Generated "My Media" and "Genre" images got frozen in time

[acbarrentine 1]

Hello. This is my first problem report. Forgive me if I miss some steps.

I've been trying to troubleshoot a small problem with my Emby library. There's a process that runs periodically that re-generates randomized images for a variety of library items. Appears to be every 8 days. I don't see a task for it in the scheduled tasks list, but some people on here say it is a side-effect of the library scan procedure (which happens nightly). About a month ago, that process stopped operating for me and the images have been stuck in time. The "genre" images are particularly out-of-date with my library content, and I'd guess they got stuck probably 4 months ago.

I have been attempting to "kick" the procedure and make new images without making custom images by hand and replacing them. I'm focusing those efforts on the genre ones, because I look at that less often so I don't have to see the unsightly hole left behind when I delete the old generated image. 2 weeks ago I deleted a single genre image (go to genres page, pick one, edit images, delete the primary image), and it hasn't generated a new one since. That's within the span of time my front page "My Media" images also got stuck, so there's a decent chance the procedure just isn't working. Today I deleted ALL the genre images and rescanned my library. None got replaced.

I did the rotate server logs task and scanned again. Log is attached. Bunch of 404s on API key calls, not sure what that's about. 500s on things that look like queries for the 3 manual "my media" images I did make -- I know that because those queries seem to work just fine for me, whether from my laptop or when SSHed into the emby server machine.

Am I missing a step?

embyserver.txt

[Abobader 3464]

Hello acbarrentine,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[acbarrentine 1]

I should say I'm running I'm running Emby server 4.8.1.0 on a Synology NAS. I have a moderately tricky network setup that could be affecting this, with a local DNS instance (on that same server box) giving my server a name that looks like an externally addressable name, but it only works externally with a VPN setup. I'm sure that could be more clear, sorry. But the name works if you're local (because of my DNS server), and works remotely if you have the VPN tunnel active. Having the real name associated with my DDNS record lets my SSL certificate work across the board.

[Luke 42080]

Hi, try deleting your existing library images using the image editor, then run a library scan. Does that create new ones?

[acbarrentine 1]

This thing? I'm not clear on how to use it.

 

[acbarrentine 1]

I'm going to assume you mean this thing. I had already done those steps, but I ran it again to make sure. Testing a theory, I also logged in as my full admin user (I am usually logged in as an admin user with a limited library view) and rescanned. Still no update to the "My media" images or "Genre" images. Log says:

Quote

2024-02-18 12:55:14.002 Info TaskManager: Executing Scan media library

2024-02-18 12:55:14.002 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to 127.0.0.1. Time: 1ms. POST http://emby_remote_ip/emby/ScheduledTasks/Running/6330ee8fb4a957f33981f89aa78b030f?X-Emby-Client=Emby Web&X-Emby-Device-Name=Firefox macOS&X-Emby-Device-Id=efdd6dfa-18fe-44b6-928a-0d91b1a7d7ff&X-Emby-Client-Version=4.8.1.0&X-Emby-Token=x_secret8_x&X-Emby-Language=en-us

2024-02-18 12:55:18.127 Info TaskManager: Scan media library Completed after 0 minute(s) and 4 seconds

2024-02-18 12:55:22.437 Info App: Sqlite: 284 - automatic index on LastWatchedEpisodes(SeriesPresentationUniqueKey)

2024-02-18 12:55:33.423 Info App: Sqlite: 284 - automatic index on LastWatchedEpisodes(SeriesPresentationUniqueKey)

 

[Luke 42080]

OK please run a scan of all libraries, then attach the Emby server log once it has finished:

How to Report a Problem

Thanks.

[acbarrentine 1]

No difference.

embyserver.txt

[Happy2Play 9782]

There is nothing in either log but suggest a possible image processing issue specific to your platform since you have no images.

Can you post a server log from after restart/startup not a rotated/rollover log.

[acbarrentine 1]

I have no images because I deleted all the old, stuck ones. I'll note this -- some shows I've added recently have introduced new genres to the collection, particularly on the TV side. THOSE have generated more recently, so a NEW genre gets images. But I believe it won't rotate after that.

Edited February 18, 2024 by acbarrentine

[acbarrentine 1]

Log from reboot

embyserver.txt

[Happy2Play 9782]

@Lukewhat is the proper way to replace/update genre images?

Tested removing current image and no library scans regenerated it.

Library images worked fine but not genres.

Did a Refresh Search for missing on genre to regenerate as there is no way to rescan genre.

[Luke 42080]

2 hours ago, acbarrentine said:

No difference.

embyserver.txt 3.98 kB · 1 download

Did the libraries get new images?

[acbarrentine 1]

No, the libraries are showing the same images they have for the last month or so

[Luke 42080]

14 minutes ago, acbarrentine said:

No, the libraries are showing the same images they have for the last month or so

OK try using the image editor to delete them, and then run a library scan and see if that helps.

[acbarrentine 1]

Deleting the Movies and TV library images and rescanning the library did generate new images there. So that's progress! Thank you!

Genre chips are still blank. Any way to force generation of them? I'm willing to do something over SSH if there isn't an exposed function to do it.

[Luke 42080]

On 2/18/2024 at 5:21 PM, acbarrentine said:

Deleting the Movies and TV library images and rescanning the library did generate new images there. So that's progress! Thank you!

Genre chips are still blank. Any way to force generation of them? I'm willing to do something over SSH if there isn't an exposed function to do it.

Try refreshing the metadata on a genre and see if that helps.

[acbarrentine 1]

That put an image on there, but it wasn't what I was expecting. At a guess, I'd say it's digging up the original frozen images from someplace, even after I deleted them. To explain, I should give some history.

I started this server off with a bunch of DVD rips from my mother's library. It stayed primarily that for a long time. Recently, I have been adding a bunch of my own movies and shows, and now probably 3/4 of the content is new/mine. The genre images I'm calling frozen were showing only stuff from my mother's DVDs. I'm including a little snippet of the newly generated genre images. 4/5 of them are entirely the old stuff.

I experimented with deleting/regenerating them a second time, and each time they come up identical. I'd think that could be a fixed rand seed, but that can't be entirely it, because it's ignoring the newer top-level folders entirely. I think instead it must be finding the old images somewhere and re-using them.

The "Animation" genre is the exception here, where it's finding newer stuff. I presume that's because there WAS no "Animation" genre when the freeze occurred. It also keeps regenerating that same image, if I delete it and do the refresh metadata operation.

Edited February 20, 2024 by acbarrentine

[Luke 42080]

Quote

 

That put an image on there, but it wasn't what I was expecting. At a guess, I'd say it's digging up the original frozen images from someplace, even after I deleted them. To explain, I should give some history.

Or maybe it just regenegerated the same thing? Is something wrong?

[acbarrentine 1]

The fact it only ever uses the 3 year old content and won't mix in any of the new stuff is why I deleted the original images. They're poorly representative of the library. I mean, look at Adventure up there. It used "The Man Who Would Be King" twice, when it has 36 titles to choose from. It's blinkered. And while it's notionally random, a randomizer that always produces the same output is a poor randomizer.