Emby Playing Wrong Movie

[UltimateOne 1]

Hey All!

I am running Emby Server Version 4.9.1.90 on Windows 10 (Build 17763). I've been running my Emby server for over 2 years now. My media files are stored on a separate TrueNAS server accessed over the network.

I encountered a strange issue when trying to play a movie from my 'Favorites' section. Clicking on "Movie A" caused Emby to attempt playing a completely different "Movie B", which resulted in a "Stream is not available" error.

To troubleshoot, I:
1.  Verified that the file path for the movie in Emby is correct.
2.  Attempted to play it again, and it tried to play a different, third movie before I stopped it.
3.  On the third try, it started playing correctly.

The only significant change to my system today was purchasing and applying the lifetime Emby Premiere license. It would be super strange if that is the problem.

Additional Details:
*   Client App: I was using my LG TV (Version 1.0.47) when this happened.
*   Media Info: The problem file is an MP4 with H.264 video and 5.1 channel AAC audio.
*   Logs: I have the server logs from the time of the error ready to provide (`embyserver.txt`).

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? Thank you for your help.

 

[ebr 16169]

13 hours ago, UltimateOne said:

applying the lifetime Emby Premiere license

Hi.  Do you have the Cinema Intros feature enabled?

[UltimateOne 1]

Nope. All turned off.

 

 

Edited November 29, 2025 by UltimateOne

[UltimateOne 1]

I will add though that, yes, it looks like Emby was trying to play the trailer when I was really trying to play a completely different movie...

 

[Luke 42077]

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

How to Report a Problem

Thanks!

 

[UltimateOne 1]

OK. Please see attached.

embyserver-63899971200.txt

[Luke 42077]

Hi, can you please show screenshots of what exactly you're clicking on and what exactly it led to? Are you able to get it to happen again?

I think the top picks plugin is a possible culprit.

[UltimateOne 1]

I tried to get Emby to do it again. No luck yet. 
 

In this this movie marked as a "Favorite". I selected "Favorites" from the main menu. From there, I opened clicked the poster to open the movie options (shown below). I just played it from here.

 

The screen goes to black before the name of the another movie (It tried playing "A New York Covid Story") appears above the controls (replicated for the explanation below). The log says it was playing the trailer, but I was unable to confirm. It didn't show the "hourglass" like Emby was fetching the stream from YouTube, so I wonder if it really was the trailer. 

Should I delete the Top Picks plugin? I don't use it much anyway.

[Luke 42077]

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

How to Report a Problem

Thanks!

 

[Luke 42077]

8 minutes ago, UltimateOne said:

I tried to get Emby to do it again. No luck yet. 
 

In this this movie marked as a "Favorite". I selected "Favorites" from the main menu. From there, I opened clicked the poster to open the movie options (shown below). I just played it from here.

 

The screen goes to black before the name of the another movie (It tried playing "A New York Covid Story") appears above the controls (replicated for the explanation below). The log says it was playing the trailer, but I was unable to confirm. It didn't show the "hourglass" like Emby was fetching the stream from YouTube, so I wonder if it really was the trailer. 

Should I delete the Top Picks plugin? I don't use it much anyway.

Yes and then restart the server.

[UltimateOne 1]

Weird...I uninstalled 'Top Picks' and restarted the Emby server (not a cold boot on Windows, just Emby). All the movies now have the BluRay frame. No biggie, just weird.

[Luke 42077]

That is possibly the top picks content left behind in the database.  Hopefully the next run of the refresh channels scheduled task will clean things up.

I am going to pull this plugin from the catalog as it just creates more trouble than it's' worth.

[UltimateOne 1]

Good call. It would be an unforgettable holiday if someone goes to play "A Christmas Story" and "The Bonnie Blue Story" comes on.

[UltimateOne 1]

If there is a way to get rid of the frames, it would be nice. I started the "refresh channels" to no avail. I'm Scanning Library Files now, but I don't think that will work.

[Luke 42077]

I think that's normal for the cover art plugin. How have you configured cover art?

[UltimateOne 1]

I don't think I ever have configured the cover art. I just let Emby run the "Movie Image Fetchers".

I first installed Emby on a test-bed laptop about 1.5 years ago and installed a handful of plugins; I imagine it's like you said...the 'Top Picks' plugin did an override on the cover art. I just recently migrated to a new server so it can handle my library and transcode properly. Anyway, I didn't notice there were settings for the cover art plugin. I'll get in there and take a look. It definiitely looks better without the blue border (IMO).

[UltimateOne 1]

Yes! That's it! Treatment > Treatment Style. 

Thanks again for all your help with this one. I'll keep you apprised. 

 

 

[ebr 16169]

1 hour ago, UltimateOne said:

Yes! That's it! Treatment > Treatment Style. 

Hi. If you don't want any treatments on your covers, I would just uninstall CoverArt. 

[UltimateOne 1]

Cool. Yes, I should uninstall all the unused plugins anyway. I'll go through them and start removing. Thanks!