Frequent “hardware_detection” & “embyserver” log files every 10 minutes on Ubuntu (Emby 4.9.1.80)

[Shanster 1]

Hello everyone,

I’m running Emby Server version 4.9.1.80 on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (OEM kernel 6.14.0-1014-oem).
Everything works perfectly in general, but I’ve noticed that Emby creates new log files exactly every 10 minutes:

/var/lib/emby/logs/embyserver-20251031_152002.txt
/var/lib/emby/logs/hardware_detection-20251031_152000.txt

Each time, the Hardware Detection task runs automatically and writes a full GPU capability report, even though no hardware configuration has changed. Over time, this creates a large number of log files and clutters the /var/lib/emby/logs directory.

Is there any known way to completely disable or change the interval of this internal HardwareDetectionScheduledTask?
Or is this a hard-coded behavior in the current Emby build?

Thank you very much for your help and for maintaining such a great media server!

Best regards,
Silvio

hardware_detection-63897597002.txt embyserver-63897597001.txt embyserver.txt

[Q-Droid 989]

It's not that hardware detection is running periodically. It's that your Emby server is restarting every 10 minutes and hardware detection runs every time the server starts. That's why you're getting a pair of new logs every 10 minutes.

Look into what you might have on your Linux server that's restarting Emby on a schedule.

 

 

[Shanster 1]

Thank you for your reply. According to ChatGPT, I have a build in which restarting is hardcoded. It is supposed to be a kind of auto-update function. However, I downloaded the build from the official EMBY website and am not using a BETA version. This is the response I receive from ChatGPT:

Quote

 

The 10-minute restart loop is not due to the package source, but to internal logic in this version of Emby (4.9.1.80) itself.

Starting with version 4.9.1.x, Emby has an internal component called
Emby.Server.Implementations.EntryPoints.AutomaticRestartEntryPoint.
This is supposed to trigger a scheduled restart after updates (e.g., plugin or core changes).

Unfortunately, there is a bug in 4.9.1.80 that does not properly disable this entry point if:

• the server is running on a Linux system without a GUI supervisor (e.g., systemctl restart),
• there is no active update package, but AutomaticRestartEntryPoint is triggered anyway.

 

Can anyone confirm ChatGPT's statement?

What's also interesting is that the streams are never affected by the restart. They run smoothly. 

Edited November 2, 2025 by Shanster

[Q-Droid 989]

I haven't heard of that and if ChatGPT was right I would expect to find posts/threads in the forum from others having the same problem.

 

 

[Luke 42077]

Right there is no hardcoded restarting. Please try removing these plugins:

2025-11-01 12:20:01.343 Info App: Loading playback_reporting, Version=2.1.0.7, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null from /var/lib/emby/plugins/playback_reporting.dll
2025-11-01 12:20:01.343 Info App: Loading statistics, Version=3.4.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null from /var/lib/emby/plugins/Statistics.dll
2025-11-01 12:20:01.343 Info App: Loading DiskSpace, Version=1.0.6.4, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null from /var/lib/emby/plugins/DiskSpace.dll

Then restart the server and let's see if the issue persists.

[Shanster 1]

Hey Luke. Thank you for your reply. I uninstalled these plugins and restarted the Emby server. However, the Emby server still restarts every 10 minutes.

What's noticeable is that when I restart the Emby server manually, the automatic restart always takes place at xx.x0. So the manual restart doesn't interrupt this rhythm. The part marked in yellow was the manual restart:

[guunter 49]

19 hours ago, Shanster said:

Hey Luke. Thank you for your reply. I uninstalled these plugins and restarted the Emby server. However, the Emby server still restarts every 10 minutes.

What's noticeable is that when I restart the Emby server manually, the automatic restart always takes place at xx.x0. So the manual restart doesn't interrupt this rhythm. The part marked in yellow was the manual restart:

How did you install this? Through the .Deb on the site or did you use snap or docker

Edited November 5, 2025 by guunter

[Luke 42077]

Is something about your display or hardware changing frequently? The server gets notified by the system about this and then runs the hardware detection task when this happens.

[Shanster 1]

Thank you very much for your feedback.

@ guunter: I installed it using the .deb package from the official Emby website.

@ Luke: Not that I know of. I installed No Machine for remote viewing. I use it to access the computer. However, I have already used this method on other computers without any problems. 

[Shanster 1]

Okay, I found the error. It was a homemade one. Emby was restarted every 10 minutes via a cron job that tests the mounting.

Nevertheless, thank you very much for your support!