The Emby system is slow and limited to 8 simultaneous users

[suppervinny 1]

Emby server is extremely slow. With only 8 simultaneous TV connections,
it becomes slow and unusable; I couldn't even extract the logs because the server is so slow.

Even with ample server resources, Emby seems to limit itself to 8 simultaneous users; above that number, 
performance suffers and the game starts to lag for viewers.

This has been happening for a few months now, and I'd like to know why. Apparently, it's not allocating the necessary memory for smooth performance,
 even though it's configured to do so.

I'd like to know if it's possible to improve Emby's performance with some kind of configuration?

Emby.rar

[Luke 42077]

Hi, what exactly is slow, and when?

[RanmaCanada 494]

It's slow because of the IPTV. This is not what Emby was intended for, and you should absolutely stop using it for that. It's a personal media server, it is not intended for you to use as an IPTV server.

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

20 minutes ago, RanmaCanada said:

It's slow because of the IPTV. This is not what Emby was intended for, and you should absolutely stop using it for that. It's a personal media server, it is not intended for you to use as an IPTV server.

Then why does Emby have the ability? While I do not see any slowness with Emby if the remedy for a problem is said to be  "You are doing it wrong" then there is something wrong with that idea. If a program supports a function then there is no reason for that answer. 

I do not use Emby in that way but, if Emby does not want users to do it then that functionality should be removed entirely.

I use IPTV as my live TV source and I also would not like it if I were told that "I am doing it wrong."

Of course I avoid the problem by not having more than one user and not allowing remote access at all. That solution is not best for everyone but I would never tell other folks that they are doing it wrong just because it is not how I do it.

[AndreiP 33]

3 hours ago, RanmaCanada said:

It's slow because of the IPTV. This is not what Emby was intended for, and you should absolutely stop using it for that. It's a personal media server, it is not intended for you to use as an IPTV server.

I think also that it arrives because you're using IPTV. In your third screenshot, I see four live streams of the same TV channel. I'm wondering how you managed to give four users access to the same content from the same M3U file? 
And second question: does it arrive when your users stream only movies or shows without using iptv? 

Edited October 31, 2025 by AndreiP

[Luke 42077]

On 10/30/2025 at 12:39 PM, Luke said:

Hi, what exactly is slow, and when?

@suppervinny?

[RanmaCanada 494]

20 hours ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

Then why does Emby have the ability? While I do not see any slowness with Emby if the remedy for a problem is said to be  "You are doing it wrong" then there is something wrong with that idea. If a program supports a function then there is no reason for that answer. 

I do not use Emby in that way but, if Emby does not want users to do it then that functionality should be removed entirely.

I use IPTV as my live TV source and I also would not like it if I were told that "I am doing it wrong."

Of course I avoid the problem by not having more than one user and not allowing remote access at all. That solution is not best for everyone but I would never tell other folks that they are doing it wrong just because it is not how I do it.

Again, it's for personal use. OP appears to be using it as a streaming service.

[sa2000 674]

On 30/10/2025 at 02:41, suppervinny said:

This has been happening for a few months now, and I'd like to know why. Apparently, it's not allocating the necessary memory for smooth performance, even though it's configured to do so.

You appear to have a very high db cache setting - 6144 Mb.

In Emby Server 4.9.xx.xx we now have multiple db connections and each connection will want to use that much cache. Suggest you bring this back to the default of 128Mb

WIth regards to your rar file with the logs, none of the files included retained their windows last modified date/time stamps. Not sure why that is and whether it is to do with it being a rar rather than zip. With 29 ffmpeg logs it is impossible to establish which are the latest logs. Also you did not include the embyserver logs

If the issue is ti do with memory, reducing the cache size for db connections should help

Also make sure you do not have any emby server dashboard windows in MS Edge and not being in view (ie tabbed)

 

[GrimReaper 4739]

13 minutes ago, sa2000 said:

In Emby Server 4.9.xx.xx we now have multiple db connections and each connection will want to use that much cache. Suggest you bring this back to the default of 128Mb

I'd say that information (20/5/5, 5/5/5, new vs old install) should be included in server Database tab - if not, at least it should be referenced somewhere in the KB as I assume a number of users still go by the old mantra of 1.5-2x db size. 

 

[sa2000 674]

2 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

I'd say that information (20/5/5, 5/5/5, new vs old install) should be included in server Database tab - if not, at least it should be referenced somewhere in the KB as I assume a number of users still go by the old mantra of 1.5-2x db size

I wanted to wait for any KB updates until i know what the plans are for new installs vs updated installs from 4.9.1.x  / 4.9.0.x  betas and updates from 4.8.x.x 

It is a work in progress at the moment. 

I do not believe there is intention to make the number of connections to be user configurable.

I will raise an internal issue to track this

[GrimReaper 4739]

1 minute ago, sa2000 said:

I do not believe there is intention to make the number of connections to be user configurable

I wouldn't expect them to be. Just that user is informed of what that cache size actually entails.