How to revert from 4.8.0.80 to 4.7.14.0

[Ronstang 293]

The new update broke my entire TV setup.  I need to revert an lock it ASAP.

[MBSki 1114]

What exactly did it do to your tv setup? Luke will need to know so he can fix it.

[Ronstang 293]

1 minute ago, MBSki said:

What exactly did it do to your tv setup? Luke will need to know so he can fix it.

My hardware no longer works.  I have to use a proxy to make my Ceton cards visible to emby.  They don't work any longer no matter what I change in settings.  They have worked perfectly for 4 years until the beta server updated earlier this week and the stable updated yesterday.  Now NOTHING works and I have no TV.

They need to stop SCREWING around and just release NextTV....softworkz  says it is fully functional and supports my Ceton cards natively.  But no for some reason the powers that be won't release it.  Emby is quickly becoming junk for me.

[learnbyflying 4]

Reverting isn't possible; you're going to need to re-install 4.7.14.0 from scratch. 

I'll take this time to remind everyone to turn off auto updates if you wish to first ensure software is compatible with your hardware. Ensure you are backing up to ensure that you can revert back if something does go wrong. 

By hosting a personal media server, others start to assume that you have at least some level of sysadmin experience and understand that backups are crucial. 

[MBSki 1114]

3 minutes ago, learnbyflying said:

I'll take this time to remind everyone to turn off auto updates if you wish to first ensure software is compatible with your hardware.

Or switch to using the NSSM service and portable install. There is not auto-update option when using the NSSM service.

[Ronstang 293]

Just now, MBSki said:

Or switch to using the NSSM service and portable install. There is not auto-update option when using the NSSM service.

I have no idea what that is or how to implement it.

[MBSki 1114]

Just now, Ronstang said:

I have no idea what that is or how to implement it.

Here are the instructions: Running as Windows Service | Emby Documentation. It's really easy to setup.

[Jahglory 1]

I think that if backup your "programdata" folder from emby-server folder, install previous emby server version, then restore "programdata" folder, it should work

[Ronstang 293]

13 minutes ago, Jahglory said:

I think that if backup your "programdata" folder from emby-server folder, install previous emby server version, then restore "programdata" folder, it should work

Do you mean just copy it somewhere and then just copy it back?   And by work do you mean restore my server with all it's settings and libraries, users etc.?  Because setting up emby from scratch is going to be a pain. 

[Jahglory 1]

6 minutes ago, Ronstang said:

Do you mean just copy it somewhere and then just copy it back?   And by work do you mean restore my server with all it's settings and libraries, users etc.?  Because setting up emby from scratch is going to be a pain. 

If I'm not mistaken, all emby configuration is stored in the programdata folder which is located in the windows user profile (if your install was done by default).

This folder should be located in "C:\users\%userprofille%\appdata\roaming\Emby-server". This folder contain configuration files & databases (programdata folder) and system files (system folder).

So the idea is to backup the programdata folder which contain all your emby configuration, then reinstall previous emby server version, then copy back the programdata folder in the Emby-server folder. This should work.

[Ronstang 293]

what if I rename all the emby parent directories in AppData to preserve everything for a simple revert back to what I have now if something goes wrong?

[MBSki 1114]

9 minutes ago, Ronstang said:

what if I rename all the emby parent directories in AppData to preserve everything for a simple revert back to what I have now if something goes wrong?

I just use the portable install and backup the entire Emby Server directory. If something goes wrong I delete the directory I added, put the old directory back and restart the server. 

[Jahglory 1]

14 minutes ago, Ronstang said:

what if I rename all the emby parent directories in AppData to preserve everything for a simple revert back to what I have now if something goes wrong?

Yes or you can copy the entire emby-server folder as a backup

Edited February 2, 2024 by Jahglory

[learnbyflying 4]

51 minutes ago, Jahglory said:

I think that if backup your "programdata" folder from emby-server folder, install previous emby server version, then restore "programdata" folder, it should work

There was a database change between 4.7 and 4.8. You will want to fully rebuild the libraries. 

[Ronstang 293]

Why does everything always have to be so cryptic.  The older releases on GitHub are APK files, not only do I not know which one I need I don't know how to use them.....I am not a programmer.

[Ronstang 293]

8 minutes ago, learnbyflying said:

There was a database change between 4.7 and 4.8. You will want to fully rebuild the libraries. 

Do you mean delete and recreate?  Emby is becoming a huge PITA

And do you mean rebuild them when I reinstall 4.7?

Edited February 2, 2024 by Ronstang

[Bagul 182]

When upgrading, it is advisable to make a backup (as described in the documentation). If you don't have one, it's impossible to go back to the previous stable version.

If you do have one, you can download a version of Emby from Github (additional steps are required, but first things first). If you're on windows .exe, ubuntu/debian .deb, etc... 

If you're lost, you'll need to give your operating system and processor architecture (64bits/32bits).

[Ronstang 293]

2 minutes ago, Bagul said:

If you don't have one, it's impossible to go back to the previous stable version.

So you are saying if I don't have a backup before emby borked my system with an update then I have to reinstall from scratch EVERYTHING manually in emby with the older version?  I may have one but I forgot where it is because I see a backup of the system folder but not the programdata folder.

I am running Windows 11 on a Alder lake i7

[learnbyflying 4]

12 minutes ago, Ronstang said:

Do you mean delete and recreate?  Emby is becoming a huge PITA

And do you mean rebuild them when I reinstall 4.7?

There was a schema change, resulting in the newly created db file not compatible with 4.7.x. You cannot revert when there is a schema change in the db as the old version won't understand what's going on. 

I'd advise you to rebuild from scratch then ensure Emby is being correctly backed up to ensure this doesn't happen in the future. Almost all software is moving this way, it's unfortunate but such is how the winds in technology are blowing. 

I have emby self contained using the portable install with all folders (meta, cache, transcode, etx.) being hosted on a different drive. In addition I ensure that I checkpoint my server through Hyper-V whenever I make an upgrade. In addition, if all of the above fails Veeam backups the server overnight and I can always delete the VM and just restore from the backup. 

You're going to want to grab the file called embyserver-win-x64-4.7.14.0.7z and ensure auto updates are disabled, however also ensure the server is correctly secured against the outside world. 

[Bagul 182]

I won't get into the "whose fault is it?" debate.

But yes, to answer the end of your message, you can't just reinstall the previous version.

To start with, you need version 4.7.14.0 of Emby 64bits.

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Releases/releases/tag/4.7.14.0

and you must identify "embyserver-win-x64-4.7.14.0.7z" (I think it's a portable version (without installation) of emby, wait for Luke's confirmation before running it).

Whatever happens, make a backup of your current folder before doing anything.

[pwhodges 2012]

Calm down!

Is everything else working OK other than the TV cards?  If so, just set up a portable install of 4.7.14.0 with no libraries and check that the TV still works in that before going for a complete rebuild. 

If the TV works there, use it to do the recordings you need, using the same library as your "broken" installation so that they get seen there and can be viewed.  Then you can get help from Emby investigating why your TV card isn't working in the new version, so that it can get fixed.

If the TV isn't working in the portable install of the old system, going back won't help you - you get help getting it working at all, which should then fix the updated system.

Paul

[Ronstang 293]

@Paul, thanks.  The file I downloaded from GitHub is an archive with just a system folder inside so am I correct to assume this is for a portable installation?  If so, how do I install it with another active emby server on the same machine?

[Ronstang 293]

I guess I have no idea what I am doing.  I shut down emby, renamed the emby folder in AppData with a .4.8 added and then moved it to another folder on the C drive and restarted my machine thinking this would disable emby but no, it still starts up and works fine....with no TV of course.  So how do I temporarily disable my current server setup?

[pwhodges 2012]

Assuming your current setup uses the default ports (8096, 8020) then stop it before installing the portable system.  For the portable system create a folder somewhere (your choice) called, say, "EmbyPortable", and drop the system directory in it.  Make a shortcut to the Emby exe in the system directory, then start it up; it will create the other directories it uses, and initialise everything.  Once it's in place, go to the Network settings and change the ports it uses - you will then need to specify the ports when accessing the server from a client. (I'd restart the portable server to be sure that the port change is complete.)  Then you can restart your main server and they won't conflict.

Paul

[Ronstang 293]

New problem, the archive I downloaded several times from GitHub won't extract in WinRAR and if I use the built in function on the Windows 11 machine it says it will take almost four hours to extract 110mb.....really?  What is up with this?