Overlay Update Not Needed on a few library items | Kometa | Page 1

winged cliff Nov 1, 2025, 10:25 PM

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Overlays aren't applied to a few library items, with the Overlay Update Not Needed error message. On the last run, it happened with just 11 movies out of 1711 in the library. Previously it happened with some shows too, but not in this run.

[2025-10-30 18:16:54,580] [overlays.py:204]           [INFO]     | (86/1711) American Hustle
[2025-10-30 18:16:54,581] [overlays.py:550]           [INFO]     |   Overlay Update Not Needed (Current Overlays: Overlay File (0) Movie Backdrop, Overlay File (1) WEB, Overlay File (1) DTS-HD-MA, Overlay File (1) 4K-UHD)

I can't figure out any reason why it would happen to those particular items. It happened to different items in previous runs, and it just seems random. Some of them use the image asset directory and some of them get the images from tmdb. I use the mass_poster_update: tmdb operation, so it's supposed to apply overlays to all items.

The items that are missing the overlay still have the Overlay label in Plex. The logs say that the label was removed when the tmdb poster was applied:

[2025-10-30 03:46:44,502] [operations.py:141]         [INFO]     | (31/1711) 1917
[2025-10-30 03:46:44,551] [plex.py:1405]              [INFO]     | Item: 1917 (2019) {tmdb-530915} has an Overlay and will be updated when overlays are run
[2025-10-30 03:46:45,024] [operations.py:768]         [INFO]     | Add Genres (Batched) | Drama, Action
                                                                 | Remove Genres (Batched) | Thriller
[2025-10-30 03:46:45,028] [plex.py:1340]              [INFO]     | 1917 Poster | Reset from TMDb
[2025-10-30 03:46:46,591] [plex.py:1354]              [INFO]     | Label | -Overlay
[2025-10-30 03:46:46,592] [plex.py:1340]              [INFO]     | 1917 Background | Reset from TMDb

📎 meta.log

native dustBOT Nov 1, 2025, 10:25 PM

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native dustBOT Nov 1, 2025, 10:25 PM

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native dust You can press the "Close Post" button above or type `/close` at any time to clos...

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winged cliff Nov 1, 2025, 10:32 PM

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My log file was too big so I removed part for the shows library, but now the logscan is getting an error

hollow kayak Nov 1, 2025, 10:32 PM

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This:

Overlay Update Not Needed (Current Overlays: Overlay File (0) Movie Backdrop, Overlay File (1) WEB, Overlay File (1) DTS-HD-MA, Overlay File (1) 4K-UHD)

Means:
"The last time I applied overlays I applied these very same ones, and the poster hasn't changed, so Overlay Update Not Needed"

This:

| Item: 1917 (2019) {tmdb-530915} has an Overlay and will be updated when overlays are run
| 1917 Poster | Reset from TMDb
| Label | -Overlay

Is also as expected since you are telling Kometa to reset the poster from TMDB.
When it does that, Kometa checks to see if the item has overlays. If it does, it tells you about that

| Item: 1917 (2019) {tmdb-530915} has an Overlay and will be updated when overlays are run

[The will be updated when overlays are run doesn't really apply in this case but it would if this were an asset]

And then removes the overlay label so that when overlays get applied later Kometa will pull the new poster from Plex.

hollow kayak Nov 1, 2025, 10:34 PM

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winged cliff My log file was too big so I removed part for the shows library, but now the log...

You can zip the file

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Are you changing art in Plex on anything?

winged cliff Nov 1, 2025, 10:38 PM

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No

"The last time I applied overlays I applied these very same ones, and the poster hasn't changed, so Overlay Update Not Needed"```
But doesn't the mass_poster_update mean that all overlays are applied every time?

It seems like the problem might be that `Label  |  -Overlay` doesn't actually remove the label for some reason

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📎 meta.zip

native dustBOT Nov 1, 2025, 10:38 PM

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📝 If you want to review this again, d3r3k23:
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winged cliff Nov 1, 2025, 10:40 PM

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📎 full-meta-log.zip

native dustBOT Nov 1, 2025, 10:40 PM

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📝 If you want to review this again, d3r3k23:
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hollow kayak Nov 1, 2025, 10:40 PM

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Which of these is the correct log?

winged cliff Nov 1, 2025, 10:40 PM

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full-meta-log.zip

hollow kayak Nov 1, 2025, 10:42 PM

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winged cliff No ``` "The last time I applied overlays I applied these very same ones, and the...

Two questions:

What's the value in regenerating the same overlays on the same posters on every run?

Are you seeing that Plex is not removing the plabel when asked?

winged cliff Nov 1, 2025, 10:45 PM

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hollow kayak Two questions: What's the value in regenerating the same overlays on the same p...

If the tmdb poster changes then it will pull the new poster and apply overlays. Its just the way I've always had kometa set up, not sure if there's a better way to do it. I'm planning on setting up posterizarr so I don't need the mass_poster_update
I'll start a run and check

hollow kayak Nov 1, 2025, 10:46 PM

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It just generates a lot of bloat uploading the same poster to Plex over and over again.

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So on that run,

| (31/1711) 1917
| Item: 1917 (2019) {tmdb-530915} has an Overlay and will be updated when overlays are run
| Add Genres (Batched) | Drama, Action
| Remove Genres (Batched) | Thriller
| 1917 Poster | Reset from TMDb
| Label | -Overlay
| 1917 Background | Reset from TMDb

| (11/1711) 1917
|   Overlay Update Not Needed (Current Overlays: Overlay File (0) Movie Backdrop, Overlay File (0) Favorite Movie, Overlay File (1) Remux, Overlay File (1) TrueHD-Atmos, Overlay File (1) 4K-DV-HDR10Plus) |

1917 got its poster replaced with a clean copy of presumably the same thing, and then no overlays were applied, so in Plex right now it has no overlays and an overlay label?

winged cliff Nov 1, 2025, 10:49 PM

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That's right.
I can still see the poster with overlays in the Edit menu but it might just be left over from the previous run?

hollow kayak Nov 1, 2025, 10:50 PM

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winged cliff That's right. I can still see the poster with overlays in the Edit menu but it m...

Does it have an overlay label?

winged cliff Nov 1, 2025, 10:51 PM

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hollow kayak Does it have an overlay label?

Yes

winged cliff Nov 1, 2025, 11:32 PM

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The library operations just finished and the Plex filter shows that all the Overlay labels are removed. So the problem must be happening later

hollow kayak Nov 2, 2025, 8:37 PM

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Any further information here?

winged cliff Nov 3, 2025, 12:55 AM

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No, just that on the next run, there were 46 movies that didn't get overlays applied

hollow kayak Nov 3, 2025, 12:56 AM

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Do you have a log of that run?

winged cliff Nov 3, 2025, 2:52 AM

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I had to reboot my server so it stopped in the middle of the shows library. But it skipped the overlays on 1 item

[2025-11-02 16:30:23,083] [overlays.py:204]           [INFO]     | (1519/10968) The Chair Company
[2025-11-02 16:30:23,084] [overlays.py:550]           [INFO]     |   Overlay Update Not Needed (Current Overlays: Overlay File (0) Show Backdrop, Overlay File (1) WEB, Overlay File (1) DDPlus-Atmos, Overlay File (1) 4K-DV-HDR)

📎 meta.log

native dustBOT Nov 3, 2025, 2:52 AM

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📝 If you want to review this again, d3r3k23:
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**User Info**

Author of Linked Message: D3r3k
Person who Invoked the Command: D3r3k
File Name: meta.log

Table of Contents:
Page 01: User Info
Page 02: Kometa Info
Page 03: Kometa Summary Info
Page 04: Kometa Config.yml YAML Validation ✅
Page 05: Plex Configuration - Section 1
Page 06: Plex Configuration - Section 2
Page 07: Plex Configuration - Section 3
Page 08: Plex Configuration - Section 4
Page 09: Plex Configuration - Section 5
Page 10: Rec 01 - ❌ [ERROR]
Page 11: Rec 02 - ❌🛠️ INCOMPLETE LOGS
Page 12: Rec 03 - ❌ METADATA ATTRIBUTE ERRORS
Page 13: Rec 04 - ❌ METADATA LOAD ERRORS
Page 14: Rec 05 - ❌ PLAYLIST LOAD ERRORS
Page 15: Rec 06 - ❌⏰ KOMETA RUN TIME > TIME BEFORE MAINTENANCE
Page 16: Rec 07 - ⚠️ [WARNING]
Page 17: Rec 08 - ⚠️ NO ITEMS FOUND IN PLEX
Page 18: Rec 09 - 💬 CONVERT WARNING

winged cliff Nov 3, 2025, 2:55 AM

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Also, I have this older log of a run on the shows library where it skipped the overlays for 26 shows. It seems like this only happens for the overlays for a show poster, and not for seasons or episodes

📎 meta-4.log

native dustBOT Nov 3, 2025, 2:55 AM

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📝 If you want to review this again, d3r3k23:
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hollow kayak Nov 3, 2025, 4:09 PM

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which 26 out of the 262?

hollow kayak Nov 3, 2025, 5:31 PM

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There appears to be an issue with reapplying overlays when an asset image changes.

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Perhaps open a github issue with the log

winged cliff Nov 3, 2025, 11:09 PM

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hollow kayak which 26 out of the 262?

You can search the file for "overlay update not needed". Seems like it's just 26 random items

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And the run for my shows library today was different than what I've seen before. It skipped the overlays for all of the first 48 items in the library. And it skipped 61 total, with the remaining 13 throughout the library

📎 shows-meta.log

native dustBOT Nov 3, 2025, 11:13 PM

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📝 If you want to review this again, d3r3k23:
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hollow kayak Nov 3, 2025, 11:18 PM

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Yeah, there's some logic error in there.

winged cliff Nov 3, 2025, 11:20 PM

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Also I ran ImageMaid before the kometa run, and after the kometa run, the items without overlays still had the poster with overlays listed in the Edit menu
So it seems like kometa is still generating the poster with overlays, but it's not setting it as the primary poster

hollow kayak Nov 3, 2025, 11:21 PM

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winged cliff Also I ran ImageMaid before the kometa run, and after the kometa run, the items ...

That's probably because when Imagemaid ran that overlaid poster was the current poster, so it didn't get deleted, then the new blank poster got uploaded as part of the TMDB reset on the run.

winged cliff Nov 3, 2025, 11:22 PM

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hollow kayak That's probably because when Imagemaid ran that overlaid poster was the current ...

Ok that makes sense

hollow kayak Nov 3, 2025, 11:22 PM

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If you ran imagemaid right now probably that overlaid poster gets cleaned up

winged cliff Nov 3, 2025, 11:23 PM

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Yep, I just did that

hollow kayak Nov 3, 2025, 11:31 PM

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I can't reproduce any problems here in the general case. Running this:

libraries:
  One-Movie:
    overlay_files:
    - default: resolution
    - default: aspect
    - default: audio_codec
    - default: video_format
    operations:
      mass_poster_update:
        source: tmdb

over and over, every run I see the poster get reset, then the overlays get applied.

a dozen times in a row so far

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poster gets reset at about 10 seconds, then at about 22 seconds the overlays get reapplied

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I can't make that fail.

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winged cliff Nov 3, 2025, 11:48 PM

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Well it's happening pretty sporadically. Maybe you could try it with a larger test library?
I opened an issue on github https://github.com/Kometa-Team/Kometa/issues/2859

GitHub

Occasional Overlay Update Not Needed error · Issue #2859 · Kometa...

Version Number 2.2.2 What branch are you on? master Describe the Bug Overlays are getting skipped for some movie and show posters. In first log attached (meta.log), it happened with 11 movies out o...

hollow kayak Nov 4, 2025, 12:17 AM

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OK, I'm running this config:

ibraries:
  Movies:
    overlay_files:
    - default: aspect
    operations:
      mass_poster_update:
        source: tmdb

100 times against a library with 275 movies in it, logging counts of reset from tmdb, overlays applied and overlay update not needed each time.

Will report back with results.

hollow kayak Nov 4, 2025, 12:51 AM

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I just realized while walking to the show that I didn't tell my Mac not to sleep so I might not get 100 iterations.

winged cliff Nov 4, 2025, 5:33 AM

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Do you want to try it with my overlays? I can upload the files

hollow kayak Nov 4, 2025, 1:21 PM

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I'm not sure why it would be the specific overlays, since the decision is just "these are the same as last time and the image hasn't changed". I can give them a try, though.

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Currently in the 97th iteration, but the previous 96 all look like this:

--- Iteration 96 of 100 ---
running kometa
looking for reset from tmdb in log
     275
looking for overlays applied in log
     275
looking for overlay update not needed in log
       0
done

hollow kayak Nov 4, 2025, 2:58 PM

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All 100 of those iterations went without any issues.

hollow kayak Nov 4, 2025, 5:32 PM

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four passes with more overlays in a much larger [2300] library, no failures yet.

hollow kayak Nov 4, 2025, 7:48 PM

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I can give it a try with yours if you want to send them along.

winged cliff Nov 5, 2025, 4:09 AM

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Well if you can't reproduce it, maybe its a problem with my Plex database or something like that

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Here's the files for my overlays, then use this in the config.yaml. Change the file paths if you need to

overlay_files:
- {file: overlays/movies.yaml, template_variables: {image_dir: overlays/images}}
- {file: overlays/both.yaml, template_variables: {image_dir: overlays/images}}

📎 overlays.zip

winged cliff Nov 6, 2025, 4:45 AM

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I turned on the reapply_overlays option and it did 1 run without missing any overlays. But it seems like that shouldn't make any difference, since it's supposed to reapply all overlays anyway

hollow kayak Nov 6, 2025, 5:44 AM

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That is exactly what I would expect to happen, and it illustrates the issue we're chasing.

The difference is that reapply_overlays: true tells Kometa "whether or not you think you should, reapply all overlays in this library".

In your problem case, Kometa doesn't think there's a reason to reapply those overlays, so it skips them. That flag tells it to reapply them anyway.

The open question is "why does Kometa think there's no need to reapply the overlays?"

winged cliff Nov 6, 2025, 5:55 AM

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Well I already checked that the Overlay label is removed. I thought that was the only thing that decides to reapply the overlays

What exactly does it mean to "reapply" overlays? Is it when the different overlays are pasted onto the original poster image? Or when the image with overlays is set as the poster in plex?

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I did a run with the debug and trace settings, I looked at it and it didn't seem to have any useful information, but let me know if you want me to upload it

hollow kayak Nov 6, 2025, 6:08 AM

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Your setup is not working as I would expect, so it's hitting some edge case.

Ordinarily, the decision to reapply an overlay is driven by:

The visual appearance of the overlay has changed (overlays added or removed, rating changed, position changed, etc) OR
The artwork changed.

In your case, the second condition should be triggering new overlays but for some reason it isn't. This is not expected and there is no trace of why in the log.

That flag says "Yes, Kometa, neither of the conditions for reapplying overlays exist. Do it anyway."

winged cliff Nov 7, 2025, 12:03 AM

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Alright, I checked out the repo locally and I'll try and do some debug
It looks like in this code changed_image is False when it should be True, I'll start there
overlays.py:213 elif self.library.reapply_overlays or new_backup or overlay_change or changed_image:

winged cliff Nov 14, 2025, 2:54 AM

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Well it looks like this problem isn't happening anymore. I'm not sure why. Maybe when I did a run with reapply overlays: true it reset something and fixed it?

shut furnace Nov 14, 2025, 2:56 AM

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Are you still running with reapply set to true?

winged cliff Nov 14, 2025, 3:00 AM

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Nope

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I did one run with it set to true, and then a couple more, where the overlays all were correct

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I also did a run with delete_labels set to true, maybe that affected something

hollow kayak Nov 14, 2025, 2:09 PM

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What is "delete_labels"?

shut furnace Nov 14, 2025, 2:23 PM

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delete_labels isn’t something that I see anywhere in the wiki. So delete_labels being set to true does nothing and is ignored by Kometa

winged cliff Nov 14, 2025, 11:56 PM

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The delete-labels CLI option or KOMETA_DELETE_LABELS env variable

hollow kayak Nov 15, 2025, 12:01 AM

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Ah, there you go, however, that does not touch the overlay-related labels.

winged cliff Nov 15, 2025, 12:03 AM

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Yeah, and I already checked that the Overlay label is in fact removed when it's supposed to (when mass_poster_update applies the new poster)

buoyant spearBOT Nov 15, 2025, 12:55 AM

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antwanchild used !aenh

@winged cliff, anything else needed here? If not, please type /close and hit enter. Please respond within 24 hours of this message or it will be archived.

#Overlay Update Not Needed on a few library items