replace storage, but keep the meta data and status

[JuJuJurassic 49]

Father Christmas brought me some nice new hard drives, so I want to add them to my storage array. Unfortunately, this means I will have to delete the array and re-create it. I have a very good backup so I’m not concerned about restoring the data. The backup is a file copy to a different SMB share on another server.

However, in the past when I’ve done this I have lost the meta and the current status, of played etc, even though I have ticked the "save artwork in media folders" box, but when I did this last time I lost everything. I also had this seleced.

where would the server start the meta data  if it wasn’t in the media folder? I’m running on Ubuntu.

.

Can anybody offer me advice?? I don’t mind the fact it takes three days to download the meta data, but losing The played status is infuriating, as this data store is TV shows.

Thank you in advance

 

Edited January 1, 2025 by JuJuJurassic

[JuJuJurassic 49]

I should have mentioned that the original data source is an SMB data store, as is the backup

[Luke 42078]

Quote

where would the server start the meta data  if it wasn’t in the media folder? I’m running on Ubuntu.

Hi, in the server metadata folder.

[Luke 42078]

Quote

However, in the past when I’ve done this I have lost the meta and the current status, of played etc, even though I have ticked the "save artwork in media folders" box

Hi, just because you have this enabled, doesn't mean this is where your images actually are. For example:

• Maybe you checked the box after images were already fetched
• Maybe the server tried to put them there, but was denied write access

So you should probably have some awareness of what is actually in your media folders. Do you have a sense of that?

[dcook 299]

I have found that the emby backup/restore plugin doesn't actually backup/restore all the settings.

Even though I had a emby backup using the backup/restore plugin, and I also copied over all the emby folders (metadata, cache, transcoding, etc) I found there were still many settings that were lost.  For example all my user profile/library access settings, network settings, collections, etc.

After restoring the emby backup I had to go through every screen and compare settings with the old server to make sure nothing was missed.  Even though all my users were restored they all were reset to default settings and I had to manually go into each one and fix everything.

I hope the backup plugin is improved so in future it actually backups up "ALL"  settings and you can reinstall easier.

 

Edited January 2, 2025 by dcook

[JuJuJurassic 49]

Thanks for the help.

The contents of a TV Show folder, is below, slightly redacted.

???.-.S01E01.-.???.Bluray-1080p-320-10.bif
???.-.S01E01.-.???.Bluray-1080p.mkv
???.-.S01E01.-.???.Bluray-1080p.nfo
???.-.S01E01.-.???.Bluray-1080p-thumb.jpg
???.-.S01E02.-.???.Bluray-1080p-320-10.bif
???.-.S01E02.-.???.Bluray-1080p.mkv
???.-.S01E02.-.???.Bluray-1080p.nfo
???.-.S01E02.-.???.Bluray-1080p-thumb.jpg

So the metadata seems to be stored there, If I look in;

/var/lib/emby/metadata/library$ ls 00/0051704f53a4240fa7e51dfd65245484/
title_10_638118031610000000.fp
There are a LOT of folders on /var/lib/emby-server/metadata

Are there some GUIDs involved here? The backup is literally a copy of the smb share, file by file, to another SMB share. The restoration is the opposite, a file by file copy from the backup SMB share to the "new" SMB share.

How do I save the played state of the media? What do I backup and restore to keep that? This data store is for TV shows, so it's quite important.

Nothing else on the server will change, just the data store removal and recreation. 

I estimate the restoration time to be about 9 days, but that's not an issue surprisingly. It's the played state and metadata I'm concerned about

Thanks

Thanks

 

[Luke 42078]

Quote

How do I save the played state of the media?

Configuration Backup

[dcook 299]

9 minutes ago, Luke said:

Configuration Backup

Just to add, even though it says it backups the user settings, it actually DOES NOT, I recently moved to new hardware and found that I had to go through and edit every user because the backup didn't capture many settings, for example: Display, Home Screen, Playback

I also found that many server settings were not captured in the backup, such as local ip address, lan networks, , local ip address internet streaming bitrate, etc
 

Edited January 2, 2025 by dcook

[Luke 42078]

Quote

 

Just to add, even though it says it backups the user settings, it actually DOES NOT, I recently moved to new hardware and found that I had to go through and edit every user because the backup didn't capture many settings, for example: Display, Home Screen, Playback

Hi, in 4.8, this is correct. Support for these have been added to the backup process in the upcoming 4.9 release.

[Luke 42078]

Quote

I also found that many server settings were not captured in the backup, such as local ip address, lan networks, , local ip address internet streaming bitrate, etc

Hi, I would try it again because these most certainly are part of the backup.

[JuJuJurassic 49]

I just wanted to say thank you.

once the SMB share had been restored I then restored the backup and the played state of all the media was recovered. Thanks very much.