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[Lessaj 467]

3 dots -> View drop down -> Table

[CineMac 1]

28 minutes ago, Lessaj said:

So you don't keep the drives connected all the time? The media path would be mentioned at the bottom of the details screen, so you'll know which drive to attach based on that.

5 minutes ago, Lessaj said:

I'm not really sure what view that is there's a lot more information than I'm used to seeing under posters, but go into the item details by clicking on its name, at the bottom will be the link and media info including the path.

I'm going to guess here that you can add more or less detail to that area. I recall ticking a load of boxes when I was setting up, but I can't recall where as I setup about 8 times before I understood what I was doing. 
 

 

[CineMac 1]

4 minutes ago, Lessaj said:

3 dots -> View drop down -> Table

Ahhh I didn't know that existed. but, I'd hate to browse 7000 films in that view with ni artwork!
 

[Lessaj 467]

You just need to scroll down further and the information is in those pages. It looks like you're not displaying any artwork because you're storing the images next to the media, and those drives are currently disconnected. You can enable an option on the library to cache the images in the server folder, which may improve that (and then you'd probably have to browse the library again so it loads the images in order to cache them), but some may still be missing after that.

[CineMac 1]

15 minutes ago, Lessaj said:

You just need to scroll down further and the information is in those pages. It looks like you're not displaying any artwork because you're storing the images next to the media, and those drives are currently disconnected. You can enable an option on the library to cache the images in the server folder, which may improve that (and then you'd probably have to browse the library again so it loads the images in order to cache them), but some may still be missing after that.

Well I have looked and looked and there is no path. To get that artwork, I think I need to delete every library and start from scratch. But tbh I can't be arsed so I am leaving it as is now. The main film artwork is there and I can open each 'disk' so i know where stuff is. I hate wasting time on stuff that is so complex, with little explanation. 

[Lessaj 467]

It is possible that you may need to go into your user preferences Display settings and at the bottom there is an option to display the media path. I've had it on for so long I don't know if it's default enabled or not.

To my knowledge you can enable this option and then refresh metadata and it should cache the images. You should not need to start over. Though if you do actually combine them all together (and I still think that you should) it would rescan the drive/folder and cache the images at that point.

[CineMac 1]

1 hour ago, Lessaj said:

It is possible that you may need to go into your user preferences Display settings and at the bottom there is an option to display the media path. I've had it on for so long I don't know if it's default enabled or not.

To my knowledge you can enable this option and then refresh metadata and it should cache the images. You should not need to start over. Though if you do actually combine them all together (and I still think that you should) it would rescan the drive/folder and cache the images at that point.

I'm bemused at your insistence that I make one large folder. The way I have it works for me. Any other way would be way more clunky. Really the fact that Emby is so complex, and has so many controls, it would be better if it was organised so that you could make 1 large library. And clicking a link for any film would pop up a message saying which drive to plug in. I bet that would not be difficult to do either. 

[Lessaj 467]

I guess I'm just not understanding your usage pattern, it sounds clunky to me. Are you going through library by library looking at your list of movies in each one trying to figure out what you want to watch, or where something is? Is it not just easier to search for what you're looking for? I suppose you may have some idea of where stuff is since you've organized it, but if it's organized enough that you can remember where stuff is then having multiple libraries still isn't solving a problem. Using my earlier example of Superman, and I'll pretend it's Windows instead of Linux, I search for Superman and go into the details and I see, for example, the path says it's on drive H. I know which of my drives H is, I go and plug it in and watch my movie. Otherwise what's the alternative? I go into movie1, scroll or click on S or T, scroll around looking, nope no Superman here, repeat for 2 etc. That sounds like it takes much longer.

[CineMac 1]

18 minutes ago, Lessaj said:

I guess I'm just not understanding your usage pattern, it sounds clunky to me. Are you going through library by library looking at your list of movies in each one trying to figure out what you want to watch, or where something is? Is it not just easier to search for what you're looking for? I suppose you may have some idea of where stuff is since you've organized it, but if it's organized enough that you can remember where stuff is then having multiple libraries still isn't solving a problem. Using my earlier example of Superman, and I'll pretend it's Windows instead of Linux, I search for Superman and go into the details and I see, for example, the path says it's on drive H. I know which of my drives H is, I go and plug it in and watch my movie. Otherwise what's the alternative? I go into movie1, scroll or click on S or T, scroll around looking, nope no Superman here, repeat for 2 etc. That sounds like it takes much longer.

That's a mismatch in usage. 
Firstly, my collection is about 7,000 scanned DVD and BluRay disks. Across 7 disks of films and 2 disks of TV shows I cannot remember where anything is, it's impossible. 
But I do have a database, and if I want to know what disk a specific movie is in I just fire that up, search on the film and it tells me instantly which disk it is. 
But usually, I don't have a specific film in mind. I scroll through all the films I have until one makes me feel something and I decide to watch that. That's why the 'jukebox' or 'carousel' sort of display is great. Then once I make my choice I know which folder I am in so I simply get that disk out and plug in. It's actually quite rare that I have a mood for a specific film, I'm a browser and watch what fits my mood in that moment.
I'm the same with music, hence Musicbee does the same thing Emby does, but obviously better because it links directly to all the files which are in a second drive in the computer. So I spot Led Zeppelin and just click on it and voila...my ears are having some personal care. 
Your next question is why not have a NAS. I've looked at loads and considered the question many times but I come back to the same thing over and over: a disk based NAS means replacing disks all the time due to wear, and they can be power hungry with 9 disks attached. (11 if you count my 2 backup drives)
you can get M.2 and SSD based NAS's now, but the cost is horrendous, well over £3,000 just for the drives alone. 

[Lessaj 467]

23 minutes ago, CineMac said:

That's a mismatch in usage. 
Firstly, my collection is about 7,000 scanned DVD and BluRay disks. Across 7 disks of films and 2 disks of TV shows I cannot remember where anything is, it's impossible. 
But I do have a database, and if I want to know what disk a specific movie is in I just fire that up, search on the film and it tells me instantly which disk it is. 

So you're using an external tool to look up something that Emby already tells you?

23 minutes ago, CineMac said:

But usually, I don't have a specific film in mind. I scroll through all the films I have until one makes me feel something and I decide to watch that. That's why the 'jukebox' or 'carousel' sort of display is great. Then once I make my choice I know which folder I am in so I simply get that disk out and plug in.

Sorry I'm unclear on this point, since that sounds to me like you are, essentially, going library by library until you decide, which is fine if scrolling through is how you want to look for something, but it's not consolidated. I realize that it's a lot of items to scroll through, so you may want to see it in smaller chunks, but you can still achieve that with a single library by using the folders view. If you have for example 7 folders representing each drive, when you go to the folder view that is exactly what you will see - 7 folders that represent each drive, and going into one of the folders will show you the folder structure of that drive. Same as it would appear in a file explorer (at least it should, I don't really use this view, but it looks like it should be that way based on my library).

23 minutes ago, CineMac said:

Your next question is why not have a NAS. I've looked at loads and considered the question many times but I come back to the same thing over and over: a disk based NAS means replacing disks all the time due to wear, and they can be power hungry with 9 disks attached. (11 if you count my 2 backup drives)

I suppose this is subjective experience but in the 10+ years I've ran two 6-7 disk arrays I have only ever had to replace 1 drive under warranty. I have always used NAS grade drives, and they are always spinning. However I do not use any external drives, they are all internal. I won't speak to the power costs but hard drives on average use about 6W idle spinning, and less if not. It would likely be better to be using some kind of array software for data integrity, but if you have a backup that's better than nothing. They don't need to be always connected once the content has been scanned.

Edited October 7, 2025 by Lessaj

[CineMac 1]

29 minutes ago, Lessaj said:

So you're using an external tool to look up something that Emby already tells you?

Sorry I'm unclear on this point, since that sounds to me like you are, essentially, going library by library until you decide, which is fine if scrolling through is how you want to look for something, but it's not consolidated. I realize that it's a lot of items to scroll through, so you may want to see it in smaller chunks, but you can still achieve that with a single library by using the folders view. If you have for example 7 folders representing each drive, when you go to the folder view that is exactly what you will see - 7 folders that represent each drive, and going into one of the folders will show you the folder structure of that drive. Same as it would appear in a file explorer (at least it should, I don't really use this view, but it looks like it should be that way based on my library).

I suppose this is subjective experience but in the 10+ years I've ran two 6-7 disk arrays I have only ever had to replace 1 drive under warranty. I have always used NAS grade drives, and they are always spinning. However I do not use any external drives, they are all internal. I won't speak to the power costs but hard drives on average use about 6W idle spinning, and less if not. It would likely be better to be using some kind of array software for data integrity, but if you have a backup that's better than nothing. They don't need to be always connected once the content has been scanned.

"

So you're using an external tool to look up something that Emby already tells you?

Sorry I'm unclear on this point, since that sounds to me like you are, essentially, going library by library until you decide, which is fine if scrolling through is how you want to look for something, but it's not consolidated."
 

You're just being obtuse. Or you aren't able to read and understand plainly written English. Either way...I'm done with you.