Hedwig 1 Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 There is no problem as long as the folder name is exactly the same as the movie name, even within nested folders. I also think that the basis for pulling data is the name of the folder. This is new since the main update of February 24th. I had a lot of movies where the name of the folder differs from the movie name. The files withing MB3 still exist i.e. Path and Pictures, but all other metadate disappeared... Name and Sort Name in those cases changed to Folder name. I am now busy renaming those folders to the movie name, and things are normalising. It helps when you keep the server on all the time... although sometimes you need a restart of the server for a completion of the new added metadata. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tired dad 28 Posted March 20, 2014 Author Share Posted March 20, 2014 (edited) There is no problem as long as the folder name is exactly the same as the movie name, even within nested folders. I also think that the basis for pulling data is the name of the folder. This is new since the main update of February 24th. I did a test. I completely removed the server and all traces of the cache, et cetera and then re-installed. I turned off grabbing Internet metadata and loaded by folder of problem files. The folders all contain XML and NFO files which should have been read. Instead, the program proceeded to somehow still get the metadata for the movie (the description was different from that of the XML file and the NFO file as well). Where did this description come from? Deleting it and pressing refresh (after ensuring the Internet retrieval was still off) resulted in a blank metadata template other than the movie name and year, which was probably coming from the folder. Edited March 20, 2014 by tired dad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tired dad 28 Posted March 21, 2014 Author Share Posted March 21, 2014 I did a test. I completely removed the server and all traces of the cache, et cetera and then re-installed. I turned off grabbing Internet metadata and loaded by folder of problem files. The folders all contain XML and NFO files which should have been read. Instead, the program proceeded to somehow still get the metadata for the movie (the description was different from that of the XML file and the NFO file as well). Where did this description come from? Deleting it and pressing refresh (after ensuring the Internet retrieval was still off) resulted in a blank metadata template other than the movie name and year, which was probably coming from the folder. I think I figured out where the data came from: I had a separate cache folder which wasn't deleted when I uninstalled the program. That is not good as I chose the option to remove everything when uninstalling. Test #3: 1. Another complete uninstall and re-install, followed by deleting the cache folder that was not removed by the uninstall. 2. Removed all media except three movies on one of the "problem drives" 3. Ran the server and made sure that no metadata is being grabbed from the internet. Ran the library update.... problem #1: Even though I removed all but three files from the network share, and confirmed both by looking at the share in a file manager and via remote connection, Mediabrowser somehow kept the list of movies from the last install. I let the program update the library, and was expecting to only see the three movies I had. Instead, I got all of the old files listed, but the three "real" files were the only ones with thumbnails. Multiple library refreshes did not help. At least this time, the metadata matched what was in the XML file. I then tested this by erasing the description from the file and trying a library scan again [NOTE: pressing "refresh" on the edit screen did nothing, a full library scan had to be done]. Success! The metadata was as expected, pulling properly from the XML file . I tested again, by deliberately removing part of the XML description and scanned the library again. It failed at pulling the description, leaving it blank. I went back to the edit screen and this time, pressing "refresh" on the edit screen did bring up the description. Unfortunately, the description did not match the modified XML or NFO file. I confirmed again that the internet metadata retrieval was off, and it was. So my question is: where is the metadata coming from if there is not supposed to be an internet connection, and it doesn't match the XML or NFO files? Just for fun, I began a cycle of deleting the description and refreshing (now that the button seemed to work), and it would always pull this new description up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37056 Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 it could be embedded within the file Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tired dad 28 Posted March 21, 2014 Author Share Posted March 21, 2014 it could be embedded within the file Loaded it into a hex editor... no luck. Still doesn't explain why the XML file isn't viewed as the priority description when making any changes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37056 Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Loaded it into a hex editor... no luck. Still doesn't explain why the XML file isn't viewed as the priority description when making any changes http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/5416-server-not-reading-local-metadata/?p=81538 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14910 Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 I think I figured out where the data came from: I had a separate cache folder which wasn't deleted when I uninstalled the program. That is not good as I chose the option to remove everything when uninstalling. Had you relocated it from our standard location? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tired dad 28 Posted March 21, 2014 Author Share Posted March 21, 2014 Had you relocated it from our standard location? Yes, so it wouldn't clog up the user profile folder on the windows system drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tired dad 28 Posted March 21, 2014 Author Share Posted March 21, 2014 http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/5416-server-not-reading-local-metadata/?p=81538 Thanks But there are other issues gonig on, like why does it remember what movies were in the network share when I took pains to remove all cache traces both with the uninstall and manually deleting the cache? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14910 Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Yes, so it wouldn't clog up the user profile folder on the windows system drive. Our uninstaller is not going to just summarily delete some location you pointed to in a custom setup. That could spell all kinds of disaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tired dad 28 Posted March 21, 2014 Author Share Posted March 21, 2014 (edited) Our uninstaller is not going to just summarily delete some location you pointed to in a custom setup. That could spell all kinds of disaster. True... but it could perhaps ask in a dialog box. I can't fathom why a user would choose to point it to a folder holding anything other than the cache, but I see your point. Edited March 21, 2014 by tired dad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tired dad 28 Posted March 22, 2014 Author Share Posted March 22, 2014 (edited) The server does honor your local metadata, however from my teamviewer session there appeared to be some environmental issues at play affecting the server. If the server doesn't recognize your folder as a movie, then there's no local metadata to honor because it's never going to look for movie.xml. So that is the first problem to solve, which takes us back to what appeared to be file system or network issues causing files to disappear. Just a question... the server seems to be able to pull the mediainfo properly (file type, audio and video bitrates, et cetera) from all the files. This seems to stem from the fact it sees an MKV or other video file in the folder and therefore reads it. If the principle seems to be that the servers sees the video file and then loads info from it, can the same be done for XML/NFO? In other words... no matter what the folder name is, or whatever other naming issue seems to be preventing the server from recognizing a folder as a movie, as long as a physical XML file exists, read it anyway? Edited March 22, 2014 by tired dad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tired dad 28 Posted March 22, 2014 Author Share Posted March 22, 2014 The server does honor your local metadata, however from my teamviewer session there appeared to be some environmental issues at play affecting the server. If the server doesn't recognize your folder as a movie, then there's no local metadata to honor because it's never going to look for movie.xml. So that is the first problem to solve, which takes us back to what appeared to be file system or network issues causing files to disappear. Problem solved: installed the software on the second server and deleted it from the first after confirming it reads and honours XML files. Definitely some environmental setting somewhere on the first machine. Thanks to Luke for taking the time out to have a look at the system a few days ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14910 Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 Just a question... the server seems to be able to pull the mediainfo properly (file type, audio and video bitrates, et cetera) from all the files. This seems to stem from the fact it sees an MKV or other video file in the folder and therefore reads it. If the principle seems to be that the servers sees the video file and then loads info from it, can the same be done for XML/NFO? In other words... no matter what the folder name is, or whatever other naming issue seems to be preventing the server from recognizing a folder as a movie, as long as a physical XML file exists, read it anyway? No, because not all video is a movie. So we don't know what xml to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedStripe 14 Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 Suddenly, my MediaBrowser started populating the Movie metadata from the internet.I don't know what changed.The .xml files remain unchanged and contain the metadata I wish to display.I have the "Download artwork and metadata from the internet" unchecked.How do I disable MediaBrowser 3 from populating metadata from the internet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedwig 1 Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 (edited) To read or not to read movie.xml … As explained in previous posts I had decided to manually correcting movies with missing metadata and that worked fine for a while… Yesterday I had to restart my PC (and MB3 Server) and I was very disappointed to realise that metadata again were gone (for about 70% of my movies). I first decided to discontinue MB3 and than began to look for an alternative but there are none that are so easy and so nice as MB3! So I had to find a solution to the problem and found one! I realised that there was still an image backup of my C-disk dated 23rd January and thus older than the update of MB3 (24th February). I completely removed the MB3 program and everything i could find in the C:\Users\Hedwig\AppData\Roaming\ folder (i.e. MediaBrowser-Server and Logs). I than reinstalled MB3 and copied back those 2 folders from my Image-backup. On starting MB3 Server everything came back normally, even the movies that where added later. The server is now running under Version 3.0.5135.31685 with Pending Installations The following components have been installed or updated: MBServer (3.0.5192.19560) Please restart the server to finish applying updates. DO NOT RESTART THE SERVER in any case … doing so will make dissapear the metadata again! Why? I am convinced that there is still a serious bug in the new versions. I sincerely hope you will find that bug… and let us all know… And I did the test myself to be sure… things were gone again! I now put my PC in stand-by modus to prevent MB3 to restart and everything is going well. To ebr and Luke : how hard can it be to force MBR te read the movie.xml file if there is one in the movie folder? The more it was the case until version 31685? Thanks and keep up the good work! Edited March 24, 2014 by Hedwig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tired dad 28 Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share Posted March 25, 2014 Suddenly, my MediaBrowser started populating the Movie metadata from the internet.I don't know what changed.The .xml files remain unchanged and contain the metadata I wish to display.I have the "Download artwork and metadata from the internet" unchecked. How do I disable MediaBrowser 3 from populating metadata from the internet? I had this issue as well; the XML file was not touched at all, but the database contained data from TMDB or some other source, even though I told the program not to go out to the Internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37056 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Hedwig, I'm happy to help, but reverting to an older version isn't going to help us hunt down issues. If you go back and check the last few pages, twice I asked you for information and didn't get it. Once I get what I need I'll look into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piperprinx 0 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Had the same issue this evening. I use meta browser for fetching metadata. Problem seems not to affect recently added movies, but only older ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedwig 1 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Luke, I fully understand ... but for the moment this is my only rescue... 70% of my metadata disappear if i do a restart ... Today I had to restart my PC again (Windows problem) and than a restart of MB3 is automatic...the result was even worse with a lost of more than 70% of metadata. I installed my old backup again and copied back the data, root, cache and ImagesByName folders from my backup of last night. And verything went back to normal... Once you asked me folder type... I tried both Movies and Adult... > no change You also asked me to sent the 'file' (I saw some error in the log file) but could not figger out what you mean by the 'file'. The log file is gone and also is the movie. The main prbolem is that metadata keep disappearing after a new scan of media (even new movies) or movies where metadata were added manually (Folder type is movie, metadata are in the movie folder (i.e. movie.xml and pictures - no fetching from the internet). Setting all Metadata Settings to OFF doesn't help. Even creating a new movie.xml file was of no help. Would it help if i make a new test on seperate PC with some Youtube movies (folder type : Home Videos) ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedwig 1 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Ok these are the test results: I installed MB3 server and Media Center Master on a seperate PC. Made only 1 Video Folder (D:/Video) Put Youtube-film in it (name of Folder and Movie are exactly the same). Added Media Library in MB3 - Folder type : Home Video Close down MB3 Start Media Center Master to create movie.xml file and added some metadata (Overview, Pictures, etc...) Start MB3 - Could not find any Metadata execpt for Path, Name, Sortname and date added. Pictures were added. People is empty. Added missing Metadata manually. Metadata settings put to OFF and save... Closed down MB3. Restart MB3. All metadata were there now. Closed down MB3. Changed Folder name to Educational (# from movie name). Started MB3. > Metadata gone! Closed MB3. Changed Folder name back to Movie name. Sarted Media Center Master to alter movie.xml (added some more data). Started MB3. > Metadata still gone. Refresh button > no result. Closed down MB3 and restart >>> metadata are not coming back. Please let me know if you need some specific files and where I can find them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardyname 194 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Added missing Metadata manually. Metadata settings put to OFF and save... Closed down MB3. Restart MB3. All metadata were there now. Closed down MB3. Changed Folder name to Educational (# from movie name). Started MB3. > Metadata gone! Closed MB3. Changed Folder name back to Movie name. Sarted Media Center Master to alter movie.xml (added some more data). Started MB3. > Metadata still gone. Refresh button > no result. Closed down MB3 and restart >>> metadata are not coming back. Please let me know if you need some specific files and where I can find them. I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but why are you changing folder names ? also logs are located in : C:\Users\UserNameGoesHere\AppData\Roaming\MediaBrowser-Server\logs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedwig 1 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 I changed the folder name just for test reasons. You have to know that I have a lot of movies that are in folders which do not match the movie name. This however was not a probblem before February 24th... Luke, Shall I send you the logfiles of the above test? and the xml.file of that test? As I restored my backup-files the older ones are gone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardyname 194 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 I changed the folder name just for test reasons. You have to know that I have a lot of movies that are in folders which do not match the movie name. This however was not a probblem before February 24th... Luke, Shall I send you the logfiles of the above test? and the xml.file of that test? As I restored my backup-files the older ones are gone... Yes i get that, and i do have some myself. However i still don't understand why ? I can't think of a better way to fuck up my library and I'm not talking about metadata here just search patterns and dead links (xbmc not mb3) Anyways hopefully Luke will figure out what is wrong and solve it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tired dad 28 Posted March 26, 2014 Author Share Posted March 26, 2014 No, I don't believe it was, at least not from the internet. It was probably embedded data within the media. I used MKVInfo to look at one file that MB3 somehow kept finding data for; there are no tags whatsoever in there. Is there another tool you would suggest using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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