From c814a84b274542ed33b8d29732f416de962198ab Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nicholas Wallace <nicholaslwallace@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 13 May 2026 14:16:30 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Add logging when author normalization is empty

---
 server/models/Book.js         | 5 ++++-
 server/scanner/BookScanner.js | 4 ++++
 server/scanner/Scanner.js     | 5 ++++-
 3 files changed, 12 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/server/models/Book.js b/server/models/Book.js
index d61ec3a46..5c0fc10d4 100644
--- a/server/models/Book.js
+++ b/server/models/Book.js
@@ -480,7 +480,10 @@ class Book extends Model {
     const authorsAdded = []
     for (const authorName of newAuthorNames) {
       const { author, created } = await authorModel.findOrCreateByNameAndLibrary(authorName, libraryId)
-      if (!author) continue
+      if (!author) {
+        Logger.warn(`[Book] "${this.title}" skipped author "${authorName}" because normalized name was empty`)
+        continue
+      }
       await bookAuthorModel.create({ bookId: this.id, authorId: author.id })
       if (created) {
         SocketAuthority.emitter('author_added', author.toOldJSON())
diff --git a/server/scanner/BookScanner.js b/server/scanner/BookScanner.js
index 005b0f0e7..42068c7e6 100644
--- a/server/scanner/BookScanner.js
+++ b/server/scanner/BookScanner.js
@@ -223,6 +223,10 @@ class BookScanner {
         for (const authorName of bookMetadata.authors) {
           if (!media.authors.some((au) => Database.authorModel.isAuthorNameMatch(au.name, authorName))) {
             const { author, created } = await Database.authorModel.findOrCreateByNameAndLibrary(authorName, libraryItemData.libraryId)
+            if (!author) {
+              libraryScan.addLog(LogLevel.WARN, `Skipping author "${authorName}" because normalized name was empty`)
+              continue
+            }
             if (!created) {
               await Database.bookAuthorModel.create({
                 bookId: media.id,
diff --git a/server/scanner/Scanner.js b/server/scanner/Scanner.js
index ec466300d..a4125e9ec 100644
--- a/server/scanner/Scanner.js
+++ b/server/scanner/Scanner.js
@@ -250,7 +250,10 @@ class Scanner {
         const existingAuthor = libraryItem.media.authors.find((a) => Database.authorModel.isAuthorNameMatch(a.name, authorName))
         if (!existingAuthor) {
           const { author, created: isCreated } = await Database.authorModel.findOrCreateByNameAndLibrary(authorName, libraryItem.libraryId)
-          if (!author) continue
+          if (!author) {
+            libraryScan.addLog(LogLevel.WARN, `Skipping author "${authorName}" because normalized name was empty`)
+            continue
+          }
           if (isCreated) {
             SocketAuthority.emitter('author_added', author.toOldJSON())
             // Update filter data