What is doing automatic collections and how do I stop it?

[filecore 8]

I have a bunch of manual collections that are set up the way I like them. However, something is regularly annihilating them, giving me hundreds of two-movie collections that I don't want, and moving items out of my custom collections into these defaults. It's frustrating, but I can't seem to figure out what it is. I used to use Auto Box Sets, with very tight settings; however, I recently moved the server to new hardware, and that particular plugin doesn't even appear in my Plugins anymore. This is driving me crazy and I'm getting frustrated when having to constantly recreate them.

Bonus question: if I want to remove a Collection, I can select it and delete. If I want to bulk remove the 60 or so stupid default two-disc collections, Emby will warn me that "Deleting these items will delete them from both the file system and your media library." Am I interpreting this correctly, that deleting an individual collection will delete the collection, but deleting multiple collections will also actually delete files from the filesystem? I would just like to remove the collections, but keep the files, only structure them as I want and not as the defaults.

Currently I have:

• Addic7ed 1.1.1.0
• Backup & Restore 1.7.5.0
• Bluray Folder Support 1.0.2.0
• Cinema Intros 1.0.47.0
• CoverArt 4.1.28.0
• DLNA 1.4.9.0
• Discogs 1.0.7.0
• Dvd Folder Support 1.0.0.0
• Emby Guide Data 1.0.18.0
• Fanart.tv 1.0.16.0
• Genre Cleaner 1.0.26.0
• Last.fm 1.0.29.0
• M3U TV Tuner 1.0.39.0
• MovieDb 1.8.3.0
• MusicBrainz 1.0.25.0
• Nfo Metadata 1.0.83.0
• OMDb 1.0.22.0
• Open Subtitles 1.0.64.0
• Port Mapper 1.2.8.0
• RatingPosterDB 1.0.3.2
• Statistics 3.4.1.1
• Studio Images 1.0.3.0
• TheAudioDb 1.0.20.0
• TheTVDB 1.6.2.0
• Trakt 3.8.0.0
• Webhooks 1.0.35.0
• XmlTV 1.2.0.0

embyserver.txt

[Luke 40106]

Hi, there is a setting in your movie library options to import collections from MovieDb. It is off by default.

[Happy2Play 9446]

40 minutes ago, filecore said:

Am I interpreting this correctly, that deleting an individual collection will delete the collection, but deleting multiple collections will also actually delete files from the filesystem?

From a Collections standpoint it is only deleting the Collection from the filesystem ie Emby /programdata/metadata/collections.

Now for creation it is a per library configuration

But if you have something other program writing metadata Emby will always read any existing <set> node in each items nfo file if you write nfo files.

[filecore 8]

Fast and efficient replies as always! Regarding the deletion of collections, I think the wording of the popup is maybe misleading - it made me concerned that the files from the filesystem would be deleted!

As for the rest, I'm not aware of any settings toggled on like that but I'll go through my libraries and check. Certainly nothing has happened with TV collections (although I'm not sure if that works in the same way) but I'll let you know!

[Luke 40106]

Right it's a generic deletion dialog. We need to adjust the text for collections. Thanks.

[ebr 15670]

9 minutes ago, filecore said:

I'm not aware of any settings toggled on like that

Hi.  Its also possible if you have NFO files from some other source, that the collections are coming from the "Set" tag in those.

[filecore 8]

On 08/05/2025 at 18:16, Luke said:

Hi, there is a setting in your movie library options to import collections from MovieDb. It is off by default.

I found that this was in fact on, and assumed that it was just my brainfart. However after disabling it, I woke up today to find that my collections had once again been overwritten. This is starting to get very frustrating. Are there any logs or screenshots or something that I should add to pinpoint this issue? Failing that, I can provide remote access.

[ebr 15670]

5 hours ago, filecore said:

However after disabling it

Hi.  The option governs whether or not the data for the collections is imported from tmdb.  Once that data is there, it is going to be used to create collections.  So, just turning it off will only affect future items, not ones that already have the data.

[filecore 8]

So... what are my next steps, in order to not have this automatic creation of collections occur? I want to be able to manage them fully manually, and have nothing change unless I do it myself.

[Luke 40106]

4 hours ago, filecore said:

So... what are my next steps, in order to not have this automatic creation of collections occur? I want to be able to manage them fully manually, and have nothing change unless I do it myself.

You would disable the option on each of your movie libraries to import collections from MovieDb.

On top of that, if you have some other software creating nfo files, then make sure they are not saving collection information inside of them.