Fresh Install - No People Photos

[ulrick65 30]

I am a long time user.  Just last week I upgraded a bunch of hardware and did a fresh install of Emby. Restored the config from my back up, but did not restore any metadata.

My metadata, with the exception of people, is stored locally with the media.  People are managed by Emby in the People Folder structure.

Since the update, I am not getting any people photo's populating in either the Emby Web GUI or in Kodi on my two Nvidia Shields.

I do not have "download in advance" turned on for the library's, I never have used that.  Normally, when I go into a movie it will populate the pics at that time. But now, no dice.

I have tried a metadata refresh on one movie, no dice. DId it with a full image replacement, no dice. Refreshed the entire library both with and without the full image replacement and no dice.

If I do into the Web GUI, I can edit the image for a person and it loads them up, I choose the one I want and it then copies to the People Folder and it displays correctly everywhere.

I tried putting a person into the People Folder manually (I have a backup of my old People Folder) doing it with the exact person that was there before for the same movies...and a refresh of metadata and still no dice.

I am currently running a full metadata folder scan, though I do not expect that to change anything except perhaps that one actor that I added in there should then show up I hope (that is why I am now running the scan since I just did that test).

Any ideas on what to try next?

Thanks.

[mickle026 650]

2 hours ago, ulrick65 said:

I tried putting a person into the People Folder manually (I have a backup of my old People Folder) doing it with the exact person that was there before for the same movies...and a refresh of metadata and still no dice.

There is a scheduled task for that:

I also posted a plugin that fixes actor cards with an explanation, in reply to your comment here
https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/131921-removing-people-with-no-content-associated/page/3/#comment-1391582

[ulrick65 30]

 @mickle026I tried the tool, running the "Actor Cards / Corrupt" files.  That is all I did in there as I believe that is what you meant, I did not do any other settings or anything. Ran the tool and click on the "Fix Actor Cards" button and let it finish.

It did find 10 invalid images (image had invalid url).

But after doing all the rescans and such, still does not show any actor images.

You mentioned to do this:

20 hours ago, mickle026 said:

After the tool has ran, run Metadta refresh on your movie / TV showlibraries, search for missing metadata and your actors will replace.

This is the part that is confusing to me a little bit:

 I did the "scan metadata folder" (in scheduled tasks), and I did "Refresh Metadata" on the library. I even did "Scan Library Files".  However, I do not know how to do "Search for Missing Metadata".  Is there some task I run for that or is it done from a menu I am unaware of?

EDIT:  I found the "Search for Missing Metadata", it is the "Refresh Mode" when doing the "Refresh Metadata". I never selected it before, I always just did a "Replace All Metadata". The "missing" one will likely run a lot faster!  

Thanks.

 

Edited October 6, 2024 by ulrick65

[mickle026 650]

Refresh metadata next to scan library files from the ...  3 dot menu popup on the library thumbnail, the selection box has two options, replace metadata or search for missing metadata.  You can do either.  The 'missing' option should be all you need.

 

I cannot show a screenshot because I'm reply with my phone from my workplace.

Edited October 6, 2024 by mickle026

[Happy2Play 9780]

To a point specific examples are needed along with enabled metadata provider order on the library.

[ulrick65 30]

54 minutes ago, mickle026 said:

Refresh metadata next to scan library files from the ...  3 dot menu popup on the library thumbnail, the selection box has two options, replace metadata or search for missing metadata.  You can do either.  The 'missing' option should be all you need.

 

I cannot show a screenshot because I'm reply with my phone from my workplace.

 

Thanks, I saw that after I posted above and then edited my post. I tried it, same thing.

 

26 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

To a point specific examples are needed along with enabled metadata provider order on the library.

 

Here's the library settings, not sure what else I should provide. Let me know and I will do it.  I am going to set DEBUG log on now and run a metadata refresh and see what it shows. In the current log, it does not seem to show anything about searching for people (that I could decipher anyway).

Thanks for the help...I appreciate it.

 

 

 

[ulrick65 30]

Ok, I made some progress...but I don't quite understand it.

Something that I saw by luck in another post that @Lukemade:

  

On 3/31/2023 at 11:26 AM, Luke said:

Actually check the bottom of the metadata editor on some of your titles. I think you may have locked metadata on some or all of your items.

 

All of my media has this "check box" checked.  I am not sure where that setting comes from or how to change it on a global scale.  However, I went into one movie and unchecked it, then saved. Then I did the Metadata Refresh and it worked!

However, when I go back into that Movie the checkbox is checked again.

I save all my metadata (except the People Images) in my local media folder (backdrops, folder images, etc.). I don't want Emby to mess with anything there. I thought that it would download the People Images regardless because the People Images are stored in the metadata/people folder. However, this setting seems to affect that.

Can someone explain what this setting does (seems intuitive I know) and how to set it properly for my situation? I don't want anything changed from what I have in the media folders, but I do want the People Images downloaded.

I checked the library setup and I don't see where this "Lock Metadata" is referrenced in there anywhere, so I am not sure how it is even set (other than movie by movie manually).

Thoughts?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Happy2Play 9780]

You don't have Emby writing nfo files so do you have nfo files with your media?  As it could be locked and Emby is only reading them.

If you do have nfo files with media can you post one that has issues.

[Happy2Play 9780]

8 minutes ago, ulrick65 said:

I checked the library setup and I don't see where this "Lock Metadata" is referrenced in there anywhere, so I am not sure how it is even set (other than movie by movie manually).

Thoughts?

You can alway filter per library to check for locked metadata.

Use to be able to see in Metadata Manager but that was removed so I think filtering is your only options.

And you will see at the bottom of item metadata.

[ulrick65 30]

22 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

You don't have Emby writing nfo files so do you have nfo files with your media?  As it could be locked and Emby is only reading them.

If you do have nfo files with media can you post one that has issues.

In the .nfo files, I have this setting.  It is used by me to know when I am done with setting up the movies/tv shows metadata.  I have always used this.  I did some tests and you are absolutely right, Emby is reading that from that file and setting the "Lock". I never knew this was happening.

<lockdata>true</lockdata>

I guess that I never noticed this in the past because I used to update the People Folder directly myself (up until probably a year or two ago). Then I just wanted Emby to do it...so I stopped. I probably never noticed that Emby was not downloading any new images until I did the fresh install and did not copy over the People folder.

I don't want Emby to change any metadata (other than the People picture like I said). So perhaps I am just stuck here? If I turn off that Lock in the .nfo files, then I assume Emby "may" download other things that I don't want (backdrops, folders, etc.) into the library.  Is that correct?

I know it will never write anything to the actual media folder, because Emby does not have permission to write in those folders.

Is there any way to get Emby to update the people's pictures with this "lock" setting checked?  I am assuming not...but worth asking.

If I could "mass change" the setting in Emby, and then do the metadata refresh, it would download the pics and then reset the "lock" setting (after it reads it from the .nfo). This works as I wanted for a single movie (as I mentioned above) but I have no idea how to "mass update" that checkbox in Emby.

Thanks for the guidance here...I have learned something new after all these years of using it!

 

[Happy2Play 9780]

11 minutes ago, ulrick65 said:

Is there any way to get Emby to update the people's pictures with this "lock" setting checked?  I am assuming not...but worth asking.

Not that I know of.

13 minutes ago, ulrick65 said:

If I could "mass change" the setting in Emby, and then do the metadata refresh, it would download the pics and then reset the "lock" setting (after it reads it from the .nfo). This works as I wanted for a single movie (as I mentioned above) but I have no idea how to "mass update" that checkbox in Emby.

Within Emby I believe you only option is the Bulky plugin to mass change the metadata.  Or if you use another metadata tool like TMM to mass edit all metadata or even a txt editor change the <lockdata>true</lockdata> to <lockdata>false</lockdata> then Emby should see the files as no longer locked and refresh metadata or just search for missing should work also then relock afterwards.

10 minutes ago, ulrick65 said:

If I turn off that Lock in the .nfo files, then I assume Emby "may" download other things that I don't want (backdrops, folders, etc.) into the library.  Is that correct?

It should only download anything that is missing that Emby uses assuming you are only searching for missing.  As for images it will be per your settings but everything local take priority.

 

Still probably need to see a nfo file as I will assume people are not written with all the proper providerid data.

[Luke 42077]

I would generally just suggest locking specific fields only.

I think if we were just developing Emby now we'd probably only have field locking to keep things simpler.

[ulrick65 30]

3 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Not that I know of.

Within Emby I believe you only option is the Bulky plugin to mass change the metadata.  Or if you use another metadata tool like TMM to mass edit all metadata or even a txt editor change the <lockdata>true</lockdata> to <lockdata>false</lockdata> then Emby should see the files as no longer locked and refresh metadata or just search for missing should work also then relock afterwards.

It should only download anything that is missing that Emby uses assuming you are only searching for missing.  As for images it will be per your settings but everything local take priority.

 

Still probably need to see a nfo file as I will assume people are not written with all the proper providerid data.

 

You are correct...the actors not written into the .nfo file with any providerid, my process doesn't support that.  I have attached a .nfo for your review.  When the "Lock" is not set in Emby, it does download the people images and gives them the proper name in the people folder (with the provider ID in the folder name). So I think doing the mass update in Emby and then rescan will have the desired result.  I will check out the "Bulky" plugin that you mentioned and see if that can do it.

Thanks.

 

The Wasp (2024) [WEBDL-1080p][EAC3 5.1][h264]-FLUX.nfo

[mickle026 650]

 You can bulk find and replace in files with ultraedit

https://www.ultraedit.com/support/tutorials-power-tips/ultraedit-linux/tar/

You can also do it with notepad++ via wine in linux 

https://superuser.com/questions/1003790/how-to-find-and-replace-lines-in-multiple-files-using-notepad/1003801#1003801

Edited October 6, 2024 by mickle026

[ulrick65 30]

29 minutes ago, mickle026 said:

 You can bulk find and replace in files with ultraedit

https://www.ultraedit.com/support/tutorials-power-tips/ultraedit-linux/tar/

You can also do it with notepad++ via wine in linux 

https://superuser.com/questions/1003790/how-to-find-and-replace-lines-in-multiple-files-using-notepad/1003801#1003801

I can bulk set the lock flag with the process I use...so that is what is what I did and it worked.

To close this one out, this is the process that works as I was hoping:

1. Set the "lock" flag to "False" in the .nfo file for all movies in the library.
2. Rescan the library (this reads the lock tag and sets it to false in Emby)
3. Refresh Metadata on the Library with the setting "Search for missing metadata".
4. Once done, reset the "lock" flag on all movies in the library.
5. Rescan the library (this reads the lock tag and sets it to True in Emby).
6. The people pictures are all populated now (for the ones it find of course).

Thanks for the help everyone, I appreciate it.

 

[ulrick65 30]

I know we closed this out, but @mickle026had a good idea in a different thread to try to get it to populate the people pictures "ahead of time" rather than when I go into a media item.

The post is here:

 

I tried this method just now and it does not work. Here's what I did:

I removed the media and rescanned the library so that all media was removed from the database. I confirmed it was all removed and finished.

I removed the "Lock" flag on all the items. Then put them back in the folder and did a "Library Scan". It took a bit, as expected. However, it did not download any People's Images during this process. I confirmed this by checking the People folder before and after, and there was no change. When I go to a movie in that library, it immediately downloads them and places them in the people folder. Again, I confirmed it did so.  This is better than before, I still get the images.

I would have expected mickle026's idea to work...since I had "Download images in advance" set to true in the Library Settings...but it didn't.

@Lukeany ideas here?  Am I barking up the wrong tree and it won't ever download people in Advance? Or would you have expected it to, and I have something else missing?

Thanks for the help...I am further along than before but I would love to get all the images ahead of time if it is possible.

 

[ulrick65 30]

Something I forgot to add:

After it didn't work. I also tried "Refresh Metadata" search for missing. That didn't work either.

I then tried "Refresh Metadata" with "replace all metadata" and "replace images" selected. That did not work either.

Thanks.

[Happy2Play 9780]

@LukeWithout nfo saver and Emby just reading metadata with missing info will it ever get these images?  I would think querying provider would correct the issue per item provider metadata but existing metadata would still be wrong.

NFO provided.

  <actor>
    <name>Naomie Harris</name>
    <role>Heather</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Natalie Dormer</name>
    <role>Carla</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Dominic Allburn</name>
    <role>Simon</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Jack Morris</name>
    <role>Tel</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Leah Mondesir-Simmonds</name>
    <role>Young Heather</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Rupert Holliday-Evans</name>
    <role>Jim</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Sally Goodman</name>
    <role>Old Lady</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Jake Donald-Crookes</name>
    <role>David</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Naomi Richards</name>
    <role>Helen</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Evelyn Temple</name>
    <role>Ruth</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Alice Grace</name>
    <role>Ruby's Mum</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Eire Farrell</name>
    <role>School Bully</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Lilly-Anne Marston-Smith</name>
    <role>Carla's Daughter</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Harrison Metcalf</name>
    <role>School Bully</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Scarlett Moore</name>
    <role>Bully</role>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Evelyn Morris</name>
    <role>School Student</role>
  </actor>

 

[Happy2Play 9780]

But spun up a portable and added the nfo above and used options posted above and no images were gotten due to locked metadata.

 

Deleted portable and started over and change nfo lock to false and imported with same settings as above and worked just fine.

So per the test I answered my own question as it still got relevant info only if unlocked.

Edited October 8, 2024 by Happy2Play

[mickle026 650]

4 hours ago, ulrick65 said:

Something I forgot to add:

After it didn't work. I also tried "Refresh Metadata" search for missing. That didn't work either.

I then tried "Refresh Metadata" with "replace all metadata" and "replace images" selected. That did not work either.

Thanks.

@ulrick65I have pm you a plugin dll for this, it worked on my machine.  It'll bulk refresh your people only.

Edited October 8, 2024 by mickle026

[ulrick65 30]

7 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

But spun up a portable and added the nfo above and used options posted above and no images were gotten due to locked metadata.

 

Deleted portable and started over and change nfo lock to false and imported with same settings as above and worked just fine.

So per the test I answered my own question as it still got relevant info only if unlocked.

 

Are you sure it downloaded the images during the import and not when you went to "view" the media item?

I confirmed earlier that it does create the links, etc., and then the next time you go in there they show up...but it will not download them ahead of time.

I have tried it a dozen times, in various scenarios, and no matter what, it will not download people's images until you go into the item.  It will download the .nfo file (if you have that set to on in the advanced library settings), but it never gets the photo until you "call" for it somewhere in the GUI.

 

Thanks.

 

[ulrick65 30]

7 hours ago, mickle026 said:

@ulrick65I have pm you a plugin dll for this, it worked on my machine.  It'll bulk refresh your people only.

Awesome!  I will give it a whirl!

[Happy2Play 9780]

14 minutes ago, ulrick65 said:

Are you sure it downloaded the images during the import and not when you went to "view" the media item?

I confirmed earlier that it does create the links, etc., and then the next time you go in there they show up...but it will not download them ahead of time.

No I did not but that is how people work, is on demand as download in advance was removed for them years ago is my understanding so you will start with url provided by provider metadata then get image as you navigate through media.

But yes a plugin to just get everyone in the database would work without the required navigation.  As I have manually queried db to get all peopleids to query provider in the past.  But know dev had been requested by provider to stop hammering the api that way but you manually doing it is hard to stop beside them seeing Emby dev key and going to Emby and saying there is a issue somewhere.  Or flagging the key and blacklisting it for x amount of time affecting all Emby users.

Edited October 8, 2024 by Happy2Play

[mickle026 650]

9 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

But yes a plugin to just get everyone in the database would work without the required navigation.  As I have manually queried db to get all peopleids to query provider in the past.  But know dev had been requested by provider to stop hammering the api that way but you manually doing it is hard to stop beside them seeing Emby dev key and going to Emby and saying there is a issue somewhere.  Or flagging the key and blacklisting it for x amount of time affecting all Emby users.

@Happy2PlayThats why it is not posted here. 

I actually sent him two plugins, One to trigger it, and my own "JustPeople" Plugin that gets people from my server.  I have over 100,000 regular people on my own server.  I also cannot handle users on mass doing this, thats why its in the pm and not in the open forum.  It should get the majority from mine and the rest from tmdb.  It shouldnt be too bad and a one time deal.

[Happy2Play 9780]

To a point as long as it is throttled to below TMDB 50 requests per second it shouldn't be an issue assuming they are the source.

Rate Limiting (themoviedb.org)

I know Emby has change this not long ago per that topic.

But yes even if it took days a throttled task should exist for people even if it were limited to a couple hours a night also.