Collections created and items deleted by itself

[tomnjerry74 97]

I've had the same unaltered collections for at least a year with no issues. Now, after I've performed a metadata refresh on my Movies library (this is the ONLY different thing I've done) with the following settings:

just to grab some missing artwork, the following has happened to my collections..

• Dozens of new collections have been automatically created
• Many of my previous collections have had a large majority of their items completely wiped

This setting (for the Movie library) has been set to this always and has never been changed:

What could have gone wrong here? I honestly have no clue where to start. No idea if this log will help but it includes starting the server, doing a full library scan, saving the log file.

embyserver.txt

[Carlo 4560]

Do you save NFOs?

For the movies that were removed from collections if you open the NFO for the movie is there any collection names stored in the file with a set command?

[tomnjerry74 97]

2 minutes ago, cayars said:

Do you save NFOs?

For the movies that were removed from collections if you open the NFO for the movie is there any collection names stored in the file with a set command?

Yes, I use NFOs next to the media, generated by Emby. Both of these were in the same collection. Alice is the only one that has remained in the collection, and Aladdin is one of the dozens of others that have been nuked.

Aladdin (1992).nfoAlice in Wonderland (1951).nfo

[tomnjerry74 97]

All of the NFOs from movies that were removed from my hand-made collections were either put in a different collection or the Set command is removed from them entirely.

[Carlo 4560]

<name>Aladdin Collection</name>

 <name>Walt Disney Classics Collection</name>

Both NFO files still have the collection info in them.
  

 

[Happy2Play 9780]

It will be really hard to tell when these changed but will do some testing removing items from their provider collection, creating a custom collection.  Ensuring library import collection option is disabled and doing a Scan for missing Refresh.

But in previous tests have not noticed any collection item ever removing existing written collection info.

[tomnjerry74 97]

38 minutes ago, cayars said:

<name>Aladdin Collection</name>

 <name>Walt Disney Classics Collection</name>

Both NFO files still have the collection info in them.
  

 

As I said, they were both in the same collection prior. Not different ones.

[tomnjerry74 97]

The Aladdin collection is something I’ve never had and was one of the ones created on its own, taking the movie.

Edited August 29, 2021 by tomnjerry74

[tomnjerry74 97]

33 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

It will be really hard to tell when these changed but will do some testing removing items from their provider collection, creating a custom collection.  Ensuring library import collection option is disabled and doing a Scan for missing Refresh.

But in previous tests have not noticed any collection item ever removing existing written collection info.

I’m going to delete a bunch of the generated collections, restart server, and do a full meta scan with the same settings 

[tomnjerry74 97]

@cayars@Happy2Play This is easily replicable for me. Deleted random collections down to 30 total. Restarted server. Performed metadata refresh on Movie library with all of the settings listed in OP. Scan finishes and there's now 52 auto generated collections. Happy to provide more settings screens or something.

embyserver (1).txt

[Happy2Play 9780]

1 hour ago, tomnjerry74 said:

This is easily replicable for me. Deleted random collections down to 30 total.

And if you check the items that made up said deleted collections, those items still have the <set> node correct? 

In my quick test that was the case, so a item refresh recreated the deleted collection because the <set> node still existed.

[Carlo 4560]

Review you movie library settings before you refresh.

[Happy2Play 9780]

8 minutes ago, cayars said:

Review you movie library settings before you refresh.

The option is disable on all libraries.  The issue is the node still exist in item metadata so a refresh force the collection to be regenerated not matter what.

I am currently not seeing the node being removed when removing from collection or deleting the collection.  Only tested in 4.6.4.0 so far.

  <set tmdbcolid="8091">
    <name>Alien Collection</name>
  </set>

So any refresh will regenerate said collection.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Now if the item does not contain the <set> node and the option is disabled via the library, I can Refresh (All or Missing)as much as I like and no collection will be made.

So this is a matter of why is Emby not clearing the <set> node went removed or collection is deleted, at least from my tests.

Now custom collections have no issue adding and removing <set> from item on removal or collection deletion. 

Still testing.

[tomnjerry74 97]

1 hour ago, Happy2Play said:

And if you check the items that made up said deleted collections, those items still have the <set> node correct? 

In my quick test that was the case, so a item refresh recreated the deleted collection because the <set> node still existed.

Yes, I can confirm that either removing a movie from a collection does not remove the node in the movie's nfo, AND deleting the collection entirely also does not remove the node.

I'm just spitballing here to figure out why it deleted my personal collections on the metadata refresh. Maybe old TMDB collection data was still in my movies' nfos to begin with and the refresh gave them priority over my custom ones because they have a tmdbcolid?

[Carlo 4560]

13 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

Now if the item does not contain the <set> node and the option is disabled via the library, I can Refresh (All or Missing)as much as I like and no collection will be made.

So this is a matter of why is Emby not clearing the <set> node went removed or collection is deleted, at least from my tests.

Now custom collections have no issue adding and removing <set> from item on removal or collection deletion. 

Still testing.

Instead or removing the collection, try removing the movies from the collection.

[tomnjerry74 97]

28 minutes ago, cayars said:

Instead or removing the collection, try removing the movies from the collection.

13 hours ago, tomnjerry74 said:

Yes, I can confirm that either removing a movie from a collection does not remove the node in the movie's nfo, AND deleting the collection entirely also does not remove the node.

 

[tomnjerry74 97]

So to be clear, I can’t use the meta refresh feature until this bug is fixed or unless I manually go through every NFO and delete the incorrect collections? 

[Carlo 4560]

@Luke I too can confirm on 4.7.0.9 that removing a movie from a collection is not removing the collection info from the NFO files.

[Luke 42077]

Should be resolved for the next build, for new removals going forward. Thanks.

[Carlo 4560]

Awesome, thanks for the quick turnaround on this.

[tomnjerry74 97]

Agreed. Thank you for your hard work Luke and everyone else who helped figure it out