Backup/Restore plugin not backing up user settings

[dcook 299]

 I recently upgraded my main Emby server and it didn't go smoothly, thankfully I have the Backup/Restore plugin setup and was able to restore the previous days backup.

Once the restore completed I quickly realized that many settings were not restored however, for example for all my users any setting that was changed under this menu:

was not restored, and reverted back to the default settings.

I had to then manually click on each user and edit them all to fix those settings.

To me this seems like an huge failure of the backup plugin

 

@Lukeis there a way to make sure the Backup/Restore plugin actually backs  up ALL the settings?  Obviously these are stored in SQL somewhere so I don't see why they are not included?

Or if there is some technical reason why these settings can't be backed up, perhaps a disclaimer in the backup plugin to state that those settings are not included?

 

Another example is my plugins, when I restored the backup all my plugins were gone and now had all the "default" plugins back.
I had to go an uninstall all the default ones that I don't use and reinstall the plugins I wanted.

Shouldn't the backup/restore plugin be capturing ALL Emby Server settings?

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2025 by dcook

[Luke 42077]

HI, the 4.8 server may not have backed all of these up. More of these have been added to the backup in 4.9.

[dcook 299]

When you say "more of these" is there a specific list posted somewhere? 

How are we to know what is backed up and what is not?

I am sure most users like myself would assume that a "Backup & Restore" would include all settings, not just "some settings"

 

[Luke 42077]

There isn't a list, but 4.8 primarily backed up everything from the user setup area on the server as well as user data (watch/favorites, etc). 4/9 expanded on that and added many of those user interface options. Or rather just about all of them.

[dcook 299]

So the only way to know for sure if all the settings are backed up now, is for me to try restoring and see?

It seems like you don't even know 100%, which is concerning since you write the code. 

Stating that a backup is working for "just about all of them" doesn't inspire confidence in the product

Again it shouldn't be this difficult, all the settings should be in SQL

 

What about the plugins? Are they now included in the backup plugin?

or if I do a restore from the backup, I have to manually remove all the default plugins again and reinstall the ones I had before?

[Luke 42077]

Quote

Stating that a backup is working for "just about all of them" doesn't inspire confidence in the product

I just said that because we have such a large number of settings, that there's bound to be one that's not covered. But at this point, I would say everything is.

[Luke 42077]

Quote

What about the plugins? Are they now included in the backup plugin?

Plugin configs, not actual plugins. It is better to get them from the server to install them so that you get the latest compatible version.

[dcook 299]

What I am saying is I didn't remember which plugins I had installed because they were gone.

I had to first remove all the default ones, and then go through the catalog and try to remember which ones I had running.

For example I wasn't sure if I had Playback Reporting or Reports plugin

Can you confirm 100% that plugin config is now captured by the Backup/restore plugin?

Because I found this folder:

Emby-Server\programdata\plugins\configurations

and inside is for example:

I am not seeing these files saved in the backup/restore backup location:

all I see is a .json file and sql-lite files

 

[Luke 42077]

Quote

Can you confirm 100% that plugin config is now captured by the Backup/restore plugin?

No because plugins have a lot of freedom to do what they want. We have created ways for plugins to store config data, so assuming they're using that, then yes they will be included. All Emby-built plugins are obviously.

Those xml files are not used anymore. They were migrated into the database with 4.8.