Trying to Delete Auto-generated Collections

[MarcusJ 18]

Hi guys.

Hey, I have two Emby Servers running separately. One is for my home, another is for a friend that I'm helping to build his media center. Both servers are completely up to date, running 4.6.4.0, and will have identical media, However, my Home Emby Server has hundreds of Collections, all of which I have built manually over the years. I thought it would be a rather simple copy and paste of the emby-server=>data=>collections folder from my Home Server to the new Emby Server to get those collections onto the new server, but for some reason it didn't work out that way.

When I built the new server, I set up the libraries correctly and ran the first scan. It took several hours, but did seem to find everything. However, the system had created several hundred Movie Collections. It surprised me, because I didn't set up a "Collections" Library - only Movies and TV Shows. I'm sure I clicked or didn't click an appropriate setting somewhere before scanning (BTW, the options in the Library section are pretty cryptic for a normal, low-tech users like myself. I would have thought there would be a setting that asked: "Do you want emby to create Movie Collections for you? Yes or No?"...no such setting). Anyway, that's simply ignorance on my part, but now I do have an issue with this newly created Collection Library...

As I mentioned, I know where the folder for collections is on my Home Emby Server (emby-server=>data=>collections), so I thought I would just go to the same folder on the new server and delete all the folders inside. That's when I found an entirely different folder structure on the new server. I found multiple collection folders, with the closest one in content being emby-server=>programdata=>metadata=>collections. I also noticed that the original home server's collection folder held folders for each collection and inside each of those folders was an collection.xml file. In the new server's collection folder, there are again folders for each collection, but inside each of those folders there is a file called collection.nfo. There were no xml files at all. There was another Collections (Capital C) under emby-server=>root=>default=>Collections. This one had a single file in it called options.xml. I didn't see a comparable file on the original home emby server, so there was nothing there to compare.

I have no idea why two emby servers running 4.6.4.0 that I THOUGHT were identical would have such different folder structures?? I would really like to change that if possible so that the new server would have an identical folder structure to the original home emby server. Once I get there, I can copy and paste the collections folder content over and be done.

I hope this makes sense to someone. I'd appreciate any help understanding what I did wrong and what the best path is to get back on track. 

[GrimReaper 4744]

33 minutes ago, MarcusJ said:

I hope this makes sense to someone. I'd appreciate any help understanding what I did wrong and what the best path is to get back on track. 

Hey up. 

There's few things to point out there, so let's start with the first one:

33 minutes ago, MarcusJ said:

However, the system had created several hundred Movie Collections. It surprised me, because I didn't set up a "Collections" Library - only Movies and TV Shows. I'm sure I clicked or didn't click an appropriate setting somewhere before scanning (BTW, the options in the Library section are pretty cryptic for a normal, low-tech users like myself. I would have thought there would be a setting that asked: "Do you want emby to create Movie Collections for you? Yes or No?"...no such setting).

Yes, there is such setting, "Import collection information from metadata downloaders", in addition to "Minimum automatic collection size dropdown (where you set minimum number of items collection should be comprised of) which I assume was selected when you created your library initially. Hence you got those auto-Collections created. You "didn't set up a "Collections" Library - only Movies and TV Shows" as it is auto-created library, a "virtual" one, as per your library settings selection. 

Also, if you opted to store NFOs with your media, <set> tag would be read from those and Collections auto-created. 

33 minutes ago, MarcusJ said:

I know where the folder for collections is on my Home Emby Server (emby-server=>data=>collections), so I thought I would just go to the same folder on the new server and delete all the folders inside. That's when I found an entirely different folder structure on the new server. I found multiple collection folders, with the closest one in content being emby-server=>programdata=>metadata=>collections. I also noticed that the original home server's collection folder held folders for each collection and inside each of those folders was an collection.xml file. In the new server's collection folder, there are again folders for each collection, but inside each of those folders there is a file called collection.nfo. There were no xml files at all. There was another Collections (Capital C) under emby-server=>root=>default=>Collections. This one had a single file in it called options.xml. I didn't see a comparable file on the original home emby server, so there was nothing there to compare.

Yes, 4.6. introduced change in Collections location, as you've already surmised, all collection data is now stored in install-dir\programdata\metadata\collections. There's no xmls anymore but NFOs in appropriate subfolders, that store collection information. However, on existing setups both locations are still used, you can migrate them all to new location via @pünktchen Migration plugin:

 

33 minutes ago, MarcusJ said:

I would really like to change that if possible so that the new server would have an identical folder structure to the original home emby server.

That ain't feasible, as stated above, you can only do the opposite, bring old install in line with new server setup. 

Hope this helps. 

Edited September 17, 2021 by GrimReaper
Typos

[MarcusJ 18]

GrimReaper, thank you for taking the time to give such a thorough response!

Edited September 17, 2021 by MarcusJ