Collections won't show in in Metadata Manager

[ShoutingMan 95]

The Collections section in the server's metadata manager won't show any information. I click the arrow to expand its tree and the arrow goes away leaving only the Collection label. I can still expand and see Movies and other major sections of the metadata manager system.

 

I've attached the server log updated after I went into the metadata manager and attempted to open the Collections section.

 

Collections (mostly) work in Emby both web and client. I can use the normal interface as normal to play content.

One collection, at least, is broken. I can't add a movie to its Collection. I've not tried to delete the movie and rebuild it and its collection.

 

I appreciate any help.

embyserver.txt

[Luke 37049]

Hi, seems to be working OK here. I would try again with the upcoming 4.3 release. Thanks.

[ShoutingMan 95]

Hi, seems to be working OK here. I would try again with the upcoming 4.3 release. Thanks.

 

I'm assuming there's something screwed up with my server, its configuration, or its database. I was hoping there was a way to force it to rebuild the collections or whatever.

 

I'll see if the upcoming 4.3 fixes things. This isn't a pressing issue, just hoping to fix this weird annoyance that's popped up in my system.

[Luke 37049]

Let us know how you get on. Thanks.

[ShoutingMan 95]

My server is 4.3.0.30

 

Collections "branch" is still empty in Metadata manager. Still can't add a movie to its Collection. 

 

My Collections view is still in the client, and the Collections are there and working. But there are some broken things in my server with collections. 

 

 

How do I delete a Collection, without deleting the media? It might be a bad / corrupt collection causing the problem.

[Happy2Play 8277]

All Collections are virtual now so deleting the Collection has no affect on the media.

[Luke 37049]

My server is 4.3.0.30

 

Collections "branch" is still empty in Metadata manager. Still can't add a movie to its Collection. 

 

My Collections view is still in the client, and the Collections are there and working. But there are some broken things in my server with collections. 

 

 

How do I delete a Collection, without deleting the media? It might be a bad / corrupt collection causing the problem.

 

Have you checked out our wiki article to learn how to use collections?

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/Collections

[ShoutingMan 95]

Have you checked out our wiki article to learn how to use collections?

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/Collections

 

I know how to use collections. I have several:

 

But, in the Metadata manager, Collections is empty, but everything else is normal such as in Movies:

 

 

 

And I can't add movies to Collections anymore. My "Wreck-it Ralph" collection doesn't have the movie, even though I've added the movie to the collection multiple times (just tried five minutes ago).

[ShoutingMan 95]

All Collections are virtual now so deleting the Collection has no affect on the media.

Is that sure? The warning when I click delete says it's going to delete it "from the media library" which sounds like its going to delete the media in my library!

[Happy2Play 8277]

Is that sure? The warning when I click delete says it's going to delete it "from the media library" which sounds like its going to delete the media in my library!

Yes, before these virtual boxsets/collections via \data\collection it would\could affect media.   Now as the path shows it is only the virtual collection.  Your media does not reside there.

[ShoutingMan 95]

I deleted the Collection. I still can't create a new collection and add a movie to it. The tree in the metadata manager is still empty.

 

And a movie that was in the Collection I deleted no longer shows in the library listing. The movie is in my library, and the Search tool finds it. But it doesn't show in the listing. I assume the Collection it was in is still somewhere in the database and registers as appearing in the Collection, so it doesn't show in the library. But the Collection is deleted so it doesn't appear in the library either.

 

Is there a way to scrub or refresh the database to try and fix errors. Because something is definitely broken in my setup and I can't figure out how to try and fix it.

[Luke 37049]

Why do you feel you can't create a collection and add a movie to it?

[ShoutingMan 95]

If I disable "Group into Collections" the movie shows in the library view.

If I enable "Group into Collections" the movie is not shown. Even though I've deleted its Collection.

[Happy2Play 8277]

I deleted the Collection. I still can't create a new collection and add a movie to it. The tree in the metadata manager is still empty.

 

And a movie that was in the Collection I deleted no longer shows in the library listing. The movie is in my library, and the Search tool finds it. But it doesn't show in the listing. I assume the Collection it was in is still somewhere in the database and registers as appearing in the Collection, so it doesn't show in the library. But the Collection is deleted so it doesn't appear in the library either.

 

Is there a way to scrub or refresh the database to try and fix errors. Because something is definitely broken in my setup and I can't figure out how to try and fix it.

Not really.  Not ideal but remove the library, move/rename folder containing the media, create a new named library pointing to new folder.  Or the nuclear option of starting over.

 

But to test a database issue would be create a new folder add the problem collection media to it, create a new library and see if a collection is made properly.

 

 

Why do you feel you can't create a collection and add a movie to it?

There are several topic on this, when there is a issue within the database it basically kills collections.  But these usually go back to migration issues or previous multiversion issues.

[ShoutingMan 95]

Why do you feel you can't create a collection and add a movie to it?

 

I go to a movie, click "...", choose add to Collection, create a new Collection, name it and hit OK.

Then I go to the Collections view and that Collection doesn't exist.

 

See my post previously: I have Collections. But the metadata manager shows no Collections data. Something is broken in my library database around Collections. I need a way to refresh / rebuild the Collections database, I think.

Edited November 30, 2019 by ShoutingMan

[ShoutingMan 95]

 

There are several topic on this, when there is a issue within the database it basically kills collections.  But these usually go back to migration issues or previous multiversion issues.

 

This involves a multi-version movie (HD and UHD copies).

 

I'm going to delete the movie from the library, and re-add it. Pretty sure I've tried this previously without success. But will do it again to be sure.

Edited November 30, 2019 by ShoutingMan

[Happy2Play 8277]

This involves a multi-version movie (HD and UHD copies).

 

I'm going to delete the movie from the library, and re-add it. Pretty sure I've tried this previously without success. But will do it again to be sure.

The other thing to try is open the collection.xml and point the other version. 

 

But once issues like these happen it is usually a broke path issue within the database and a new path usually resolves the issue (as shown in other Collections topics).

[Happy2Play 8277]

Also note if you do test by moving media you will either need to delete the existing collection or manually edit it paths.  But that can be hard with multiversion items.

[ShoutingMan 95]

I deleted the movies involved in the bad collection.

I deleted the problematic Collections metadata folders from the server folder: C:\Users\David\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\data\collections

 

I copied one movie back to the library, the one that wouldn't appear in the library without Collection view disabled. So far, that movie is now appearing normally.

 

I copied the multi-version movie back. It's in the library. 

 

 

The server auto-regenerated the problematic Collection metadata folder in the collections data folder. I deleted that folder again. But it definitely appears there's bad collection(s) data in the database. But I can't delete them because Collections is not accessible in the Metadata manager anymore.

 

So then I tried to sneak around the issue. I created the Collection again, and then in the creation step, used the "..." to get to the Delete tool and deleted the collection. And then re-created the Collection. This movie and this Collection just don't work.

 

I then made a new Collection with a completely different movie that's never been in a Collection. And it worked fine. I can create a new Collection with movies that haven't previously had problems. But the problematic Collection and its movies are just broken.

 

And the Collection tree in Metadata manager is still missing.

[Luke 37049]

Try deleting the collections library out of library setup altogether. then run a full scan to flush it out of the database. Then after that try adding a new collection.

[Happy2Play 8277]

Yes as there is a issue in the database specific to the problem media path. If you tried the new folder, new library test I believe it would work..

[ShoutingMan 95]

Try deleting the collections library out of library setup altogether. then run a full scan to flush it out of the database. Then after that try adding a new collection.

 

Ok, I'll give that a try. I just ran out of time for this weekend's Emby management Will get to this as soon as I can in the week or two. Thanks for the suggestions.

[ShoutingMan 95]

I deleted the Collections library, manually deleted the collections metadata folders, and am recreating the Collections.

 

 

Collection still doesn't work with the previous problem movie. And I started anew by deleting and re-adding just one version of that movie. It shows that deleting content doesn't fully purge the database of all its information. 

 

Another multi-version movie also doesn't work with Collections.

 

Collections are getting duplicated in the metadata listings as well, for both working and non-working collections. 

 

The good news is, Collections are back in the metadata manager. Most collections work. But about 10% don't work, seemingly related to multi-version movies.

Edited December 1, 2019 by ShoutingMan

[ShoutingMan 95]

The broken Collections are listed in the metadata manager. But they don't show in the Library (in web view or other app).