how to filter out sample files

[dirkdigs 10]

for most of my movies i have a main .mkv file and then a smaller .mkv sample file.

 

MB3 Library sees both files . Is there any way to exclude sample files from being added to my library.

 

also if i delete them form the MB3 gui it also deletes the actual file. which is kind of concerning as well. not even any where does it say it will delete from disk.

 

thoughts?

[Luke 37060]

the sample ignoring is currently fairly week. it needs to contain ".sample." in the filename in order to be ignored.

 

we will improve on this in a future release, and also allow the ignore expressions to be customized, similar to what Kodi does with it's advancedsettings.xml

[dirkdigs 10]

.sample still shows a duplicate entry . looks like it has to be something with a dash ie. -sample

[MikePlanet 140]

the sample ignoring is currently fairly week. it needs to contain ".sample." in the filename in order to be ignored.

 

we will improve on this in a future release, and also allow the ignore expressions to be customized, similar to what Kodi does with it's advancedsettings.xml

Hi Luke,

afaik there is other variants as well, like '-sample', '_sample', 'sample', etc. - not to forget subfolder 'sample' ...

Wouldn't it be the best to add a setting to system.xml that simply allows to configure a regex for filtering? That makes the system much more flexible.

If you point me to where filereader scans files and filters I could add it - if not, I could provide a suggestion to a regex expression for the internal handling.

[AdrianW 1052]

Why bother even downloading the sample in the first place? And even if you do download it, why keep it? I add only the main movie/episode files to my collection.

[MikePlanet 140]

That's two different things - of course you can simply delete anything that might not fit - or make sure, the app handles it properly. Imho it is a good thing to allow a configurable filter - that fits for both - you either can simply strictly follow the media setup rules - or you can make sure that "unclean" setup is handled properly. It is not only about sample files - I had requests from users about others too in the past - and for me it was best to let such users handle it themselves - instead of dealing with it within the app.

[wraslor 70]

search the whole movie folder for *sample  and delete them?

[hkenneth 0]

I wonder if there is any improvement made on customization of ignoring rules.

[hkenneth 0]

search the whole movie folder for *sample  and delete them?

 

Most sample files are downloaded from internal groups of private trackers. And it is almost an universal rule that you have to keep those sample files or it would hurt you on private trackers.

[hkenneth 0]

the sample ignoring is currently fairly week. it needs to contain ".sample." in the filename in order to be ignored.

 

we will improve on this in a future release, and also allow the ignore expressions to be customized, similar to what Kodi does with it's advancedsettings.xml

 

It seems what Plex does is to ignore any file with "sample" in its file name and <= 300mb in size. https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201381883-Special-Keyword-File-Folder-Exclusion

[cherrot 0]

Is this feature still in the development plan?

[Luke 37060]

Anything with the word sample should already be getting filtered out. Thanks.

[cherrot 0]

Does it support custom rules, let's say, to filter out files less than 20MB from my video library?  In my case there are some "ad videos" which is a part of a movie resource.

[Luke 37060]

Custom rules are not supported at this time.

[CharleyVarrick 277]

This thread reminded me of a thread of my own about a tv episode that Emby was ignoring because there was the word sample in the title.

After this was explained to me, I always wondered what would happen if a huge blockbuster came out with the word sample in the title like: "Star Wars IXX:  A Sample of Things to Come".

I am guessing users would flood this forum with "how do I turn off the ignore sample feature".

Also, as @@AdrianW pointed out, why would anyone keep sample file is beyond me.

[Luke 37060]

Yes it's something that needs to be improved so that it's not ignoring files when it shouldn't be.

[GregMo 21]

I know this is an ancient thread but I'm new to Emby and I'm looking for a solution to this as well.  Has there not been any progress in the last 2 years?  If not a means to filter them out, what about a means to remove them from the library without deleting them off of the hard drive?

[crusher11 851]

What about buying your movies legally? 

[EZEd 53]

My entire folder of Music artist named Joe Sample is filtered out because of this. I have to give the man a different name than the one that his Mama originally gave him just to have his music show up in my library. Relative to my situation, filtering in this manner for "samples" is causing way more harm than good. I have to incorrectly identify this artist and rename all of his song files for them to even be visible.

[GregMo 21]

On 9/10/2020 at 10:28 AM, EZEd said:

My entire folder of Music artist named Joe Sample is filtered out because of this. I have to give the man a different name than the one that his Mama originally gave him just to have his music show up in my library. Relative to my situation, filtering in this manner for "samples" is causing way more harm than good. I have to incorrectly identify this artist and rename all of his song files for them to even be visible.

Yeah, there has to be a better way of doing this.  I'm formulating an idea for something else that I think could help here too.  In the interface it would be nice if we could select options for a file and choose to ignore it instead of having to use .ignore files or renaming them with .sample. and upon doing this Emby would write a text file in that directory named "emby.dat" with instructions for this.  This serves two purposes.  First we could write the file manually and when rescanning the library Emby could correct accordingly.  Second, if the need  arises to move things around any corrections can follow the media files in this text file.

The other thing that I'd like to see in this emby.dat file is instructions for identifying files and/or correcting metadata.  Again, the same two benefits from above would apply.

And this is WAY off topic, but if a dev member reads this, when using the .ignore file can it be fixed so that these folders don't show in the folder view with nothing in them?

[Luke 37060]

Quote

And this is WAY off topic, but if a dev member reads this, when using the .ignore file can it be fixed so that these folders don't show in the folder view with nothing in them?

Hi, can you give an example?

[PenkethBoy 2063]

for me on .25 the folders with .ignore dont show up anywhere in emby

although mine are not empty - wwhich may be the issue

[EZEd 53]

On 12/21/2014 at 11:30 PM, Luke said:

the sample ignoring is currently fairly week. it needs to contain ".sample." in the filename in order to be ignored.

 

we will improve on this in a future release, and also allow the ignore expressions to be customized, similar to what Kodi does with it's advancedsettings.xml

Hello Luke, just checking back on this since the 4.6.x update.  There still seems to be issue.  Even though we've gone totally tag driven for music files (MP3 only in my case), My artist whose name is Joe Sample still does not show up in the music library or the database.  Did anything ever get implemented to allow and/or disallow files with the word "sample" in the file name to be detected?  The files are being scanned as evidenced by going to folder view and all of the correct artwork is there but no music files (MP3s) are shown, listed or playable.  Going to artist, album or genre view does not reveal the artist to exist at all (nothing is revealed for the artist in the UI).  Does 4.6.x.x now include some sort of switch or is there some method or naming convention that I can use to get the database to accept and show file names with the word "sample" in them?  Just to review, in my situation I currently have two different folders where the artist's music is housed. One with file names applied with correct spelling of his name and song title; another folder that has the same files with his name incorrectly spelled/displayed (a made up name not including the word "sample" in it) and the same song titles.  The latter displays as indicated within Emby, the former does not display within Emby except in the folder view, but even there the files are not accessible to be played.  If this has been addressed, please pass along any new conventions I need to implement.  If not, please include in the next round of fixes.

Thx

[Luke 37060]

On 6/16/2021 at 4:09 PM, EZEd said:

Hello Luke, just checking back on this since the 4.6.x update.  There still seems to be issue.  Even though we've gone totally tag driven for music files (MP3 only in my case), My artist whose name is Joe Sample still does not show up in the music library or the database.  Did anything ever get implemented to allow and/or disallow files with the word "sample" in the file name to be detected?  The files are being scanned as evidenced by going to folder view and all of the correct artwork is there but no music files (MP3s) are shown, listed or playable.  Going to artist, album or genre view does not reveal the artist to exist at all (nothing is revealed for the artist in the UI).  Does 4.6.x.x now include some sort of switch or is there some method or naming convention that I can use to get the database to accept and show file names with the word "sample" in them?  Just to review, in my situation I currently have two different folders where the artist's music is housed. One with file names applied with correct spelling of his name and song title; another folder that has the same files with his name incorrectly spelled/displayed (a made up name not including the word "sample" in it) and the same song titles.  The latter displays as indicated within Emby, the former does not display within Emby except in the folder view, but even there the files are not accessible to be played.  If this has been addressed, please pass along any new conventions I need to implement.  If not, please include in the next round of fixes.

Thx

@EZEd what you can do is edit the options xml file for the library and set SampleIgnoreSize to 0. @cayars can help you locate that. Thanks.

[Carlo 4330]

Shutdown Emby Server.

Your library info will be stored in a path similar to this on Windows. Change the bolded text to be the username Emby runs under. This will be in a different location on platforms other than Windows but will still give you idea how to find it.
C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default

You will see a folder for each Library on your system.  Here is an example:

Edit the folder that matches the library you want to edit and in that folder will be options.xml. Use a notepad/text editor program to edit this file.  Look for something similar to

<SampleIgnoreSize>314572800</SampleIgnoreSize>

Change it to 

<SampleIgnoreSize>0</SampleIgnoreSize>

Save the file and restart Emby.  You will then likely want to do a full library scan.