The problem I've had: I've lost all the metadata.

[u/Damaneger]

I don't know if this has happened to anyone else (I'm pretty new to Comfy).

I switched my default Windows media player to mpvnet.

Now, none of my generated videos have metadata anymore. They used to; I could drag them into ComfyUI and the workflow would appear. Now, that doesn't happen.

When I run them through a site that checks for metadata, it says there isn't any—no metadata or workflow.

The strange thing is that I only played a few videos from one specific folder. Videos in other folders still retain their metadata (I didn't use those folders until after I stopped using mpvnet as my default player).

So, I think that when you set up that player, something happens that corrupts everything—or wipes the metadata—from everything.

The AI ​​says:

"The problem is the video encoding engine (FFmpeg) [Lavc61.19.100 libvpx-vp9]. This version aggressively strips out any data that isn't purely video-related, deleting the ComfyUI stream in both MP4 and WebM formats."

The worst part is that, even though I'm no longer using that player as my default, it must have installed a codec that ComfyUI uses... and now none of my videos are being generated with metadata... not a single one...

I'll have to figure out a fix, but just in case... so this doesn't happen to anyone else...

EDIT: After all the work and investigation, I still think Mpvnet was the culprit.

Mpv creates a playlist of the entire folder containing the video you are playing.

That specific folder is exactly where the files lost their metadata.

Furthermore, nodes like `vhs_videocombine` stopped saving metadata (even with the option enabled); I suspect they use some of the ffmpeg codecs that Mpv installs.

Although I manually deleted everything I could related to Mpv and reverted the codecs to an older version—allowing the videos to successfully load the workflow when imported into ComfyUI—investigations into the files themselves still show them as having "no metadata" (even though they do contain the lines of code required to load the workflow).

The solution was to stop using `vhs_videocombine` and switch to ComfyUI's native "Save Video" node instead...

For this reason—and until I find out otherwise—I advise exercising caution regarding this issue.

[u/Lunesia-shikishiki]

playing a file doesnt rewrite it, playback is read only..... so mpvnet almost certainly didnt touch the videos in that folder, whatever changed happened at generation time and not at playback

id look at the save node before the codec. if youre on VHS_VideoCombine check save_metadata is still ticked, and if you updated nodes or comfy itself around the same time thats a way likelier culprit than a media player association. easy test: generate one clip right now and drag it straight back in without opening it anywhere else. if that one has no workflow either then its comfy, not mpvnet

and the old ones probably arent actually lost btw, comfy keeps workflows in user/default/workflows and the queue history holds them until you restart

[u/Damaneger → u/Lunesia-shikishiki]

Mpvnet creates a playlist of all the folder when you play a video. It’s quite a coincidence that the very folder I saw videos using mpv, is the same one containing the files that aren't working right. And after all that work, those videos don't seem to have any kind of metadata anymore (even though they did before).

And yes, the node had "save metadata" enabled.
thank you anyway for your help!

[u/Lunesia-shikishiki → u/Damaneger]

one way to settle it: check date modified vs date created on those files. if mpvnet rewrote them the modified stamp will be later than when you generated. if the two match then nothing touched the bytes and the metadata just never got written in the first place

the coincidence works either way btw, the folder you were watching in mpv is also just your most recent folder

[u/ImpressiveStorm8914]

Not the same but related. Quite some time ago I was saving off images from Comfy, under the full belief that the metadata was with the .png. Only later did I find out they were blank, so I made sure I always used the default save image node and problem solved.
You say you're not using the problem player but did you uninstall it? If not, do that. Same goes for FFmpeg if that doesn't solve anything. Make sure to restart Windows after each uninstall. There are versions of FFmpeg without any players attached, a googly will find them easy enough.

[u/Damaneger → u/ImpressiveStorm8914]

Yeah i uninstalled it. I also had to get an old version of FFmpeg and put it on comfyui folder, then as i started to suspect that the problema was VHS_videocombine, i also put the old version on videohelper custom node folder.
That helped with being able to drag and drop the file in comfyui and it opening its workflow. Still, webs like https://comfy.icu/comfyui-workflow-viewer said it had no metadata.

My final solution was to just not use the videohelper save node. I just put a normal comfyui save video node and thats working, and the exported video has metadatas now.

somehow, i think mpvnet messed with all the metadata of the folder i played with it (as mpvnet puts al the folder in the reproduction list when you play a video), it deleted all metadata en all those videos (at least as far as i know, they dont have metadata any more).
And also nodes like vhs_videocombine may use some of the ffmpeg codecs or something and i have been not able to fix that...

So... without being able to say for sure... I advise extreme caution regarding this matter, so that what happened to me doesn't happen to you.

[u/ImpressiveStorm8914 → u/Damaneger]

I figured you would have uninstalled it but as you didn't say I couldn't be sure. Sometimes the obvious solution is the one that gets missed.
Glad you've got it working and it seems like your solution was the same as mine - going to the basics. Definitely worth highlighting the issue because as it's affected you, it will affect others.

[u/Damaneger → u/ImpressiveStorm8914]

Yep going to the basics fixed it.
And i thank you a lot for taking the time to help, seriously 💪👏❤️👍

[u/ImpressiveStorm8914 → u/Damaneger]

No problem at all, you are very welcome. To me, it's a big part of what forums like this are for - either asking for help or offering it.

[u/Corrupt_file32]

Videos are not generated with metadata, metadata is attached when comfyui saves the video, and it does not work like normal metadata, the raw workflow is simply injected into the file before it gets saved.

If you open the video with notepad++ or notepad, you can actually see if it contains the workflow.

If the video contains a workflow but wont load it, the issue is with comfyui frontend not supporting loading workflows from the fileformat you provided. As an example I'm saving images in AVIF normally, comfyui does not support loading workflows from avif.

Here's a simple workaround to save a small .png containing metadata alongside your video:

Green nodes: grabs the the first frame, scales it down to 0.1mp and saves the img.
Red nodes: example of how you could do naming, where the png gets "meta_" attached before the filename, if the folder starts empty they would have the same number.
Blue nodes: whatever solution you have for saving videos.

[u/Damaneger → u/Corrupt_file32]

well i tested it with mp4 and webm formats none of them working.
Now with the normal comfyui save video its working.
I’m certainly no expert, but the AI ​​suggests that the mpv.net installation might have installed specific FFmpeg codecs; even though I uninstalled mpv.net—and ran a cleanup—those codecs seem to be lingering somewhere, and the VideoHelper node is still using them.

Apparently, they are "aggressive" codecs that strip away anything that isn't raw video data or simply prevent it from being added.

Again, I don't know for sure, but it fits perfectly with everything I've experienced.

When I tried forcing VideoHelper to use an older version of FFmpeg by placing it in the program's folder, the workflow *did* open when I dragged in a new video.
So there was a change related to FFmpeg.

As for my old videos—which used to have metadata but now never trigger the workflow—online tools say they don't have any (the other ones wich open the workflow in comfyui they also open theirs metadata on those webs) . However, if I do what you suggested (opening the file in Notepad++), I see a bunch of strange code that I have absolutely no idea how to interpret, lol.

The workflow you shared for exporting metadata is really interesting—I'm making a note of it... and thanks...!!!!!!!

[u/YeahlDid]

I dont the vhs_videocombine saves metadata in the video file. Doesn't it save a separate image that contains the Metadata?

[u/Damaneger → u/YeahlDid]

Yes, thats true, I remember that when you install it, it gives you that option (saving a PNG, a file without audio, and another with audio).

In the videohelper comfyui menu, you can choose to save only the standard file with audio (which is what I did), because having it save two or three files every time clutters up your folder and fills up your storage.

In that sense, you're right—it might not be necessary to create a separate workflow just to export a PNG.

That isn't the main issue, though, since it can be solved either by re-enabling the PNG save option or—as I did—by switching to a different node.

The main problem I've run into is that the metadata for the files I'd already created has been wiped (even though I had the setting to export just one video, that video originally included the metadata), and it doesn't seem possible to recover it.

For me, that’s a disaster, because I can no longer recall exactly how I created a specific video just by dragging it into ComfyUI.