Movie library has the movie folders added as library items as well

[aptalca 71]

Hi I noticed that my Emby library lists not only the movies, but their individual folders as library items as well.

When I open the metadata manager, this is what I see on my main server:

As you can see, there is a separate item listing for each movie folder as if it's a separate media item, with its own metadata.

This is a server that I've been maintaining for some years.

 

Another server I set up about a couple of years ago (with the same media) does not exhibit this behavior except for just one movie:

 

Any ideas why this is happening and how can I fix it?

 

The issue I'm having is, I started relying on a third party tool that connects to Emby's api to retrieve all library items and sync watch status and such. All these folder entries are really messing up the results.

 

Thanks

[aptalca 71]

I just realized that when I go into the Movies library, there is a "Folders" menu item at the top. Never noticed it before.

It lists every single movie folder with the folder info as the metadata and with a little folder icon at top right of its logo.

No idea how that got populated. How can I remove those as the movies are already in the library, I don't need each folder listed as a separate item.

Thanks

[GrimReaper 4740]

Which server version?

What are:

<CollapseVideoFolders> tag in your programdata folder \config\system.xml

and 

<CollapseSingleItemFolders> tag in your programdata folder \root\default\[YourMovieLibrary]\options.xml

set to (true or false)? 

 

[aptalca 71]

Both servers are on the latest stable, 4.7.12.0

On the main server with thousands of folders, the settings are:
 

<CollapseVideoFolders>false</CollapseVideoFolders>

<CollapseSingleItemFolders>false</CollapseSingleItemFolders>

On the secondary server with only one movie video folder, the settings are:
 

<CollapseVideoFolders>true</CollapseVideoFolders>

<CollapseSingleItemFolders>true</CollapseSingleItemFolders>

 

[GrimReaper 4740]

5 minutes ago, aptalca said:

On the main server with thousands of folders, the settings are:
 

<CollapseVideoFolders>false</CollapseVideoFolders>

<CollapseSingleItemFolders>false</CollapseSingleItemFolders>

Note that changing those values to "true" is a destructive action and would require metadata refresh afterwards and possibly readding library. 

Edited May 27, 2023 by GrimReaper

[aptalca 71]

Gotcha. Thanks so much for steering me in the right direction. Is it safe to assume that the default values in Emby changed over the years and that's why the older server has different settings? I don't see either of those options in the gui settings for the server or the library.

I'll do a full backup before changing it and will report back with my findings here.

Thanks so much.

[GrimReaper 4740]

1 minute ago, aptalca said:

Is it safe to assume that the default values in Emby changed over the years

IIRC it has changed over time, yes. 

1 minute ago, aptalca said:

I don't see either of those options in the gui settings for the server or the library.

Nope, they are not exposed in the UI. 

[aptalca 71]

To circle back, after a full backup, I changed both of those settings to true and restarted. After doing a rescan of the movie library, Emby did a full metadata refresh. Watch state was not affected. Folder items in the library disappeared. All is well.

 

The only downside was, the preview thumbnails (bif files) also disappeared and will all be recreated, which will take a while, but no big deal.