Upgraded 4.9.3 -> 4.9.5 (Artwork and data for movies disappearing on scheduled scans?)

[mike3821 68]

Just as the topic states, I upgraded to 4.9.5 and a couple hours later I was noticing the latest movies added were showing movies from the 1990's and missing artwork.

I rolled back to 4.9.3 for now.

Not sure how to report this as a bug since I rolled back.

[Luke 42963]

HI there, can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

 

[mike3821 68]

29 minutes ago, Luke said:

HI there, can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

 

I can't, since I rolled it back.

I would have to reinstall to pull logs etc...

Hoping somebody else can report, otherwise I will report in the coming days...

[mike3821 68]

On 03/08/2026 at 11:45, mike3821 said:

I can't, since I rolled it back.

I would have to reinstall to pull logs etc...

Hoping somebody else can report, otherwise I will report in the coming days...

Here is the log file.

I just rolled back to 4.9.3.0 after this.

emby-4.9.5.0.txt

Edited Tuesday at 10:26 AM by mike3821

[Luke 42963]

8 hours ago, mike3821 said:

Here is the log file.

I just rolled back to 4.9.3.0 after this.

emby-4.9.5.0.txt 1.3 MB · 0 downloads

And what example are we focusing on here?

[mike3821 68]

Need help to figure out why my media art is disappearing....

[Luke 42963]

What specific example from the log file are we focusing on here?

[mike3821 68]

I went through the server log more closely, and I think the main thing to investigate is the library validation/removal process rather than just the individual missing-image requests.

At 06:01:11 Emby starts:

ValidatePhysicalRoots start validating 12970 Movies /media/media/Movies

Shortly afterward it begins removing large numbers of existing movie folders from the database and deleting their internal metadata directories:

Removing item from database, Type: Folder, Name: 3 Ninjas (1992), Path: /media/media/Movies/3 Ninjas (1992), Id: 19140294

followed by:

Deleting path /var/lib/emby/metadata/library/...

This happens on a very large scale. In this log there are 982 Removing item from database, Type: Folder entries and 2,952 Deleting path /var/lib/emby/metadata/library/... entries.

The important part is that these media folders were not actually gone. A short time later Emby starts probing and re-importing the same movies again. For example, 3 Ninjas (1992) is removed at 06:01:56, then at 06:03:33 Emby is ffprobing the movie again, contacting TMDB/OMDb/Fanart, and creating new item records.

Since Emby stores downloaded artwork under /var/lib/emby/metadata/library/..., could you please investigate why ValidatePhysicalRoots is removing existing library items and deleting their metadata directories, only to immediately rediscover/rebuild the same media?

This seems potentially very relevant to the disappearing artwork issue. If the existing item is removed and its metadata directory is deleted, then the artwork associated with that item can be removed as well. Recreating the movie may also result in new item IDs/image metadata while other references or cached clients may still refer to the old records.

There is also a separate artwork error in the log where the client requests:

/Items/17194232/Images/Logo?maxHeight=220

and Emby responds:

17194232 does not have an image of type Logo

with HTTP 404.

However, those Logo 404s occur before this particular mass deletion sequence, so I don't think that specific deletion event caused those particular 404s. My main concern is the repeated pattern of:

ValidatePhysicalRoots -> Removing item from database -> Deleting /var/lib/emby/metadata/library/... -> same media immediately rediscovered/re-added

Could you please focus on why that is happening and whether it can cause existing artwork/image metadata to be lost during library validation?

[Normanos 16]

When I updated to 4.9.5, Emby for some reason "touched" all media files. At least, most of media files was re-added on Debian.

 My server just scanned all libraries and everything was fine when it finished. 

P.s. always have backups... . 

[mike3821 68]

18 hours ago, Normanos said:

When I updated to 4.9.5, Emby for some reason "touched" all media files. At least, most of media files was re-added on Debian.

 My server just scanned all libraries and everything was fine when it finished. 

P.s. always have backups... . 

As it's scanning, i'm loosing media art. Never seems to fix itself.

However, I never let it finish because it just keeps removing all my media art and never restoring.

I end up just rolling back to 4.9.3

[Neminem 1862]

That sounds like your metadata fetchers in your libraries are disabled.

[Luke 42963]

On 8/26/2026 at 7:47 AM, mike3821 said:

I went through the server log more closely, and I think the main thing to investigate is the library validation/removal process rather than just the individual missing-image requests.

At 06:01:11 Emby starts:

ValidatePhysicalRoots start validating 12970 Movies /media/media/Movies

Shortly afterward it begins removing large numbers of existing movie folders from the database and deleting their internal metadata directories:

Removing item from database, Type: Folder, Name: 3 Ninjas (1992), Path: /media/media/Movies/3 Ninjas (1992), Id: 19140294

followed by:

Deleting path /var/lib/emby/metadata/library/...

This happens on a very large scale. In this log there are 982 Removing item from database, Type: Folder entries and 2,952 Deleting path /var/lib/emby/metadata/library/... entries.

The important part is that these media folders were not actually gone. A short time later Emby starts probing and re-importing the same movies again. For example, 3 Ninjas (1992) is removed at 06:01:56, then at 06:03:33 Emby is ffprobing the movie again, contacting TMDB/OMDb/Fanart, and creating new item records.

Since Emby stores downloaded artwork under /var/lib/emby/metadata/library/..., could you please investigate why ValidatePhysicalRoots is removing existing library items and deleting their metadata directories, only to immediately rediscover/rebuild the same media?

This seems potentially very relevant to the disappearing artwork issue. If the existing item is removed and its metadata directory is deleted, then the artwork associated with that item can be removed as well. Recreating the movie may also result in new item IDs/image metadata while other references or cached clients may still refer to the old records.

There is also a separate artwork error in the log where the client requests:

/Items/17194232/Images/Logo?maxHeight=220

and Emby responds:

17194232 does not have an image of type Logo

with HTTP 404.

However, those Logo 404s occur before this particular mass deletion sequence, so I don't think that specific deletion event caused those particular 404s. My main concern is the repeated pattern of:

ValidatePhysicalRoots -> Removing item from database -> Deleting /var/lib/emby/metadata/library/... -> same media immediately rediscovered/re-added

Could you please focus on why that is happening and whether it can cause existing artwork/image metadata to be lost during library validation?

Are the media folders unreachable at that time?

[mike3821 68]

Just now, Luke said:

Are the media folders unreachable at that time?

No, I can get to them no problem. If I revert back to 4.9.3.0 everything starts to come back and work.