Emby is not fetching metadata

[HediSIX 51]

Hi,

It's been a while now (I am not sure since when to be honest) but when I add any new movie, it is automatically detected and is showing in Emby in the new movie section.  However only the title and the year is there (as per the file name), all other metedata is not downloaded. I have to manually identify every single movie to get the metadata populated.

I am running Emby in a docker environment.

Could you help with this issue ?

[Luke 42077]

HI there, can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

 

[HediSIX 51]

Let say I add the movie "one battle after another", in my library I create a folder "one battle after another (2025)" with the file named "one battle after another (2025).mkv" inside.

Emby will pick it up and show a movie with a title "one battle after another" year 2025 and no other information. The poster image is just a screenshot of the beginning of the movie.

The only way the get the metadata +images is to select identify, search for the movie and download metadata and images.

Do you need any logs or something ?

Edited November 21, 2025 by HediSIX

[Luke 42077]

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

How to Report a Problem

Thanks!

 

[HediSIX 51]

Hi, see attached. You can look for "the adjustment bureau".

embyserver (1).txt

[Luke 42077]

What metadata fetchers are enabled on the library?

[HediSIX 51]

I have TheTVDB and TheMovieDb. I don't think I changed them  

[Luke 42077]

Can you try unchecking and rechecking some of those options and then see if that helps with a new title?

[HediSIX 51]

Done, unchecked, rechecked restarted Emby, launched a library scan from the settings. Nothing. I still have these movies without info. The only solution is the manual identification.

Is there any setting anywhere that I could have checked by mistake that would prevent the automatic identification and metadata retrieval?

[Luke 42077]

1 hour ago, HediSIX said:

Done, unchecked, rechecked restarted Emby, launched a library scan from the settings. Nothing. I still have these movies without info. The only solution is the manual identification.

Is there any setting anywhere that I could have checked by mistake that would prevent the automatic identification and metadata retrieval?

What exactly did you do?

How to Report a Problem

 

 

[HediSIX 51]

See attached the logs when I am doing these actions:

1. Unchecking metadata fetchers frome movie library
2. Restart emby 
3. re-checking fetchers in movie library
4. restart emby
5. movie library scan
6. manual identification of one problematic movie

I hope this will help.

embyserver (2).txt

Edited November 22, 2025 by HediSIX

[Luke 42077]

3 hours ago, HediSIX said:

See attached the logs when I am doing these actions:

1. Unchecking metadata fetchers frome movie library
2. Restart emby 
3. re-checking fetchers in movie library
4. restart emby
5. movie library scan
6. manual identification of one problematic movie

I hope this will help.

embyserver (2).txt 75.34 kB · 0 downloads

Hi, and what exactly happened? What is this demonstrating?

[HediSIX 51]

Still the same issue: emby is not automatically identifying new movies. But it shows that it does fetch the data when I do the manual identification.

I am just trying to answer your last question

[HediSIX 51]

I just want to add that this issue is for all my libraries not only movies. I have seen just now the same thing with TV shows. It seem to be different in the music library but I haven't looked there in more details.

If it has it's importance: Emby is running in a docker container sitting on one server which is accessing the libraries through network mounts.

[Luke 42077]

On 11/22/2025 at 4:24 AM, HediSIX said:

Still the same issue: emby is not automatically identifying new movies. But it shows that it does fetch the data when I do the manual identification.

I am just trying to answer your last question

@HediSIX what example are we focusing on in that log file? What exactly did you do with that example?

[HediSIX 51]

The movies that do not have the metadata in the exemple are "the terminal", "constantine", "the adjustment bureau" and some others

Not sure what you mean by "What exactly did you do with that example"

[Luke 42077]

What exactly did you do? You said this:

Quote

emby is not automatically identifying new movies

But your earlier steps didn't mention adding any new movies.

[HediSIX 51]

Back then I think the one I added before doing a manual rename was "the terminal". But I am not sure, in doubt I have tried again. This time with "the number 23" in these logs.

I don't see any improvement in behaviour.

If you need me to do some specific actions, please let me know exactly what actions in what order and I 'll follow them.

embyserver (3).txt

Edited November 25, 2025 by HediSIX

[sa2000 674]

1 hour ago, HediSIX said:

This time with "the number 23" in these logs.

I see it being removed from the database in the logs and then probed

2025-11-25 09:15:25.449 Info App: Removing item from database, Type: Movie, Name: The Number 23, Path: /data/Vidéos/Films/en/The Number 23/The Number 23.avi, Id: 171962
2025-11-25 09:15:25.455 Info App: Deleting path /config/metadata/library/65/655fef3b5ad9047cfccb25f7bab7f93c

could i suggest doing a test with a new movie - not already in the database and with debug logging enabled and the test done after a fresh launch of emby server with debug logging enabled beforehand and then indicate which movie file it was. And please have that movie file complete and available before adding to the library

A few observations from the logs:

Are you downloading movies directly to the movie library paths ? Noticed an error for the Lego Movie which suggests incomplete file was being scanned

Emby.Server.MediaEncoding.Unified.Ffmpeg.FfRunException: Emby.Server.MediaEncoding.Unified.Ffmpeg.FfRunException: ffprobe failed - streams and format are both null: -i file:"/data/Vidéos/Anime/en/The Lego Movie (2014)/The Lego Movie.mp4" -threads 0 -v info 

And another observation about music metadata - lots of errors suggesting you have some invalid tags on music with the artist musicbrainz id being set to a string of "usicBrainz Album Artist Id" rather than empty or set to an artist ID number

2025-11-25 09:15:42.018 Info HttpClient: GET https://musicbrainz.emby.tv/ws/2/artist/usicBrainz Album Artist Id?inc=url-rels
2025-11-25 09:16:02.020 Error HttpClient: Connection to https://musicbrainz.emby.tv/ws/2/artist/usicBrainz Album Artist Id?inc=url-rels timed out

and

2025-11-25 09:19:10.875 Info HttpClient: GET http://coverartarchive.org/release/usicBrainz Album Id
2025-11-25 09:19:10.944 Info HttpClient: Http response 400 from http://coverartarchive.org/release/usicBrainz Album Id after 69ms

Could you check metadata on music tracks for External IDs to see what is giving rise to this

 

Edited November 25, 2025 by sa2000

[HediSIX 51]

Hi sa2000, thank you for stepping in. I hope I did everything as expected:

1. Enabled debug logging
2. Restarted server (both via emby server interface and via docker since i wasn't sure)
3. Double checked debug log is still activated
4. Move a completed movie file to the server library (the movie is "avalanche project")
5. Lauched a library scan to avoid waiting for the next run in x hours
6. Waited a minute, checked the movie appeared in the interface: no metadata. 
7. Downloaded the logs posted here.

 

10 hours ago, sa2000 said:

Are you downloading movies directly to the movie library paths ? Noticed an error for the Lego Movie which suggests incomplete file was being scanned

Nope, movies are downloaded in a dedicated folder, outside of the library, and moved only when completed. Either manually, like in this case, or automatically when done through Radarr.

Not sure what the issue is with the one you pointed out. I'll have a look see if there file is corrupted or whatever.

Regarding the issues with music not sure what I am supposed to do

I hope that will give you enough visibility, otherwise let me know what else I can do.

Thanks

embyserver (5).txt

[Luke 42077]

22 minutes ago, HediSIX said:

Hi sa2000, thank you for stepping in. I hope I did everything as expected:

1. Enabled debug logging
2. Restarted server (both via emby server interface and via docker since i wasn't sure)
3. Double checked debug log is still activated
4. Move a completed movie file to the server library (the movie is "avalanche project")
5. Lauched a library scan to avoid waiting for the next run in x hours
6. Waited a minute, checked the movie appeared in the interface: no metadata. 
7. Downloaded the logs posted here.

 

Nope, movies are downloaded in a dedicated folder, outside of the library, and moved only when completed. Either manually, like in this case, or automatically when done through Radarr.

Not sure what the issue is with the one you pointed out. I'll have a look see if there file is corrupted or whatever.

Regarding the issues with music not sure what I am supposed to do

I hope that will give you enough visibility, otherwise let me know what else I can do.

Thanks

embyserver (5).txt 782.38 kB · 0 downloads

Hi, there is no mention of avalanche here. Are you sure this is the right one?

[HediSIX 51]

Operation Avalanche (not avalanche project) 100% sure.

The file name is "Operation Avalanche (2016).mp4"

I have re dewnloaded the logs in case they did not update or whatever.

 

embyserver (6).txt

 

Edited November 25, 2025 by HediSIX

[sa2000 674]

13 hours ago, HediSIX said:

The file name is "Operation Avalanche (2016).mp4"

I have re dewnloaded the logs in case they did not update or whatever.

So you moved the folder "Operation Avalanche (2016)/" into " /data/Vidéos/Films/en/" after you restarted the server? strange that the LibraryMonitor did not detect that. The log does not show any of these log lines

LibraryMonitor: Change detected to xxxxxx
LibraryMonitor: New file refresher created for xxxxxx
Info LibraryMonitor: Films (xxxxxxx) will be refreshed.

The Scan Media Library did not appear to refer to the Movies metadata provider. The only actions were:

Running FFProbeProvider for /data/Vidéos/Films/en/Operation Avalanche (2016)/Operation Avalanche (2016).mp4
Running MovieNfoProvider for /data/Vidéos/Films/en/Operation Avalanche (2016)/Operation Avalanche (2016).mp4
Running VideoImageProvider for /data/Vidéos/Films/en/Operation Avalanche (2016)/Operation Avalanche (2016).mp4

compared to a test that I ran:

Running FFProbeProvider for H:\Emby\TestMedia\Movies7\en\Operation Avalanche (2016)\Operation Avalanche (2016).mkv
Running MovieNfoProvider for H:\Emby\TestMedia\Movies7\en\Operation Avalanche (2016)\Operation Avalanche (2016).mkv
Running MovieDbProvider for H:\Emby\TestMedia\Movies7\en\Operation Avalanche (2016)\Operation Avalanche (2016).mkv
Running TvdbMovieProvider for H:\Emby\TestMedia\Movies7\en\Operation Avalanche (2016)\Operation Avalanche (2016).mkv
Running MovieDbImageProvider for H:\Emby\TestMedia\Movies7\en\Operation Avalanche (2016)\Operation Avalanche (2016).mkv
Running TvdbMovieImageProvider for H:\Emby\TestMedia\Movies7\en\Operation Avalanche (2016)\Operation Avalanche (2016).mkv

The last 2 in my test were to do with "Movie Image Fetchers" which you may not have enabled.

Could you get screenshots of all the settings for the Library: "Films" 

14 hours ago, HediSIX said:

Regarding the issues with music not sure what I am supposed to do

Could you view metadata for music for: "Subtle" and "New White"

Open up "Edit Metadata" and check artists/albums/tracks - specifically look at this section. I am expecting that you will find some entries with an id of "usicBrainz Album Artist Id" rather than blank or actual id

[HediSIX 51]

Hi,

2 hours ago, sa2000 said:

you moved the folder "Operation Avalanche (2016)/" into " /data/Vidéos/Films/en/" after you restarted the server

Correct. Server restarted, then I manually moved the folder with the movie file from my downloaded folder to the library folder. In this case "/data/Vidéos/Films/en/" this path is a bindings between the Emby docker container and my app server mnt/ folder pointing at my file server.

The library "film" is the Split into 3 subfolders: "en" for english movies, "fr" for french ones since I am french and finally "xx" for any other language

For this reason I set up the metadata langage at folder level which used to work fine.

See attached the screenshot.

2 hours ago, sa2000 said:

Open up "Edit Metadata" and check artists/albums/tracks - specifically look at this section. I am expecting that you will find some entries with an id of "usicBrainz Album Artist Id" rather than blank or actual id

Indeed it was wrongly setup, I have corrected it now

[sa2000 674]

26 minutes ago, HediSIX said:

For this reason I set up the metadata langage at folder level which used to work fine.

could you clarify how this was done. I was not aware we could have metadata options at the lower sub-folder level