Plugin: MetaExtractor

[yocker 1247]

New plugin: MetaExtractor.
From the idea of @GrimReaper

Github page: https://github.com/yocksers/MetaExtractor

This plugin is designed to extract metadata and artwork from server's metadata folder/db for Movies, TV shows, Seasons and episodes.
It can be configured to extract precisely the metadata you want plus all the artwork.

The metadata and artwork will be extracted as an NFO file named the same as the video the data was extracted from and appropriate image type(s), and be will placed in the media directory.

It can also backup and restore intro skip markers in videos.
This is so you no longer have to wait for Emby to finish scanning intro markers on videos when/if you have for example migrated your server.
The data will be extracted to a json file in a location chosen by the user.

Installation:

1. Download the latest version here or from Github.
2. Stop your Emby Server.
3. Copy the .dll file into your Emby Plugins folder:
   • Windows: \Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\plugins
   • Linux: /var/lib/emby/plugins
   • Docker: /config/plugins (depending on your mapping)
4. Start Emby Server.
5. Go to Dashboard -> Plugins to verify it is loaded.

Lastest version: 17. Devember 2025 - v1.0.4.0

If you like and use the plugin and feel generous you can donate a coffee at: https://buymeacoffee.com/yockser
This is absolutely not required as i'm happy as long as people like the plugin.

Big thanks to @GrimReaperfor the idea and help with the plugin!

If you also have ideas for the plugin then please share and i will look into implementing them if possible.

MetaExtractor.dll

Edited December 17, 2025 by yocker
Description

[yocker 1247]

Ultra-Mega-Hyper Important Disclaimer That Probably No One Will Read But I’m Putting It Here Anyway Because Lawyers Exist Somewhere

By using this plugin, hereafter referred to as “The Plugin,” “That Thing,” “This Questionable Creation,” or “Whatever This Ends Up Doing,” you (the user, consumer, unwitting participant, or accidental clicker) hereby acknowledge, accept, and spiritually embrace that I, the creator, architect, and occasional button-presser responsible for this digital contraption, am in no way, shape, form, dimension, wavelength, or parallel universe accountable for anything that may occur as a result of its usage, misusage, unusage, attempted usage, theoretical usage, imaginary usage, or usage performed by your cat walking across your keyboard.

This includes, but is not limited to:

Software malfunction
Hardware malfunction
Emotional malfunction
Existential crises
Unexplained cosmic anomalies
Your toaster developing sentience
Your computer spontaneously achieving enlightenment
The summoning of ancient digital deities
The sudden urge to reorganize your sock drawer. 
Your left nipple suddenly talking to you.
Be the next clown president of the US.

And any other consequences, intended, unintended, or vaguely adjacent

For absolute clarity, I make no guarantees—not about performance, usefulness, entertainment value, structural integrity, moral correctness, cosmic alignment, ergonomic suitability, or general adherence to known laws of physics. I don’t claim what the plugin does, why it does it, how it does it, or whether it does anything at all. For all you know, it might be powered by vibes, confusion, or the distant screams of outdated JavaScript.

By proceeding, you accept full and total responsibility, culpability, liability, accountability, and any other words ending in “-ility” that suggest you’re on the hook for whatever happens. You agree that any risks taken are at your own risk, including risks you didn’t know were risks until they became risks, and risks that only theoretically exist in obscure academic papers no one has read.

In summary: I made the thing. You chose to run the thing. Whatever happens, that’s a you thing.
If the plugin works as you want it to then i do take full appreciation, glory, promotion to ruler of the world, pay raises and donations.

Thank you for your understanding, cooperation, and bravery.
 

[GrimReaper 4739]

I've lost track of how many times this has been brought up over the years, with troubleshooting steps basically being typing: "No, that can't be done."

This is a great addition to any server (not only for those users that were unaware of saving metadata/artwork with media in the first place or users that decided to change their setup halfthrough), sort-of perma-backup in place, on-demand. Great work.

As a sidenote, kudos, you have made several really useful plugins lately, well done. Keep up the good work. 

Cheers

Edited November 21, 2025 by GrimReaper

[yocker 1247]

Here are some screenshots.

[Neminem 1518]

Sorry @yockercan't test right now.

Waiting for a new 20TB HD, woke up to a ton of smart errors on 1 of my HD's.

It should be here Monday or Tuesday, and then I need to do preclear to see if that disk is good.

Can test sometime next week

[yocker 1247]

2 hours ago, Neminem said:

Sorry @yockercan't test right now.

Waiting for a new 20TB HD, woke up to a ton of smart errors on 1 of my HD's.

It should be here Monday or Tuesday, and then I need to do preclear to see if that disk is good.

Can test sometime next week

Sorry to hear that.
Remember the Unraid mantra though, always try another cable before doing anything else!
 

[Neminem 1518]

That I would do if it was CRC errors, since that's likely a bad cable or lose cable.

But smart errors is the drive it self that reports those

[yocker 1247]

46 minutes ago, Neminem said:

That I would do if it was CRC errors, since that's likely a bad cable or lose cable.

But smart errors is the drive it self that reports those

Oh yeah, CRC errors. you are right!
Anyway, very off topic for this thread.

 

[LongMan 112]

Could you add an option to save the nfos to a location other than the media directory? Emby has read only access to my media directories.

 

[yocker 1247]

12 minutes ago, LongMan said:

Could you add an option to save the nfos to a location other than the media directory? Emby has read only access to my media directories.

 

I will look into adding this.

[LongMan 112]

Thanks

[TheKrizzz 4]

@yockerFirst off, this is amazing.  Thank you for doing this!  @GrimReaperThanks for the heads up.

Running Emby 4.9.1.90  on Ubuntu 24.04 and I ran the migration tool to add missing information into my folder structure.  The logs came black clean and I spot checked some movie folders. Everything looks good.

The next step is to rename the metadata folder  and make sure it is only pulling from the individual directories, but I want to make sure I have a clean backup before I start messing with a known good.

More to follow.

 

 

[yocker 1247]

6 hours ago, LongMan said:

Could you add an option to save the nfos to a location other than the media directory? Emby has read only access to my media directories.

 

I added your request.
In settings you will find a button named "Export to custom folder" when checked a setting for where to save will show up.



All data saved will mimic the library structure of the media having been extracted.
Like for example: /action/Arnold flying hes choppa (2056)/Arnold flying hes choppa (2056).nfo
Same with artwork.

Enjoy and thanks for the idea. 

MetaExtractor.dll

Edited November 22, 2025 by yocker

[LongMan 112]

Thanks a million

[LongMan 112]

I noticed that the ids for movies differ from my expectation. I could not find the emby specs but kodi's seems to be different
 

<imdbid>tt1335975</imdbid>
<id>tt1335975</id>
<imdb_id>tt1335975</imdb_id>
<tmdbid>64686</tmdbid>

https://kodi.wiki/view/NFO_files/Movies

<uniqueid type="tmdb">64686</uniqueid>
<uniqueid type="imdb">tt1335975</uniqueid>

Are using specs from emby?

[GrimReaper 4739]

10 minutes ago, LongMan said:

I noticed that the ids for movies differ from my expectation. I could not find the emby specs but kodi's seems to be different
 

<imdbid>tt1335975</imdbid>
<id>tt1335975</id>
<imdb_id>tt1335975</imdb_id>
<tmdbid>64686</tmdbid>

https://kodi.wiki/view/NFO_files/Movies

<uniqueid type="tmdb">64686</uniqueid>
<uniqueid type="imdb">tt1335975</uniqueid>

Are using specs from emby?

You can choose how to write IDs, as ProviderIDs or UniqueIDs (or both) in NFO Metadata Fiels settings. 

[LongMan 112]

You are right. Thanks for the heads up

[yocker 1247]

New version (v1.0.1.1) up with added chapter support.
All NFO info should be supported now, unless ofc. i forgot some more.

[TMCsw 246]

Does this save "intro video markers" to the .nfo? (IntroSkip)

And can it restore them on a "library scan"

Actually, I would like it to do something like the plugin "Intros Backup & Restore" (But I don't see that dev @Cheesegeezerhere for a long time and don't want to pay for something that could stop working with any new Emby update) 

Something along these lines would allow Emby to scan in previously added files much faster than Emby can! ( @Lukeis always trying to improve the scan-in speed but ignores how much quicker it would be if 'IntroSkips' were saved/read from the .nfo )

Just Curious if you can? I'll help you punish a few brain cells soon...

[yocker 1247]

I will look into it soon.

[yocker 1247]

On 12/8/2025 at 3:49 AM, TMCsw said:

Does this save "intro video markers" to the .nfo? (IntroSkip)

And can it restore them on a "library scan"

Actually, I would like it to do something like the plugin "Intros Backup & Restore" (But I don't see that dev @Cheesegeezerhere for a long time and don't want to pay for something that could stop working with any new Emby update) 

Something along these lines would allow Emby to scan in previously added files much faster than Emby can! ( @Lukeis always trying to improve the scan-in speed but ignores how much quicker it would be if 'IntroSkips' were saved/read from the .nfo )

Just Curious if you can? I'll help you punish a few brain cells soon...

I've looked into it and it doesn't seem to be possible with NFO files alone.
Instead started work on some backup for intro skips into a json file that can be restored into Emby, 99% sure that is possible to do and the Chapter Edit plugin already does that.

No idea when it's ready though as this might take a while.

[FrostByte 5392]

How can I get the plugin to save artwork using the newer filenames?

Example

• backdropX.jpg > fanartX.jpg
• thumb.jpg > landscape.jpg
• logo.png > clearlogo.png
• etc

[DRY RUN] Backdrop: Star Trek Beyond → /volume1/MyEmbyMedia/Movies/Star Trek Beyond (2016)/backdrop.jpg
[DRY RUN] Backdrop: Star Trek Beyond → /volume1/MyEmbyMedia/Movies/Star Trek Beyond (2016)/backdrop1.jpg
[DRY RUN] Backdrop: Star Trek Beyond → /volume1/MyEmbyMedia/Movies/Star Trek Beyond (2016)/backdrop2.jpg
[DRY RUN] Backdrop: Star Trek Beyond → /volume1/MyEmbyMedia/Movies/Star Trek Beyond (2016)/backdrop3.jpg
[DRY RUN] Logo: Star Trek Beyond → /volume1/MyEmbyMedia/Movies/Star Trek Beyond (2016)/logo.png
[DRY RUN] Thumb: Star Trek Beyond → /volume1/MyEmbyMedia/Movies/Star Trek Beyond (2016)/thumb.jpg

 

[yocker 1247]

2 minutes ago, FrostByte said:

How can I get the plugin to save artwork using the newer filenames?

Example

• backdropX.jpg > fanartX.jpg
• thumb.jpg > landscape.jpg
• logo.png > clearlogo.png
• etc

[DRY RUN] Backdrop: Star Trek Beyond → /volume1/MyEmbyMedia/Movies/Star Trek Beyond (2016)/backdrop.jpg
[DRY RUN] Backdrop: Star Trek Beyond → /volume1/MyEmbyMedia/Movies/Star Trek Beyond (2016)/backdrop1.jpg
[DRY RUN] Backdrop: Star Trek Beyond → /volume1/MyEmbyMedia/Movies/Star Trek Beyond (2016)/backdrop2.jpg
[DRY RUN] Backdrop: Star Trek Beyond → /volume1/MyEmbyMedia/Movies/Star Trek Beyond (2016)/backdrop3.jpg
[DRY RUN] Logo: Star Trek Beyond → /volume1/MyEmbyMedia/Movies/Star Trek Beyond (2016)/logo.png
[DRY RUN] Thumb: Star Trek Beyond → /volume1/MyEmbyMedia/Movies/Star Trek Beyond (2016)/thumb.jpg

 

There is no way to customize the artworks name.
I can look into changing that in a future update but working on the intro skipping atm.

[FrostByte 5392]

10 hours ago, yocker said:

There is no way to customize the artworks name.
I can look into changing that in a future update but working on the intro skipping atm.

Thanks.  An option in the future to save using the new Emby filenames would do wonders for my OCD

[yocker 1247]

5 minutes ago, FrostByte said:

Thanks.  An option in the future to save using the new Emby filenames would do wonders for my OCD

Any suggestion to how it should be and how the configuration for it should look and function?
As in maybe,
backdrops names = x
poster names = x

Or something other.