Audiobook Metadata Not Scanning Correctly

[Caltsar 2]

I have an audiobook library that consists of M4B files organized in the following structure: <AudiobookRoot>\<Author>\<BookTitle>\<Author> - <SeriesName> <SeriesNumber> - <BookTitle> - <Narrator>.m4b

I have the following metadata on every file:

- Author is in the Artist field. Multiple authors are separated by ;

- The primary author is in the Album Artist field

- Narrator is in the Composer field with multiple narrators separated by ;

- Series is in the Album field

- Number in series is in the track field

 

I have rescanned the metadata and even gone so far as to create a new library with a different root path. When my audiobooks are scanned in, the track numbers and album is not read correctly and books in a series will have no track number in Emby's metadata, and the album(series) will list the book's title instead.

I can read the metadata correctly and consistently using other file management and metadata tools, but I cannot get Emby to scan the correct metadata.

[Abobader 3464]

Hello Caltsar,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[Neminem 1518]

For audiobooks I use advplyr/audiobookshelf: Self-hosted audiobook and podcast server

Emby's implementation is lacking a lot.

[Caltsar 2]

1 hour ago, Neminem said:

For audiobooks I use advplyr/audiobookshelf: Self-hosted audiobook and podcast server

Emby's implementation is lacking a lot.

I am aware of that solution, and I do have it installed.

I have to maintain multiple userlists and multiple clients and servers.

I am looking for support with Emby's implementation and I'm looking to improve Emby's implementation if there's an issue with the software here.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, the files must not be tagged properly because track numbers will be read in just fine.

[Caltsar 2]

How should they be tagged? When I open the files in mp3tag to check, all of the track tags have the appropriate numbers (1, 2, 3, ... , 10, 11, 12) with no leading zeroes and no other characters. I can also view this metadata in other tools and I get the same results.

I am not pulling any data from online sources with this library and the directory the library is located in does not contain any files except for the .m4b files in the folder structure described above.

[Luke 42077]

They are just numbers in the disc and track number fields.

[Caltsar 2]

That is what I see when I inspect the metadata of the files versus what I see after a library scan and a metadata refresh in Emby.

On the left is the metadata for the m4b file. The album was set to the title while the track number and disc number are missing entirely.

[Luke 42077]

Did you edit the tags after importing into emby server?

[Caltsar 2]

I have, but not for the example given. That was a freshly added file. Other entries that I did edit metadata on were updated properly.

I was not able to update the metadata manually on these either. Clicking "Save" after updating any field just reverts those fields.

I have removed the whole Audiobook library from Emby and I'm running a full library scan and metadata refresh as well as any database related scheduled tasks before I re-add the library. I will update when that is complete.

[Luke 42077]

I wonder if ffmpeg just doesn’t get that info from the m4b container.

[Caltsar 2]

Deleting the library, running a library scan and metadata refresh *without* the library present, and then re-adding the library got whatever wasn't reading correctly to scan in.