Server - Option to ignore media in scans

[iamspartacus 40]

I can report that the Emby connect feature in both Sonarr and Radarr works well and thus eliminates my need for this feature.  Though I still think it is something that should be added because I can see the needed to exclude certain libraries or only schedule certain libraries to scan.

[kaffeematze 3]

I would also opt for ignoring certain filetypes, for instance RAW pictures.

I have a huge image archive with jpgs and RAW files residing in the same folder.

This results with having my Emby library showing the "same" image twice.

[teddybear75 11]

Good idea, maybe something like this:

 

 

Then it would be possible to have some folders excluded, and some not, in same library.

I dont think i will be adding mp3 or home photos/videos in emby until (if ever) this feature is implemented

Edited April 28, 2019 by teddybear75

[Luke 42077]

If you don't want it scanned, then why add it to the library in the first place? Or is this for temporary usage?

[teddybear75 11]

If you don't want it scanned, then why add it to the library in the first place? Or is this for temporary usage?

 

Hey Luke, thanks for asking this.

I would want everything scanned the first time, but my photos are sorted in directories like this example:

 

Pictures/

              1990/

              1991/

              1992/

              1993/

              1994/

              1995/

              1996/

             and so on up to 2019/

 

I would want everything pre 2019 scanned once, then added to exclude from scans, while 2019 is continuously scanned until 2020, then i would want 2020 scanned each scan, while 2019 would be added to the excluded list, so the library would include all folders and files, but it would only scan the latest year.

 

Im not sure how much longer the scans would take if scanning through all my folders/files each time, since i have ALOT of pictures. But i would guess the scans would go a lot quicker if i only scanned the latest year?

Edited April 28, 2019 by teddybear75

[Luke 42077]

Ok so you want to be able to indicate that a folder never changes so the server doesn't need to bother scanning it. Is that right?

[teddybear75 11]

Ok so you want to be able to indicate that a folder never changes so the server doesn't need to bother scanning it. Is that right?

 

Yes, even though the contents of the folders is still in the library, and as you say, the folder never changes.

And should the folder need to be scanned at some point, one could just switch on scanning again for that folder when needed, and then off again.

Edited April 28, 2019 by teddybear75

[29988122 0]

Ok so you want to be able to indicate that a folder never changes so the server doesn't need to bother scanning it. Is that right?

I can attest this usage:

 

I added Google drive (Gsuite, unlimited) as library folders, Folder/HDD structure generated by Google File stream on Windows.

 

Basically Google File Stream works as a middle layer (think it as rclone mount), generated folder structures for apps on Windows to read.

Google File Stream only requests (via API) certain parts of the file, when other application/process asks.

This ensures the responsiveness of basic operations (open archive file, explorer browsing, music playing, even responsive video playing when seeking).

 

https://imgur.com/a/sY332q4

 

 

However, some of the processes I've encountered did not work well with Google File Stream (causing freeze, hang, download full file, etc).

 

This is understandable since the behavior of Google File Stream is blackboxed and undocumented.

 

 

On the case of Emby, I tried many types of library type, and I cannot stop Emby from refreshing / rescanning library.

In my case, it worked well when "first time adding" - I deleted the scheduled task, and it completed itself some 48 hours later.

 

However, it's not working for the scheduled library scanning task.

I constantly hitting API restrictions of Google Drive (understandable, default schedule 12 hours a scan), and if I delete the scheduled task completely, emby "sometimes" failed to real-time monitoring changes.

 

 

I "guess" an exclusion option is a good trade-off - only refresh some folders when needed.

[dcol 175]

+1 Any movement on this feature?

[iamspartacus 40]

Kind of shocked this has been a request that's been open for going on 5 years now.  This seems like a no brainer.  The server should not need to scan every single library and every single directory inside those libraries just because a single directory has been modified (ie. a new movie/episode is added or upgraded).  How is this not a priority?

[dcol 175]

idk, seems like a very useful feature to me.

[teddybear75 11]

idk, seems like a very useful feature to me.

Indeed

[jmansell90 4]

I drastically need this feature, if I'm honest.  I just moved from Kodi and was dependent on this feature for library management.  Sometimes you just have a large set of media that once scanned in will not change.

Although I have an odd setup, I think it's a rather universal feature for those with very large media collections.  I have about 40TB across two servers, one is a NAS I built and the other is about 25TB of 4 individual drives (so 4 folders shared to my Emby VM).  Only one folder per TV/Movies is the 'live' folder where new content is added.  The rest of my library is static, and when the 'live' folder gets too large I archive that media and start a new 'live' folder.  This keep library scans down to 5min.

Right now, a library scan takes about an hour because there is no way for me to tell Emby "Hey, all these folders?  They're gonna stay the same.  Leave them alone, I'll tell you if they change."  The closest workaround I had was I separated my media into two libraries each; 'Movies' and 'Movies (Live)'.  This way when I put new media into the library I can stop the current scan and manually scan just the 'Live' library if I'm trying to watch that media now.  But this is really problematic when I or a friend is browsing for something to watch and the media is in two separate libraries.

I imagine a simple 'enabled/disabled' check on the folder before scanning would save people with unreasonably large libraries hours of scanning a day.

[dcol 175]

For me I want Emby to not scan my static music folder, which has 375K songs and takes 90 minutes to scan. I haven't added anything to this folder in over a year.

From a programing perspective, I don't see this as a 'BIG' job to change. Just flag the libraries then ignore those during the scan.

Edited March 19, 2021 by dcol

[teddybear75 11]

Is there any chance of having this feature added in the near future?

[CharleyVarrick 283]

How difficult can it be to add an option on a per library basis to not perform additional scans ?

Simple enough question.

 

Anyone listening?

 

 

[ebr 16169]

3 hours ago, CharleyVarrick said:

How difficult can it be to add an option on a per library basis to not perform additional scans ?

Honest answer - it can be extremely difficult.  An option like that creates a new conditional logic path in an integral part of the system.  The trouble that can cause can be exponential in nature.

That is not to say this won't ever happen.  It is just a direct answer to your question why options look so simple from the UI side but really aren't.

[CharleyVarrick 283]

2 hours ago, ebr said:

Honest answer - it can be extremely difficult.  An option like that creates a new conditional logic path in an integral part of the system.  The trouble that can cause can be exponential in nature.

That is not to say this won't ever happen.  It is just a direct answer to your question why options look so simple from the UI side but really aren't.

Thank you for positioning and answering, I know what you mean by things looking simple enough from a user perspective (before actually digging in).

Fingers crossed, it would be useful for sure should it materialize

 

[rbjtech 5284]

Turn off the main Scan schedule and do a per library scan when you need to is another option - yes it's manual, but if you are just scanning 'new' items then it should be pretty quick.

This works, so tbh, I'm sure sure why this 'per library command' can simply not be scheduled ? 

 

[dcol 175]

I would imagine this depends how it was originally programmed. 'Foresight is an asset of the best programmers' was taught to me in school.

[CharleyVarrick 283]

3 hours ago, rbjtech said:

Turn off the main Scan schedule and do a per library scan when you need to is another option - yes it's manual, but if you are just scanning 'new' items then it should be pretty quick.

This works, so tbh, I'm sure sure why this 'per library command' can simply not be scheduled ? 

 

Interesting,

I'm thinking something else might work, but not sure if viable option or not

Assuming user is happy with how his TV show and/or movie library looks, he disables all MD +images providers, leaving none enabled.

Emby would still scan that library but should NOT tamper with its content in any way, since all providers being disabled.

 

If user has new shows or new movie, he creates additional library in Emby both those one with providers of his choice enabled

Obvious drawback is you end up with 2 of each libraries, one active, one dead quiet.

 

Then there's the one of a kind Home Videos and Photos library, without MD providers per say.

Does Emby do anything to those at all, like what?

 

 

Edited March 23, 2021 by CharleyVarrick

[Luke 42077]

Nowdays, the features have almost nearly unified so a movies library is just about the same thing as home videos except with internet metadata providers. In fact, it may get to the point where they end up becoming exactly the same thing, and when you select one or the other, it will simply configure default library options based on what makes sense for that content type.

[Guest]

Did anyone post about current options? Quoting the site here...

'To exclude a folder from the library scan, simply place a file inside the folder named .ignore

This will cause Emby to ignore all subfolders as well.

At present Emby will not scan any folders that starts with a "." dot."

[Happy2Play 9780]

45 minutes ago, Hxemby001 said:

Did anyone post about current options? Quoting the site here...

'To exclude a folder from the library scan, simply place a file inside the folder named .ignore

This will cause Emby to ignore all subfolders as well.

At present Emby will not scan any folders that starts with a "." dot."

This Excludes media/folder from Emby altogether.  They want to see the media, just no long have it scanned.

But at the same time Emby is only looking for changes when a media folder is scanned.  So if nothing changes nothing is updated.  That would be why my library scan takes 2-3 minutes, but overall setup applies as all my media is on the same system running Emby.

[Guest]

I understand now.. probably should have read a little better.. OBVIOUS why it wasn't posted.  LOL

Edited March 25, 2021 by Guest