Actor Metadata Missing

[Barbablanca 7]

Since I rebuilt my media databases for movies and television series, I've discovered that Emby no longer gives actor bios, or cross references other series or movies that actor appears in that are also in my collections. For example, I follow Tim Allen in Shifting Gears, who also is in Home Improvement and Last Man Standing (which I have), not to mention Galaxy Quest and Wild Hogs. Clicking on his picture now brings up nothing. Do I just need to let the database have time to build metadata for all actors, or is that capability no longer possible?

[Happy2Play 9780]

What exactly did you do for this rebuild?

But sounds like possibly missing metadata information.

 

Edited October 18, 2025 by Happy2Play

[Barbablanca 7]

Just reinstalled latest version of server, and opted for every meta fetcher available (IMDB, TMDB, and TVDB)

embyserver-63896342400.txt

[Barbablanca 7]

Since there doesn't seem to be a community solution to why actor metadata isn't downloading any more, are older versions of Emby server available to download? 

[Luke 42077]

On 10/18/2025 at 7:20 PM, Barbablanca said:

Just reinstalled latest version of server, and opted for every meta fetcher available (IMDB, TMDB, and TVDB)

embyserver-63896342400.txt 37.02 MB · 1 download

Hi, what exactly did you do? Is this a brand new installation?

[Barbablanca 7]

Still haven't resolved the issue of actor metadata not appearing. Are older versions of Emby Server available for download somewhere?

[Luke 42077]

@BarbablancaI've merged your topics so that we can keep all related discussion in one place. Can you please answer my question above? Thanks !

[Barbablanca 7]

On 10/25/2025 at 5:28 PM, Luke said:

Hi, what exactly did you do? Is this a brand new installation?

As I previously said, this was a fresh installation  using every metadata fetcher offered

[Luke 42077]

2 hours ago, Barbablanca said:

As I previously said, this was a fresh installation  using every metadata fetcher offered

HI, if you refresh the metadata on Tim Allen, does that populate his info?

[Barbablanca 7]

Yes, but JUST for Tim Allen. Need to fetch info for ALL actors in both movies and television series

[Luke 42077]

OK let's look at another example of an actor. if you click on that actor and open the metadata editor, does that actor have external ids filled?

[Barbablanca 7]

Yes, once you click "edit metadata" (and it takes  few seconds for that info to refresh)

[Barbablanca 7]

Tried refresh missing metadata for my entire collection and all actor info is restored. Takes a while. Still don't understand why the fetchers don't scrape that info on the first pass.

[Luke 42077]

19 minutes ago, Barbablanca said:

Tried refresh missing metadata for my entire collection and all actor info is restored. Takes a while. Still don't understand why the fetchers don't scrape that info on the first pass.

It is, and that's why I was asking these questions to try and get to the bottom of it.

[Luke 42077]

Can you try adding a new movie to your library and see how that goes?

[Barbablanca 7]

Did that and it causes all of the pre-existing actor metadata to be erased. I need to scan the entire library to refresh metadata for actors. Furthermore, only actors that have entries in other movies/television shows in my library show up with detailed bios.

[Luke 42077]

Quote

Did that and it causes all of the pre-existing actor metadata to be erased

What do you mean exactly? Adding a new movie will not erase actor information. Can you please provide an example?

In times like these when you're having an issue that's hard to chase down, I would suggest removing plugins that could be adding unknown variables. Please try removing these plugins:
 

	ADMv2 1.0.6.828
	Chapter API 1.4.0.0
	Disk Space 1.0.6.4
	FrontView+ API Plugin 2.0.0.91
	Media Info 1.0.1.20
	The Emby Show 4.8.0.18

Then restart the server and let's see how things go from there.

[Barbablanca 7]

My bad. Adding new titles doesn't erase previous actor info, BUT still requires refreshing info for each actor to get actor info if that actor isn't in the system.

[Barbablanca 7]

The most that the scrapers do is give pictures of the actors involved in the respective movies/series/episodes. To be able to cross reference an actor to other movies/series/episodes involves manually refreshing that actor's metadata for each actor, which is EXTREMELY time consuming

[Luke 42077]

7 hours ago, Barbablanca said:

The most that the scrapers do is give pictures of the actors involved in the respective movies/series/episodes.

Hi, yes this is correct.