What has been the major achievement in 2025 for Emby?

[CBers 7450]

Or the least achievement. 

And what do you want for 2026?

Discuss. 

 

Edited January 7 by CBers

[Spaceboy 2573]

has to be smart playlists for me. they are rocking my world right now......

oh hang on, they never got delivered

[Bims0n 14]

for me: streamlining the android apps into a single one

Edited December 28, 2025 by Bims0n

[Neminem 1518]

For me its the extreme memory usage, following 4.9

And that's not cool with todays RAM prices.

Hmm Did Emby side with Data Centers, that have bought up all RAM sticks on the market.

To do there stupid AI stuff.

Edited December 28, 2025 by Neminem

[Nimasa 11]

Automatic sound level adjustment across different tracks. So no need to level up/down the volume manually. // This is still pending, hopefully would be done in 2026.

Edited December 28, 2025 by Nimasa

[TMCsw 248]

Hi, it will be coming. Thanks.

[daldana 122]

What do I want?

TVNext, finally.

[arrbee99 1815]

Biggest so far(....) isn't Embys, its Sh0rtys banner thing that shows how good Emby can look (but doesn't).

[user24 313]

12 hours ago, CBers said:

And what do you want for 2026?

Emby already organises, displays and plays my media very well. It did this with 4.8 and there was no great upside or downside (for me) with 4.9.

So, beyond the basic functions and minor tweaks, I’m looking forward to some grand visual “surprise and delight” every time I use Emby.

I add the content to my server, so seeing the latest movies, tv and music on the Home page or Suggestions pages, as a list, while useful, doesn’t really have a “wow factor” when using Emby to consume media nearly every day.

I’m waiting for the hinted at “smart views” in conjunction with spotlights, smart playlists, etc. to hopefully take Emby beyond standard media lists (which all competing systems have) to a more customizable immersive experience.

Do this right and not only will most current users be pleased with the outcome, this should also bring in many more paying customers from Plex, Jellyfin and elsewhere.

Roll on 2026…

 

[Vittatus 6]

For me, with the evolution of Jellyfin, it makes less and less sense to use Emby every day. I’ve been using Emby for several years and I haven’t seen any significant changes for a paid app.

 

On the other hand, Jellyfin has experienced strong growth in improvements, which is going to be a serious blow to Emby. In many aspects it’s already far ahead of Emby, and there’s very little left before paying for Emby no longer feels worth it.

 

I don’t know what Emby is thinking, but they haven’t known how to take advantage of the opportunity they had, and Jellyfin is overtaking them by leaps and bounds. It’s a shame, because I’ve been subscribed to Emby on a monthly basis for several years, and I increasingly feel that paying for it is less and less worthwhile.

Edited January 1 by Vittatus

[IAmHugh 63]

3 hours ago, Vittatus said:

For me, with the evolution of Jellyfin, it makes less and less sense to use Emby every day. I’ve been using Emby for several years and I haven’t seen any significant changes for a paid app.

 

On the other hand, Jellyfin has experienced strong growth in improvements, which is going to be a serious blow to Emby. In many aspects it’s already far ahead of Emby, and there’s very little left before paying for Emby no longer feels worth it.

 

I don’t know what Emby is thinking, but they haven’t known how to take advantage of the opportunity they had, and Jellyfin is overtaking them by leaps and bounds. It’s a shame, because I’ve been subscribed to Emby on a monthly basis for several years, and I increasingly feel that paying for it is less and less worthwhile.

My big pet peeve with Emby is thrusting new features on users by making them default instead of telling users there are added features and how to set them instead of leaving a users PERSONAL preferences alone.

EDIT:

Just installed Jellyfin to test it out again and have to be bluntly honest, and that is it a heaping pile of horse manure compared to Emby.

Edited January 1 by IAmHugh

[ebr 16169]

3 hours ago, Vittatus said:

and Jellyfin is overtaking them by leaps and bounds

Hi.  From your perspective, what are these "leaps and bounds"?

[Vittatus 6]

14 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  From your perspective, what are these "leaps and bounds"?

I’ve had a monthly subscription that I’ve been paying for years.

 

Emby is missing a lot of things:

 

The ability to customize the home page with new releases or recently released content.

Creating a summary of what people watch and recommending similar content, plus a top slider that prominently showcases featured content.

 

Then, other issues:

 

• A limit of 30 devices, even if you pay (Jellyfin is unlimited).
• Offline downloads that haven’t worked properly for years (they’re a mess).
• Messages to clients asking them to pay when the device limit has been exceeded or when they don’t have Emby Premiere. This should not be shown to the client, since the subscription is tied to the server, not the client.
  Several friends have paid for a subscription thinking they had to, when in reality they didn’t need to pay anything.
• Smart playlists.
• Syncplay (watch together).

 

 

I could go on forever, but you’ve spent more time thinking about how to monetize the product than about improving it and getting people to pay for a complete, well-polished product instead of an unfinished one.

[polaris70 17]

I don't plan to add new features in the new year 2026. I wish Emby would implement the feature we requested a while back, but we're still waiting.

[ebr 16169]

10 minutes ago, Vittatus said:

Messages to clients asking them to pay when the device limit has been exceeded or when they don’t have Emby Premiere. This should not be shown to the client, since the subscription is tied to the server, not the client.

Hi.  Doesn't the message actually say "Contact your Emby system administrator"?  

 

11 minutes ago, Vittatus said:

Offline downloads that haven’t worked properly for years (they’re a mess).

Have you reported whatever your issues are with this?  How is JF better in their implementation?

11 minutes ago, Vittatus said:

• Smart playlists.
• Syncplay (watch together)

I admit we've fallen behind here but both are in progress.

12 minutes ago, Vittatus said:

The ability to customize the home page with new releases or recently released content.

We actually do have this for movies.

13 minutes ago, Vittatus said:

Creating a summary of what people watch and recommending similar content

We also have this - not really a summary but definitely suggestions based on what you previously watched.

 

Thanks for your support and feedback.

[IAmHugh 63]

I can think of one thing in Jellyfin that's missing right off the bat and it is a deal breaker. In Emby I can select folders for view, which is especially helpful in my Movie Series library. With Jellyfin because like a lot of peeps I have custom movie series I will have to do a side by side comparison and select the files that belong to a particular movie series then create that series. over 1600 movies to go through that way. That will take several days versus less than two hours in Emby. My dislike above was because it looked like settings was extremely limited, but I finally found the dashboard and made a few adjustments.

[arrbee99 1815]

3 hours ago, Vittatus said:

 

Emby is missing a lot of things:

 

The ability to customize the home page with new releases or recently released content.

Creating a summary of what people watch and recommending similar content, plus a top slider that prominently showcases featured content.

 

 

Might be interesting to have a look at this (if you haven't already) -

could be interesting to see if thats similar to what you had in mind.

[Vittatus 6]

Hace 7 horas, ebr dijo:

Have you reported whatever your issues are with this?  How is JF better in their implementation?

Well, when you click download it doesn’t show any progress information at all. You click it and simply wait for it to magically appear in downloads.

Not even a simple progress indicator, pause, resume… nothing. This has been discussed on the forums for years — not once or twice, but many more times.

 

Then, the top banner that the user below posted is simply a CSS tweak for the web client generated by AI. It has nothing to do with a real implementation across all clients.

 

The message that says “contact the administrator” should be the only thing shown, but instead the option to pay appears, and you can actually pay. Why does a client have a “pay” button? Isn’t the license supposed to be tied to the server? Having clients see payment options is a horrible experience for a family server. It sounds like “I’m giving you a service, pay for something you haven’t paid for.”

 

On the other hand, the device limit is a joke. Not because the number is high or low, but because you’re paying for a service that you self-host, and on top of that you upload all the content yourself. So Emby’s only real contribution is providing a nice interface. Limiting by devices is, in my opinion, shooting themselves in the foot and pushing people toward solutions like Jellyfin or Plex, which don’t have that limitation.

You justify it as a way to prevent misuse or reselling the service, but people who want to resell a service already have Plex, which has no device limit, and Jellyfin, which has no limits at all. Why would anyone who wants to profit choose Emby when Jellyfin is free?

 

Those of us who use Emby want an experience clearly superior to Jellyfin, and that’s why we’re willing to pay extra for it. But right now, I see fewer and fewer benefits to paying.

 

You only need to try Jellyfin apps like Wholphin or Streamyfin to realize that those two apps are already quite polished and offer features that are superior to what Emby currently provides.

 

Edited January 1 by Vittatus

[IAmHugh 63]

13 minutes ago, Vittatus said:

Those of us who use Emby want an experience clearly superior to Jellyfin, and that’s why we’re willing to pay extra for it. But right now, I see fewer and fewer benefits to paying.

Spot on! On another note one thing that has always peeved me with emby is the fact that I have to stop the Emby service to access it's one folder under root. With Jellyfin while I have to act as administrator to access it's folder under root, and I don't have to take the extra step of stopping Jellyfin's service to do so. Backup on Jellyfin is a walk in the park compared to Emby. From what I'm seeing each program has its own set of standout features, but Emby being paid should way out shine Jellyfin and it doesn't. I noticed with the jellyfin Android app video playback is instantaneous where it takes several seconds with either Android app for Emby. 

[Teddy 100]

I imagine it's had improvements over the years that I can't describe, but everything worked fine until the update to version 4.9.1.90, which changed how movies are handled in custom directories nested by year, actor, or genre.

I don't want to use that because it breaks the personal organizational system I've used for many years.

This is the first time I'm not happy with Emby's "improvements".

Luckily, I had a copy of version 4.8.11.0, which I'm still working with.

Edited January 2 by Teddy

[Luke 42077]

3 hours ago, Teddy said:

I imagine it's had improvements over the years that I can't describe, but everything worked fine until the update to version 4.9.1.90, which changed how movies are handled in custom directories nested by year, actor, or genre.

I don't want to use that because it breaks the personal organizational system I've used for many years.

This is the first time I'm not happy with Emby's "improvements".

Luckily, I had a copy of version 4.8.11.0, which I'm still working with.

HI, a new option has been added to hopefully give you what you were looking for. Thanks.

[kaj 316]

With the continuing hype about jellyfin, I tried it again, as I do every few years. I get all excited to see every everyone seems to be getting so excited about and... After a day I've uninstalled it. I actually like the fact that there is continuity in the UI across all my devices, whether my android TV, phone, Mac etc etc etc. Jellyfin feels so unfinished.. the fact that you can't, on any of the multitude of TV apps, change the text size, the image sizes is terrible.

Intro skip (whatever your views on what Emby's implementation) works out of the box on Emby, not so on Jellyfin.

It was a massive resource hog on my N100 compared to Emby. A separate ffmpeg service that stayed active even after shutting jellyfin down.. 

No, jellyfin might be free, but it seems good for single user local tweakers, and I'm sure it's great for them. I prefer a stable media server, consistent UI and not trying to add a 1000 new feature every other week. The current jellyfin forums seemed filled with problems after their latest big release.. no thank you.

Having said all that, it's great we have a choice. If you feel the grass is greener on the other side, good luck.. 

[ebr 16169]

15 hours ago, Vittatus said:

The message that says “contact the administrator” should be the only thing shown, but instead the option to pay appears, and you can actually pay. Why does a client have a “pay” button? Isn’t the license supposed to be tied to the server? Having clients see payment options is a horrible experience

Hi.  Can you reproduce this right now?  If so, with what app?  Unless you are logged in as an Admin on the server, the option to purchase should not be there.

[ebr 16169]

15 hours ago, Vittatus said:

Well, when you click download it doesn’t show any progress information at all. You click it and simply wait for it to magically appear in downloads.

Not even a simple progress indicator, pause, resume… nothing. This has been discussed on the forums for years — not once or twice, but many more times.

There is room for improvement here but it will update the progress stage if you update the screen.  How is the JF implementation better?

[Lessaj 467]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

There is room for improvement here but it will update the progress stage if you update the screen.  How is the JF implementation better?

There is a download notification but when you install the app it never asks for any permissions, so you don't see it until you give notification access manually, at least on Android. I just reinstalled it to confirm and it remembered my login which I don't really understand, that should be wiped if I remove the app, but checking the permissions there are none granted after reinstall, I have to manually add Notification again.