Can someone please walk me thru how to use backup/restore?e

[davedick 19]

I have a full backup from Oct 2024 and 3 nightly backups from the past 3 nights. 

Yesterday, the computer had an issue,  so I restored from a mid Jan 2025 backup

Restore completes and I let Emby update, etc. I see the users that were added when Jan BU was completed and I see the library populated

Open restore and select 0327 backup and select restore. Emby restarts. 

I see users list showing names that were added since the mid Jan backup, but with different settings, but now I'm not adding the library populated

Tried the Extract data from backup, which only showed the users and nothing else.

Overall, I'm trying to get back to the same state (library, users, db's, etc) when the 0327 image was taken.

Edit: I tried closing Emby and copying the .db files from the 0327 BU, replacing the Jan versions. I'm seeing the libraries and current users, but noticed people added after the Jan backup don't have the exact settings from a few days ago 

Edited March 29, 2025 by davedick

[Luke 42078]

HI, can you please show screenshots of exactly what you did, and exactly what you feel isn't correct? Thanks.

[Carlo 4561]

@davedick

Have you seen this?

https://emby.media/support/articles/Backup.html?q=BACKUP

[davedick 19]

Originally after restoring my Jan system image, updating Windows, Emby, I created a more recent image. Below are the pics that I chose (example dates). After Emby restarted, I noticed that I didn't see the library listed and unique user settings were different. I even tried using the "Extract Data from backup" which only showed users and nothing else.

I went back and restored the new image I had created and tried copying the .db files from the BU folder to where Emby has them, replacing the originals. Everything was back to the way it was, with the exception of any user added since Jan backup, which it didn't keep any unique settings. For example, selective library access, live tv access and download access.

Since I only had a couple of users to adjust, I went and adjusted it.

I did look at the link Carlo provided (which is exactly what I was looking for)

I noticed it mentions 

• You can optionally do restores of only certain parts of the system or for -only specific users. Configure as needed.

Is this still the case, as shown in the pics, I didn't see any ability to select or certain parts.

After the Scan

If your library was configured with identical paths as the old setup then user data will generally be preserved as well as user library permissions. You may still want to review the library access for each user to ensure their channel and folder access is restricted as desired.

I did not complete any scans when I initially tried restoring from the backup, but after using the restore option, the library section was blank.

When I copied the .db files, I'm seeing the current libraries.

[Luke 42078]

Quote

Everything was back to the way it was, with the exception of any user added since Jan backup, which it didn't keep any unique settings. For example, selective library access, live tv access and download access.

@davedickright when you restore files individually like that, you will generally run into quirks like this.

So are you all set now?

[Luke 42078]

@davedick?