Library converted a Folder to a Title somehow - how to restore?

[ImagoX 1]

I've been using Emby for about 2 years now and never had a problem till now.

I have my media organized on an external HDD in genre folders - 'Horror', 'Drama' etc. Recently (for some reason) Emby Library started reading my 'SciFi / Fantasy' folder as a TITLE (even though it's clearly in the 'Folders' area of the UI??), which messes the display all up. All my other Folders are displaying correctly. (See the attached screenshot - 'SciFi / Fantasy' does NOT have the 'folder' icon at the top left, so when opened the titles don't appear correctly with movie posters).
 

How can I edit the settings for this entity to match the other Folders?

Thanks a million in advance!

Edited May 28, 2024 by ImagoX
Typos

[Luke 42080]

HI, I don't quite understand. What are you expecting to see?

How did you configure the library in Emby library setup? What folder paths are added to it?

[ImagoX 1]

16 minutes ago, Luke said:

HI, I don't quite understand. What are you expecting to see?

How did you configure the library in Emby library setup? What folder paths are added to it?

Attached are two screenshots: this is what my 'Horror' folder looks like - every title in that folder is read by the Library as a distinct title, and shows a movie poster for each item. THis is how ALL my other genre folders look:

The second image is what my 'SciFi / Fantasy' folder looks like - for some reason almost all the titles in that Folder have been placed in a 'Season One' sub-folder (like a TV show) with a scattered few in other sub-folders. PS - I have NO IDEA what the 'Midnight Madness' thing is - I don't own that title or have it on my Media Server (a metadata scan somehow picked that erroneously up):

I just told Emby to scan the entire HDD to add all the titles to the Library. Until recently SciFi / Fantasy looked just like Horror, but changed for some reason. The goal is to have SciFi / Fantasy diaplay just like Horror.
 

Edited May 28, 2024 by ImagoX

[pwhodges 2012]

I recall other mentions of this recent "flattening" of the folder structure when a folder contains only one item.  I believe it was suggested this might be made an option - certainly I find it disconcerting when the "folder" view doesn't show folders, which is surely the point of it?

Paul

[Happy2Play 9781]

@ImagoX

So something within the Sci-Fi folder is causing it to become a Show/Series and not a folder.

Could be difficult to find but will problably need to see the content of that folder.  As there are many topics of this happening in a nested folder structure environment especially with TV Content.

Also what is then content type of this library?

 

Edited May 28, 2024 by Happy2Play

[ImagoX 1]

On 5/28/2024 at 6:40 PM, Happy2Play said:

@ImagoX

So something within the Sci-Fi folder is causing it to become a Show/Series and not a folder.

Could be difficult to find but will problably need to see the content of that folder.  As there are many topics of this happening in a nested folder structure environment especially with TV Content.

Also what is then content type of this library?

 

The contents are all movies, not TV shows. A screenshot of my 'SciFi / Fantasy' folder is below. All my other folders (Comedy, Drama, etc - you can see then on the left) share this same structure, and are displaying in the app correctly.

NOTE: the folders at the top of the list are titles with subtitle files included - I read in a different forum tip to put them in folders like that for ease of use.

 

Edited June 1, 2024 by ImagoX

[Happy2Play 9781]

@ImagoXA question if you select edit metadata on this what path is shown?

But can only guess maybe the movies that are numbers, can you test moving them out of that library? (65, 300, 2010)

Also can you remove the "Subs" folder as that could break things?  What is the folder for?

But may need to see the rest of the content in that folder.

35 minutes ago, ImagoX said:

NOTE: the folders at the top of the list are titles with subtitle files included - I read in a different forum tip to put them in folders like that for ease of use.

Ideally all movies should have there own folders to contain all of their content but really depends on where you save images/metadata/subtitles.

May also need to see how your are saving subs in the movie folders.

Edited June 1, 2024 by Happy2Play

[ImagoX 1]

23 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

@ImagoXA question if you select edit metadata on this what path is shown?

But can only guess maybe the movies that are numbers, can you test moving them out of that library? (65, 300, 2010)

Also can you remove the "Subs" folder as that could break things?  What is the folder for?

But may need to see the rest of the content in that folder.

Ideally all movies should have there own folders to contain all of their content but really depends on where you save images/metadata/subtitles.

May also need to see how your are saving subs in the movie folders.

A screenshot of the 'Subs' folder is below - it's where I *used* to put my .SRT files for some movies. I can delete it, sure.

I've also attached an example of one of the *new* folders I'm using for MP4s that also have an .SRT - they all only have the movie and the subtitle file and nothing else. Note, however, that my 'Drama' and 'Comedy' and other genre folders *also* use the same structure and are displaying properly (??).

 

 

 

[ImagoX 1]

23 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

@ImagoXA question if you select edit metadata on this what path is shown?

But can only guess maybe the movies that are numbers, can you test moving them out of that library? (65, 300, 2010)

Also can you remove the "Subs" folder as that could break things?  What is the folder for?

But may need to see the rest of the content in that folder.

Ideally all movies should have there own folders to contain all of their content but really depends on where you save images/metadata/subtitles.

May also need to see how your are saving subs in the movie folders.

Sorry missed the first question. Here's what shows when I 'Display Metadata' on the INCORRECTLY DISPLAYING item. Note that I DID NOT FILL THIS INFO IN, nor do I have that title in my library - i have no idea what it is or where Emby obtained the information.

 

 

[Luke 42080]

Quote

Note that I DID NOT FILL THIS INFO IN, nor do I have that title in my library - i have no idea what it is or where Emby obtained the information.

Hi, the presence of the lock icons being green suggests that you did. Is it possible that you did this and forgot about it?

Additionally, can you please list out all of the libraries that are added in Emby library setup, as well as the folder paths that are added to each one? Thanks.

[ImagoX 1]

On 6/2/2024 at 9:52 PM, Luke said:

Hi, the presence of the lock icons being green suggests that you did. Is it possible that you did this and forgot about it?

Additionally, can you please list out all of the libraries that are added in Emby library setup, as well as the folder paths that are added to each one? Thanks.

I might have locked that entity after it populated the fields - at one point I 'Removed all Metadata' from the SciFi_Fantasy item hoping it would pick it back up again correctly, but... no.

When I set up my Emby I pointed it to the sub-folders in the screenshot below and it auto-scanned and populated all the metadata. It's correct for all the other genre sub-folders *except* SciFi_Fantasy - it was correct for many months, then for some reason it changed and thought it was a TV Show.

[Happy2Play 9781]

With all the parser changes it is really impossible to say but can be a tedious process finding what with in that folder is breaking folder identification.

Did you remove the SUBS folder as that is not supported? 

Did you try removing the movies that you year named?

But will still probably need to see the entire content of SciFi folder as previous image was incomplete.

 

[ImagoX 1]

On 6/4/2024 at 6:41 PM, Happy2Play said:

With all the parser changes it is really impossible to say but can be a tedious process finding what with in that folder is breaking folder identification.

Did you remove the SUBS folder as that is not supported? 

Did you try removing the movies that you year named?

But will still probably need to see the entire content of SciFi folder as previous image was incomplete.

 

I removed the 'Subs' sub-folder, then 'Removed Metadata' from the SciFi_Fantasy entity. Then I 'Refreshed Metadata again.

It came back exactly the same, with an incorrect title, description, and cover art (same as previous screenshots).

I'm not sure why removing items that are 'year named' is causing an issue - all my other genre folders use this exact same naming convention, and they're displaying fine.

A screenshot of the entire genre folder is attached.

 

[Neminem 1519]

Movie Naming

Please put movies in there own folder, you movie organization is a mess.

I use this 

Folders "awesome movie (yyyy) {TmdbId-zzzz}"

File "awesome movie (yyyy) {TmdbId-zzzz}.mkv"

d:\awesome movie (yyyy) {TmdbId-zzzz}\awesome movie (yyyy) {TmdbId-zzzz}.mkv

[Happy2Play 9781]

Unfortunately, your only other option is removing all the content from the folder doing a full scan for Emby to purge from DB.  Then batch readd say 5 to 10 movies back to the folder to try and figure out what movie is causing the issue.

But this is not a new issue as there are several topics on this and every one of them are slightly different issues.

 

Also since it wasn't mentioned this is a Mixed Content library type, correct?

 

[ImagoX 1]

2 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

Unfortunately, your only other option is removing all the content from the folder doing a full scan for Emby to purge from DB.  Then batch readd say 5 to 10 movies back to the folder to try and figure out what movie is causing the issue.

But this is not a new issue as there are several topics on this and every one of them are slightly different issues.

 

Also since it wasn't mentioned this is a Mixed Content library type, correct?

 

It is mixed yes - most are MP4s but a few are AVIs. My other folders are the same.

I have the entire 'Movies' folder backed up on a second hard drive so it's no problem to delete the entire folder and start over - I'll lose my Played markings, but I also would if I swapped away from Emby so... ((shrug)).

QUESTION: How do I assure that I deleted the entire existing Library file(s) so I can start over afresh?

 

[ImagoX 1]

5 hours ago, jaycedk said:

Movie Naming

Please put movies in there own folder, you movie organization is a mess.

I use this 

Folders "awesome movie (yyyy) {TmdbId-zzzz}"

File "awesome movie (yyyy) {TmdbId-zzzz}.mkv"

d:\awesome movie (yyyy) {TmdbId-zzzz}\awesome movie (yyyy) {TmdbId-zzzz}.mkv

Yes, I stated above that when I started using Emby I just had all the media files in genre-based sub-folders, and my Subtitles files (with the exact same names) in a 'Subs' folder.

That actually worked fine for something like 18+ months, but, later, I started making dedicated sub-folders for each title based on recommendations here (mainly for ease of using .SRT files).

*ALL* my genre sub-folders have a mix of folder structures the exact same as the one that's misidentifying - not sure why this particular one is causing issues, particulatly since it's applying metadata from a *title I don't even own and that's not in my library at all*.

 

[Happy2Play 9781]

1 minute ago, ImagoX said:

It is mixed yes - most are MP4s but a few are AVIs. My other folders are the same.

Does not matter as once the parser chokes on a specific file the folder is completely useless.  So you have to figure out what file Emby is choking on.  Mixed content is another factor in the mix as the parser tries to figure out Movie or Series from mystery folder structure/naming.

5 minutes ago, ImagoX said:

I have the entire 'Movies' folder backed up on a second hard drive so it's no problem to delete the entire folder and start over - I'll lose my Played markings, but I also would if I swapped away from Emby so... ((shrug)).

QUESTION: How do I assure that I deleted the entire existing Library file(s) so I can start over afresh?

Yes you should not have any issue removing and changing to Movie type and no you will not lose watched status as it is tracked by providerid not path.  Only items with no providerid can lose watched status.

[ImagoX 1]

On 6/12/2024 at 3:10 PM, Happy2Play said:

Yes you should not have any issue removing and changing to Movie type and no you will not lose watched status as it is tracked by providerid not path.  Only items with no providerid can lose watched status.

I lost you here I'm afraid...

[Luke 42080]

4 hours ago, ImagoX said:

I lost you here I'm afraid...

He's saying remove the library from emby server and then add it back with the movies content type.

[Happy2Play 9781]

Or as previously mentioned remove all folder content, perform full scan to clear the database and batch add media back to folder to see what item breaks the structure detection.