Sync watched status between two servers for all users?

[pmac 143]

I've just started up a new Linux server and plan to move away from my current Windows server, but before doing so I'd like to "test run" the Linux server for a while to make sure it works well for me. 

Right now I've left my Windows server running on 8096 and have my Linux server running on 8097 (on separate physical machines) and was hoping there would be a way for my to switch my client devices to using the Linux server for a while, but somehow sync the played/unplayed status of all media/users to my Windows server in case I end up switching back; even if just briefly to make configuration changes. 

Both servers are using the same file share for media, so that part is already synced between the two. It's just the watched status I'd like to sync. 

I've come across these two scripts:

https://github.com/antegs/syncseen

https://github.com/Marc-Vieg/Emby2Jelly

But I was wondering if there's a more modern/better way of accomplishing this. 

I've read Plex added server syncing a couple years ago, but I'm not sure if Emby has something similar. 

Thanks! 

 

[Luke 42077]

Hi, there isn't a sync function but the backup and restore feature can help you do manual migrations.

[pmac 143]

9 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi, there isn't a sync function but the backup and restore feature can help you do manual migrations.

I've noticed that you can no longer choose which parts of the server you'd like to backup/restore like in the past. Is there an ETA as to when this functionality will be back? It wouldn't be too bad if it were Windows to Windows, or Linux to Linux, but as of right now I'd need to manually change all of the library folders, etc. between server restores. It would be nice to just click a "users" checkbox and uncheck everything else when doing a restore, since the only data that would be out of sync are watched states. 

Also, some of the plugins on my Windows server are custom plugins that aren't migrated with a backup. 

[Luke 42077]

You can still do user data separately like before. There is a button for that on the restore screen. With so many features tied together now, it is hard to restore things a la cart and have them work properly as you'd expect.

For example, if you were to restore libraries separately and then users separately later after that, would you expect all user library settings/permissions to work the same as before? You probably would, right? But that's really hard to do when the database id's could be different from before.

That's why with the old restore we were constantly troubleshooting things like I did a restore and X setting did not carry over. So now there are fewer options but what is there does just work.

[pmac 143]

11 minutes ago, Luke said:

You can still do user data separately like before. There is a button for that on the restore screen. With so many features tied together now, it is hard to restore things a la cart and have them work properly as you'd expect.

For example, if you were to restore libraries separately and then users separately later after that, would you expect all user library settings/permissions to work the same as before? You probably would, right? But that's really hard to do when the database id's could be different from before.

That's why with the old restore we were constantly troubleshooting things like I did a restore and X setting did not carry over. So now there are fewer options but what is there does just work.

That's understandable. So when I click "extract data from backup" and select all of my users, will this *only* restore user data, and skip over the rest of the library/server config? That would definitely be preferable for my use-case since all I need are the watched states to sync between servers

[Luke 42077]

9 minutes ago, pmac said:

That's understandable. So when I click "extract data from backup" and select all of my users, will this *only* restore user data, and skip over the rest of the library/server config? That would definitely be preferable for my use-case since all I need are the watched states to sync between servers

Correct.

[pmac 143]

Okay, thanks @Luke, that will be a decent stop-gap until there's a more fluid server sync feature available one day. Hopefully my new server just works out fine and I don't really need to use it anyway, but a near-real-time sync feature would be great to be able to run a "hands-off" backup server without the need to fiddle with manual restores.

My case makes it slightly more convoluted since my remote users will be running off my windows server, and local users running off my Linux server for the time being until I'm confident enough with my Linux setup. But it seems like I should be able to do a partial user restore from both servers (grab local user watched status from Linux backup, and remote user watched status from Windows backup). Does that sound like it should work?

I'm hoping I don't do a server swap and have family calling me asking why their show is on the wrong episode, lol

[roblewis 2]

Shame realy as Plex does have this feature now...

[adminExitium 355]

Yeah, but Plex has it working by storing all your watch history on their servers, which makes it trivial to copy it to new servers, apart from everything else they can do with that data.

I don't think anyone wants a solution even remotely similar to that for Emby.

[Luke 42077]

15 hours ago, roblewis said:

Shame realy as Plex does have this feature now...

@roblewisbut wouldn't you rather have a personal media server and not one that stores all of your information in the cloud?

[roblewis 2]

I do have 2 personal servers at mirror each other. At present the run Plex and Emby for redundancy. Plex has the feature Emby does not ( from what I can see)

[Luke 42077]

8 hours ago, roblewis said:

I do have 2 personal servers at mirror each other. At present the run Plex and Emby for redundancy. Plex has the feature Emby does not ( from what I can see)

Right but it was explained how they are accomplishing that. That doesn't feel like an invasion of privacy to you?

[Distemper 0]

TRAKT works 

[Luke 42077]

@roblewis?