Definition of "Portable"

[390x99xdsa 6]

Good grief, here we go again.   Have emby portable version installed windows 7. Had it on a USB drive because my C: drive was very slow (5400 RPM).  Replaced C: with SSD.   SHould be able to shutdown emby.  Move the emby portable containing folder to C: and then restart emby.  While this mostly works, the metadata is still pointing to the old paths.    Click on each library, the path item is "green" which would indicate editable.  It's not.

 

So while the old location was faster than my old C: it's not as fast as my new C: so a couple of things

1) How can I change the metadata paths for the libraries (not the media folder the metadata folders) E.g.

   change W:\emby.windows\root\default\Movies to C:\emby.windows\root\default\Movies since I copied w:\emby.windows to c:\emby.widows

 

Do I need to install SQLITE or something like that and hack my way through it?

2) It is a bug in the interface that editing the metadata for a library makes it look like the path is editable.  It's not.

 

Bottom line. If I can't move the emby server folder and have it work it's not portable.  Time for you to either make it portable, or change what you call it, because portable it's not.

 

[Luke 42079]

Hi, newer installations starting with the next release should handle this perfectly. Thanks.

[390x99xdsa 6]

Great just great.  So I'm going to have to completely rebuild my Emby environment again because you all don't know the basic definition of the word "portable".   For what you charge for emby premier I would expect you all to know the definition of portable. My other media software items cost 10% of premier and they are way more solid.  WMC ModernUI+ is awesome and the only bug I've found is the "0" key doesn't remove the highlighted item in the recent channel list. 

 

So from your reply, I'm guessing I will need to wait until the release after 3.6.???????? for this to be fixed, Good grief at least DT will no longer be president by that point.

[mastrmind11 722]

sniffle.

[Happy2Play 9780]

How old is your portable installation?  And I really think of it more as a custom install than a portable install.

 

In newer installations you will see your root/default paths like this "%RootFolderPath%\default\Collections", other path tokens have been added also.  So if you do have a older installation your could manually update these or start over.

Edited November 30, 2018 by Happy2Play

[KMBanana 116]

You should be able to work around this with creating/mapping a new "W" drive in windows and using symbolic links to point it to the new location on C.

[390x99xdsa 6]

How old is your portable installation?  And I really think of it more as a custom install than a portable install.

 

In newer installations you will see your root/default paths like this "%RootFolderPath%\default\Collections", other path tokens have been added also.  So if you do have a older installation your could manually update these or start over.

 

Despite how you think of it being "more as a custom install" the website https://emby.media/windows-server.html, actually uses the words "Portable Installation".  I know in $currentYear everybody thinks that words don't mean things but portable means I can pick it up and move to a new location and it will work.  That's what portable means in terms of software installations, full stop.

 

Additional Rant:  -- Custom Install vs portable.  It has been an almost universal concept in Windows Installers offer custom installation directory, but that's not what the Emby server installer does.   If what they call "Portable" really means custom installation directory they should update website TODAY with that so that others are not mislead.  Plus they should revise any posting where they refer to it as "portable" and at a minimum add a caveat that portable doesn't mean portable, but rather only custom install directory. 

 

I don't really recall how old my non-portable-portable install is -- but it is pretty old.  Survived so many breakages in updates.  -- And for the longest time their auto-update for portable custom installs was totally broken.  Every interaction with Emby installation and setup is just so over the top devoid of historically defined best practices that once I get past the latest manifestation of the dev's Last-Thursdayism, I have to drop it over the over-the-top level of frustrating utopian-blindered-design.

 

But this is just par for their course.  If you update the software it should automatically bring all aspects of it up to date.  If the new way of recording the path is %RootFolderPath%\.... then the update process should fixup any existing hard coded paths where the beginning of the hard code path matches the value of %RootFolderPath% env var.   I'm a professional software dev myself for over 34 years so I've had to do things like that in every project I've worked on in my career, and it just amazes me that in $currentYear these guys haven't learned the basics and the solutions to "problems" that were solved decades ago.

 

So what file(s) can I modfy to change the hard coded (from whenever I installed my not-so-portable emby server) to %RootFolderPath%.  Is it in XML config files, or somewhere else?

 

Believe me if Plex wasn't so much worse, I'd drop Emby in a second, but really boys, maybe set your bar just a little higher than sucks ever-so-slightly-less than Plex.

Edited November 30, 2018 by 390x99xdsa

[Happy2Play 9780]

The database itself (library.db).

[daedalus 434]

I'm a professional software dev myself for over 34 years so I've had to do things like that in every project I've worked on in my career

 

be sure that we all waited for this sentence

 

other way to easily transfer installations is the official backup plugin

[spootdev 56]

be sure that we all waited for this sentence

 

other way to easily transfer installations is the official backup plugin

Lol, yep.......sad that we knew it was coming isn't it?

[Luke 42079]

Newer installations starting with the next release should handle this perfectly and allow you to pick up and move the install folder as much as you like. Thanks. 

[spootdev 56]

34 years......blah blah blah.  It's open source, so provide a patch.  I don't like the way Emby does things and I don't like the way the main devs treats their users or the 3rd party devs and I still provided patches to Emby and Kodi plugin.  But keep ranting and doing nothing useful after they said it was fixed. Ya bellend.

[390x99xdsa 6]

Yes but I notice you use the word "Installations"  that means upgrades not so much now doesn't it. 

[390x99xdsa 6]

Provide all the patching you want, I doubt they would accept such a patch since it doesn't meet with the project goals. 

[390x99xdsa 6]

Since I've paid, patches are not so much my job now are they.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Well a new install fixes it all.  Or if you don't want to do that, delete the database and allow it to rebuild.  Or make the updates manually.  Your choice

Edited November 30, 2018 by Happy2Play

[FrostByte 5392]

[PenkethBoy 2068]

Since I've paid, patches are not so much my job now are they.

so if you had not paid you would?

 

Ha ha ha

[daedalus 434]

Since I've paid, patches are not so much my job now are they.

 

since you have paid, stop ranting on fixed things, just use the backup plugin and be (un)happy

[390x99xdsa 6]

Confidence is low that will work, but maybe I'll give that a try.   Still doesn't address the issue that is only fixed for new installs (in a version not yet released, so what the .... would that do me anyway)  It's not fixed when its not released.   Are you a paid astro turfer, or are you just a .... fan boy?  (un) Funny how you like to project your own (un)happy onto others.  Really why do you care so much? FYI that was rhetorical.

Edited November 30, 2018 by 390x99xdsa

[daedalus 434]

if you don't want help, simply write that down on your next opening post, just under the zero information you provide

[Luke 42079]

It's not ideal that it is only fixed for new installs. It just so happens that older releases have a defect that creates a problem when you try to pick up and move the installation. This can only be corrected by manually editing the database.

[KarlDag 25]

Confidence is low that will work, but maybe I'll give that a try. Still doesn't address the issue that is only fixed for new installs (in a version not yet released, so what the .... would that do me anyway) It's not fixed when its not released. Are you a paid astro turfer, or are you just a .... fan boy? (un) Funny how you like to project your own (un)happy onto others. Really why do you care so much? FYI that was rhetorical.

Marital troubles?

[RobWayBro 28]

I enjoy Emby a lot and the support and development is wonderful, IMHO.