Windows Shortcuts in movie folders no longer working

[dcook 265]

Just curious what is the point of having windows shortcuts which then point to a network drive when you can just have the EMBY library point directly to the network drive?  

Seems to be an unnecessary level of complication

[colchar 10]

Personally for example, i have my movies set up in years, my son has his comic book movies set up by hero. I want Dark Knight Rises in the 2012 folder and he has a shortcut in his Batman folder.

 

it has nothing to do with network drives and file location. Using shortcuts the files can be used in multiple locations and multiple collections without having to duplicate them and waste storage.

[dcook 265]

But you can add movies to multiple collections now, without having windows shortcuts, sorry if I am not understanding the point of the shortcuts?

 

I am just curious if this is some hidden feature that makes EMBY even better then it already is and I am missing out.

[colchar 10]

I don't believe the same result can be achieved. Using the above example, the batman folder is a mix of tv shows and movies that all relate in a separate directory call comic heros. He opens his directory and sees images of superheros, picks one and sees all relevant items. He doesn't just want another collection amongst mine in the collections section.

[ebr 14921]

Another instance where shortcuts worked well:

 

You want to give a friend access to only a handful of TV shows or movies from within your libraries.  You can create a folder in your file system, drop shortcuts to only the items to which you want them to have access and then setup a library pointing at that new folder.  Then give the friend access to only that library.

 

No other way currently in the system to do that.  Well, actually, you could use "block with tags" but you'd have to tag every single item you didn't want them to access and keep doing that for new items so it isn't really practical.  If we just add the inverse of that feature (allow only with tag or something similar) then you can do the same thing without shortucts.

[Schar 4]

This is fantastic.

 

I used a similar feature for what I let the kids watch, which is why the main media center in the house still runs MB2 on it. Ratings and tags are not reliable. I was exactly after the opt-in rather than "block by" feature. Personally I still use this as a "library" structure to keep an easy handle on the current stuff that the wife and I are watching. But that we could do by collections now.

 

Pretty much what I was asking for in this feature request:

http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/32987-server-add-filterable-library-custom-views/

 

Edit: I looked into the playlist feature and it didn't quite do what I wanted. While all the episodes show up, they show up in the order that series are added and there is no ability to browse via series, or have a next up etc. I'm after a "filtered" library feature

Edited June 17, 2016 by Schar

[rickster53 27]

Shortcuts still aren't working for me.  Is this still in the development "queue" for implementation?

[Luke 37094]

yes.

[TroyBennett 9]

Will this work for photos as well? please say yes!

[Schar 4]

FWIW: I've tried achieving this using symlinks on my UNRAID Servers (emby is on Linux) - and having a library purely of shortcuts.

 

Emby consolidates the series, but everything I created a link for has doubled up episodes (as they are in two separate locations as far as emby can see) - fair enough. It cannot unpack a symlink on a remote server (nor should it be able to!).

 

In the meantime, MB2 will prevail and I'll keep watching patiently!

(or download the source and have a look...)

 

p.s. if you play with symlinks (ln -s [source] [dest]), don't delete the link from windows. Unlike a shortcut or windows link, the underlying media gets trashed. Glad I have unlimited bandwidth....

Edited June 20, 2016 by Schar

[Mustang Dave 5]

When will the new "short cut" option be available in production?

[colchar 10]

I have started having to duplicate Movies and TV Shows in different sections so that it can show properly, I am eagerly waiting for shortcuts to work again.

[dcook 265]

Another case where existing working features were removed or disabled in newer version of EMBY

[Luke 37094]

Sorry but that is an oversimplification and sometimes hard decisions have to be made. This feature is only used by a very small handful of people. Look at how Google experiments all the time with new products and features, and if they don't gain traction they stop devoting resources to them. For the benefit of the entire project as a whole we have to take the same approach. In this situation, major performance improvements were identified that would break this feature, and while I apologize to the people that use this, I will take the improvements that benefit everyone over this particular thing. I have said that we would like to bring this back, just in a more user friendly way.

[Deathsquirrel 741]

I have said that we would like to bring this back, just in a more user friendly way.

 

Curious, are you referring to the series pooling functions I understand are in beta to allow a series spread across several drives to show as one entry?

 

For the folks using shortcuts, junction points should still work fine if you're looking for options to accomplish the same end.

[ebr 14921]

Curious, are you referring to the series pooling functions I understand are in beta to allow a series spread across several drives to show as one entry?

 

No, that's not the same thing at all in my mind.

[Deathsquirrel 741]

No, that's not the same thing at all in my mind.

 

 

Fair enough, I shall wait and see then.  That addressed the most common case I've seen for using shortcuts & such.

[colchar 10]

Simplest way I describe my need for shortcuts. I just added Batman v Superman. I want it in my movies folder, my son wants it in his Batman and his Superman folders. I've had to put a copy in each folder instead of just adding shortcuts.

[bfir3 114]

Simplest way I describe my need for shortcuts. I just added Batman v Superman. I want it in my movies folder, my son wants it in his Batman and his Superman folders. I've had to put a copy in each folder instead of just adding shortcuts.

And the copies result in duplicate library entries while the shortcuts would not?

[colchar 10]

I want duplicate entries in the library. We have different libraries for different people, a lot of movies and tv I want in each of the different libraries. With shortcuts I could just add a shortcut of the file and as far as the library looked it was in each of them, when in reality it only existed once and was just being linked into the others.

But now I have to actually put a physical copy of the movie in each library for it to display in each.

[LiquidFX 135]

I want duplicate entries in the library. We have different libraries for different people, a lot of movies and tv I want in each of the different libraries. With shortcuts I could just add a shortcut of the file and as far as the library looked it was in each of them, when in reality it only existed once and was just being linked into the others.

 

But now I have to actually put a physical copy of the movie in each library for it to display in each.

Same here, my wife and I pretty much just use my account for everything now. When my daughter gets older she will need her own account and I hope by then this function is back, good thing shes only 2 weeks old....

[dcook 265]

I would not count on it, the Dev's seem intent on removing useful features that worked perfectly for months/years for no valid reason.

 

 

 

Same here, my wife and I pretty much just use my account for everything now. When my daughter gets older she will need her own account and I hope by then this function is back, good thing shes only 2 weeks old....

[colchar 10]

Not sure that's true, there is no incentive to remove features just to annoy users.

Not really the best way to inspire them to add things either talking like that.

[dcook 265]

History of the product has shown that useful features are removed without consultation or asking the userbase first.

Then users start complaining and sometimes the features or functionality is restored, but often not.

 

 

Not sure that's true, there is no incentive to remove features just to annoy users.
Not really the best way to inspire them to add things either talking like that.

[Deathsquirrel 741]

Not sure that's true, there is no incentive to remove features just to annoy users.

Not really the best way to inspire them to add things either talking like that.

 

Yes but that's how people often choose to characterize things that are actually disabled because they're broken or causing issues with something else.  Throw in a few things that were actually disabled because they were a PITA to support and almost no one used them and boom, you have a running meme.