Emby Refuses to grab correct metadata for Red Dwarf

[Heckler 147]

A new series of Red Dwarf started yesterday, and I've duly added the first episode to my collection.

 

Then I noticed that 2 of the cast were missing from the cast list, and the actor images completely unusable.

 

 

So I did a refresh on the show, nothing changed... cleared out the cache on my browser, reloaded... same... manually added the missing actors... reloaded the page, still missing, cleared out the cache and reloaded... still missing.  Checked the nfo file... listed, reloaded the page, still missing... checked the nfo... they're missing once again.

 

Checked nfo wasn't locked in any way... it wasn't... but deleted series nfo to be sure and ran a scan to refresh... it created a brand new nfo... and they're still missing.

 

I checked the metadata, it's showing the show with the correct ID for thetvdb, moviedb and so forth... and thetvdb has the correct actors listed and images for them all... But emby just refuses to download the correct data.

 

So I check the server settings... that's set to grab image files from all listed fetchers (thetvdb isn't listed), the metadata downloaders are both listed... and once again thetvdb isn't listed.

 

So I checked the nfo file again.... it's got the correct ID's for the show moviedb listed as 326 (which is missing all actor info) and thetvdb as 71326 which DOES have all the correct actor info listed but it seems emby no longer grabs the info from there or is it just this show that it can't parse?

 

I find themoviedb to be utterly useless when it comes to TV shows, it's rarely accurate, descriptions are littered with inaccuracies and often huge swathes of missing info and descriptions filled with wild personal opinion... whilst thetvdb isn't perfect it's vastly superior for TV shows

 

So why won't it grab the correct info, and when when I manually add the correct info and save it... and then check the nfo file to find it's there... WHY is emby seemingly over writing it almost immediately.

[CBers 7450]

Not an answer, but I also added Red Dwarf and everything is grabbed correctly.

 

How did you add it, via Sonarr or just creating a folder in your TV library?

 

I added it via Sonarr, so it created an empty folder called "Red Dwarf".

 

Emby then started the metadata collection.

[Luke 42078]

In addition to comments above, hi ! In order to best help you with that, please provide the emby server log from the time all of this happened. You can learn how to do that here:

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/739-how-to-report-a-problem/

 

Thanks !

[Heckler 147]

I already had Red Dwarf in my collection... all 10 series and have had them for years... Just never noticed that the actors were missing... Now it's become really annoying that it won't correct itself.

 

Will sort out a log tomorrow

[Heckler 147]

I think this issue may be directly related to the same problem I've found in my music.

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/40500-audio-metadata-database-duplications-uncorrectable-errors/

 

 

In this case it appears that data stored in the library.db cannot be changed and is simply overruling any changes made to the show nfo files... as changing the metadata manually, is immediately removed back to what I can only assume is stored in the library.db

 

I had to delete the db file (in my case almost a 1GB file) and rebuild overnight (which took 11hrs and still hasn't finished as so much needs to be refreshed simply to get images back, especially for people)... But never thought to delete the Red Dwarf nfo's... So that's still as it was before with all of the incorrect data and still refuses to grab the missing stuff as it's now back in the library.db and cannot be changed.

 

There needs to be a simple way to clear out the crap from the library.db because a database cleanup doesn't do anything to correct these problems once they've crept in, and deleting the entire db and having to rebuild it again isn't really an acceptable solution... but a last ditch one because all else has failed.

[PenkethBoy 2068]

@@Heckler

 

have you ordered you metadata scrappers?

 

Mine for series - TV shows effectively

 

IIRC emby uses the first in the list - if it finds something missing it should use the next etc

 

If you have not got tvdb at the top i would move it up and doa refresh on RD -it may or may not help but worth a try

[PenkethBoy 2068]

Just created a dummy RD with season 1,10,11 each with one episode 1 

 

have all actor images

 

 

 

[Heckler 147]

@@Heckler

 

have you ordered you metadata scrappers?

 

Mine for series - TV shows effectively

Capture.PNG

 

IIRC emby uses the first in the list - if it finds something missing it should use the next etc

 

If you have not got tvdb at the top i would move it up and doa refresh on RD -it may or may not help but worth a try

 

Where are you setting those preferences, because this is all that's listed in my server (latest official release)

 

 

 

Just created a dummy RD with season 1,10,11 each with one episode 1 

 

have all actor images

 

Capture.PNG

 

 

 

Yet mine looks like this, and if I look for actor images for the actors... I cannot change them. The Chris Barrie image is the one grabbed for the Brittas Empire, the one available on the tvdb doesn't even show up when I look for new images, and Craig Charles & Chloe Annet are non existent.

 

[PenkethBoy 2068]

@@Heckler

 

Just checked Stable and Dev - are you not seeing this

 

 

What server version are you on?

 

My actor photos are different to yours

 

TVMaze as a Metadata provider is worth adding in as well - see plugins

[Happy2Play 9780]

The Chris Barrie image is the one grabbed for the Brittas Empire, the one available on the tvdb doesn't even show up when I look for new images, and Craig Charles & Chloe Annet are non existent.

Actor images are not different per series.  Every show or movie an actor is in will be the same.

[Heckler 147]

@@Heckler

 

Just checked Stable and Dev - are you not seeing this

 

Capture.PNG

 

What server version are you on?

 

My actor photos are different to yours

 

TVMaze as a Metadata provider is worth adding in as well - see plugins

 

Version 3.0.8300.0 since it was out.

 

Actor images are not different per series.  Every show or movie an actor is in will be the same.

 

Yeah I know, but when I search for 'new' actor images... I get nothing except that image for Chris Barrie... the one that's showing on thetvdb isn't even in the list, even when you select thetvdb as the source of image files.  But as I prefer non series related images... I would have changed it something that wasn't a publicity still for a show or movie. But rather a real one of how they actually look... But that's not possible with any of the Red Dwarf cast list.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Well in this scenario there are two Chris Barrie's listed on TMDB and so my guess is you have a mismatch in provider ids for this actor since it is searching by name.  What external ids are list for this actor?

 

If you give the actor a TDMB id of "20511" do you get to choose different images?

[Heckler 147]

Well in this scenario there are two Chris Barrie's listed on TMDB and so my guess is you have a mismatch in provider ids for this actor since it is searching by name.  What external ids are list for this actor?

 

If you give the actor a TDMB id of "20511" do you get to choose different images?

 

OK, so that has given me some extra images to choose from for Chris Barrie... But I cannot check against the two missing ones because if I try to add them... they're immediately removed... This musty be something similar to the music issue thread I made the other day... where bands were missing, or names were duplicated or removed completely regardless of the actual metadata and mp3tags... all because something got screwed up in the library.db and cannot be removed.

 

That's the only thing that I can think of that's causing this issue... every single piece of metadata is correct up to the point of the 2 missing actors and adding them result in their immediate removal the next time the metadata is called for and the nfo files being over written with the old data that must be coming from some where else because it's NOT grabbing it from thetvdb or tvmaze or anywhere else... because if it was, it would have those two included.

[Heckler 147]

@@Heckler

 

Just checked Stable and Dev - are you not seeing this

 

Capture.PNG

 

What server version are you on?

 

My actor photos are different to yours

 

TVMaze as a Metadata provider is worth adding in as well - see plugins

 

 

Yeah, I do see that and was showing the one under series... it just was visible in the pic I posted as I'd scrolled down and it was off screen when I took the screenshot..

[Heckler 147]

OK... I think I may have finally resolved this... it wasn't easy and it took some creativity... and it wasn't anything that emby helped me to resolve... rather it was emby that was causing the issue entirely... Don't know how or why... but when I removed emby and all metadata fetchers from the equation and rebuilt the metadata myself from a template... whilst also removing any and all traces of those actors from the database... cleaning the database, restarting the server, cleaning the database... adding the new fresh nfo/xml files that I created using the infor from either imdb/thetvdb/tvmaze/themoviedb and then rescanning both people and library.

 

Then and only then have I got all actors listed and correct.

 

It SHOULDN'T have been that hard to do... and as I pointed out in the music thread that showed very similar issues... there HAS to be an easy way for people to correct mistakes in the metadata without it being overruled/written by previous data stored somewhere else entirely... After all, isn't the whole of point of storing the metadata locally within the show/movie the whole point... that it's there and accessed by emby and easy to find and edit as required rather than buried away in some obscure and inaccessible part of the database that requires very precise and detailed information to even find, let alone remove/edit without screwing up the whole db entirely.

[PenkethBoy 2068]

@@Happy2Play as a mod and it might have more weight coming from you could you....

 

I just checked and as the Music thread of @@Heckler has disappeared off the first page of this sub forum and Luke / Ebr has not responded to either thread do you want to point them at this and the music thread and ask them to work through both threads in detail - i.e. read all the posts as its clear the metadata editing is an issue that needs looking at - as the user should be able to change what they like (with warnings if necessary) so the data is how they want.

 

Ive tried before a few times and Luke does not get what i'm on about - he's busy and probably skims a lot of threads - so its not a dig - i am just trying to get it to register that there is a problem that needs looking into and amending.

[Heckler 147]

A thanks to all who have shown an interest and offered suggestions in both this and the music thread... some of which did help and some which didn't... I do appreciate all those who tried to assist... and in both cases we got the issue resolved but not the cause.  

 

But I am now more informed than before and I hope that I don't forget all of this info when this issue crops up again in the future (if it's not already fixed by then, because I'm hoping it doesn't happen again for a very long time).  

[Luke 42078]

the issue is just multiple actors with the same name, correct?

[Heckler 147]

the issue is just multiple actors with the same name, correct?

 

No...  it's actors that are listed in the tvbd metadata, but that emby is refusing to download or list... the metadata nfo stored in the show folder didn't list the 2 mentioned above... and if you manually edited the metadata, and then save it... then immediately open the nfo file... it shows them as there... But the very next time you access that show... the nfo is over written by something I can only assume is stored elsewhere within emby.

 

The actors were only listed once in the emby caches, and in the case of the 2 missing ones... all data was present and correct.

 

It was only after manually deleting everything including any related actors... and then rebuilding the actor xml manually using a template copied from a working one... and with various refreshes, database cleanups and so forth... that was when I managed to get them showing up.

 

It was the same thing with the music duplicating artists because something was somewhere in the db that didn't match with the mp3tags... and it's prioritising folder names over the mp3tag and locally stored xml/nfo... in addition to that, non standard characters in folder names screws it up further because it's prioritising folder names over mp3tag names.

[PenkethBoy 2068]

@@Luke there is an issue here as well as the Music thread that you should read fully - its the way emby deals with metadata and the order you have set up for priority which is causing problems which have been fully outlined in both threads 

 

Please spend the time to read both threads as i am sure you will see we spent a lot time getting to the point of finding complicated and unnecessary ways of forcing the metadata to be accepted or fudging accurate data so emby did not make problems which actually don't exist - e.g. see ac/dc in the music thread and its not the / that's the only problem

[Luke 42078]

I read the thread but I don't quite understand. I just added Red Drawf and I got all 8 actors and all of them had images. What do you guys think the issue is exactly?

[Luke 42078]

One thing I will respond to - you're saying you prefer the non-series related actor image, that is generally not possible because we do not have MovieDb Id's for those actors. Or rather - if the actor came from a movie we will have the MovieDb Id for that actor. If the actor came from a tv series then we will have the tvdb id for the actor (or moviedb if that is the first priority fetcher).

 

The only way we would have both Id's is if you happen to have a movie that the same actor also appears in. That is why you might use the image editor and not see all available images. 

 

We no longer search for actors by name, instead we just use the Id's that came from the metadata provider at the time the tv series or movie was refreshed. We had to remove automated searching for actors by name because this resulted in us pounding the MovieDb and we were asked to stop doing that. It is still allowed though if you manually refresh an individual person.

[Luke 42078]

Does that make sense, or am I misunderstanding the issue? 

[Heckler 147]

It makes sense... but what I think you're missing is that when you manually added the actors to the tv show nfo stored locally in the tv show folder.... that was erased from it the next time you loaded the show from the browser UI... that's simply accessing it not doing a refresh of the metadata.

 

Adding the show fresh has obviously worked for you... but when I removed all nfo files from the show folders... and got it to download the data as if it was a new show being added... it repeated that error and left out those two actors. Now I've had these shows in my mediaserver for many years, through many builds since long before Media Browser 2.0 let alone v3 and it's only recently that I've noticed this issue... as I was adding new episodes. I've no idea how long it's been present so this could be a very old issue that I've only recently discovered and now that I've taken the steps I have to resolve it... won't happen again. But I have no idea if it's a new bug, and old bug I never noticed or simply an anomaly with some minor corrupted data on my system alone.

 

When we had a similar issue with bands... we had to dig through or remove the library.db file and start over to resolve it... So I had assumed that something in the library.db had gotten screwed up, or that it was in some way given priority over the locally stored nfo files for the show. I can't explain why data that has been added to the tvshow.nfo file gets erased the next time it is read. I even made the file read only after changing it, and it was still erased and reverted to it's previous state (I.E. missing those 2 actors).

 

The rest of the data was correct and exactly as expected.

 

So whilst I can how deleting any mention of those actors in the caches could help it identify actors who's ID may have changed or be different from one source or another (as was the case for Chris Barrie... who did show up, and after correcting the ID... allowed other images to be available (e's also an actor who's starred in both movies & TV shows)... it doesn't explain how the tvshow.nfo is being over written after being adjusted, saved and then loaded back into the browser. I've even cleared out all caches for the browser, temp files and so forth and forcing a page refresh in firefox (v49).

 

In the end a combination of rebuilding the actor.xml using a template and ID from thetvdb along with cache clearouts, allowed them to finally show up.

[Luke 42078]

Well what do you mean erased the next time you access the show. The server needs to be made aware of the external changes and this happens either with a library scan or refreshing the show manually

 

If you edit an nfo manually then just immediately pull up the show in the web app you will not see the changes reflected yet.