Moving Media Files to New Network Device - Maintain Watched Status

[danielk23 3]

Hi

 

I need to move some media folders to a new network device shortly. I've got multiple users in emby with their own watched status. Is there a way to move the content but maintain the watched status of the media files (predominantly TV series and episodes) ?

 

Thanks in advance.

Daniel

[Tolerant 74]

I would like to move some files around as well and was also concerned about simply removing the path, moving them and adding the new path because Emby will see all those files as being added now instead of in the past as well as losing the watched status. If that is the case, are there any plans to add a "move files to new path" type feature in Emby anytime soon?

[plazma 13]

Humm don't know if it would work, but my work around would be backup config etc first (if it doesn't work), close emby server, move content or just a folder and then symlink the old location to the new location. in theory you should be able to fool emby into thinking its not moved.

[Luke 42079]

For content that is on Tmdb, Tvdb, Imdb, etc, we base the user data off of those provider Id's, so you can move the files around and the data will be retained. For everything else though it will not be retained. You can check out the backup and restore plugin because i think it might be able to help with this, though @@ebr will have to confirm.

[Happy2Play 9781]

Watch status is not tracked by the media name or location.  So relocating the media will not affect this status.

 

 

 

I would like to move some files around as well and was also concerned about simply removing the path, moving them and adding the new path because Emby will see all those files as being added now instead of in the past as well as losing the watched status.

Just ensure server is set to "use file creation date" instead of "use date scanned into library".

[Deathsquirrel 745]

For content that is on Tmdb, Tvdb, Imdb, etc, we base the user data off of those provider Id's, so you can move the files around and the data will be retained. For everything else though it will not be retained. You can check out the backup and restore plugin because i think it might be able to help with this, though @@ebr will have to confirm.

 

If not they could likely use the trakt plugin to backup their watched status.

[plazma 13]

That's pretty grovey, no symlink jigger poker required, if only all software was as good. As an idea when the media scan runs you could in theory create a quick md5 or sha1 of the first meg or what ever of the file (so it doesn't introduce so much overhead to create a quick checksum). this way it wouldn't matter if anything else changed as long as the first x bytes was the same it would always know it had seen the file and what it was.

 

This would even know the difference between two files called identical things, with identical dates, but different content.

 

Just a suggestion :-)

 

Additional, with watched status I assume this is currently stored in definitely, one idea maybe to set this by default to store forever or 365 days maybe, but having the ability to say allow the server to have selective amnesia.

 

in a years time or 6 months, im likely to have forgotten what ever enough to be able to rewatch, the server wouldn't flag it as new media but would just forget the watch flag. This cuts down on whats remembered at anyone time as well.

 

Again just an idea, but for me at least I would be a feature I would use.

Edited July 14, 2015 by plazma

[ebr 16184]

I think the method we are using is superior to using some sort of file fingerprint method.  What you care about tracking is the particular movie or episode, not the specific version of a file.  Many people start out with one quality of file and then change it to higher or lessor, or re-mux to add or remove audio or subs.  This situation is much more common than the same file being moved to a different location.

 

Unfortunately, the backup plug-in cannot help in the case of items that are not globally identified by a metadata provider because we do use the file path as unique identification if there is no other ID available and there will be no way to associate the old vs new location.

[plazma 13]

Good call I did not think of that, however doing both and one taking president may also offer advantages.

[danielk23 3]

thanks all for the responses, i've changed the file behaviour  to use file  creation date, will see how this goes as soon as the new NAS arrives and i can migrate the content. 

[danielk23 3]

hi, just wanted to clarify the process here:

1. Copy the files from old location to new one

2. add new location to library paths

3. remove old location from library path

4. rescan

 

or should i rescan after adding the new location and before removing the old one?

Edited July 16, 2015 by danielk23

[Happy2Play 9781]

hi, just wanted to clarify the process here:

1. Copy the files from old location to new one

2. add new location to library paths

3. remove old location from library path

4. rescan

 

or should i rescan after adding the new location and before removing the old one?

Well a scan will automatically start anytime there is a change to any library information/path.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Happy2Play

[danielk23 3]

thanks Happy, forgot that part....

 

Still just trying to make sure that I don't remove the "old"  location too early and lose all the existing status's in the system. Think wife will kill me if i lose all the watched/unwatched status on the tv she likes

[Happy2Play 9781]

As stated earlier status are saved by provider Id's not file location.  But everything will be a little hinky until the library scan is complete.

 

 

You should also take a look at the Server Configuration Backup plugin.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Happy2Play

[danielk23 3]

thanks Happy, appreciate all the help from everyone here, just trying to not mess up the library too much, given it has around 6TB of content right now..... took me weeks to get all the metadata etc all matched and really don't want to do that again

[ebr 16184]

The watched status won't be deleted when you remove the old paths but I also recommend a backup before you start.

[leebo 12]

I have a couple of related questions, but please let me know if I should start a new thread. I performed several searches, but could not find exactly the info I am looking for, and there appears to be nothing in the Wiki's (at least I did not find anything).

 

I am in the process of changing my servers OS drive, and am installing everything from scratch. My media is spread accross several drives, but not on the OS drive. I hope to eventually install Stablebit Drive Pool to my media drives.

 

So first question: In order to avoid having to re-setup Emby, would I use the aforementioned Server Configuration Backup plugin? Backup, change OS drive, install Emby, restore? Will it restore my users, watch folders, etc.?

 

If I later run Drive Pool, I assume I will have to re-set up watched folders? (I've never used a pooling software, but I assume Windows assigns one drive letter). The comments above suggest I will not loose the watched status of each show/movie.

 

 

Edit: I did another search, just using Google. I found the post re backing up Emby's (MB3) data files. That should go in the Wiki, imo. I assume after installing DrivePool it'll become apparent about my second question.

Edited September 16, 2015 by leebo