Explanation of the various cache folders that exist / How to clear the Cache

Media Browser uses a Cache folder that is used to store information like display settings and playstate information.

There is also an ImageCache folder that contains cached copies of your artwork.

In this topic we will explain what the various folders are used for.

Cache

The Cache folder is in C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Cache. It contains a predefined set of subfolders:

autoPlaylists

  • Location: C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Cache\autoPlaylists
  • Purpose: Playlists are generated if you start multi-part movies of use other playlist features like play-all.
  • Clear: You can safely delete the contents of this folder. It will be rebuilt by Media Browser once you use a playlist feature.

children

  • Location: C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Cache\children
  • Purpose: [improvement needed. what is this used for?]
  • Clear: You can safely delete the contents of this folder. It will be rebuilt by Media Browser when a refresh occurs.

display

  • Location: C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Cache\display
  • Purpose: This folder contains information about what view settings are used for you media collections and their various sublevels.
  • Clear: Only clear this if you really want to.

items

  • Location: C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Cache\items
  • Purpose: [improvement needed. what is this used for?]
  • Clear: You can safely delete the contents of this folder. It will be rebuilt by Media Browser when a refresh occurs.

playstate

  • Location: C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Cache\playstate
  • Purpose: This folder contains the last state of all your media files so Media Browser knows where to resume a media file. It also contains the watched status flag that triggers the markers accordingly.
  • Clear: Only clear this if you really want to.

providerdata

  • Location: C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Cache\providerdata
  • Purpose: This folder contains metadata that is retrieved by the internet providers and plugins like MediaInfo Provider.
  • Clear: You can safely delete the contents of this folder. It will be rebuilt by Media Browser when a refresh occurs.

thumbsizes

  • Location: C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Cache\thumbsizes
  • Purpose: [improvement needed. what is this used for?]
  • Clear: [improvemend needed. can we clear this safely?]

Cache.db (Experimental SQLite)

If you're using the experimental SQLite option, cached information is stored in a file called “cache.db” inside the “C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Cache” folder.

This database contains information that is normally stored under the various subfolders mentioned above. When using SQLite, it’s possible that some of the above subfolders do not exist, because they are not in use.

The contents of the following folders is stored in the cache.db:

  • children
  • items
  • providerdata

ImageCache

The ImageCache folder is in “C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache”. It contains no subfolders.

This folder contains cached copies of artwork that is:

  • Retrieved by the Internet Providers function.
  • Stored inside media folders such as Collection, Movies, Series, Seasons.
  • Stored in the StartupFolder
  • Stored in the ImagesByName folder such as People, Studios, Genres.
  • Created by plugins like CoverArt.
  • You can safely delete the contents of this folder. It will be rebuilt by Media Browser at the next launch.

TrailerCache

The TrailerCache folder is in “C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\TrailerCache”. It contains no subfolders.

This folder contains cached copies of trailer that have been downloaded by the MB Trailers plugin

For more information about this plugin and it’s cache folder, please have a look here

Clearing the Cache

As a troubleshooting step, it is often suggested to clear or rebuild your cache. There are a couple of ways you can do this, but some really do remove everything which has it’s drawbacks since you will also lose your display settings and watched status of media.

By using the Media Browser Service Applications

As of Media Browser 2.3.0 (codename Draco), there is a new Media Browser Service application which manages the metadata validation and refreshes. It contains 2 options to clear relevant cache information

  • Clear Items Cache
  • Clear Image Cache

Select either one or both of the checkboxes in the Service App (and optionally other refresh settings) and choose “Refresh Now”.

Notes:

  • It is not possible to only clear the caches without performing a refresh since this is an unlikely scenario. If, for whatever reason, you only want to clear your cache, have a look at the manual deletion method below.

Through manual deletion in Windows Explorer

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Cache. You can see multiple folders there. To maintain Playstate and Display setting delete all files in the following folders:

  • children
  • items
  • providerdata

or

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to `C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser`. Select the “Cache” folder and delete it. This method removes ALL cache settings (except image cache). You will lose Playstate and Display settings.

Note: Clearing the cache in this way does not affect the Playstate and Display settings when you have moved those folders to an alternate location via modifying the UserSettingsPath property in the MediaBrowserXml.config file.

By using the Media Browser Configurator

IMPORTANT NOTE: The cache tab in the configurator has been removed in 2.3.0 (codename Draco).
The information below is considered outdated.

As of Media Browser 2.2.4 (codename Chronos), there is a new tab in the Media Browser Configurator called “cache” after you've selected advanced. You can select the things you want to remove from the cache and click the Clear Selected Cache Information button.

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