Emby Server stopped working after 4.9.1.80 update

[sa2000 674]

18 minutes ago, Peter Nent said:

It seems that some database inconsistencies already existed during some longer time, but were not recognised and/or critical....and they were not detected in earlier versions of Emby.....

• Question-1: is there a way to avoid this for the future ?

We did introduce database integrity checks before doing backups but that integrity check slowed down the backup process and was removed. May be we can look into that again @Luke

20 minutes ago, Peter Nent said:

Finally, I succeeded in recovering the database, but it took some time.....: As I had recent and some older backups, I discovered that the recent databases-backups all had errors, thus restoring them still gave errors and Emby didn't start....thus I had to repair a recent backup bij using sqlite3 library-recovered.db and .read recovered-librarydb.sqletc.: it took some time (775MB library.db), but it finally succeeded!

Great 

[Peter Nent 71]

Dear SA2000, Luke and others,

Many thanks for your good support, although solving this kind of issues is not on a normal user level, but takes some knowledge/experience....which I don't have enough...thus studying it again toke me some time.... 

I recognosed that the published instructions in your community (for example: https://emby.media/support/articles/Corrupt-Database.html) are probably made with olders versions of sqlite3 and other sql tools as SQLiteDatabaseBrowserPortable.exe, etc. they are on details sometimes a littlebit different in the meantime.....it toke me some time to understand this....is anybody of you guy able to re-check them and correct/extend them if neccessary intended for people who need to repair their database themselves and are not as experienced as you....

So a somewhat clearer step-by-step instruction would be a great help for others!

 

Thanks & best regard, Peter

Edited October 4, 2025 by Peter Nent

[Luke 42077]

1 hour ago, Peter Nent said:

Dear SA2000, Luke and others,

Many thanks for your good support, although solving this kind of issues is not on a normal user level, but takes some knowledge/experience....which I don't have enough...thus studying it again toke me some time.... 

I recognosed that the published instructions in your community (for example: https://emby.media/support/articles/Corrupt-Database.html) are probably made with olders versions of sqlite3 and other sql tools as SQLiteDatabaseBrowserPortable.exe, etc. they are on details sometimes a littlebit different in the meantime.....it toke me some time to understand this....is anybody of you guy able to re-check them and correct/extend them if neccessary intended for people who need to repair their database themselves and are not as experienced as you....

So a somewhat clearer step-by-step instruction would be a great help for others!

 

Thanks & best regard, Peter

Hi, @sa2000can comment on that. Thank you for your feedback and patience !

[sa2000 674]

19 hours ago, Peter Nent said:

I recognosed that the published instructions in your community (for example: https://emby.media/support/articles/Corrupt-Database.html) are probably made with olders versions of sqlite3 and other sql tools as SQLiteDatabaseBrowserPortable.exe, etc. they are on details sometimes a littlebit different in the meantime.....it toke me some time to understand this....is anybody of you guy able to re-check them and correct/extend them if neccessary intended for people who need to repair their database themselves and are not as experienced as you....

So a somewhat clearer step-by-step instruction would be a great help for others!

 

 

Thanks for your feedback. I will have a look at this.  The tools should be the standard sqlite-tools available from sqlite.org and using the command-line sqlite3.exe - the latest available from their downloads page https://sqlite.org/download.html

I will check it out

 

 

 

[sa2000 674]

@Peter Nent I have looked at our documentation here https://emby.media/support/articles/Corrupt-Database.html and it all current and not old. We use the official sqlite3.exe tool  (or equivalent for other platforms) provided by http://sqlite.org and all the commands are current: 

VACUUM
REINDEX
.output
.recover
.read

The steps we have on the corrupt database instructions article are for linux - that is because that was how this article started as. I could add windows as a separate set of intstructions if it is thought necessary. The article assumes that default path for sqlite3 is setup - so there is a risk than an older version of sqlite3 gets used when following the steps rather than the one just downloaded from sqlite.org downloads page

The recommended steps are for the official sqlite3 tool from sqlite.org - it is left to users to adapt to 3rd party products if they do not wish to use the official tool

 

[Peter Nent 71]

Dear Luke and SA2000,

Emby is certainly also popular running on Windows, thus a description / instruction for Windows would be highly welcome !

Thanks & best regards, Peter

Edited October 6, 2025 by Peter Nent

[sa2000 674]

On 06/10/2025 at 06:54, Peter Nent said:

Emby is certainly also popular running on Windows, thus a description / instruction for Windows would be highly welcome

FYI I have re-written the Corrupt Database article and now include Windows commands and mention also other platforms.