Next Up/Suggestions for TV not clearing/refreshing

[Heckler 147]

Since the disaster that was 3.1.2 and the infinite update loop isse that has yet to be fixed... whilst countless pointless cosmetic changes are made (whilst core problems remain unfixed at all)... I reverted back to 3.0.8500 just so I could have a system that worked properly... actually allowed you to use the browser UI without it taking 5 times longer to navigate to anything (not to mention how pointless and ugly some of the changes are)

 

 

But now thanks to some change made that has corrupted something in the roll back... items that were watched last week or the start of this week refuse to clear or update from the next up/suggestions screen in the browser UI.

 

All of items showing as watched on that page... should be long gone... but have returned after the roll back and cannot be removed at all.  I've tried clearing out the cache, I've restarted, I've done a db cleanup, rescanned countless times... New media is being added as evidenced by shows broadcast the last couple of days... but shows that were watched weeks ago (Grand tour s01e06 was watched before xmas) will not go away, and episodes added afterwards that have also been watched never appear on the next up page.

 

Logs show nothing... refreshing does nothing... it's not a browser issue or that cache as I've thoroughly tested that out, even gone so far as to use a browser I've never used before to log into emby and try to view it. Something in the DB got screwed up by the repeated failed upgrades which forced me into a roll back. I know that putting it back to 3.1.2 may resolve the issue... but that's not happening until the core issues are fixed and the browser UI is made usable once again... What works for a touchscreen DOES NOT work on a desktop browser... and don't get me started on how bad the interface for the android TV app has become... it's just as bad as the browser ui and virtually impossible to navigate quickly or easily using the supplied remotes you get with these things.

 

[Luke 42083]

Hi, you should go back to 3.1.2. There are database differences that 3.1.2 has introduced. I am not sure how the older version will react to the changes made by the newer version.

 

If you really wish to stay on the old version, then at the very least you will need to delete your library.db database file and run a library scan to rebuild that.

[Heckler 147]

Hi, you should go back to 3.1.2. There are database differences that 3.1.2 has introduced. I am not sure how the older version will react to the changes made by the newer version.

 

If you really wish to stay on the old version, then at the very least you will need to delete your library.db database file and run a library scan to rebuild that.

 

I will try that Luke, thanks for the suggestion... But I'm sorry... going back to 3.1.2 isn't going to happen until some drastic changes are made to the web browser UI.  You have made it look uglier, harder to navigate and made pointless changes that don't even make any sense. It's a huge step backward in terms of actual real world usability.

 

It's not one or two things... it's a large list of changes that have been made that make it harder and more time consuming to navigate to your media.

 

A few examples just for TV shows... that changed from 3.1 onwards.

 

TV shows at folder level you have a nice little up next bit if there's a show you've not yet watched.

TV Shows at season level... displays all the episodes for that season that are easy to access

TV shows at episode level... now have ALL the season episodes displayed in a scrollbar that disappears of the side of the browser screen... Making it look ugly, badly laid out and given the previous ways to access your episodes... completely and utterly pointless and redundant. Might work on a tablet/touchscreen device... DOES NOT work within a browser.

 

TV/Movies at genre level.

 

Gone are the simple genre folders/images... it was replaced with a HUGE long list of movies from every single genre... It used to be so simple to get into the genre you wanted.. Only about 20 images to load, a page and a fraction scroll to show them all... less if you use small custom images like I do as I prefer them over the stock ones... always have.

 

Now what you have is a list of 8-10 movies PER GENRE, that's more than 10 pages of scrolling needed to get down towards the lower end... and some thing like 160-200 images to load instead... oh and you can no longer have your own custom images for genres anymore... you've taken that away.. well not taken away, just made it so they can't been seen anymore.

 

Whatever changes you have made to speed things up... have been made far worse by having to load 10 times as many images, and a huge increase in the time taken to navigate to anything in genres from 'C' onwards... Once again... what works on a touchscreen does not work in a web browser.

 

I actually understand why it was done... to try and create uniformity across apps/desktop.... But desktops are not apps and treating them as such is a bad path to start taking... Just take a look at how Microsoft are starting to backtrack in the UI of Windows 10, and how far they backtracked with Windows 8 & 8.1

 

I love emby, and the reason I get so riled up is because I see pointless changes that aren't required to make it work (and in fact make it harder to use) whilst core issues go unfixed.

 

In the last few months I estimate I have spent 30hrs just fixing problems caused by the failed upgrade loop issue... it's happened everytime I've tried to upgrade. To the point that I have to manually download the full version and extract it manually... and then spend how ever long it takes making changes to settings and to things like custom images once again. This week alone I have had to roll back my entire system (which took 14hrs) just to repair the mess that the failed update caused.  I've now actually found a way to get access to older versions of emby and have been storing them locally so I can try to avoid any repeat of it again... But 3.0.8500 is where I am, and where I shall remain whilst emby is the way it currently is (for the web browser UI). On my tablet and phone it's fine... still a little too much scrolling and searching than is required. But it looks great and is certainly quicker.

 

In addition to that... the android TV emby app has just as many problems as the web browser UI does. It's clunky, hard to navigate and makes finding anything other the the newest additions extremely time consuming and frustrating... to the point where I simply can't be bothered to actually use it... and not all of TV's allow me to cast to them.  My newest 2016 Samsung 4K set (Tizen) does... but it's hit and miss... But my Samsung 2014 UEH6200 Smart TV simply doesn't work with emby casting at all...and as we've been waiting for the app to be released for tizen sets anywhere other than the US for the last 5-6 months... I don't see anything changing anytime soon... and I no longer trust that emby will improve instead of degrade my experience.

 

I've been around since it was called video browser as a plugin for Vista media centre... But I am on the verge of jumping ship entirely and I keep testing the competition to see how they fair... The only reason I currently stick with emby is because I still run my server on a couple of W7 system and use media centre + emby plugin. There simply isn't another easy way to use it and nothing else I have tried can be made to work with the media centre remotes. Once there is... that's the last hurdle keeping me with emby at the moment.

Edited January 8, 2017 by Heckler

[Happy2Play 9783]

With downgrading when there are database changes you will have to delete the library.db and have your downgraded version create it.

[CBers 7452]

...the android TV emby app has just as many problems as the web browser UI does. It's clunky, hard to navigate and makes finding anything other the the newest additions extremely time consuming and frustrating... to the point where I simply can't be bothered to actually use it

Hi Heckler.

 

I understand your frustrations and problems you're having and your venting of them.

 

I must admit that I don't use the web client that much, other than to check server updates etc and that new new items are listed in Emby, although I have a separate thread about slow load times.

 

I also don't watch by genre, so I don't see the issues you're experiencing in the ATV app. Have you posted your thoughts about it on the forums, as I'd like to have a read?

 

I use the ATV app every day, and aside from a problem only I appear to have with the internal exoplayer, I don't currently have any issues.

 

If yours is more navigational, then hopefully Eric can take a look at your post.

 

I'd take the ATV app over ET any day, as I don't like the Metro navigation, but then I don't like it on the Xbox either

[ebr 16187]

What, exactly, do you find hard to navigate in the Android TV app?  Also, you do realize that you can hit the search button either on your remote or on the interface itself and find just about anything very quickly, right...?

[Heckler 147]

What, exactly, do you find hard to navigate in the Android TV app?  Also, you do realize that you can hit the search button either on your remote or on the interface itself and find just about anything very quickly, right...?

 

I know you can, but trying to enter anything into the search using the dreadful remotes you get with those little android boxes makes the whole effort even slower and more painful/frustrating... that's a hardware issue rather than an emby one... But as nearly every single one of those boxes has a similar remote... it puts the user in the position of having to look for and purchase expensive alternatives. I have a little bluetooth keyboard that I'd hoped would work with it, but doesn't... as it seems my little box has no BT at all... and the wifi on it isn't great.  I know it's a cheap and low quality bit of kit but I can't afford to replace it with a good one at the moment. I got given it as a test to see if they were any good and asked for advice on here about which are the best ones (mine is one of the worst I think).

 

If I download the actual emby app and install that rather than the emby TV ap... it looks better, but there is no visual clue as to where your remote is highlighting on the screen... Which renders it unusable on the tv boxes.

 

I'd probably be better trying to use DLNA or seeing if I can cast to it from my tablet... I let my sister borrow it for a few weeks to watch some movies... will be picking it up tomorrow and will do some further testing. I may find a better way to use it and navigating and casting from my tablet would eliminate the need for trying to navigate in the app itself.

[CBers 7452]

I know you can, but trying to enter anything into the search using the dreadful remotes you get with those little android boxes makes the whole effort even slower and more painful/frustrating... that's a hardware issue rather than an emby one...

What box is it?

 

Did you try voice search?

[Heckler 147]

Hi Heckler.

 

I understand your frustrations and problems you're having and your venting of them.

 

I must admit that I don't use the web client that much, other than to check server updates etc and that new new items are listed in Emby, although I have a separate thread about slow load times.

 

I also don't watch by genre, so I don't see the issues you're experiencing in the ATV app. Have you posted your thoughts about it on the forums, as I'd like to have a read?

 

I use the ATV app every day, and aside from a problem only I appear to have with the internal exoplayer, I don't currently have any issues.

 

If yours is more navigational, then hopefully Eric can take a look at your post.

 

I'd take the ATV app over ET any day, as I don't like the Metro navigation, but then I don't like it on the Xbox either

 

 

You see I use the browser a lot when in my office... I have a 32" TV as a second monitor and always have emby browser open in that. You've made great strides with transcoding as 6 months ago I was having trouble getting even a good quality image through the web player, especially as I get most things in HEVC these days (have done for a little over a year now).  So I'm grateful that the transcoding quality has improved by a huge amount. I rarely use my tablet or phone because there are issues with my VPN and NAT protocols that make connecting outside of my home impossible. They did provide me with a way to connect to a single server that allows it, but the speeds I get going through that swedish server are a 10th of what I get connecting normally... trying to transcode and stream over a connection of just a few Mbps isn't possible and I'm not turning of the VPN just for emby... when everything else works flawlessly. I can remote into my mediaserver over the VPN without problems. It's only emby that can't work with it. In the lounge and my bedroom I have either the server itself running media centre, the little android box or I can use the emby app on the samsung TV... Still waiting for worldwide roll out of the tizen app though, I keep seeing updates for the US users but Samsung really seem to be dragging their heels with it.

 

It's just the navigation within the browser that's degraded a huge amount since 3.1.x.  It does feel like the web us doesn't get tested properly and changes are made that make no sense whilst ideas I've put forth that would really help a great deal get ignored.

 

That combined with countless hours fixing issues caused by the problem you have with failed updates causing this upgrade loop because after installing the update and restarting... it fails to restart and after a long wait (I've waited hours) you have to manually restart the server which simply loads the old version and it wants you to go trough the whole process again and again and again.  I've seen countless threads on it over the last few months and know it's a major issue. It's caused me so many problems that I actually reinstalled emby clean on more than one occasion to resolve the issues it's caused. So as I said... I simply don't trust upgrades anymore. It's pushed me to the point where the thought of upgrading and seeing what changes have been made to make navigating worse leave a bad taste in my mouth and an actual fear of upgrading... because I know that I'll spend hours fixing it afterwards.

 

I had to delete my library.db to resolve this issue... and now none of my TV shows will show the correct info from the nfo files. Not even a manual refresh of them is working now.  At least movies are ok though.... But that's almost 15000 episodes of tv shows that have zero metadata at all now... and I'm probably going to have to delete ALL nfo files and rebuild each show from scratch. Not only is that going to take hours it's going to screw up those shows that have poor metadata available. Shows like Firefly which cannot be downloaded in the correct order and has to be done manually via metadata manager for each episode. Or The Long Way Round which only has the episodes available for the original 6 episode run and not the 8 episode run from the DVD release... So each episode has to not only be done manually but actually has to be written by me to get the right overview for each episode... But that's not really an emby issue it's down to the stupidity of the metadata sites that refuse to accept that they can be wrong on anything and are completely inconsistent when it comes to fixing their problems... Instead banning people for pointing them out.  I used to be active at thetvdb and moviedb sites/forums until I realised how pointless it was trying to get things fixed and episodes/shows corrected... I got that same feeling here for a long time and it's why I end up ranting and complaining.

 

Also having suffered the loss of my father a few months ago and many other stresses going on haven't helped and leave with a short fuse a lot... I'm trying to work on that. 

[Heckler 147]

What box is it?

 

Did you try voice search?

 

It's a rockchip MX9 and doesn't even have BT let alone voice search...   :/

[PVTD 37]

Hi,

 

I might not be the most useful person here to help you, but from all the problems I read that you have, it looks more like something is really wrong with your emby server...

I have mine up and running, besides some minor hickups like streaming lag (only with Game of Thrones, Emby is scared of GoT) and when Chromecast fails to start playing (Most likely related to ffmpeg as a simple server reboot fixes it all), it runs fine, the GUI is amazing and no real bugs to be found.

 

If I were you, I would completely remove Emby (make sure to have a backup of all your users) and start over. It might take some tile to rebuild your database, but hell, a working Emby is so amazing! Also try not to run many plugins, these usually are the culprit of most of your trouble (taking from experience).

 

If none of this is related to your problem, please completely ignore me and this post

 

PS: get a Chromecast

 

GL!

PV-

Edited January 8, 2017 by PVTD

[Heckler 147]

Hi,

 

I might not be the most useful person here to help you, but from all the problems I read that you have, it looks more like something is really wrong with your emby server...

I have mine up and running, besides some minor hickups like streaming lag (only with Game of Thrones, Emby is scared of GoT) and when Chromecast fails to start playing (Most likely related to ffmpeg as a simple server reboot fixes it all), it runs fine, the GUI is amazing and no real bugs to be found.

 

If I were you, I would completely remove Emby (make sure to have a backup of all your users) and start over. It might take some tile to rebuild your database, but hell, a working Emby is so amazing! Also try not to run many plugins, these usually are the culprit of most of your trouble (taking from experience).

 

If none of this is related to your problem, please completely ignore me and this post

 

PS: get a Chromecast

 

GL!

PV-

 

 

No the problem is that a crappy and broken update has b0rked my system entirely... AGAIN.  I've now discovered that every single one of nearly 15000 nfo files for TV shows has been over written and only contains the video filename and date info. Everything else has been wiped clean.

 

The only advice devs ever give is 'update to the latest' but when their broken update process is causing these issues in the first place... it cannot be trusted to work and they seem to have interest in actually fixing anything that's broken... not when they only seem interested in changing what still works and making it look worse and harder to use (browser UI not mobile).

 

Complete and utter lack of focus on what's important... they seem completely oblivious to anything and certainly don't take the many complaints you see on here about serious problems that are simply ignored time and time again.

 

Emby has no focus and it's in a death spiral... without serious changes in it's direction and focus it's never gonna amount to anything more than a tiny niche market whilst other products are getting bigger and better all the time.

 

So devs... carry on as you are... I'm sure things like emby for VR will be a huge success... who cares if the rest of the products/apps get ignored just because you can't be bothered to fix serious problems when you've got some new fad to play with.

 

As it stands... you'll never be taken seriously by anyone but a tiny niche group in a huge market and you'll never make emby a serious and marketable contender.

[PVTD 37]

No the problem is that a crappy and broken update has b0rked my system entirely... AGAIN.  I've now discovered that every single one of nearly 15000 nfo files for TV shows has been over written and only contains the video filename and date info. Everything else has been wiped clean.

 

The only advice devs ever give is 'update to the latest' but when their broken update process is causing these issues in the first place... it cannot be trusted to work and they seem to have interest in actually fixing anything that's broken... not when they only seem interested in changing what still works and making it look worse and harder to use (browser UI not mobile).

 

Complete and utter lack of focus on what's important... they seem completely oblivious to anything and certainly don't take the many complaints you see on here about serious problems that are simply ignored time and time again.

 

Emby has no focus and it's in a death spiral... without serious changes in it's direction and focus it's never gonna amount to anything more than a tiny niche market whilst other products are getting bigger and better all the time.

 

So devs... carry on as you are... I'm sure things like emby for VR will be a huge success... who cares if the rest of the products/apps get ignored just because you can't be bothered to fix serious problems when you've got some new fad to play with.

 

As it stands... you'll never be taken seriously by anyone but a tiny niche group in a huge market and you'll never make emby a serious and marketable contender.

Just to be clear (and I am in no way related to Emby), can you provide us with actual screenshots? The one picture that you posted was something I have never seen before.

 

To the thousands of Emby users, none have reported most of the issues that you posted, those who did got it fixed within hours.

Emby does not provide direct support out of the box, but I see mods and admins fly by within hours (literally) all day long.

 

You do report a lot of things, but me, a regular user does not see them.

I have once lost everything, about 24Terrabyte of movies, series, foto's and much more, I blamed Emby before actually having done much research.

Turns out it was my RAID5 who got out of sync and completely fucked up my 12 4Tb HDDs. Note to self, run bakups.

Other issues I had, posted on forums and again, all related to my own human mistakes... They helped me instantly even when I wasn't a premium user.

 

So, If I were you, give us more info, less rambling. We could maybe help you

PV-

Edited January 8, 2017 by PVTD

[CBers 7452]

No the problem is that a crappy and broken update has b0rked my system entirely... AGAIN. I've now discovered that every single one of nearly 15000 nfo files for TV shows has been over written and only contains the video filename and date info. Everything else has been wiped clean.

 

 

I don't understand your comment about the 15000 NFO files being overwritten by an update.

 

I always thought that Emby read them and only added to them not overwriting them.

 

You're not using any other metadata tool are you, such a Metabrowser or MCM that could be messing with them?

 

Can you install the latest stable version on a separate PC and set up a test system, or even use the portable version of the server and place it in a totally separate folder on the same PC?

 

Just a thought.