Strange file added on new install of server

[SBH46 6]

I have been using Emby server for many years, but my PC was getting long in the tooth and some hardware was starting to fail.

So I bit the bullet and purchased a new PC.

Installed Emby server and added my media libraries (on a separate USB drive ) which was already up to date from the previous Emby server.

So now the problem - the scan took a very long time, which seemed unusual - when I checked my libraries after the scan a file had been to every Movie and every TV episode.

The file is sizable 8-10mb for Movies and 2-3mb for TV episodes and all end in *360-10.bif

As you can imagine this adds a lot of bulk to an already large library.

Can anyone tell me why Emby did this and/or how to fix it ?

[Luke 42082]

Hi, you enabled thumbnail image extraction as well as the option to save the thumbnails in local media folders, so that's what those are.

[Happy2Play 9783]

Look at "Thumbnail Images" section in each Library settings.  You will need to enable "Show Advanced settings" on each library.

[SBH46 6]

OK thanks for that, is there any simple way to get rid of these files (.bif) from my library's as the take up a heap of room.

[Luke 42082]

You can just delete the files and then turn off the feature to prevent new ones from being created.

[SBH46 6]

Hi is there a way to mass delete or must I go to each of the 500+ movie folders and delete each file individually ?

[Guest asrequested]

I raised this potential issue in the Android TV testing for this feature. Nobody seemed to care, and now here we are. There should be an option in the server that if you turn the feature off, the server can remove the files.

[Luke 42082]

Hi is there a way to mass delete or must I go to each of the 500+ movie folders and delete each file individually ?

 

You can use windows search at the top folder of your library and just search for *.bif. Then you can select all of them and delete them at once.

[darkassassin07 652]

You can do this using commandline.

 

On windows open cmd, then navigate to your movies folder using the cd command.

 

Running the command:

del /s *.bif

 

Will remove all files in the current directory, and in all subdirectories of the current directory ending in the file extension .bif

 

On linux use:

find -name '*.bif' -delete

 

 

Be sure you cd to the proper directory first. You dont want to go deleting stuff from the wrong places.

I've made that mistake too many times :/

[Guest asrequested]

Many many people won't be comfortable with doing these things. And if they screw up and delete something they didn't want to, guess who they'll blame?

[Happy2Play 9783]

Many many people won't be comfortable with doing these things. And if they screw up and delete something they didn't want to, guess who they'll blame?

 

But if you are navigating to folder and looking at what is in them, then I don't see them not being comfortable doing a *.bif search against those folder.

[darkassassin07 652]

While I was just providing a solution for this particular case; I definitely agree it would be great to have the option whenever you change where emby is to store its data be it metadata, cache, extracted thumbnails whatever. Have emby ask what to do with the files in the old location. Do you want to move the existing data to the new location? Delete it? Or simply abandon it as emby does now? Give that choice to the server admin.

[ebr 16187]

I raised this potential issue in the Android TV testing for this feature. Nobody seemed to care, and now here we are. 

 

It isn't that nobody cared its just that these files should amount to less than 1/1000 of the storage required for the media they describe.  That seems like a very reasonable price for the functionality they provide.

 

And, of course, they are entirely optional.

[Happy2Play 9783]

Some of the issue is there still hasn't been an Announcement for 4.1.

[SBH46 6]

You can use windows search at the top folder of your library and just search for *.bif. Then you can select all of them and delete them at once.

 

Did this, worked great thanks

[Guest asrequested]

It isn't that nobody cared its just that these files should amount to less than 1/1000 of the storage required for the media they describe. That seems like a very reasonable price for the functionality they provide.

 

And, of course, they are entirely optional.

What the server giveth, the server should be able to take away. I'll wager that more people will enable it without understanding what they are doing, then have a WTF moment. Many people on here report how conservative they are with their storage. Not many follow the development of new options, so they wouldn't understand fully what they're doing. But if you guys are ok with explaining how to manually delete them, then I guess it doesn't really matter