple of years ago this worked. I will likely retest it the next Emby Stable build that is released)

[cgcmgr 28]

Thanks, I'll have to give this a try.  I already manually created the new Jail and installed the server.  I allowed it to sync and just about done going through everything to make it match my primary Emby server.

I may create a jail and install Emby just to test this.