Generating trickplay is it a manual start only

[Bladefin]

I thought trickplay was done automatically like chapters by having it set up in the library so trickplay gets done when adding new media, but I always have to start trickplay generation myself after I added media.

[HokieRulz]

There are at least two ways trickplay can run automatically. Trickplay can take significant resources if a lot of files are added, so by default it is initiated at night.

By default it should run as a scheduled task. You can see (and control) when trickplay generation is scheduled by going to the web client, then Dashboard->Advanced->Scheduled Tasks. This should be the same place you manually initiate trickplay generation, but instead of clicking on the arrow to start, instead just click on "Generate Trickplay Images". That takes you to a screen that shows the schedule and triggers. The default is to run at 03:00am.

If you want it to run when you add media to your library then try going into the Library settings (Web->Dashboard->Libraries, then "Manage Library" on the library you want to change) then check the box "Extract trickplay images during library scan". Also make sure "Enable real time monitoring" is checked. I don't use this, but I tested and manually adding a file to the library and it did kick off trickplay generation for the new media. I haven't tried it with a recording, but I think it should start the trickplay generation automatically when a file is added.

[Bladefin]

Thanks I see where it's scheduled that's all ok, but the problem I'm having is it's doesn't seem to be running when I add media even though everything is checked,when the media is added I look in the logs and it doesn't say anything about trickplay, should it appear in the logs? just like if I was to do it the manual way.

I'm running Windows 11 with the latest Jellyfin version.

[HokieRulz]

I checked my logs from this morning where I manually added an episode to a library with trickplay set to start with library scan. In my logs I first got a message that the folder where the new media was added "will be refreshed", followed by several lines about the status of trickplay images being generated for the media item I added. Can you double check that both "Extract trickplay when libary is scanned" and "Enable realtime monitoring" is checked? Make sure to click the "Ok" button after you check them.

I'm on Linux, not Win, and realtime monitoring is reliant on the OS. Are you running docker? Is your media stored on a local filesystem, or network shares? Real time monitoring is not supported for SMB or NFS. Is there anything unusual about how the storage is mounted where you have your media? Also look in your Jellyfin logs for any messages about a failure in the directory watcher. This is a case where the message could be OS specific, so I can't provide the exact message that may be generated. This message would most likely be near when the jellyfin server service is started, not when you added media to your library.

[Bladefin]

Triple checked that I have everything enabled, I did have it all enabled in the library.

Jellyfin is installed on windows 11,all my media is stored on a NAS. Everything is a basic setup nothing strange.

I don't see any messages about a failure in the directory watcher.

What happens if I stop a trickplay scan and restart it later on, does it continue or does it start from scratch?

[HokieRulz]

If you are using Win and a NAS then you are likely using samba/SMB for the communication.  Win 11 only has an NFS client if you are running Pro, and NFS does not support RTM.  Your problem is likely because of this - people are having very mixed results with real time monitoring over SMB:

- https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-new-elements-not-automatically-scanned-recognized-why?pid=16589#pid16589
- https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-real-time-monitoring

To verify it's not something else with your Jellyfin instance, if you have a bit of free local disk space then you could set up an empty test library on your local disk, enable RTM and trickplay, and then copy just a couple media assets to it to see if it starts the trickplay scan. I'm not yet seeing a definitive answer on how to RTM on SMB.

You potentially could just reduce your library scan time to something very frequent - like every 15 or 30 minutes.  If you restart a trickplay scan it should resume.

[Bladefin]

If you are using Win and a NAS then you are likely using samba/SMB for the communication.  Win 11 only has an NFS client if you are running Pro, and NFS does not support RTM.  Your problem is likely because of this - people are having very mixed results with real time monitoring over SMB:

- https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-new-elements-not-automatically-scanned-recognized-why?pid=16589#pid16589
- https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-real-time-monitoring

To verify it's not something else with your Jellyfin instance, if you have a bit of free local disk space then you could set up an empty test library on your local disk, enable RTM and trickplay, and then copy just a couple media assets to it to see if it starts the trickplay scan. I'm not yet seeing a definitive answer on how to RTM on SMB.

You potentially could just reduce your library scan time to something very frequent - like every 15 or 30 minutes.  If you restart a trickplay scan it should resume.

Thank you for the help, yes I'm using SMB2 with Windows 11 Home. That probably explains why it's not doing it, I do have another computer so I might give that a test and install Jellyfin on that and use the HDD on that computer to see if it works👍

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