Lost media images after reboot

[ITGuy1024 18]

2025-10-29 10:38:59.739 Info ImageService-0HNGMV0FML7UG:0000001F: http/1.1 Response 404 to host1. Time: 3ms. GET http://172.30.1.109:38000/emby/Items/691678/Images/Thumb?maxWidth=350&tag=1cea9c89c351b0c839d68f08b27875e6&quality=90.
2025-10-29 10:38:59.739 Error ImageService-0HNGMV0FML7UI:0000001B: Error processing request
*** Error Report ***
Version: 4.9.1.80
Command line: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system\EmbyServer.dll -noautorunwebapp
Operating system: Microsoft Windows 10.0.17763
OS/Process: x64/x64
Framework: .NET 8.0.20
Runtime: C:/Users/Administrator/AppData/Roaming/Emby-Server/system/System.Private.CoreLib.dll
Processor count: 16
Data path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata
Application path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system
System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\metadata\library\43\43297f38de9ca8eda69fc7f4be5ecd72\fanart.jpg'.
at System.IO.FileSystem.CopyFile(String sourceFullPath, String destFullPath, Boolean overwrite)
at Emby.Drawing.Skia.SkiaEncoder.GetTempFile(String path, Boolean isError)
at Emby.Drawing.Skia.SkiaEncoder.GetSKFileStream(String path)
at Emby.Drawing.Skia.SkiaEncoder.EncodeImage(String inputPath, String outputPath, Boolean autoOrient, Nullable`1 orientation, Int32 quality, ImageProcessingOptions options, ImageFormat selectedOutputFormat)
at Emby.Drawing.ImageProcessor.ProcessImage(ImageProcessingOptions options, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
at Emby.Api.Images.ImageService.GetImage(ImageRequest request, Int64 itemId, BaseItem item, Boolean isHeadRequest)
at Emby.Server.Implementations.Services.ServiceController.GetTaskResult(Task task)
at Emby.Server.Implementations.Services.ServiceHandler.ProcessRequestAsync(HttpListenerHost httpHost, IServerApplicationHost appHost, IRequest httpReq, IResponse httpRes, IStreamHelper streamHelper, RestPath restPath, String responseContentType, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
at Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.HttpListenerHost.RequestHandler(IRequest httpReq, RestPath restPath, String urlString, String localPath, String contentTypeInPath, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
Source: System.Private.CoreLib
TargetSite: Void CopyFile(System.String, System.String, Boolean)
Path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\metadata\library\43\43297f38de9ca8eda69fc7f4be5ecd72\fanart.jpg

Latest version of Emby (4.9.1.80) running on Server 2019. I rebooted Emby and when it came back up I am missing a ton of media images.

[Luke 42077]

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

How to Report a Problem

Thanks!

 

[ITGuy1024 18]

 

embyserver(1).txt

[Luke 42077]

HI, did you tamper with the contents of the server metadata folder?

2025-10-29 10:37:54.352 Error ImageService-0HNGMV0FML7UF:0000000A: Error processing request
	*** Error Report ***
	Version: 4.9.1.80
	Command line: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system\EmbyServer.dll -noautorunwebapp
	Operating system: Microsoft Windows 10.0.17763
	OS/Process: x64/x64
	Framework: .NET 8.0.20
	Runtime: C:/Users/Administrator/AppData/Roaming/Emby-Server/system/System.Private.CoreLib.dll
	Processor count: 16
	Data path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata
	Application path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system
	System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\metadata\library\7d\7df982afa2035eddb3ddc846a4c653c5\poster.jpg'.

That's what it looks like.

[ITGuy1024 18]

Just now, Luke said:

HI, did you tamper with the contents of the server metadata folder?

2025-10-29 10:37:54.352 Error ImageService-0HNGMV0FML7UF:0000000A: Error processing request
	*** Error Report ***
	Version: 4.9.1.80
	Command line: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system\EmbyServer.dll -noautorunwebapp
	Operating system: Microsoft Windows 10.0.17763
	OS/Process: x64/x64
	Framework: .NET 8.0.20
	Runtime: C:/Users/Administrator/AppData/Roaming/Emby-Server/system/System.Private.CoreLib.dll
	Processor count: 16
	Data path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata
	Application path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system
	System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\metadata\library\7d\7df982afa2035eddb3ddc846a4c653c5\poster.jpg'.

That's what it looks like.

I didn't - all I did was reboot emby.

[Luke 42077]

Ok I would try refreshing the metadata on an impacted title and see if that helps.

[ITGuy1024 18]

13 hours ago, Luke said:

Ok I would try refreshing the metadata on an impacted title and see if that helps.

I mean we are talking about thousands of broken items. I did a mass refresh / replace images on TV shows and it only fixed about 20% of what's broken.
This is going to be a nightmare to fix.

[ITGuy1024 18]

So Emby doesn't show any GUI indication that a task is still running for replacing the metadata and images but if I check the logs it's still (very slowly) running through the replacements.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Only guess would be something happened to your Custom paths as these are not default paths.  

2025-10-29 10:33:26.822 Info App: Cache path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\cache\cache
2025-10-29 10:33:26.822 Info App: Internal metadata path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\metadata
2025-10-29 10:33:26.822 Info App: Transcoding temporary files path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\transcoding-temp\transcoding-temp

Are these correct custom paths?

Normally will reside in 

Data path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata

 

[ITGuy1024 18]

3 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

Only guess would be something happened to your Custom paths as these are not default paths.  

2025-10-29 10:33:26.822 Info App: Cache path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\cache\cache
2025-10-29 10:33:26.822 Info App: Internal metadata path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\metadata
2025-10-29 10:33:26.822 Info App: Transcoding temporary files path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\transcoding-temp\transcoding-temp

Are these correct custom paths?

Normally will reside in 

Data path: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata

 

I think I changed those because I was migrating to a new server like 2 years ago and there was a suggestion somewhere to use a different location when migrating. It's been so long I can't recall.
Emby had a pending reboot for updates and it updated these items. I can't imagine that would have caused this issue?

[Luke 42077]

What I think happened is you had files in your custom metadata path that the server was expecting to be there, but are no longer there. So unless you can restore those then you will need to manually refresh metadata. Please note you can also do this at a parent folder level so that you don't have to do it one at a t ime.

[ITGuy1024 18]

On 10/30/2025 at 3:52 PM, Luke said:

What I think happened is you had files in your custom metadata path that the server was expecting to be there, but are no longer there. So unless you can restore those then you will need to manually refresh metadata. Please note you can also do this at a parent folder level so that you don't have to do it one at a t ime.

I did the movie refresh at the  parent level - it only fixed about 20% of what was broken. However doing a refresh at the parent level for movies fixed almost everything.

So I had a thought. What does emby use for it's database? Is it possible this data was stored in cache and not actually written to the database? I can't image that's the case because it's been running fine for years and I have obviously rebooted emby for all updates.