Forced MusicBrainz?

[Lyfesaver 133]

I have someone building a metadata plugin and they noticed that server runs the MusicBrainzArtistProvider and MusicBrainzAlbumProvider for authors and books even when it is turned off.

Here it is in detail:
No providers nothing is downloaded.
Enable another provider (I assume any will do but we noticed this while debugging a broken Google Books provider) that is not MusicBrainz
Check logs and see that it is getting data from MusicBrainz

This is all done on a 4.9.80 fresh install with nothing but a small Audio Book library with some dummy files all following proper naming

 

Nothing runs when set like above but when I tic GB and run. I do have debug level logs of this but fear it might contain my GB or Emby API keys in there, let me know if you think it is safe to upload and I will
Just to reiterate, this is not about the faulty plugin but about it running MB. Also, logs are DEBUG level

[Luke 42077]

Hi there, what makes you think there is forced musicbrainz? There isn't any such thing.

[Lyfesaver 133]

12 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi there, what makes you think there is forced musicbrainz? There isn't any such thing.

It says so, in my logs. There is a Music Brainz link at the bottom of each one

[Luke 42077]

HI there, can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

 

[Lyfesaver 133]

2 minutes ago, Luke said:

HI there, can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

 

[Lyfesaver 133]

I dont know what more you want from me...

[Neminem 1518]

Logs to show if Musicbrainz is queried.

[Lyfesaver 133]

3 hours ago, Neminem said:

Logs to show if Musicbrainz is queried.

I offered my logs but am asking for some assurance that debug logs wont expose something I dont want exposed.

[Lyfesaver 133]

I dont think it is an unfair ask to get some assurance that my debug logs wont expose me. Each time I have an issue I express my concerns about it but offer them anyway with some assurance only to be ignored on that. Which makes me believe more so that there is security info in them. If it was safe why wont anyone say so when I offer?

[Lyfesaver 133]

 

Thats an awful lot of Musicbrainz for... what was it Luke said.... oh that's right 

15 hours ago, Luke said:

... forced musicbrainz? There isn't any such thing.

 

[Lyfesaver 133]

Also....

[Neminem 1518]

That odd, I'm not seeing it.

Can you try enabling it and push save, then move out of library, back in disable, and try again.

Edited October 11, 2025 by Neminem

[Lyfesaver 133]

56 minutes ago, Neminem said:

That odd, I'm not seeing it.

Can you try enabling it and push save, then move out of library, back in disable, and try again.

First off, thanks for trying to replicate!!! Thats very nice of you

Secondly, kudos on the book choice. Clive Barker.... niiiice

Thirdly, if no providers where is that info coming from? I am guessing from MP3 tags. This was an issue for me in testing the Google Books plugin because I thought it was turned off/disabled but it is not. So, what I did was just grab some MP3 sound files I used on my Twitch stream and named them 01-Chapter 1.mp3, etc. This eliminates MP3 tag info 100%.
You screenshot confirms my first point tho. When no providers are selected, no data is fetched. However, when I ticked my Google Books:


The GB provider does not work but I was not aware of that first because data was showing up in the library. I sent the plugin back to the dev to fix and after a bit of back and forth I noticed the "MusicBrainz" link in the bottom and mentioned it to him. He told me to look in the logs and low and behold, MusicBrainz was going to town. I asked him to be sure it was not the plugin doing it and he sent me a screenshot of his VSS with a search for the word brain and musicbrainz both returning none.

So I made this thread here.

[Neminem 1518]

Thank you, and Yes my Audiobooks have metadata from Audiobookshelf

Sorry to say it, but in its current state Emby blows when it commes  to Audiobooks.

So right now I do the following to my Audiobooks.

Import in abs have that write metadata to ab ( Metadata like you would songs/albums mp3 )

Then refresh metadata on books.

But I do not see Musicbrainz used anywhere, when disabled.

[Lyfesaver 133]

Thanks for checking it out, Nem
Sadly, I can reproduce it at will so I am stepping away from this project. Looking back, so far I have tried:
Trying myself (I never should have as its been 15 years since I messed with C#... back in the very early razor/MVC days)
Looking for a plugin dev here
Talking to devs on Guru
Getting silence on Upwork so trying multiple different jobs
Dealing with liars on Fiverr
Finding a friend who himself admits is not the best coder and does not use Emby but was willing to try and help a brother out for free until we hit this roadblock

Between all that I have invested 91 hours into this and gotten nowhere but frustrated. Plugin works swimmingly for Books so that's something. I don't advise using Emby as an eReader but I never thought of using it to simply "host" the books in a neat collection that looks all fancy

Anyway, I wanted to take a moment and genuinely thank you, Nem, for your efforts in trying to repro the issue and help look for solution. Very kind of you.

Edited October 12, 2025 by Lyfesaver

[Happy2Play 9780]

I guess the first thing to test would be what does ffprobe see in the file as all embedded data will be read no matter any library settings.  (you will see the ffprobe command line for the specific file when imported).