Latest Update is Randomly Removing TV Shows From Collections (also creating new collections)

[gmusgrave 12]

I rely heavily on collections for our TV watching.

After the 4.6.1 update (and continuing in the 4.6.2 update) I have to check my libraries each morning for TV shows that have been dumped from my various collections. There can be two or three of these (or about 8 this morning). I have to add them back to the corresponding collection. Each day these are different shows – I have never seen the same show dumped again.

ALSO, twice now, Emby has automatically created one or more collections by itself. I have to delete these collections.

Anyone know what is going on? This is somewhát annoying behaviour. I'd like my collections to stay as they are.

I've attached the log file.

Thank you,

Garry Musgrave

embyserver.txt

Edited June 13, 2021 by gmusgrave

[Carlo 4329]

Hi, you will need to check each library and adjust these settings:

Do you have NFO file generation turned on for your libraries?

[gmusgrave 12]

Thank you for responding.

The collections that are being automatically created all come from one library. This library has a content type of "Movies." The "Import collection information from metadata downloaders" option is UNCHECKED. Oddly, I have one other library that has a content type of "Movies," but it hasn't self-generated any collections.

All of my libraries that have shows that are being kicked out of their collections have content type "TV shows," and the "Import collection information from metadata downloaders" option is not available. Even if it were, why would this cause my collections to auto remove random shows?

Yes, I do generate NFO files.

Every morning, there are from two to eight random shows dumped out of four different collections. I need to manually add them back in. They are never the same show.

Less frequently (every two to three days??) there is an auto-generated collection that I need to delete.

[Carlo 4329]

Try this for me.

After you manually add something back to a collection go out and view/edit the NFO file associated with what you just added to a collection.
Do you see a "SET" line in the NFO file with the collection you added it to?

Then for any media that is now removed from a collection, take a look at the NFO before adding it back.  Is the SET command missing?

[gmusgrave 12]

Thanks for this.

I just counted the TV shows in my collections, and there are a total of 210 shows in 10 collections. I then did a quick "search in files" for "<set>" in "tvshow.nfo," and there were only 98! Each of these had a balanced pair of <set></set> tags with a set of <name></name> tags with the name of the collection.

I randomly checked a few shows in my collections that didn't come up in the search, and, indeed, they do not have the <set> tags. In fact, the structure of the NFO is a bit different.

Tomorrow morning when I check for kicked-out shows, I'll check their tvshow.nfo files for the <set> tag before I manually add them back. If it was missing, I'll check again after I add it.

Thanks.

[Carlo 4329]

What could be happening is that you don't have NFO set as a provider so the info isn't imported back into Emby on a Refresh of meta-data.
Do you have your tv library setup to auto refresh meta-data at 30 days or is this set to NEVER?

[gmusgrave 12]

I have 14 libraries, and in every case the "After the initial import, automatically refresh metadata from the internet:" option is set to "Every 30 days."

How do I set NFO as a provider?

Thanks.

[Carlo 4329]

Make sure you have this enabled.

[gmusgrave 12]

Yes, that setting is enabled for each library.

[reddog19848 0]

It works.  Thanks!!!!

Edited June 14, 2021 by reddog19848

[Carlo 4329]

Would you mind doing a test for me?

Take a show or tv episode that is part of a collection and manually refresh the meta-data from the 3 dot menu.

Make sure the NFO file it has the SET info before you refresh.
Then after it has been refreshed wait a couple of minutes and check the NFO file for the SET command again.

[gmusgrave 12]

OK... I looked at the tvshow.nfo file for a show in a collection, and it had the <set> tags before and after I ran "Refresh Metadata."

Just out of curiosity, I tried the same thing with a show in a collection that was lacking the <set> tags, and it also didn't change after a metadata refresh (i.e.: it still had no <set> tags).

[Carlo 4329]

Did you do the refresh at the show level?  Maybe someone else will have an idea but the nightly refresh schedule job is all I can think of that might do this.

That would certainly explain why only a few each night get changed as the shows would all have a rolling 30 days where some get done nearly every night.

[gmusgrave 12]

I did this at the show level (from within the collection).

I just tried doing a metadata refresh on a library. That led to a mass exodus of shows from the collections. I think I will have to manually add them back. However, I think once added back, they will then have the <set> tags, and the problem will go away.

I'll let you know.

[Carlo 4329]

3 hours ago, gmusgrave said:

I'll let you know.

Yes please do.

[Luke 36992]

@gmusgrave ?

[gmusgrave 12]

OK... two mornings have passed, and there have been no further incidents of shows being unceremoniously expelled from their collections (unpaid rent?).

To recap: the solution was to manually run a metadata update on each library. This resulted in a large number of shows being kicked out of their collections. I then manually added each one back into its respective collection. So far, this seems to be holding.

The tvshow.nfo file for each show that was kicked out was lacking a pair of <set> tags. After adding the show back into its collection, a pair of <set> tags had been added, containing the name of the assigned collection(s).

I am still concerned that this may not quite be finished because a search for "<set>" in all my tvshow.nfo files still yielded fewer matches than the total number of shows I have in collections... so there might be more to come (I can't easily figure out how to search for the lack of a <set> tag in these files - any regex experts?). The good news (I guess) is that I know how to fix it.

It appears that emby didn't use the <set> tags for TV show collections prior to the update, but now it does. I think that cayars is correct in that each nightly metadata refresh (on shows that had passed their 30 day update threshold) enforced this rule, kicking out a few each day.

If this is correct, I can see the logic, since the <set> tag is a more robust and portable method. However, it would have been nice if, upon updating, emby had run a utility that would go through the list of shows in each collection and update the NFO files with the appropriate <set> tags so that we didn't have to go through this. That said, while an inconvenience, this is not even close to the worst thing that has happened to me in my long life on this planet.

[Carlo 4329]

I agree it's in inconvenient part of the upgrade to 4.6 for some people but now is very robust moving forward in controlling all aspects of collections be it manual or auto created.
Kind of a bit of "growing pains" that hopefully isn't too painful.

[gmusgrave 12]

There's an expression we use a lot down here, "¡no es el fin del mundo!" (it's not the end of the world) .

[gmusgrave 12]

Uh oh... the reverse problem now seems to exist.

When I add a TV show to a collection, Emby adds a pair of <set> tags to the tvshow.nfo file, identifying the collection.

However, if I remove a show from a collection, Emby does not remove the <set> tags from the tvshow.nfo file, and the show reappears in the collection after a metadata update!

[Happy2Play 8218]

@LukeYes there is a issue when Removing a item for a Collection, as the <set> tag is not always removed so when the item is refreshed it is added back to the Collection if was removed from.  Currently only see this in TV Collection.  But have not tested all variables that apply to a custom collection in various content types,

[gmusgrave 12]

Any update on fixing this?

It's annoying to have to manually edit the tvshow.nfo file every time I remove a show from a collection (happens several times a week).

Thanks.

[Luke 36992]

On 6/24/2021 at 5:23 PM, Happy2Play said:

@LukeYes there is a issue when Removing a item for a Collection, as the <set> tag is not always removed so when the item is refreshed it is added back to the Collection if was removed from.  Currently only see this in TV Collection.  But have not tested all variables that apply to a custom collection in various content types,

We are looking into this. Thanks.