how to clear data from database

[mchahn 22]

I accidentally downloaded 3 series all called "Sirens", 2011, 2014, and 2025.  The 2025 was easy to fix with an identity change.  But the other two series dumped all the files from both into one folder and called it 2011.  It showed the 2014 episodes as 2011 so another identity change helped that.  I created a folder for 2011 and moved the 2011 files there.  So now 2014 and 2025 are correct.  But  the system refuses to admit there is a 2011 series.  Updating the library doesn't help. 

I suspect the db still has the 2011 file names stored as 2014 even though they are in their own folder.  I moved all three folders out of the media folder and did another update.  Then none of the series showed..I moved the folders back and did yet another update.  Things just went back to what they were before.  Weirdly the new 2011 folder got an identical copy of the 2014 metadata after the last update.  This fits the filename theory. 

Another weird thing is that the UI shows the correct series/season/episode images for 2014 but the episode text is from 2011.  I don't know how this could be more screwed up.

Can I move the folders out again and then just erase them all from the db to fix this mess?  Or is there another way tp fix it?  Any help would be appreciated.

[Neminem 1518]

TV Naming

Try adding [TvdbId=xxxxx] to your folder name.

I use this folder naming.

Earth - Final Conflict (1997) [TvdbId=71784]

[mchahn 22]

Thanks but unfortunately that didn't help.  Moved the folders out, renamed them, rescanned, and rebooted the server.  Then I moved them back in and did all that over again.  I tried vacuuming also.No luck.  I'm going to try moving the 2011 out, renaming the folder and all the files in it to fresh unused names, and try again.

[mchahn 22]

Renaming everything worked.  I kept the tvdb marker and I got the right identity and metadata.  I'm still curious about how to erase a show from the db without erasing the entire db.

[Neminem 1518]

It should do that on its own, when moving the show out of the library.

You might have moved it back to fast, and the changes never were picked up by emby.

Only logs will show that.

[mchahn 22]

2 hours ago, Neminem said:

it should do that on its own, when moving the show out of the library.

I have had shows missing from my library for years and then when I downloaded them again it remembered what episodes had been watched.  So it seems that show data is actually never removed from the db.  This is actually a cool feature.  But there has to be a way to clean screwed up data from the db.  A db always needs to be managed no matter how good the software is that is talking to it.

[pwhodges 2012]

Watch data is separate from the show data (it's per-user, for one thing, so it's stored in a different place), and is deliberately retained.

Paul

[mchahn 22]

48 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

Watch data is separate from the show data

I didn't want to delete my db because I liked the viewing data retention. So I guess I could have just deleted it after all.

[Happy2Play 9780]

On 5/23/2025 at 9:58 PM, mchahn said:

I'm still curious about how to erase a show from the db without erasing the entire db.

On 5/24/2025 at 1:59 AM, mchahn said:

I didn't want to delete my db because I liked the viewing data retention. So I guess I could have just deleted it after all.

What exactly do you mean?  As removing the show from the configured library removes it from Emby.

Now watched/played status is tracked by providerid so it is never really lost.  If you want that removed also you would want to mark the Show/Series as Unwatched/Unplayed before deleting or after readding as it is tracked in a different table in the db.

[mchahn 22]

>   As removing the show from the configured library removes it from Emby.

That was not my experience.  As I said I removed the folder, restarted everything and vacuumed and the show was gone.  But when I restored the folder it still put the files in the wrong show.  Only renaming them all fixed it.