Confusion about metadata, artwork and images

[catch42 3]

There are other recent posts about metadata and people images that raise similar questions, but here's my 2 cents...

 

Two months ago I did a clean install on my server.  All my Emby data was backed up and restored following the guides on this forum.  I later started noticing that my actor images were not showing up.  In researching that issue (which I'll post about separately), I've found myself thoroughly confused about locations for metadata, artwork, and images. I understand that by restoring my old data, I may have imported folders from old MB server locations that have been moved to other locations under the latest Emby builds.  I'd like to clean things up and remove unused locations.

 

Metadata - Under the metadata > advanced settings, I do not have a custom location set.  The note for this setting says..."Specify a custom location for downloaded artwork and metadata, if not saving within media folders".  This suggests that artwork and metadata are being saved to the media folder by default.  However, my server settings home page says my metadata is going to \Emby-Server\data\metadata, which seems to contain about 4GB of artwork under the LiveTV subfolder, and another 1GB of album artwork in other subfolders.

 

Then there’s also an Emby-Server\metadata folder, which just has a channels subfolder.  So where is metadata being saved, and where should it be saved? Are any of these folders obsolete and can be deleted?

 

Images By Name - my restored data had an ImagesByName subfolder (AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\ImagesByName).  On my rebuild, I moved this folder to another local drive and under Library > Advanced, directed Emby to this other location.  The note for this settings says..."Specify a custom location for downloaded actor, genre and studio images".  Seems straightforward except for my problem that people images aren't displaying.

 

Cache - my cache, by default, is stored at AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\cache.  Under Server > Settings > Advanced, I have no custom cache location specified.  The cache location has subfolders for “images”, “imagesbyname”, and “tmdb-people”, among others.  What is the purpose of these folders?

 

Again, the only functional problem I have is that most (but not all) actor images aren't displaying, but it sounds like other users have similar questions so hopefully we can get these clarified.

 

Thanks

[Luke 42078]

metadata - you can choose to store metadata with media, but even if you do, there will always be certain things that go underneath the server's data folder, like internet channel content, live tv, or other things that don't belong to one specific media title. that's why your metadata folder is 4gb.

 

images by name - this is metadata and should no longer be thought of as a standalone setting. new server installations don't even have this setting anymore. 

 

cache = short term duplication of data for performance reasons. it will clean up after itself.

 

when in doubt just trust the defaults, they will probably work for you.