Shortcuts / Box Sets / Collections No Longer Working

[Blue Kachina 12]

Hello all;
I've been using MediaBrowser for a few years now, and am REALLY digging v3.

 

Up until 2 days ago, I had several collections working, and I make frequent use of them, so I'd like to try to get them up-and running once again.

I have one PC set up that acts as my media server (Media Browser Server Version 3.0.5154.1864).  

 

Sometimes I watch/listen to content on that same machine (MBC/MBT), and other times I use one of my Android devices to consume content.

Regardless of which client I use however, my box sets/collections (while they still show up) are now appearing empty... despite the fact that I have made no changes to the folder structure/shortcuts used within them etc.

 

None of my Media Libraries use the Default Library (which is not defined), but all of my user accounts have their own Media Libraries defined.  Each of them has a "Box Sets" library defined (of type "Collections").  The one for "Whip" is defined with the location of "E:\Media\Video\Box Sets".

 

I've recently added a path substitution as well:

E:\MEDIA \\192.168.1.10\E$\MEDIA

 

I found another similar topic in this forum:

http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/4628-one-boxset-not-showing-all-of-a-sudden/

and have tried the fix there, however that does not seem to be the fix I needed.  I'm guessing that this would make the box set show up, and not its contents.

I should point out however, that none of my boxsets do have that collection.xml (with the exception of the one that I created to test the other OP's resolution).  Since creating that XML file, I have shut down the server, deleted my "library.db" file, and restarted the server.

 

I also want to point out, that all of my collections are made up of shortcuts (*.lnk) that point to content that is indeed properly being recognized by Media Browser in my Movies section. 

 

 

Box Sets In Windows Explorer

http://snag.gy/KFCyb.jpg 

 

Box Sets in Library Explorer --> Please note that all of the paths listed here under Linked Children's paths show double backslashes (is this just to escape the character?)

http://snag.gy/I9U1Z.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

I have not provided any log files just yet, but please do advise if you think they will be helpful, and I will be happy to post them.

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Blue

Edited February 11, 2014 by Blue Kachina

[Blue Kachina 12]

Update:
I've found a way to get my boxset collections working, but I have not yet been able to resolve the problem I described above (using shortcuts).
I've physically moved all of the boxset movies from their individual folders into a single folder that has the word "[boxset]" in it.

Because of this, I no longer need assistance in trying to get box sets working (again), however any assistance anyone can offer on resolving my problem with shortcuts is still very welcome.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

You can have your movies in individual folders within the [boxset] folder. That is how I have it so I can have artwork for each of them and for the boxset. An example would be:

 

 

+---Lion King [boxset]
|   +---Lion King
|   +---Lion King 1 1-2, The (2004)
|   \---Lion King 2, Simba's Pride, The (1998)

For the shortcut issue, make sure to use UNC paths within the actual shortcuts

 

\\servernam\media\avengers\avengers.mkv instead of d:\media\avengers\avengers.mkv.

Edited February 11, 2014 by Wayne Luke

[Blue Kachina 12]

Thanks Wayne. I'll try updating my shortcuts. They were working without UNC paths until a few days ago though. Are you aware of something in one of the recent updates that would've broken them?

 

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

Could have been changes to Path Substitution and\or bugs introduced that way. Could have been well as bug fixes in the path management. It is recommended to use UNC paths in your shortcuts.

 

I don't know what version you're on and I've had 5 or 6 Server updates in the last couple of days myself.

[Luke 38811]

it's definitely not path substitution because that's actually not utilized yet other than the configuration page. 

[FelixLynx 0]

Ya it's path substitution allright.

E$ is a default/reserved resource for administrators only (aswell as all other resources that contains a $)

This means that only admins will be able to access this resource.
To get this to work as you expect, you will have to shate your E: drive as "E", then use the path

\\192.168.1.10\E\MEDIA instead of the admin link.

 

PS.: This also leads me to suspect that your computer is potentionally unsafe, the admin account should always stay disabeled for securety reasons.

If you can access the E$ yourself manually, it means that you are currently logged in as admin, which wouldn't be very safe.

As long as the admin account on a computer is disabeled, it also prevents access to all admin resources.