Problem with duplicate movies

[rdf52 5]

I am a new user to Emby.  I have been a Plex user for about 10 years.  I have decided to look at alternative media servers after some recent Plex updates. 

I was able to download and install Emby and successfully scanned in all my movies and TV shows.  I have over 2000 movies and 154 TV shows with all episodes that total to around 23000 episodes.  It looked like everything was scanned and working.  

While adding tags to my movies to be able to sort on a tag I noticed I was missing a few movies.  I was adding a "Disney" tag to all 210 Disney files.  There are 3 Jungle Book movies, dated 1967, 1994, and 2016.  I could only find one Jungle book movie in the library.  Eventually I noticed that in the detail page of the Jungle book 1967 movie, there was a line asking about splitting this version.  I figured that was where the missing jungle book videos were.  I split them and ended up with the three movies.  When I went to the details page of each of these movies, I found the correct poster but wrong details.  None of the actors were showing in the Cast & Crew section.  

So in order to trouble shoot this particular problem I installed a new version of Emby, Installed Version 4.9.1.80, on a separate Windows 10 PC.  Copied these movies from my Plex Media hard drive to an external USB HD on the new PC.  It is F:\Movies.  These are the few movies I copied to F:\Movies.

Next I created a new library using these settings:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Library creation completed with no errors.  Here is the new Movies Library

As you can see, all the movies were imported with the same poster image as the original on my Plex media. However, the three Jungle Book movies came in with the correct poster image but with the same date (1967).

When I went to the detail page view for each movie, under Cast & Crew I could see all the actors and the director. On the three Jungle Book movies the Cast & Crew were exactly the same. The details for the three Jungle Book movies was also the same.

I then decided to refresh metadata for the entire library.

After that, all the actors in every movie disappeared with only the director image showing up. In the Jungle book details the director was correct but now no image

On the detail page of the jungle book movies, as I said the top part of the page showed the correct poster for each movie, but the top most part of the page shows the same information:

But further down the page, the media info for this same detail page shows the correct video file location:

I have attached the embyserver.txt file.

I don't know if I have setup something wrong or if there is a problem in Emby.  Just looking for some help in order to complete my move from Plex to Emby

embyserver.txt

[Abobader 3464]

Hello rdf52,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[Luke 42077]

Quote

After that, all the actors in every movie disappeared with only the director image showing up. In the Jungle book details the director was correct but now no image

hi, it's probably a matter of waiting for it to finish. Currently when you refresh metadata there is no way to monitor the progress of it other than watching the log.

But what I would have done instead is just use the Identify feature on the two versions of the movie that had the wrong metadata. That will help you change it to the right one.

[rdf52 5]

OK, but why did the three movies, all three with different dates on the folders and the mp4 filenames get lumped into one movie?  And what will return the actors to the other James bond movies.  They all disappeared as well?  Do I have to "identify" each of them in this test case?

[rdf52 5]

I "identified" one of the Bond movies using the IMDB ID.  The actors are still missing.   I looked in the AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\metadata\people folder and the Bond actors are all there.  There are not even placeholders for them in the movie detail page and still don't show up in the edit metadata, people section.  And as I mentioned in my first post, why would only the director of each movies be the only person still listed in the people section?

 

 

[mjtbrady 1]

Just a guess/some observations from another user. I think that this might be a case of the meta servers not matching your files. And the metadata servers not matching each other.

You have The MovieDB and the TVDB configured as your metadata downloaders in that order.

The MovieDB doesn't have "The Jungle Book (1967)" at all.  From your logs Emby gets ID 9325, which is "The Jungle Book (1984)".  Things go down hill from there.

For your James Bond movies only "A View to a Kill" and "Goldeneye" match the year in The MovieDB.

The TVDB has matching data for all, so maybe move the TVDB a head of the TheMovieDB in "Metadata Downloaders"?

[rdf52 5]

I moved TVDB to the head of the metadata reader list and did a library refresh metadata.  Still no "people" update in any movie.  Then moved TVDB in the image fetcher list to the head and did a library refresh metadata.  All the movie posters changed,  All of them are correct posters just different images except the jungle book 1967 and 2016 versions both have the same poster and both are dated 1967.

The details page of the 1967 version looks correct, (no actor images,and just  a placeholder for the director).

The details page of the 2016 version still show the 1967 poster and details but the Media Info section at the bottom of the details page say this:

 

[mjtbrady 1]

May "Remove Identification" on each movie and then refresh metadata for each movie with "Replace existing images"?

If that doesn't work edit the metadata and check the IDs that Emby is getting and manually set them if necessary.  I have had to do this on rare occasions.

[rdf52 5]

2 hours ago, mjtbrady said:

May "Remove Identification" on each movie and then refresh metadata for each movie with "Replace existing images"?

If that doesn't work edit the metadata and check the IDs that Emby is getting and manually set them if necessary.  I have had to do this on rare occasions.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I did as you suggested for the three jungle book movies.  That has the posters and details all straightened out, but still no actors in the Cast & Crew section, only the director of each movie.

 

[mjtbrady 1]

Are there no actors listed at all, or just no images for them?

Running out of ideas at this point. 

If you are getting the Director then metadata is being fetched, just not all of it?  Is it the correct director in each case?

If you haven't done it already do a metadata refresh for one of the movies and check the logs for anything might shed light on it.

 

[rdf52 5]

There are no actors listed at all.  No images, no placeholders.  Just the director of the movie.  The director is correct as is the image of the director.

I did a metadata refresh on the jungle book 1994.

Here's what is in the log.

2025-10-03 20:16:24.599 Info ItemRefreshService-0HNG2IS679JU4:00000010: http/1.1 Response 204 to host1. Time: 1ms. POST http://192.168.0.6:8096/emby/Items/19/Refresh?Recursive=true&ImageRefreshMode=FullRefresh&MetadataRefreshMode=FullRefresh&ReplaceAllImages=false&ReplaceThumbnailImages=false&ReplaceAllMetadata=true&X-Emby-Client=Emby Web&X-Emby-Device-Name=Firefox macOS&X-Emby-Device-Id=4df3c658-b7b6-4b40-a965-1205d094bc64&X-Emby-Client-Version=4.9.1.80&X-Emby-Token=x_secret6_x&X-Emby-Language=en-us.

2025-10-03 20:16:24.657 Info ProviderManager: RefreshItem Start: 19 Movie F:\Movies\The Jungle Book (1994)\The Jungle Book (1994).mp4

2025-10-03 20:16:24.659 Info MediaProbeManager: ProcessRun 'ffprobe' Execute: C:\Users\bobf\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system\ffprobe.exe -i file:"F:\Movies\The Jungle Book (1994)\The Jungle Book (1994).mp4" -threads 0 -v info -print_format json -show_streams -show_chapters -show_format -show_data

2025-10-03 20:16:30.739 Info MediaProbeManager: ProcessRun 'ffprobe' Process exited with code 0

2025-10-03 20:16:30.743 Info HttpClient: GET https://api.themoviedb.org/3/movie/10714?api_key=x_secret3_x&append_to_response=alternative_titles,reviews,casts,releases,images,keywords,trailers&language=en-US&include_image_language=en-US,null

2025-10-03 20:16:31.074 Info HttpClient: Http response 200 from https://api.themoviedb.org/3/movie/10714?api_key=x_secret3_x&append_to_response=alternative_titles,reviews,casts,releases,images,keywords,trailers&language=en-US&include_image_language=en-US,null after 331ms

2025-10-03 20:16:31.080 Info ProviderManager: RefreshItem Complete: 19 Movie F:\Movies\The Jungle Book (1994)\The Jungle Book (1994).mp4

[mjtbrady 1]

Looks like a good refresh to me.

I am all out of ideas at this point.

[Luke 42077]

8 hours ago, rdf52 said:

OK, but why did the three movies, all three with different dates on the folders and the mp4 filenames get lumped into one movie?  And what will return the actors to the other James bond movies.  They all disappeared as well?  Do I have to "identify" each of them in this test case?

We’d have to look at the server log from when they were first imported.

How to Report a Problem

 

[Luke 42077]

7 hours ago, rdf52 said:

I "identified" one of the Bond movies using the IMDB ID.  The actors are still missing.   I looked in the AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\metadata\people folder and the Bond actors are all there.  There are not even placeholders for them in the movie detail page and still don't show up in the edit metadata, people section.  And as I mentioned in my first post, why would only the director of each movies be the only person still listed in the people section?

 

 

 

7 hours ago, rdf52 said:

I "identified" one of the Bond movies using the IMDB ID.  The actors are still missing.   I looked in the AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\metadata\people folder and the Bond actors are all there.  There are not even placeholders for them in the movie detail page and still don't show up in the edit metadata, people section.  And as I mentioned in my first post, why would only the director of each movies be the only person still listed in the people section?

 

 

Hi there, please attach the Emby server log from when the problem occurred:

How to Report a Problem

Thanks!

 

[rdf52 5]

I think this is the log from the install thru the first time I added movies to the library.

embyserver-63894960000.txt

[Luke 42077]

1 hour ago, rdf52 said:

I think this is the log from the install thru the first time I added movies to the library.

embyserver-63894960000.txt 213.98 kB · 0 downloads

I think there is an issue that needs to be reported to moviedb. When you search and filter by year, you still get results from the other years. See here:

https://www.themoviedb.org/search?language=en-US&query=The Jungle Book y%3A1994

Emby performs the same search and gets the same result. So that explains the issue. So for now, to resolve this in Emby, do the following on the 1994 and 2016 editions:

• Use the identify feature, except instead of entering the name, enter the moviedb id. So for the 1994 edition, that would be 10714

Please let us know if this helps.

@Happy2Playare you able to report this to them?

[rdf52 5]

I have already tried what you are asking.  I never use the name, always the ID.  But in this instance I tried your suggestion again, and the movie is showing the correct details but still no actors, just the director.

[Happy2Play 9780]

1 hour ago, rdf52 said:

I have already tried what you are asking.  I never use the name, always the ID.  But in this instance I tried your suggestion again, and the movie is showing the correct details but still no actors, just the director.

What is your library metadata provider order?

 

But even with year the api list 3 versions as the 1967 version has other countries with release date of 1994.

Spoiler

{
  "page": 1,
  "results": [
    {
      "adult": false,
      "backdrop_path": "/zj8XS0l1cWStpKnuD1LFMB3VoV1.jpg",
      "genre_ids": [10751, 16, 12],
      "id": 9325,
      "original_language": "en",
      "original_title": "The Jungle Book",
      "overview": "The boy Mowgli makes his way to the man-village with Bagheera, the wise panther. Along the way he meets jazzy King Louie, the hypnotic snake Kaa and the lovable, happy-go-lucky bear Baloo, who teaches Mowgli \"The Bare Necessities\" of life and the true meaning of friendship.",
      "popularity": 8.7476,
      "poster_path": "/9BgcTVV43dZ8A1TpuXWkuNTXtfI.jpg",
      "release_date": "1967-10-18",
      "title": "The Jungle Book",
      "video": false,
      "vote_average": 7.276,
      "vote_count": 6461
    },
    {
      "adult": false,
      "backdrop_path": "/5lOwzugTtyk5aREUmMmGgK9UuuM.jpg",
      "genre_ids": [10751, 12, 18],
      "id": 10714,
      "original_language": "en",
      "original_title": "The Jungle Book",
      "overview": "Raised by wild animals since childhood, Mowgli is drawn away from the jungle by the beautiful Kitty. But Mowgli must eventually face corrupt Capt. Boone, who wants both Kitty's hand and the treasures of Monkey City – a place only Mowgli can find.",
      "popularity": 3.3065,
      "poster_path": "/rYoE6cuup9Ofam6AuYaiJLxF9OO.jpg",
      "release_date": "1994-12-23",
      "title": "The Jungle Book",
      "video": false,
      "vote_average": 5.9,
      "vote_count": 476
    },
    {
      "adult": false,
      "backdrop_path": "/7m7APJ99k0A6ojExFTKI3lU3ijV.jpg",
      "genre_ids": [12, 14, 10751],
      "id": 23033,
      "original_language": "en",
      "original_title": "Jungle Book",
      "overview": "Mowgli, lost in the jungle when a toddler, raised by wolves, years later happens upon his human village and reconnects with its inhabitants, including his widowed mother. Continuing to maintain a relationship with the jungle, adventures follow.",
      "popularity": 1.4961,
      "poster_path": "/zYkffyYCFO1Li1f20MyaAYUaYC4.jpg",
      "release_date": "1942-04-03",
      "title": "Jungle Book",
      "video": false,
      "vote_average": 6.33,
      "vote_count": 109
    }
  ],
  "total_pages": 1,
  "total_results": 3

Reidentifed by name and selected middle version and had to refresh the page to update the new api data

9 hours ago, Luke said:

are you able to report this to them?

The issue is other country release dates as all the versions has a 1994 release date somewhere.

1967

 

So this specific example will probably be wrong all the time per their multiple release date system.

[Neminem 1518]

I wounder if this would help @rdf52, by using this naming for his library.

F:\Movies\The Jungle Book (1967) {TmdbId-9325}\The Jungle Book (1967) {TmdbId-9325}.mkv

F:\Movies\The Jungle Book (1994) {TmdbId-10714}\The Jungle Book (1994) {TmdbId-10714}.mkv

F:\Movies\The Jungle Book (2016) {TmdbId-278927}\The Jungle Book (2016) {TmdbId-278927}.mkv

This naming is usually working for me.

 

 

 

[Happy2Play 9780]

2 minutes ago, Neminem said:

I wounder if this would help @rdf52, by using this naming for his library.

F:\Movies\The Jungle Book (1967) {TmdbId-9325}\The Jungle Book (1967) {TmdbId-9325}.mkv

F:\Movies\The Jungle Book (1994) {TmdbId-10714}\The Jungle Book (1994) {TmdbId-10714}.mkv

F:\Movies\The Jungle Book (2016) {TmdbId-278927}\The Jungle Book (2016) {TmdbId-278927}.mkv

This naming is usually working for me.

 

 

 

Yes adding the providerid to naming scheme would always get the correct version do to the quirks of their multiple release date system.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Think a lot of this will come back to their backlog api updates.

Implement search that factors in querying language on Web | Trello

Pretty much exact same issue discussed over here

As for exact matching I believe the only current option would be &primary_release_year=xxxx instead of &year=xxxx, but as mentioned it may be too restrictive.

Edited October 4, 2025 by Happy2Play

[Luke 42077]

4 hours ago, rdf52 said:

I have already tried what you are asking.  I never use the name, always the ID.  But in this instance I tried your suggestion again, and the movie is showing the correct details but still no actors, just the director.

Did you edit the metadata at any time by any chance? Try clicking edit metadata and see if the cast list is locked for edits. If it is, undo it and refresh metadata again.

[rdf52 5]

Happy2play: From an earlier suggestion my library metadata order is TVDB then MovieDB

Neminem: Thanks for the suggestion.  I haven't tried that but sounds like it should work.

Luke:  No I have not made any edits to the metadata and none of them are locked.  

Keep in mind that I think there are 2 problems here. 

1.  Why all three movies were lumped into one.  It sounds like you may have the answer or at least be on to it with the API. 

2. Why did ALL actors, even all the james bond movies get deleted and why can't I make them appear in the cast & crew section of the movie details.  And why did the director's name and image remain.

As I mentioned in my first post, I had imported over 2000 movies, and except for these three jungle book movies, I think they are all ok.  I also have 154 TV shows with 24000 episodes.  I have not touched that server instance and the libraries since I set up this test case for fear of making all of the actors disappear in all of the movies and tv shows.

I really appreciate all the help.     

[Luke 42077]

Quote

2. Why did ALL actors, even all the james bond movies get deleted and why can't I make them appear in the cast & crew section of the movie details.  And why did the director's name and image remain.

Hi, did you at least check the metadata editor? Can you please show a screenshot of that? thanks.

[rdf52 5]

I did check the metadata editor.  Here's the screenshot