Music Tagging is Broken

[jbaggs 2]

Hello again! 

As of now all but two of the artists in my music library are without any type of image (music_collection.jpg). Which is the way it should be since I am not using any music metadata plugins (plugins.jpg - music brainz & audiodb uninstalled) and Emby does not recognize folder.ext (in my case I was using folder.jpg) even though this says otherwise: https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001159113-music-naming

So why did Pearl Jam go from having no artist picture, logo, or background (pj_before_refresh.jpg) to having an artist picture, logo and background (pj_after_refresh.jpg) after I selected refresh media (and replace images was not selected).  Albums that did not have any album art in the tags had their image changed to this "default" picture. (seen in pj_after_refresh.jpg) 

If I understand correctly Emby should not have gone out to the internet to retrieve this information, correct? So where is it coming from? 

The same thing happened to the Nirvana folder. I didn't take any screenshots. 

I have tried to refresh the metadata for a handful of other artists and nothing changed even after restarting the server and re-scanning libraries

embyserver.txt

[Happy2Play 9780]

Artist tab will not use your folder structure artist image.  That image will only be used in folder view.  I believe that artist image will be coming from FanArt.  There is no current way to stop Artist/People images from being downloaded.

@jbaggs What are your Music Library settings?

 

@Luke I haven't tested recently but has the MusicArtist issue been addressed if options are disabled via Library?

Edited August 26, 2020 by Happy2Play

[jbaggs 2]

20 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

Artist tab will not use your folder structure artist image. 

Yeah I found a few threads that mentioned that.

So I found these settings in the library's advanced section. Looks like they are enabled by default as I never set them. Is this what is downloading the images? If so ... why doesn't it work for any of the other artists I tried 'refresh metadata' with? 

Edited August 27, 2020 by jbaggs

[Luke 42078]

We'd have to go over an example, but fanart is based on musicbrainz id's, so you'll need to make sure your artists have musicbrainz id's assigned.

You mentioned earlier you removed musicbrainz, so now that means you'll have to fill those values in manually, then you should be able to get images from fanart.

[skidmarks 199]

I was not a big musicbrainz fan... (and still have my issues with it).  Posting several months ago how to remove duplicates from the music library:  Remove the fetchers. remove the library. scan and then add the library again and rescan.

I now use all the fetchers, but have musicbrainz as lowest priority.  Having artist images / logos / backdrops outweighed the duplicates when viewing the library by artist.  I just seldom use the artist display and set everything that has the option to default to folder view in the music libray.  You see NO duplicates in folder view, unless you have duplicate artists in your actual library.

Setting the option to store images locally is great.  If you decide not to have all the fetchers installed afterwards all the art is already in your folders.  

Remember that none of your library is actually being touched.  Yes art is being added to the folders (if you enable that) but your music files are not touched.  Its the actual db that is written within emby that creates the duplicates (from musicbrainz).  Use folder view and its not an issue.   

Edited August 27, 2020 by skidmarks

[jbaggs 2]

On 8/27/2020 at 2:52 PM, Luke said:

We'd have to go over an example, but fanart is based on musicbrainz id's, so you'll need to make sure your artists have musicbrainz id's assigned.

You mentioned earlier you removed musicbrainz, so now that means you'll have to fill those values in manually, then you should be able to get images from fanart.

I don't have an option to add musicbrainz ID. 

 

Do I need to re-install the plugin?

[jbaggs 2]

On 8/27/2020 at 4:58 PM, skidmarks said:

I just seldom use the artist display and set everything that has the option to default to folder view in the music libray.

that isn't even displaying things correctly! 

[skidmarks 199]

 

11 minutes ago, jbaggs said:

I don't have an option to add musicbrainz ID. 

 

Do I need to re-install the plugin?

Im pretty sure the answer is yes.  Recall that being another drawback of not having the plugin installed.

Edited August 29, 2020 by skidmarks

[skidmarks 199]

4 minutes ago, jbaggs said:

that isn't even displaying things correctly! 

What isn't displaying correctly in that view?  It's my go to.

[Carlo 4561]

21 minutes ago, skidmarks said:

What isn't displaying correctly in that view?  It's my go to.

Folder view of course depends on how/where you mount the library.

[jbaggs 2]

I think we may have got off the track a bit.  The issue is:

No metadata fetchers installed: Musicbrainz & AudioDB uninstalled. This is how I want it (for now). 

Out of 145 artist 2 have artist and album art of an unknown origin. And only two artists. I've removed & added both artists with no change. 

This happened after I rebuilt my music library, scanned files, and then selected refresh metadata for each of these artists. I actually tried it with a bunch and these were the only 2 that changed

I just tried it again and now all the Pearl Jam album art has been replaced by some type of default picture.

Where is it coming from? Is it cached somewhere in the database? 

[Luke 42078]

what default picture? Can you show a screenshot?

[Carlo 4561]

Yes, screenshot please so we can visualize what you're saying.

I'd look for NFO and any graphic files in the folders of this artist PLUS any folder directly above it as they can cascade down the folder chain in sometimes unexpected ways if you didn't put them there on purpose and with intent using the proper folder structure.

If you could show us what your folder/file structure looks like that would a big help as well.

Thanks

[jbaggs 2]

On 9/1/2020 at 5:52 PM, Luke said:

what default picture? Can you show a screenshot?

Sorry for the delayed response. Check my original post for what i mean by "default picture" 

[jbaggs 2]

On 9/1/2020 at 6:06 PM, cayars said:

I'd look for NFO and any graphic files in the folders of this artist PLUS any folder directly above it as they can cascade down the folder chain in sometimes unexpected ways if you didn't put them there on purpose and with intent using the proper folder structure.

If you could show us what your folder/file structure looks like that would a big help as well.

Thanks

I had already deleted any .nfo and image files from ALL of my music folders. 

Folder Structure is Drive Letter:\Music\Artist\Album

[jbaggs 2]

I did start a thread about this back in August maybe but it seemed to have fizzled out with no real help. 

My music files (mp3 and FLAC) are all tagged correctly with the correct album art. 

The musicbrainz and audiodb plugins completely mess up my library. Duplicate artists is the biggest problem. I understand this is an issue with the MusicBrainz DB itself and not Emby. But why can Emby NOT ready my embedded MP3 tags and artwork? Why MUST it pull information from the internet to display my files correctly?  Even with the two previously mentioned plugins completely removed from the system and libraries recreated Emby still has a problem with my files. Please don't tell us this is by design. Winamp from the 90s never needed to do that. Windows Media Play doesn't need to get info from the internet. Both use the embedded tags. Can either go online? Sure - but can also be successfully disabled. 

My files are organized in the folders correctly: Artist\Album. The tags are correct. I spent a couple weeks going through my whole collection album by album double checking everything. 

Even after not touching Emby for a couple weeks I open the UI and artists that I fixed are once again split into multiples. Artworks is also randomly disappearing. The only change I made besides updating the server was adding one new album and also re-adding Plex to the system the is running Emby.

Emby is a great application & service except for this one huge problem. I would seriously love to give you all money for this - but until this massive bug is fixed I can't do it in good conscience. There have also been multiple complaints about and it doesn't seem like anything has been resolved. "Its musicbrainz fault" isn't an answer when there are alternatives. I can't be the only one that doesn't need an application to go out to the internet to get metadata. It's all right in the files the way I want them. 

Edited September 29, 2020 by jbaggs

[Carlo 4561]

Hi would you be able to zip up a couple of your albums that are giving you an issue so that we can take a look at this for you and try to duplicate?

Thank you.

[jbaggs 2]

Sure, I can do that later today. How should I get them over to you? Do you want both flac and mp3? 

[Carlo 4561]

You can put them on any upload service or google drive or something that you can give access to.  Then post the link here.

[jbaggs 2]

Apologies for the delay: https://mega.nz/folder/pYhEiK4Z#kZZi6MKdZvs9ab9kvi9kaQ

[Luke 42078]

Has this resolved your issue?

[jbaggs 2]

On 10/4/2020 at 1:18 PM, Luke said:

Has this resolved your issue?

Has what resolved my issue? This is STILL  a problem and I've started maybe three threads because they keep going unanswered. 

Is there any chance Emby is ever going to read my mp3 & flac tags, display them correctly with embedded art (and maybe a folder.jpg for artist pic?), WITHOUT the need for an online metadata plugin? Because this is not currently happening.  Why does it NEED to go to the internet?  

[jbaggs 2]

I am reading the Emby Music Naming support doc and would like something clarified:

If: "You need to make sure your music and music video files have been properly tagged using a 3rd party program. Emby uses these tags for identification."

Then why does Emby "always pull down the Artist & People from the MetaData providers" ? If the tags are accurate why is it going online? 

If I have no metadata providers installed why is it incorrectly identifying my artists and/or making duplicates? 

Why it operates this why makes zero sense. I can use .nfo files but not my own tags? 

[jbaggs 2]

Update:  Based on a tip on this thread i checked one of my artists that was duplicated and the two albums had two different genres in the tags. Once I updated so they were the same and re-scanned the duplicate went away.  But it only fixed the one - and I have artists that have multiple genres listed in the album tags but didnt create duplicate artists 

[Carlo 4561]

Hi, got any specific examples of what's not correct?