Removing duplicate library-items with invalid paths

[Jaha 2]

Hi,

After migrating to a new server, I got duplicate items in my Emby library—one with the correct new path and one with an old invalid path (no image).

I initially updated paths directly for MediaItems in library.db, but those paths didn’t appear in UI for the library paths, so I added library these paths manually instead directly in UI.

Tested with library scan but that doesn’t remove the invalid items for me.

What’s the best way to delete this duplicate items tied to invalid paths?
Can I just delete them directly from library.db without issues? Or are they linked/related somehow to other things in DB?

[Luke 42077]

@Jahaare these not available in Emby library setup to just remove them using the user interface? That's what I would suggest.

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an I just delete them directly from library.db without issues?

You probably can, but you're not going to enjoy it. foreign key constaints are not going to let you easily delete the rows. you're going to have to trace through all of the constraints, and first delete rows from other tables.

Did you end up doing this?

[Jaha 2]

Thanks @Lukefor following up.

I ended up going back to my backup and did migrationen again like this:

• Updated path in library.db (Path attribute in MediaItems table) from Windows path to Linux path then i changed the paths i emby library ui for each library.
• Scan Metadata Folder and Library Scan

In generall it looks like my emby-server working correct but i have a little trouble with realtime scanning and thumbnail extraction, not sure if this is related with my migration. But in Windows both this features worked.

Realtime-monitoring worked for some librarys. I disabled it because its not crucial for me but wonder why. 

Thumbnail extraction give me this: 

Quote

2025-07-29 12:44:35.757 Info TaskManager: Executing Video preview thumbnail extraction
2025-07-29 12:44:35.776 Info TaskManager: Video preview thumbnail extraction Completed after 0 minute(s) and 0 seconds

I changed library settings to generete thumbnails (schema, 10 sec), tested both to save in same folder as media and without.

I see same thing here, some library working (only one media path), new media get thumbnail there.

But a library with 27 paths not working, so wonder if there is something broken on this big library and it affecting both real-time-monitoring and thumbnails generation, any idea? could it be database related?

EDIT: So to summarize my main problem with the duplicate items is solved, the other issues i am not sure if its because the migration or not.

 

 

Edited July 29, 2025 by Jaha

[Luke 42077]

@Jahayou may need to refresh metadata on existing content after enabling the thumbnails option. Please let us know if that helps.

Regarding realtime monitoring, we'd have to look at a specific example.

Thanks.