LOCKING "custom" images.

[Tophicles 39]

I have a custom set of icons I use for the "My Media" section (as I dislike the 'collection' of added media). It would be great if we had the ability to "lock" these images so they won't get replaced with metadata refreshes. 

[Painkiller88 248]

Hi,

Not sure about your config, but they dont get replaced during Library refresh.

I have customized images for years and do media or metadata scans manually and via scheduled task, but my library icons are the same all the time.

Have you ever seen your images has been gone during a refresh?

[Tophicles 39]

Just now, Painkiller88 said:

Hi,

Not sure about your config, but they dont get replaced during Library refresh.

I have customized images for years and do media or metadata scans manually and via scheduled task, but my library icons are the same all the time.

Have you ever seen your images has been gone during a refresh?

Yup, happens ALL the time. JUST happened now when doing a Metadata Refresh for missing images on shows, movies etc. 

[Happy2Play 9780]

Not sure I follow as I just refreshed TV and Movie libraries with Search for missing and anything with a image does not get touched.  Now if you are telling it to Replace images that is another story.

[Tophicles 39]

2 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Not sure I follow as I just refreshed TV and Movie libraries with Search for missing and anything with a image does not get touched.  Now if you are telling it to Replace images that is another story.

Yes, I tell it to replace images as this is a regular occurrence -- images that were there and fine suddenly disappear. I can understand why the items get replaced, but I'd rather "lock the Library image: 

Edited October 17, 2025 by Tophicles

[Happy2Play 9780]

So Multi-Select the library content instead of from Library level as Locking library level will look all its children.

Edited October 17, 2025 by Happy2Play

[Painkiller88 248]

yeah but replacing the images of the movies inside the library never changed the library image for me.

@Happy2PlayDo you know if it makes a difference in the library settings, where metadata get stored, maybe his library images are on a place inside the movie directory.

My metadata folder is on a local drive while all my movie images are inside their directories.

Maybe there is a setting for this or they changed something in the newest updates but i never had this error. So maybe you can imagine what could cause this

[Happy2Play 9780]

But can only guess you don't save with media as I have never lost images.  From a DB only standpoint yes Emby is notorious for one reason or another in purging libraries and readding them. 

 

But a lot more information is needed.

[Tophicles 39]

1 minute ago, Painkiller88 said:

yeah but replacing the images of the movies inside the library never changed the library image for me.

@Happy2PlayDo you know if it makes a difference in the library settings, where metadata get stored, maybe his library images are on a place inside the movie directory.

My metadata folder is on a local drive while all my movie images are inside their directories.

Maybe there is a setting for this or they changed something in the newest updates but i never had this error. So maybe you can imagine what could cause this

Here's my library config:

[Tophicles 39]

2 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

But can only guess you don't save with media as I have never lost images.  From a DB only standpoint yes Emby is notorious for one reason or another in purging libraries and readding them. 

 

But a lot more information is needed.

So I should toggle the "save in media folders" option?

[Happy2Play 9780]

Just now, Tophicles said:

So I should toggle the "save in media folders" option?

Ideally yes as Emby will be able to reuse the images is they are with media.  If they are not with media everytime Emby for any reason removes and readds library content all images and data are lost as the dbid gets purged and a new one is created readding the items.

[Painkiller88 248]

Just now, Tophicles said:

So I should toggle the "save in media folders" option?

this is what i have enabled, this is the only difference from your screenshot to my settings.

And anotoher thing.

What is your settings for the general library settings? as i have my metadata folder on a local drive while all my images for movies are inside their folders:


mine is german but you should get what it means

[Happy2Play 9780]

6 minutes ago, Painkiller88 said:

yeah but replacing the images of the movies inside the library never changed the library image for me.

@Happy2PlayDo you know if it makes a difference in the library settings, where metadata get stored, maybe his library images are on a place inside the movie directory.

My metadata folder is on a local drive while all my movie images are inside their directories.

Maybe there is a setting for this or they changed something in the newest updates but i never had this error. So maybe you can imagine what could cause this

Testing this in beta but think library image is always lost when your Refresh w/replace images at library level.  At least it is in my test.

[Painkiller88 248]

1 minute ago, Happy2Play said:

Testing this in beta but think library image is always lost when your Refresh w/replace images at library level.  At least it is in my test.

ok interesting i could not remember this ever happened to me, for my understanding starting the metadata refresh on the library with replacing images, this was just for the images of the movies inside the library, never for the library image itself but i am not sure as i haven't replaced my images for a while because it took a while to set them like i wanted them
 

[Tophicles 39]

7 minutes ago, Painkiller88 said:

this is what i have enabled, this is the only difference from your screenshot to my settings.

And anotoher thing.

What is your settings for the general library settings? as i have my metadata folder on a local drive while all my images for movies are inside their folders:


mine is german but you should get what it means

[Happy2Play 9780]

2 minutes ago, Painkiller88 said:

ok interesting i could not remember this ever happened to me, for my understanding starting the metadata refresh on the library with replacing images, this was just for the images of the movies inside the library, never for the library image itself but i am not sure as i haven't replaced my images for a while because it took a while to set them like i wanted them
 

Not sure if it is a change in 4.9 or not as this is not really something that would get tested.

[Tophicles 39]

Just now, Happy2Play said:

Not sure if it is a change in 4.9 or not as this is not really something that would get tested.

It's happened to me since I started using Emby (LOOOOOONG before 4.9).

[Painkiller88 248]

2 minutes ago, Tophicles said:

ok looks good to me, maybe it really is the one setting to save in media folder

[Tophicles 39]

I toggled the store a copy in the local folder and rescanned 4K Movies: 

[Luke 42077]

HI, a lock isn't needed for images because the server will not replace yours.

[Tophicles 39]

Just now, Luke said:

HI, a lock isn't needed for images because the server will not replace yours.

But... it is, as you can see from the example above...

[Luke 42077]

3 minutes ago, Tophicles said:

But... it is, as you can see from the example above...

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

How to Report a Problem

Thanks!

 

[Tophicles 39]

The server log ... you can see when it first initiates the metadata refresh, it loads about 7 images or so -- that's when the "Library" section image changes. 

 

embyserver.txt

[Tophicles 39]

43 minutes ago, Luke said:

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

How to Report a Problem

Thanks!

 

Log is in previous post, you can see it happening to Movies:

[visproduction 315]

Supect custom images are not optimized and are either very large and /or perhaps .png.  The browser cannot load all of these easily, there is a timeout, the images are considered missing and new automatic images replace them. Custom Logo images should be .jpg compress settings at perhaps 25 and twice the pixel size only of the thumbnail.  This would make each custom image about 10K.  Are your images greater than 4 MB each (40 times larger)?  If  you optimize their pixel and file size, they probably will not disappear.

Edited October 17, 2025 by visproduction