From 5ae444d96d473ba42c4a812c3f366b0faa6ebef4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: theguymadmax <theguymadmax@proton.me>
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2025 20:37:09 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Fix NullReferenceException in filesystem path comparison
 (#15548)

---
 Emby.Server.Implementations/IO/ManagedFileSystem.cs | 13 +++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Emby.Server.Implementations/IO/ManagedFileSystem.cs b/Emby.Server.Implementations/IO/ManagedFileSystem.cs
index fad97344b5..4d68cb4444 100644
--- a/Emby.Server.Implementations/IO/ManagedFileSystem.cs
+++ b/Emby.Server.Implementations/IO/ManagedFileSystem.cs
@@ -497,8 +497,17 @@ namespace Emby.Server.Implementations.IO
         /// <inheritdoc />
         public virtual bool AreEqual(string path1, string path2)
         {
-            return Path.TrimEndingDirectorySeparator(path1).Equals(
-                Path.TrimEndingDirectorySeparator(path2),
+            if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(path1) || string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(path2))
+            {
+                return false;
+            }
+
+            var normalized1 = Path.TrimEndingDirectorySeparator(path1);
+            var normalized2 = Path.TrimEndingDirectorySeparator(path2);
+
+            return string.Equals(
+                normalized1,
+                normalized2,
                 _isEnvironmentCaseInsensitive ? StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase : StringComparison.Ordinal);
         }