Bug 515574 - Media Data for files in details mode columns is not reliable
Summary: Media Data for files in details mode columns is not reliable
Status: RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Alias: None
Product: dolphin
Classification: Applications
Component: view-engine: details mode (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 23.08.5
Platform: Ubuntu Linux
: NOR major
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Dolphin Bug Assignee
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2026-02-05 20:41 UTC by Daniel
Modified: 2026-02-09 20:11 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
Screenshot showing wrong data for a movie with correct duration 1:54:18 and images with durations ... (34.19 KB, image/png)
2026-02-05 20:41 UTC, Daniel
Details

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Description Daniel 2026-02-05 20:41:00 UTC
Created attachment 189253 [details]
Screenshot showing wrong data for a movie with correct duration 1:54:18 and images with durations ...

SUMMARY
The media data like duration, width and height for media files (movies, songs, images) gets scrambled and is left unusable.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Create a files index about search (baloo)
2. Add a large amount of files
3. Try to get the media information

OBSERVED RESULT
Each file is displayed with wrong duration or size, if at all.

EXPECTED RESULT
Correct data about duration, width and height

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Ubuntu Studio 24.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.12
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.115.0
Qt Version: 5.15.13
Kernel Version: 6.14.0-37-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 16 × 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-13700K
Memory: 62.5 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
Manufacturer: ASUS

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

balooctl status
Die Baloo-Dateiindizierung läuft
Indizierungsstatus: Inaktiv
Gesamtzahl der indizierten Dateien: 211.871
Dateien, die noch indiziert werden: 0
Dateien, deren Indizierung fehlgeschlagen ist: 0
Der aktuelle Index hat eine Größe von 338,82 MiB

balooshow -x "/home/sd/Media/Filme/_mkv/2067 Kampf um die Zukunft (2020)/2067 Kampf um die Zukunft (2020).mkv"
Die Dokument-Kennung in der Baloo-Datenbank und im Dateisystem sind verschieden:
Url: /home/sd/Media/Filme/_mkv/2067 Kampf um die Zukunft (2020)/2067 Kampf um die Zukunft (2020).mkv
ID:       878226761127958 (DB) <-> 537330911877142 (FS)
Inode:    204478 (DB) <-> 125107 (FS)
DeviceID: 438376470 (DB) == 438376470 (FS)
1e8b31a211816 438376470 125107 /home/sd/Media/Filme/_mkv/2067 Kampf um die Zukunft (2020)/2067 Kampf um die Zukunft (2020).mkv [/home/sd/Media/Musik/_Classic/Vaclav Neumann/Rusalka/1-04-Czech Philharmonic-04 He comes here frequently.mp3]
        Mtime: 1516553273 2018-01-21T17:47:53
        Ctime: 1516553273 2018-01-21T17:47:53
        Cached properties:
                Bitrate: 160000
                Kanäle: 2
                Dauer: 295
                Genre: Classical
                Abtastrate: 44100
                Nummer des Stücks: 4
                Jahr der Veröffentlichung: 1998
                Kommentar: D107
                Interpret: Czech Philharmonic
                Album: Rusalka
                Interpret des Albums: Vaclav Neumann
                Komponist: Dvořák
                Titel: 04 He comes here frequently
                CD-Nummer: 1
                ReplayGain Album Peak: 0.999969
                ReplayGain Album Gain: 5.38
                ReplayGain Track Peak: 0.652557
                ReplayGain Track Gain: 4.71

Interne Information
Dateinamen-Begriffe: F04 F1 Fcomes Fczech Ffrequently Fhe Fhere Fmp3 Fphilharmonic 
XAttr Begriffe: 
Plain Text Terms: 04 classical comes czech dvorak frequently he here neumann philharmonic rusalka vaclav 
Property Terms: Maudio Mmpeg T2 X1-160000 X10-rusalka X11-neumann X11-vaclav X12-dvorak X15-04 X15-comes X15-frequently X15-he X15-here X2-2 X3-295 X4-classical X5-44100 X6-4 X62-1 X7-1998 X74-0.999969 X75-5.38 X76-0.652557 X77-4.71 X8-d107 X9-czech X9-philharmonic 
replayGainAlbumPeak: 0.999969
replayGainAlbumGain: 5.38
channels: 2
duration: 295
bitRate: 160000
trackNumber: 4
replayGainTrackPeak: 0.652557
releaseYear: 1998
replayGainTrackGain: 4.71
genre: classical
sampleRate: 44100
album: rusalka
albumArtist: neumann vaclav
comment: d107
artist: czech philharmonic
title: 04 comes frequently he here
composer: dvorak
discNumber: 1

Have look at the mixed data inside. The index data is created for a completely different file, than asked for.
Comment 1 Daniel 2026-02-05 20:53:07 UTC
I would suggest, to find any other possibility than baloo, to get the media data for files (maybe mediainfo?)
Even if it's slower then, it's still better than now.

Baloo is difficult to configure, tends to hanging and delivers unreliable and unusable data.
I've tried it two years ago on Ubuntu Studio 22.04 LTS, went back to Windows because of this, and now, 2 years later, it has still problems.
So this proves, that baloo is disqualified, because it's an unreliable indexing service and not liked, nor wished by users like me.
Comment 2 Daniel 2026-02-06 15:39:09 UTC
It seems, that the problem was caused by 1 file - only ONE out of 200'000.
The file was not even corrupt, but had a control character in its name ('\009').
This caused the baloo database to get broken.

I have no idea, how this \009 came into the name, so I can't reproduce the specific task.
The fact, that it happens, proves the weakness and unreliability of baloo.
Comment 3 Daniel 2026-02-08 22:55:31 UTC
No, it was not the file.

After every restart, the baloo database gets corrupted.

I've tested it:

Purged the database.
Added new files.
Checked for correctness - everything was ok and displayed in Dolphin.
Restart of the system
Checked again - everything had wrong data !!!!!
Comment 4 Daniel 2026-02-09 02:54:49 UTC
Yes.

I can clear and rebuild the index with
    balooctl clear "$item"
    balooctl index "$item"
where "$item" is the full pathname to a video file (mp4).

The data about Duration, Width and Height is then displayed in Dolphin.

After a restart, it is gone or wrong again.

"balooctl status" shows me, that the database is increasing, after a rescan of the same files with "clear" and "index" like above.
I did nothing change or add on the existing folders, so this might not happen. It's the same content, that should only be reindexed.

balooctl status
Die Baloo-Dateiindizierung läuft
Indizierungsstatus: Inaktiv
Gesamtzahl der indizierten Dateien: 225.852
Dateien, die noch indiziert werden: 0
Dateien, deren Indizierung fehlgeschlagen ist: 0
Der aktuelle Index hat eine Größe von 357,11 MiB

After clearing all prevoiusly indexed files and folders, there are still 150'000 files left. Even the database size increases. (It should decrease ...)

balooctl status
Die Baloo-Dateiindizierung läuft
Indizierungsstatus: Inaktiv
Gesamtzahl der indizierten Dateien: 151.322
Dateien, die noch indiziert werden: 0
Dateien, deren Indizierung fehlgeschlagen ist: 0
Der aktuelle Index hat eine Größe von 371,83 MiB

There is no more data available for previously indexed files (it's cleared):
balooshow -x "/home/sd/Media/Filme/_mkv/2067 Kampf um die Zukunft (2020)/2067 Kampf um die Zukunft (2020).mkv"
141a211816 438376470 20 /home/sd/Media/Filme/_mkv/2067 Kampf um die Zukunft (2020)/2067 Kampf um die Zukunft (2020).mkv: Keine Indexinformationen gefunden
Comment 5 Daniel 2026-02-09 03:04:05 UTC
Now I found, that there is no possible configuration to solve this problem.

Main problem seems, that all my data is on a NAS with SMB3 (QNAP).
The inodes are changing with every system start, misleading baloo to wrong entries in its database.

Using a NAS for data is in my eyes a standard in todays environments, either for saving data, in a family network or in companies.
So I wonder, why such a fragile service like baloo has found it's way into a file-manager as a requirement to display data for media files.
It is not reliable, not working properly and completely unusable in networking environments.
Comment 6 Daniel 2026-02-09 15:22:07 UTC
I've tred to change the access from SMB to NTFS.

Problems with smb was the changing inodes.
Problem with nfs now is a changing device ID after every system start.
As example 83 <-> 55.
So whatever I try, it's not working.
Baloo is unusable.
Comment 7 TraceyC 2026-02-09 20:11:24 UTC
Hi, I'm afraid Dolphin 23.08.5 no longer receives updates or maintenance from KDE; active versions are 25.08.3 or newer. Please upgrade to an active version as soon as your distribution makes it available to you, or use other application distribution methods such as Flathub. Dolphin is a fast-moving project, and bugs in one version are often fixed in the next one.

If you need support for Dolphin 23.08.5, please contact your distribution, who bears the responsibility of providing help for older releases that are no longer receiving updates from KDE.

If this issue is still reproducible in a supported version of Dolphin, feel free to re-open this bug report.

Thanks for understanding!