Artists and Albums Losing Descriptions

[HouseOfCards 97]

Good day,

I'm not sure exactly when this began.  I have two servers reading the same music locations on my NAS.  Both servers have been set to read .NFO data and write .NFO files.  One server is set to refresh metadata periodically, and I noticed that server has no descriptions in "artist.nfo" or "album.nfo", so no overview of the artists or albums. I attached screenshots of the same screens from the different servers.

So as it stands, the server set to periodically refresh has no information for ALL of the music, since it seemed to get removed.  The one that does not refresh will remove the data if I manually refresh.  It rewrites the .NFO but no description info is included.  I've also noticed that even though both are set to read/write .NFO's, the information is not in them.  In other words, the server showing the descriptions is not getting the information from the .NFO's, as they don't have the descriptions in them.  Must be stored locally in the database.  

If I manually edit the description, the information saves to the .NFO, so it's not permissions.

So a metadata refresh wipes all artist and album information, and rewrites the .NFO without that information.  No refresh will re-add the data, so deleting your information is a one-way destructive operation.  It should be reading .NFO's, and if the data is missing, it should be rewriting with the updated information.  None of this is happening.

Here is the log after refreshing one artist.

 

embyserver.txt

[HouseOfCards 97]

Musicbrainz is the metadata provider I selected, and all files are locally tagged with correct Musicbrainz data using Picard.

[Luke 42359]

hi, reading album and artist nfo files is still in testing. I have been waiting on more feedback before publishing. Please particpate here:

Thanks.

[HouseOfCards 97]

5 hours ago, Luke said:

hi, reading album and artist nfo files is still in testing. I have been waiting on more feedback before publishing. Please particpate here:

Thanks.

I've been trying to overwrite that DLL file from this post, but no matter what, the old version remains after I reboot.  Would like to test it.

I'm wondering though, if this is a different issue?  In my case, one server doesn't even show the information from the local database.  It doesn't seem to have the artist or album information at all, even after a refresh of the metadata.  We're not even at the point of writing it to the NFO in my case.  I'd just like it to show the information at all...

[Luke 42359]

9 minutes ago, HouseOfCards said:

I've been trying to overwrite that DLL file from this post, but no matter what, the old version remains after I reboot.  Would like to test it.

I'm wondering though, if this is a different issue?  In my case, one server doesn't even show the information from the local database.  It doesn't seem to have the artist or album information at all, even after a refresh of the metadata.  We're not even at the point of writing it to the NFO in my case.  I'd just like it to show the information at all...

Then it sounds like it never had it to begin with, on that server at least.

[Happy2Play 9831]

34 minutes ago, HouseOfCards said:

I've been trying to overwrite that DLL file from this post, but no matter what, the old version remains after I reboot.  Would like to test it.

How do you know it is not updated as it is the exact same version number? 1.0.86.0

[HouseOfCards 97]

20 minutes ago, Luke said:

Then it sounds like it never had it to begin with, on that server at least.

It's possible.  I interact with music mostly on the server that does have the metadata, but if I refresh the metadata on that server, the artist and album information disappears there as well.  It's as though Musicbrainz is returning blank information now.  Not saying it is, but it's not being stored locally for me on either server.

I refreshed an artist, and here is the log...

 

embyserver.txt

[HouseOfCards 97]

1 minute ago, Happy2Play said:

How do you know it is not updated as it is the exact same version number? 1.0.86.0

Oh, didn't know that.  

So I shut down the server, replaced the DLL, powered it up, and did a refresh metadata.  I got no metadata for albums or artists.  Not before or after the refresh, but as I'm saying here, it's not showing that at all for me...  Forget whether it stores it in the NFO for now...

At some point, I set one server to automatically update metadata once a month, and I just noticed that server has lost all that information.  The server that doesn't refresh automatically still has the metadata, but if I refresh something on that one, it wipes it as well...

[Happy2Play 9831]

6 minutes ago, HouseOfCards said:

It's possible.  I interact with music mostly on the server that does have the metadata, but if I refresh the metadata on that server, the artist and album information disappears there as well.  It's as though Musicbrainz is returning blank information now.  Not saying it is, but it's not being stored locally for me on either server.

I refreshed an artist, and here is the log...

 

embyserver.txt 908.32 kB · 1 download

Hard to say here as looks like your music has not refreshed yet and the last entry if for only one artist

RefreshItem Complete: 254 MusicArtist 3 Doors Down

But the plugin update is to only read existing nfo files that contain data.  So we would need to look at a specific example to include the nfo file.

[HouseOfCards 97]

1 minute ago, Happy2Play said:

Hard to say here as looks like your music has not refreshed yet and the last entry if for only one artist

RefreshItem Complete: 254 MusicArtist 3 Doors Down

But the plugin update is to only read existing nfo files that contain data.  So we would need to look at a specific example to include the nfo file.

I only refreshed the one artist as a test.  Before the refresh, it had a description of the artist as expected.  After the refresh...

 

[Happy2Play 9831]

May need a new log to see if your Music library has the same issue as your TV library, Permissions.

2026-04-18 01:26:38.122 Error ProviderManager: Error in metadata saver

	System.UnauthorizedAccessException: System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path '/mnt/Television/Roseanne (1988)/Season 05/S05E17 First Cousin, Twice Removed.nfo' is denied.

 

[HouseOfCards 97]

Had to wait for a full metadata refresh to complete...  Here's the log.  This server still does not show any artist or album info after the refresh.

 

embyserver-63912153600.txt

[Luke 42359]

What metadata fetchers have you enabled on each of your music libraries?

[HouseOfCards 97]

3 hours ago, Luke said:

What metadata fetchers have you enabled on each of your music libraries?

I've tried changing the order also.  No difference.  I don't remember how long ago, but I set this server to periodically refresh metadata.  That's why this one doesn't have the information anymore.  It used to be fine, but at some point the automatic refresh wiped it.  And now when I refresh an artist or album on the server that still has the metadata, it wipes it on that one also.  

Both servers run from Docker containers on a NAS, and the files are stored right on the NAS and mapped in the Docker container configuration.  Never had this issue before now, and only this library from what I see.   TV and movies seem to work fine.  

[HouseOfCards 97]

And as I said, every single music track has been meticulously tagged using Picard before being added to Emby, so all the embedded metadata in the files should match up perfectly with a scan from the Musicbrainz provider. 

[Luke 42359]

OK the update to the audiodb plugin that just went up should help a little. But make sure to check what info they actually have in their database.

The musicbrainz website doesn't count. Whatever descriptions they display are not included in their api. I think they're just pulling from somewhere like wikipedia but are not licensed to redistribute.

[HouseOfCards 97]

On 4/19/2026 at 10:58 PM, Luke said:

OK the update to the audiodb plugin that just went up should help a little. But make sure to check what info they actually have in their database.

The musicbrainz website doesn't count. Whatever descriptions they display are not included in their api. I think they're just pulling from somewhere like wikipedia but are not licensed to redistribute.

My AudioDB plugin is v1.0.20.0.  I changed all my music libraries to have the AudioDB first, and Musicbrainz second.  Still no metadata populating at all.  

[Happy2Play 9831]

37 minutes ago, HouseOfCards said:

My AudioDB plugin is v1.0.20.0. 

But the updated version is 1.0.21.0

[HouseOfCards 97]

33 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

But the updated version is 1.0.21.0

Yup.  It installed earlier today, just saw it needed a restart.

I refreshed one artist with the new AudioDB plugin and artist and album descriptions are populating as expected.  So there was clearly something going on.  I appreciate the info about MusicBrainz not being the best source for audio.  Didn't know that.  And the help, of course.  I'll do a full refresh on the server missing the data, and post back if I have any more problems.

Thanks again...

[HouseOfCards 97]

Just to follow up @Luke, the refresh went fine, and all the artist.nfo and album.nfo files refreshed, and the details were written to the .NFO files as expected.  It seems the fix worked.

Thanks again...