Music videos library inconsistent Folder view

[CharleyVarrick 283]

I am still fixing the catastrophic results of (temporarily) enabling moviedb as a music videos md provider.

When I go to the music videos library, I have 3 tabs on top; Videos/Artists/Folders

In Videos, it tells me 1.8k media, which sounds about right.

In Artists view, 500 on the counter, which is dead on. In windows file explorer, I have created artists folders (yes, 500 of them).

In Folder view, I was seeing 500 items, so everything is cool. 500 artists, 500 items in folder.

But... I have only 74 items that actually are artists folder. The rest are individual videos. Why show them as Folders is beyond me.

At first I believed it was because of some flattening of folder happening with "one hit wonder", that is artists I have only one MV of.

Even if it were true, why does Emby take the initiative of displaying files when asked to display folder.

If I want to see individual videos, I will go on Videos views. Right now this is a mess.

 

But I discovered another problem. About half of those videos were of artists I had more then 1 videos of. They were "versionned" by Emby.

For instance, I have 6 music videos of Alanis Morissette, but could only see 1, when I select it, it shows the versions button, which if clicked on, displayed all 6 different songs.

Why this happens is again beyond me. Fortunately, the Split versions button unexpectedly worked. After checking all videos one at a time, I got rid of nonsense versioning.

I was expecting Emby to realize, "hey in Folders view, I am displaying 6 individual videos of a same artist, so I am going to show an artist folder instead, but no, it did not happen

My Folder views now shows 800 items (74 artists + 726* individual videos), when it should show 500 artists folders.

*of those 726, maybe 200 are "one hit wonder" artists, the rest are multiple videos of same artists.

If someone can explain the apparent lack of logic behind this, I would be curious about it.

Edited July 9 by CharleyVarrick

[Luke 38493]

Quote

Even if it were true, why does Emby take the initiative of displaying files when asked to display folder.

HI, what do you mean exactly? Can you please show a specific example? Thanks.

[CharleyVarrick 283]

32 minutes ago, Luke said:

HI, what do you mean exactly? Can you please show a specific example? Thanks

.

All captures of Music Videos library.

1st is videos tab

2nd is Artists tab

3rd is Folders tab

While in folders tab, I multi select actual folders (there's only 74, out of 451).

(Obviously, in master music videos folder, I have no loose videos, only artists folders)

Last folder is The Who, then it goes on with videos

Edited July 9 by CharleyVarrick

[CharleyVarrick 283]

Here's a grab of master music videos folder in File Explorer, I captured the end of the list.

[CharleyVarrick 283]

So, to recap

1) Why does Emby flatten all sub folders containing only 1 media  item ?

If there were an option for it, I would turn it off in a heartbeat

 

2) Why does Emby also flatten hundreds of folders with multiple media items ?

This is what I refer to as Emby being inconsistent.

Edited July 9 by CharleyVarrick

[Luke 38493]

Quote

1) Why does Emby flatten all sub folders containing only 1 media  item ?

If there were an option for it, I would turn it off in a heartbeat

Hi, it doesn't anymore, for new installs and new libraries. Try removing the library from Emby library setup and then recreating it.

[Luke 38493]

Quote

2) Why does Emby also flatten hundreds of folders with multiple media items ?

This is what I refer to as Emby being inconsistent.

Probably the same answer as the previous question, but we'd have to look at a specific example. Thanks.

[CharleyVarrick 283]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

Hi, it doesn't anymore, for new installs and new libraries. Try removing the library from Emby library setup and then recreating it.

Since when ? I already removed and recreated the library 2 days ago...

[CharleyVarrick 283]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

Probably the same answer as the previous question, but we'd have to look at a specific example. Thanks.

I'll give you 2 examples (out of many more): Look at those Billy Idol (6) and Billy Joel (7).

There MV are listed individually instead of displaying their respective folders (pictured below)

Edited July 10 by CharleyVarrick

[Luke 38493]

Can you scroll up and show a screenshot of that?

[CharleyVarrick 283]

1 minute ago, Luke said:

Can you scroll up and show a screenshot of that?

This what you meant ?

[Luke 38493]

Sorry in Emby i mean. Thanks.

[CharleyVarrick 283]

3 minutes ago, Luke said:

Sorry in Emby i mean. Thanks.

Top (and bottom below)

[CharleyVarrick 283]

Not ignoring the issue above, but another one popped up.

I just removed and recreate the library, with the automated library scan + a manual one after removing and recreating.

Still the same in regards to folders flattening.

But as the video counts were off, from 1798 to 1495.

Apparently I have been bitten again by the dreaded versioning bug. Those 300 missing videos is because Emby grouped them into one media item with versions.

Ex below:

While this bug has nothing to do with the rest, it remains frustrating.

It is also highly time consuming to check 400 MV one by one for versions menu, then splitting versions apart/agreeing.

Is there a setting that can turn off the versioning feature ?

I realize some users find the versions feature helpful when they have multiple versions of a movie.

The only reason I know of the existence of this feature is when it goes on a rampage like this,

and its not the first time it happened.

Edited July 10 by CharleyVarrick

[Luke 38493]

How many Emby libraries have you created and what folder paths are added to each one?

[CharleyVarrick 283]

2 minutes ago, Luke said:

How many Emby libraries have you created and what folder paths are added to each one?

[CharleyVarrick 283]

One crazy thought (neither first nor last),

what if video versioning is Emby's wrong way to try to display them in a folder like it should ?

[CharleyVarrick 283]

A moment ago, I removed from master music videos folder all artists folders that Emby refuses to acknowledge.

Once Emby would show only artists folder on the Folders tab, I added back only 1 unrecognized artist folder that held 6 individual videos.

As usual, Emby added 1 "loose" video in the Folders tab, and this video was versionned into the 6.

I again split versions apart, and ended up with 74 artists folders and the 6 loose videos at the end. Back to square 1.

 

I again removed the "offending" folder, scan library and back to 74 actual folders in emby MV folder tab.

I had the idea to do a slight rename on this folder, then add it back to master folder and scan library.

What do you know, it worked ! The (renamed) artists folder was added to the Emby folders list.

Although its not a practical solution, it might point to something Emby holds on to in a cache somewhere.

 

If I could stop Emby from versionning music videos in the first place, it might get the job right and simply display a folder?

Edited July 11 by CharleyVarrick

[CharleyVarrick 283]

Out of despair, I did 4 other removal/creations of music videos library.

1st with all default options left as found (I always tinker slightly)

No difference.

- - -

2nd with all provider options checked OFF (except NFO's)

No difference.

- - -

3rd with only the normal-working artists sub folders (74)

everything looks normal, even the pesky Folder tab shows 74 folders.

- - -

4th with only the non-working artists sub folders (378)

About 300 videos go awol, again because Emby keeps versioning them.

The Folders tab display only videos, and only 1 per artist. Not 1 artists folders is displayed.

Trivial or not, but the Folders tab item count is 378. Same exact count as the Videos tab.

It is also the same number of artists folder in my master MV Windows folder.

This is the only thing that is making a little sense. But not much.

Edited July 11 by CharleyVarrick

[Happy2Play 9060]

2 minutes ago, CharleyVarrick said:

4th with only the non-working artists sub folders (378) = About 300 videos go awol, again because Emby keeps versioning them.

Yes the folder/filenaming scheme has always been an issue when it comes to music videos as that is the multi-versioning naming scheme.  To a point this content type should be exempt from the rule.

[CharleyVarrick 283]

40 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Yes the folder/filenaming scheme has always been an issue when it comes to music videos as that is the multi-versioning naming scheme.  To a point this content type should be exempt from the rule.

Or just add a toggle option to turn off file versioning when creating a MV library.

EDIT:

Or any library for that matter. File versioning has never been helpful once for me. But it sure knows how to annoy the hell out of me.

I've had another variety of it in movies and tv shows, and to top it off, the split version apart button would not work for those.

Do I read between the lines that if I lose the artists sub-folders in Windows and throw all files in a huge folder, multi versioning will not occur ?

Edited July 11 by CharleyVarrick

[Happy2Play 9060]

1 minute ago, CharleyVarrick said:

Or just add a toggle option to turn off file versioning when creating a MV library.

Do I read between the lines that if I lose the artists sub-folders in Windows and throw all files in a huge folder, multi versioning will not occur ?

Well yes as it no longer conforms to multi-version rule.

Each version must begin with the folder name, followed by " - ".

So changing folder to not match filename or change the dash spacing.

[CharleyVarrick 283]

14 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Each version must begin with the folder name, followed by " - ".

So changing folder to not match filename or change the dash spacing.

That spacing character " - " is space/dash/space, right? If I go just dash, no space before/after?  ie: videos/Billy Joel/Billy Joel-A Matter of Trust.mp4

D you think that could work ? 

Edited July 11 by CharleyVarrick

[Happy2Play 9060]

1 minute ago, CharleyVarrick said:

Folder has a (year), filename doesn't but that's besides the point.

But folder does not have year. ie folder and file match but this example should not multi-version do to spacing around the dash.

videos/Billy Joel/Billy Joel-A Matter of Trust.mp4

1 minute ago, CharleyVarrick said:

That spacing character " - " is space/dash/space, right?

Yes

 

[CharleyVarrick 283]

1 minute ago, Happy2Play said:

But folder does not have year. ie folder and file match but this example should not multi-version do to spacing around the dash.

videos/Billy Joel/Billy Joel-A Matter of Trust.mp4

Yes

 

Sorry about the year thing, Lets call it pitcher error.

I did not wait your confirmation and performed the spaces-sectomy within a test folder...

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