Separate folder for art and *.nfo files?

[mrfaulk 10]

recently scanned my movie file folder and noticed that the movie poster art and movie info that emby retrieved was downloaded to same folder, the movie folder... i would like to create sub-folders for this data instead of having it with the movie files, is that possible? in emby settings i didn't seen an option to point to the paths that would have the art and info sub-folders....

Edited July 6, 2017 by mrfaulk

[mastrmind11 722]

not possible.

[mrfaulk 10]

wow, two "not possible" answers to the first two questions i've posted here at the emby forum, in response to two pretty basic settings options i would think, alas...

[CBers 7451]

i would like to create sub-folders for this data instead of having it with the movie files

 

Why ?

 

You can hide them using the option in the Library->Advanced tab.

[barat 27]

Actually I have example why storing all covers/nfo/images in one separate folder might be usefull:

If I want to copy like 30 movies from my NAS to USB HDD then it might be slow because of those small files which will be copied as well ... this filew will be hidden by making those "dotfiles" which are ignored on Windows. If I use explorer and just mark movie directories then all those images/meta will be downloaded as well.

[mrfaulk 10]

Why ?

 

You can hide them using the option in the Library->Advanced tab.

 

not sure i follow? hide what?

 

as is emby downloads art/info to my networked movie directory instead of a separate directory such as users/name/appdata/roaming/emby server/downloads... as a result my networked movie folder, which once contained 555+ movie files, now contains close to 3,000 files... prob is i move my files around, sometimes the entire contents of the movie folder, but now i have to weed out all of the jpgs and info files in most cases...

[PenkethBoy 2068]

What Cbers was referring to is that those files can be set as hidden files so you dont see them

 

If you move your files around and delete those files they will be re downloaded on the next scan - so move the movies with those files and you won't hammer the providers and save a bit on download bandwidth

 

Or turn off the metadata providers and saving metadata and you will just run with info from the database - not visually appealing ....

[CBers 7451]

Why do you have to weed them out?

[mrfaulk 10]

What Cbers was referring to is that those files can be set as hidden files so you dont see them

 

If you move your files around and delete those files they will be re downloaded on the next scan - so move the movies with those files and you won't hammer the providers and save a bit on download bandwidth

 

Or turn off the metadata providers and saving metadata and you will just run with info from the database - not visually appealing ....

 

as long as you plan to use emby no prob, but if you want to copy the contents to another drive but don't plan to use emby, but instead a different player/media server, you have some deleting to do... for example i recently copied our ripped family dvd collection to another drive so my son could take them with him to college, he has no need for emby or the like, prefers to just use a player to stream movie files... anyway, thought it was weird that a program would add stuff to an existing folder, haven't seen that in a very long time, seems that most programs now create their own folders for anything related to their operation, for easy uninstall and the like.... that said, thanks for explaining emby's "hide" feature, guess it's better than nothing...

[ebr 16184]

Hi.  You have two options:

 

1) Turn on the option under metadata settings to save metadata files as Hidden (this is what CBers was suggesting)

 

 

2) Turn off the option to Save artwork and metadata alongside the media folders.  This will store them in a single location (that you can define).  Be aware that the downside to this is that it makes it much more likely that all that data may have to be re-built in the future (if you move things around).

 

 

 

Note: Changing the above options will not alter any metadata already saved.  Only items in the future.

[mrfaulk 10]

option 2 (quoted below) looks promising but i'm not having much luck with it....

 

1. unchecked the "save artwork and metadata into media folders" box but didn't get a prompt asking me to define a new path... 

2. created a new folder and moved all of the current data into it, resulting in blank data when i view the movie library, which was expected.

3. did a scan refresh thinking emby would now ask for a new path since the box was now unchecked, instead emby began downloading the new data into the same location as before, into my movie folder, the same behavior as when the box was checked...

 

i'm guessing i'll have to delete the library entirely and start from scratch to get it to work, to get emby to save artwork and metadata to a folder of my choice? no big deal, have no problem taking the required time to set this up right, but will it work?

 

 

 

2) Turn off the option to Save artwork and metadata alongside the media folders.  This will store them in a single location (that you can define).  Be aware that the downside to this is that it makes it much more likely that all that data may have to be re-built in the future (if you move things around).

 

 

 

Note: Changing the above options will not alter any metadata already saved.  Only items in the future.

Edited July 6, 2017 by mrfaulk

[Happy2Play 9780]

Yes you would have to start over.  And the custom path can be set at Library-Advanced-Metadata path.  But the layout is not what you would think.  Your metadata and images go to \library\xx\xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx id folders assigned by the server.

[mrfaulk 10]

Yes you would have to start over.  And the custom path can be set at Library-Advanced-Metadata path.  But the layout is not what you would think.  Your metadata and images go to \library\xx\xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx id folders assigned by the server.

 

yeah, just went ahead and started over.... now that the box is unchecked, i was happy to discover that emby downloaded the metadata into its users\name\appdata\roaming\emby-server directory, which is what i had hoped it would do as i mentioned previously, so no need to manually pick a path.... have to say, the scan/download process went much quicker without the box checked, not sure if it was because my internet connection was simply less congested, but it's always fast, so who knows... anyway folks, thanks a bunch!

[Deathsquirrel 745]

Obviously this is what this user wants but, for anyone reading this thread in the future, choosing to not save your metadata with your movie files may not be a good idea.

 

If that data ever has to be rebuilt you risk not being able to recreate what you had before.  Images come and go from the metadata sites and the movie metadata is changed over time.  Sure, these edits usually are intended to improve things but that doesn't guarantee you'll like these improvements.

 

If you spend any time at all on things like picking the image files you like or customizing your metadata I strongly recommend you save metadata with your movie files.

[d00zah 149]

I'm problem seems to stem from having all movies in a single folder. While Emby can cope with it, the WIKI recommends the 'MOVIES > Movie (year) > Movie (year).ext' topology, which works well for storing metadata with movies. It's unpleasant to consider redoing something set up long ago, but this particular problem can be solved with a script (and re-scanning the library, of course).

 

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28921039/batch-create-a-folder-based-on-filename-and-move-multiple-related-files-to-the

 

Just an option.