Changes to .nfo being overwritten

[crusher11 1126]

I have three versions of Aliens. I can only edit one of them in the metadata editor, so to edit the others I have to edit the .nfo file directly. One has different genres to the other two, but every time I edit the incorrect one Emby just edits it right back. How can I make it stick?

[crusher11 1126]

Bump.

[tedfroop21 88]

Go to the line in the NFO. ( the pencil icon next to the movie name) Look at the right end of the Genres line, click the little lock icon to lock that field from being changed. 

[crusher11 1126]

In the NFO, or in the Emby GUI? If I lock it in the Emby GUI, I would expect that to prevent it from ingesting the change to the NFO, which is the opposite of what I want—not to mention that the whole reason I'm editing the NFO in the first place is that it's a multi-version film and I can't edit this version in the Emby GUI, so locking anything in the Emby GUI won't have any effect on what I'm doing.

[pwhodges 2020]

Make the nfo read-only in the OS after editing it?

Paul

[crusher11 1126]

8 hours ago, pwhodges said:

Make the nfo read-only in the OS after editing it?

Paul

That prevents Emby overwriting the changes, but it still doesn't get Emby to ingest the changes.

The whole point of saving NFO metadata is to have the server use it, but it's just overwriting the NFO with whatever it already has.

[Luke 42139]

Hi, what makes you think it "edits it back" ?

[crusher11 1126]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

Hi, what makes you think it "edits it back" ?

When I open the NFO file, it's returned to what it was before I edited it.

[Happy2Play 9797]

On 3/7/2026 at 5:58 AM, crusher11 said:

I have three versions of Aliens. I can only edit one of them in the metadata editor

Are they grouped together?

Did you split them apart to allow different metadata for each version?

[crusher11 1126]

3 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Are they grouped together?

Yes. That's why I have to edit the NFO file directly.

4 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Did you split them apart to allow different metadata for each version?

I don't want different metadata for each version. One version has different genres to the other two and I'm trying to fix that.

[Happy2Play 9797]

5 minutes ago, crusher11 said:

I don't want different metadata for each version. One version has different genres to the other two and I'm trying to fix that.

But if they are merged then you will never see different metadata.

Will do some of my own testing as from a metadata standpoint metadata will always be the same for multi- versions and I would suspect version nfo would have to be locked if you want different.  Sound correct? @Luke

Edited 7 hours ago by Happy2Play

[Happy2Play 9797]

But testing adding a genre to a multi-versioned nfo held that change after a library scan.

Split the items apart and the version I modified showed the edited/added genre.  Manually regrouped the items and it when back to previously not showing the added genre in UI but nfo still keep the information as Emby only shows metadata for one item when merged.

I guess a complete example of what is being done would be needed for testing.

[crusher11 1126]

5 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

But if they are merged then you will never see different metadata. @Luke

Depends which version is the default, and which version any given user has access to, no? 

And the unwanted genre shows up when I view genres.