Music Import Problems

[Phish1980 2]

Any reason why I can never get all my music to scan in. Everything is tagged and folder correctly Artist>Year>Album. I have 38 albums that I'm testing on and only 35 of 38 scan in. All albums I have tagged the same way same program etc all permissions are the same but emby refuses to see all 38 what gives emby...btw Plex musicbee and jellyfin doesn't have a problem and sees all my albums.

[user24 315]

Hi, there could be various reasons why some Albums are not importing correctly BUT you may need to provide further detail so someone can help you out:

• Do the songs import but not the albums? Or does nothing at all import?
• Can you share any specifics about the 3 problem Albums?
• How have you tagged the Albums outside of Emby and with what program?
• Are you using any MusicBrainz fields?
• What Emby music import settings do you have enabled for your library?
• Have you read the basic info provided by Emby here: https://emby.media/support/articles/Music-Naming.html
• Note: the recommended folder structure for music is Artist\Album\Song (but it may not matter)?

If you can provide more specific info, then someone may be able to figure out "what gives"......

[Phish1980 2]

Tagscanner is what I use 

They don't show up in folder view either 

What specifically do you need to know about the albums

I don't use anything extra for the scanning I tried to go barebones on the scanning 

Anything else you need 

[user24 315]

With what you are saying - sure there is a problem - but no one else can see it via the forum!!!

Therefore it can be hard to know exactly what to ask for?

You could (say?) pick one problem album and one good album and take screenshots of:

• the files in the Album folder
• the information in Tagscanner
• any further info??? (don't send any personal info you don't want to)

Sometimes Emby can be "fussy" with music importing so "barebones" may mean there is something missing/different somewhere???

• It could be easy to fix or too technical for me and require Emby support?
• A lot of people initially have problems with "Album Artist" - that is why I asked if the individual songs imported?
• I guess, from what you said, all your files are the same format (mp3 or FLAC or other?)
• did you select "unstructured" or a "structured" folder option for importing? As you have "Year" in your structure you may need to select "Unstructured"???

If I know the problem Album, I can perhaps see if I can find it, check tags in Mp3tag (as opposed to Tagscanner) and see if I can import it?

As 35 albums are working and 3 are not - there must be a difference hiding somewhere...?!?!? Can't think of anything else right now...

[Phish1980 2]

I super appreciate the help.  Anything else please let me know.  I'm dumbfounded by this and couldn't find a solution through Google or this forum before posting this topic.

[user24 315]

No bother at all helping!

All the info you provide helps build up a picture of your setup and this may hopefully help narrow down to what the root-cause problem is...

To summarise so far with the specific example:

You have one Phish Album (10-26-24) that imports correctly, but another one (10-27-24) that doesn’t, with the following system file structure:

• Music Library
  • Phish
    • 2024
      • 10-26-24
        • ph241026d1_01_Possum.flac
        • folder.jpg
      • 10-27-24
        • ph241027d1_01_Heavy_Things.flac
        • folder.jpg

When you go to the Folder Menu Tab in Emby you can only find the 10-26-24 folder – is that correct?

Now, just double checking, the 10-27-24 Album songs can all be seen and play correctly in non-Emby systems, so they are not corrupt?

It also is apparent that they are very recent files (i.e. not files from decades ago).

Something that I’m not familiar with is that your music.flac files have a file Type of: MediaCenter.32.File. My music.flac files have a file Type of: FLAC File. This may not be important though because your ‘good’ files are the same Type as your ‘bad’ ones.

Anyway, although I don’t have your actual files, I did download mp3 versions of the 2 songs above and set up a test library exactly with your folder structure and filenames...

I then checked the data and manually added very basic info using Mp3tag. (no MusicBrainz importing)

Then set up an Emby library...

With selecting either of the first two “Music folder structure” options and only selecting MusicBrainz importing options, I was able to import the two folders and the Albums correctly:

While this doesn’t solve the problem. I can now ‘see’ a bit more and offer some more suggestions...

• Double (triple) check that the music files play in another system
• Perhaps set up an Emby test library with only these two albums (very fast to rescan and possibly easier check what is happening without other music info getting in the way)
• Try a “Scan Library Files” direct from the Parent Phish Folder via the Folder Menu Tab.
• Try a “Refresh Metadata” direct from the Parent Phish Folder...

Many times (but not always) the updating from the Parent Folder will just ‘fix’ things.

If this was a problem with my files, I would also look at all the embedded metadata that I could access using Mp3tag (you may also be able to do this with Tagscanner???). One of your images shows the RHS of Tagscanner... if you go to the Advanced Tab next to the selected blue Standard Tab - what do you see here for the good and bad files??? Is it the same data or different? That could be more helpful info???

If none of the above helps (or no one else solves this) you may need to either provide (say?) 2 example files as per above, or perhaps upload an Emby log file??? Let's keep trying!!!

P.S.

Just thought of a couple more 'substitution' experiments you could try...

• what happens if you put a copy of a 'good' file in a 'bad' folder and then update/rescan/refresh...
• what happens if you put a copy of a 'bad' file in a 'good' folder and then update/rescan/refresh...

Yeah, it all takes more time - but could be worth trying??

Edited December 7, 2024 by user24
Added the P.S. section!

[Phish1980 2]

Wow that's a lot to take in an such an awesome response thank you..... give me time to go through your thoughts.  I had to take family and see Wicked (ugh...) so I just got home.  I'll try in the morning and report back... again thanks for the details.

[Phish1980 2]

Well I fiddled around a little bit but emby doesn't even see the 10-27 folder when I'm trying to setup those two albums. File explorer shows them but not emby.  Yes they show up and play in Plex, musicbee and jellyfin.  I'll have to keep going through your thoughts but wanted to give an update.

[user24 315]

Thanks for the update...

It's very weird that your 10-26-24 and 10-27-24 albums both have the similar path/folder structure, similar names and same file type, but Emby can see one but not the other when trying to access and set up a new library.

The first thing I thought when seeing your Emby screenshot was there could be file permissions blocking the 10-27-24 folder access, but you initially mentioned that this was all the same in your first post. (???)

So, following on from what I said before about "'elimination' experiments" to try to figure this out...

What if you put a single 10-27-24 song into another folder (that is working at the moment) and then Rescan that parent folder?

• If this shows the Song, then the song is not being blocked, but perhaps the folder is???

What if you put the 10-27-24 whole folder in another location that is working for all folders.

• Doing this may perhaps help narrow down exactly where the problem is?......

What if you rename the 10-27-24 folder as something else - can Emby see it then?

• if not,perhaps there is a hidden permissions issue???
• Also, you could try putting the renamed folder in another directory?

Any or all of the above many help isolate the problem???

Some other things that I have come across myself and read about (may or may not be helpful).

• If there is a really long path and filename then Windows/Emby may have problems with it.
• If there are too many dashes - or slashes /  in the path, then this may cause problems.

Keep trying...!!!

[Phish1980 2]

The bad file works in the good folder it shows up when I scan in the good folder.  Ya I thought it was weird that emby doesn't see the bad albums.  I've been comparing good albums with bad albums on the permissions side of it and I literally can't see the difference they are identical (except name ya know).  I find this extremely odd that jellyfin a fork of emby sees all folders.

[user24 315]

17 minutes ago, Phish1980 said:

The bad file works in the good folder it shows up when I scan in the good folder.

Sounds like some sort of folder issue then...???

Hmmm, I'd try this:

• put your bad 10-27-24 folder outside of your music library
• make a copy of your good 10-26-24 folder inside your music library
• delete all the 10-26-24 songs and folder image in it
• add the 10-27-24 songs and folder image into it
• rename the folder as 10-27-24
• rescan the parent 2024 level folder

Edited December 7, 2024 by user24
typo!!!

[Phish1980 2]

Wow that worked ...soooooo weird 

[user24 315]

That's great news! Now perhaps try it on the other two rogue albums? Or have you already...

[Phish1980 2]

Already have...wow now I have so many albums that I need to do that too ughgghhh lol

[user24 315]

Yeah, I can understand this completely....

When I seriously started using Emby for music a while back, I initially had 300+ "missing" Albums. After much research and experimenting and pain, I managed to fix all of the issues (and learnt a lot) - but now I have 4 "extra" Albums out of circa 10,000. It could be in Emby or it could be errors in my Excel spreadsheet??? It's 4 "needles in a haystack" that I may never find!!!

I typically add Albums to Emby in batches of 10 now, as I acquire new ones. If you keep going with Emby, then my best tip would be add Albums in batches and immediately do the rescanning from the parent folder level. This way, the scanning is very quick and you can easily check for possible errors and hopefully resolve them before adding more Albums.

Good luck with it all ... you can always listen to more music while updating your files!!!

Edited December 8, 2024 by user24