FAQ & Knowledgebase

This page aims to provide knowledge based on combined user experience, and to answer the frequent questions that we are asked in our Discord Server.

If you have a question that is not answered here, try entering some keywords into the search bar above, or join our Discord Server.

Frequently Asked Questions

This section aims to answer the most commonly asked questions that users have.

Kometa Versions & Updating

The commands here should work in any terminal on the respective platforms, but that can't be guaranteed. If you know shortcuts for some of these things, go ahead and use them. For example, in many terminals, cd ~/Kometa is the same as cd /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Kometa.

Your Kometa installation may not be located at the paths referenced below. These are the paths used in the walkthroughs in this documentation, so if you installed it somewhere else you will have to change the path[s] to reflect your system and the choices you made during installation.

How do I update to the latest version of Kometa?

Linux macOS Windows Docker

[type this into your terminal, changing YOUR_USERNAME to your username]

cd /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Kometa
git stash
git stash clear
git pull
source kometa-venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

These two commands:

git stash
git stash clear

Will reset any changes you have made to Kometa-owned files [YOUR CONFIG FILES ARE NOT AFFECTED]. You shouldn't be doing this, so typically this will not lose any of your work. If you have done this, the assumption is that you know enough about git to know how to prevent that from happening.

[type this into your terminal, changing YOUR_USERNAME to your username]

cd /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Kometa
git stash
git stash clear
git pull
source kometa-venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

These two commands:

git stash
git stash clear

Will reset any changes you have made to Kometa-owned files [YOUR CONFIG FILES ARE NOT AFFECTED]. You shouldn't be doing this, so typically this will not lose any of your work. If you have done this, the assumption is that you know enough about git to know how to prevent that from happening.

[type this into your terminal, changing YOUR_USERNAME to your username and the drive letter if needed]

C:
cd C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Kometa
git stash
git stash clear
git pull
.\kometa-venv\Scripts\activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

These two commands:

git stash
git stash clear

Will reset any changes you have made to Kometa-owned files [YOUR CONFIG FILES ARE NOT AFFECTED]. You shouldn't be doing this, so typically this will not lose any of your work. If you have done this, the assumption is that you know enough about git to know how to prevent that from happening.

[type this into your terminal]

docker pull kometateam/kometa:TAG_HERE

replacing TAG_HERE with latest, develop, or nightly [whichever you are currently using]

Then recreate your container via whatever means you used to create it [docker run, docker-compose, etc.].

If you are using Docker on a NAS like Synology or UNRaid, they will provide some means of doing those two things.

How do I switch to the develop branch?

Linux macOS Windows Docker

[type this into your terminal, changing YOUR_USERNAME to your username]

cd /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Kometa
git stash
git stash clear
git checkout develop
git pull
source kometa-venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

These two commands:

git stash
git stash clear

Will reset any changes you have made to Kometa-owned files [YOUR CONFIG FILES ARE NOT AFFECTED]. You shouldn't be doing this, so typically this will not lose any of your work. If you have done this, the assumption is that you know enough about git to know how to prevent that from happening.

[type this into your terminal, changing YOUR_USERNAME to your username]

cd /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Kometa
git stash
git stash clear
git checkout develop
git pull
source kometa-venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

These two commands:

git stash
git stash clear

Will reset any changes you have made to Kometa-owned files [YOUR CONFIG FILES ARE NOT AFFECTED]. You shouldn't be doing this, so typically this will not lose any of your work. If you have done this, the assumption is that you know enough about git to know how to prevent that from happening.

[type this into your terminal, changing YOUR_USERNAME to your username and the drive letter if needed]

C:
cd C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Kometa
git stash
git stash clear
git checkout develop
git pull
.\kometa-venv\Scripts\activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

These two commands:

git stash
git stash clear

Will reset any changes you have made to Kometa-owned files [YOUR CONFIG FILES ARE NOT AFFECTED]. You shouldn't be doing this, so typically this will not lose any of your work. If you have done this, the assumption is that you know enough about git to know how to prevent that from happening.

[type this into your terminal]

docker pull kometateam/kometa:develop

Then recreate your container via whatever means you used to create it [docker run, docker-compose, etc.], changing the image in the docker command or the docker-compose.yml to kometateam/kometa:develop.

If you are using Docker on a NAS like Synology or UNRaid, they will provide some means of doing those two things.

How do I switch to the nightly branch

Linux macOS Windows Docker

[type this into your terminal, changing YOUR_USERNAME to your username]

cd /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Kometa
git stash
git stash clear
git checkout nightly
git pull
source kometa-venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

These two commands:

git stash
git stash clear

Will reset any changes you have made to Kometa-owned files [YOUR CONFIG FILES ARE NOT AFFECTED]. You shouldn't be doing this, so typically this will not lose any of your work. If you have done this, the assumption is that you know enough about git to know how to prevent that from happening.

[type this into your terminal, changing YOUR_USERNAME to your username]

cd /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Kometa
git stash
git stash clear
git checkout nightly
git pull
source kometa-venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

These two commands:

git stash
git stash clear

Will reset any changes you have made to Kometa-owned files [YOUR CONFIG FILES ARE NOT AFFECTED]. You shouldn't be doing this, so typically this will not lose any of your work. If you have done this, the assumption is that you know enough about git to know how to prevent that from happening.

[type this into your terminal, changing YOUR_USERNAME to your username and the drive letter if needed]

C:
cd C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Kometa
git stash
git stash clear
git checkout nightly
git pull
.\kometa-venv\Scripts\activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

These two commands:

git stash
git stash clear

Will reset any changes you have made to Kometa-owned files [YOUR CONFIG FILES ARE NOT AFFECTED]. You shouldn't be doing this, so typically this will not lose any of your work. If you have done this, the assumption is that you know enough about git to know how to prevent that from happening.

[type this into your terminal]

docker pull kometateam/kometa:nightly

Then recreate your container via whatever means you used to create it [docker run, docker-compose, etc.], changing the image in the docker command or the docker-compose.yml to kometateam/kometa:nightly.

If you are using Docker on a NAS like Synology or UNRaid, they will provide some means of doing those two things.

How do I switch back to the master branch?

Linux macOS Windows Docker

[type this into your terminal, changing YOUR_USERNAME to your username]

cd /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Kometa
git stash
git stash clear
git checkout master
git pull
source kometa-venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

These two commands:

git stash
git stash clear

Will reset any changes you have made to Kometa-owned files [YOUR CONFIG FILES ARE NOT AFFECTED]. You shouldn't be doing this, so typically this will not lose any of your work. If you have done this, the assumption is that you know enough about git to know how to prevent that from happening.

[type this into your terminal, changing YOUR_USERNAME to your username]

cd /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Kometa
git stash
git stash clear
git checkout master
git pull
source kometa-venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

These two commands:

git stash
git stash clear

Will reset any changes you have made to Kometa-owned files [YOUR CONFIG FILES ARE NOT AFFECTED]. You shouldn't be doing this, so typically this will not lose any of your work. If you have done this, the assumption is that you know enough about git to know how to prevent that from happening.

[type this into your terminal, changing YOUR_USERNAME to your username and the drive letter if needed]

C:
cd C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Kometa
git stash
git stash clear
git checkout master
git pull
.\kometa-venv\Scripts\activate
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

These two commands:

git stash
git stash clear

Will reset any changes you have made to Kometa-owned files [YOUR CONFIG FILES ARE NOT AFFECTED]. You shouldn't be doing this, so typically this will not lose any of your work. If you have done this, the assumption is that you know enough about git to know how to prevent that from happening.

[type this into your terminal]

docker pull kometateam/kometa:latest

Then recreate your container via whatever means you used to create it [docker run, docker-compose, etc.], changing the image in the docker command or the docker-compose.yml to kometateam/kometa:latest.

If you are using Docker on a NAS like Synology or UNRaid, they will provide some means of doing those two things.

Performance & Scheduling

Any tips on increasing Kometa performance?

Use Kometa Caching where possible, this allows Kometa to temporarily store commonly-used information so that it can be retrieved more efficiently. There are multiple things that can be cached within Kometa.

Run Kometa after PLEX Scheduled Tasks, as Plex's API tends to be slower at responding whilst it is performing the tasks. By default, Kometa runs at 5AM to avoid the 3-5am window that Plex suggests for Scheduled Tasks.

For users who are more technically advanced and happy to risk manipulating the Plex database, considering altering the PRAGMA_CACHE settings within Plex.

Note: you MUST use the version of sqlite3 tool that comes with your running version of PLEX or you will mess up your PLEX DB beyond repair. See this article on how to find the proper version for your setup.

Why does my Kometa run take so long to complete?

Every time an item (media, collection, overlay) needs to be updated, Kometa needs to send the request to Plex, and then receive confirmation back from Plex that the action has been completed. This can take anywhere from seconds to minutes depending on when Plex provides a response. Given that the typical run can update hundreds or even thousands of items, this can quickly add up to a lot of time. If "Mass Update" operations are used, then every single item in the library needs to go through this process, which can be lengthy.

Overlays can be particularly cumbersome as Kometa needs to perform the following actions for each of the items that need to have an overlay applied:

• Check which overlays are applicable (this will take more time depending on how many overlays you are applying)
  • Compare the current poster to confirm what overlays are already applied, if changes are needed then continue with the following steps
  • Grab source image from Plex and save it to disk
  • Draw each overlay image on top of the source image
  • save final image to disk
  • Tell Plex to apply new image to the item
  • Wait for Plex to respond confirming that the change has been made

The above two points can be greatly exacerbated if Kometa has to update every episode within a Show library rather than just the Shows themselves, as there can often be hundreds of thousands of episodes to be updated with mass operations or overlays.

Additionally, some collections require a lot of computing resources to determine the critera of the collections that are to be made. This is commonly seen in the Defaults files for Actor/Director/Producer/Writer which need to get the crew information for each of the movies/shows within your library, and then calculate which ones appear the most to find out which are the most popular. The larger your library, the longer this process will take.

Can I schedule library operations and/or overlays to happen at a different time than collections?

Yes, the recommended approach is to set up a new library for the Operations/Overlays, mapping it back to the original library, and then scheduling the library, as outlined below

libraries:
  Movie Operations:           # NAME DOESN'T MATTER BUT MUST BE UNIQUE
    library_name: Movies      # THIS MUST MATCH A LIBRARY IN PLEX
    schedule: weekly(monday)
    operations:
      split_duplicates: true
    overlay_files:
      - default: resolution

Errors & Issues

Why doesn't Kometa let me enter my authentication information for Trakt/MAL?

Kometa needs to run in an interactive mode which allows the user to enter information (such as the Trakt/MAL PIN) as part of the authentication process. This can prove troublesome in some environments, particularly NAS.

Chazlarson has developed an online tool which will allow you to perform the authentication of both Trakt and MAL outside of Kometa, and will then provide you the completed code block to paste into your config.yml.

The scripts can be found here. Click the green play button, wait a little bit, then follow the prompts.

MyAnimeList Authenticator

Trakt Authenticator

Why am I seeing "(500) Internal Server Error" in my log files?

A 500 Internal Server Error happens when the server has an unexpected error when responding to an API request.

There could be any number of reasons why this happens and it depends on what server Kometa is talking to although it's most likely coming from your Plex Server.

Most of the time these errors need to be resolved by changing something specific to your set up but some do come up that can be fixed (i.e. Plex throws one if you upload a photo larger than 10 MB)

Many Appbox Setups will throw this error when too many requests are sent, or if the central metadata repository is not properly configured to allow users to upload custom posters.

Take a look at the following logs:

Settings | Manage | Console -> then filter on Error and Warning to see what might be going on

Check the plex logs (container or other) for the "Busy DB Sleeping for 200ms)

There is nothing that Kometa or our support staff can really do to resolve a 500 error.

Knowledgebase

This section aims to provide some insight as to articles/information that we feel is important to document as they may pop up infrequently but often enough to require entry here.

Kometa 1.20 Release Changes

With the release of Kometa 1.20, several changes have been made. Please read the document below thoroughly!

metadata_path and overlay_path are now legacy attributes (click to expand).

The attributes metadata_path and overlay_path are now legacy, and will likely produce an error metadata attribute is required when running Kometa.

We have new attributes: collection_files, overlay_files and metadata_files which you can read more about on the Libraries Attributes page

Whilst this error can be ignored, we strongly advise you to move over to the new attributes, which can be done following this guidance:

If your YAML file creates collections or is a Kometa Defaults Collection File then it belongs under collection_files.

If your YAML file creates overlays or is a Kometa Defaults Overlay File then it belongs under overlay_files

If your YAML file edits item metadata (see this example) then it belongs under metadata_files

If your file creates collections AND edits item metadata, then it should go in both collection_files and metadata_files

If you are unsure on the above, the majority of metadata_path files will now fall under collection_files, and all overlay_path files will now fall under overlay_files.

If you require any assistance with this, please visit our Discord Server where we can assist you.

Below is an example of the new attributes in use:

libraries:
  Movies:
    collection_files: #(1)!
      - file: config/Movies.yml #(2)!
      - default: imdb #(2)!
    metadata_files: #(3)!
      - file: config/MetadataEdits.yml #(4)!
    overlay_files: #(5)!
      - file: config/Overlays.yml #(6)!
      - default: audio_codec #(6)!

1. This attribute used to be metadata_path and defines files that will relate to Collections
2. These files are placed within collection_files because they define how Collections are built/maintained.
3. This attribute used to be metadata_path and defines files that will relate to Metadata Edits
4. These files are placed within metadata_files because they define Metadata Edits rather than collections.
5. This attribute used to be overlay_path and defines files that will relate to Overlays
6. These files are placed within overlay_files because they define how Overlays are built/maintained.

remove_ reset_ reapply_ and schedule_ attributes for overlays are now Library Attributes (click to expand).

The attributes remove_overlays, reset_overlays, reapply_overlays and schedule_overlays are now Library Attributes and are called at the library level rather than within overlay_path.

This change has been made to make these attributes consistent with other attributes of a similar nature.

Whilst the previous method still works, we strongly advise you to move over to the new attributes, which can be done by looking at the following sample YAML:

libraries:
  Movies:
    remove_overlays: false
    reapply_overlays: false #(1)!
    # reset_overlays: plex #(2)!
    schedule_overlays: daily
    overlay_files:
      - default: audio_codec

1. We strongly advise never setting this to true as it can cause Image Bloat
2. This is purely an example, you do not need to specify reset_overlays or any of these attributes unless you specifically need to use them.

imdb_list no longer works for Title or Keyword search URLs (click to expand).

As a result of IMDb changing their back-end code, imdb_list can no longer be used for URLs which start with https://www.imdb.com/search/title/ or https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/

All URLs used with imdb_list must start with https://www.imdb.com/list/

We have introduced the IMDb Search Builder which replaces the functionality that search/title/ and search/keyword/ used to provide.

As an example, the imdb_search builder for https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=christmas-movie would be:

collections:
  Christmas Movies:
    imdb_search:
      keyword: christmas movie

And the imdb_search builder for https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature,tv_movie,tv_special,video&num_votes=100,&keywords=spy,espionage would be:

collections:
  Spy Movies:
    imdb_search:
      type: movie, tv_movie, tv_special, video
      votes.gte: 100
      keyword.any: spy, espionage

FlixPatrol Default Files and Builders have been removed (click to expand).

Due to FlixPatrol moving a lot of their data behind a paywall and them reworking their pages to remove IMDb IDs and TMDb IDs the flixpatrol builders and default files have been removed. There currently are no plans to re-add them.

Kometa Default other_award replaced with individual Award files (click to expand).

The Kometa Default file other_award is now deprecated and will no longer function.

Individual Kometa Default files have been introduced for several Awards, see the Awards List for more information on the new options.