Unable to "identify" seasons separately from "series"

[amazingstories 2]

Hello Luke.

Not all detection works automatically. Sometimes EMBY THINKS certain things belong together but in reality they do not. Sometimes folders have SIMILAR names but end up shoved into the same series. That's not a problem. Nothing is perfect.

However, I used to be able to go to seasons and even individual EPISODES and identify them as belonging to a different show. Now I do not know how to do this any more. Running 4.7.14.0 right now.

Scenario:

Show Folder 1/season 3/EPS 1,2,3

Show Folder 2/season 3/EPS 4, 5, 6

Show Folder 3/Season 8/EPS  1, 2, 3

Emby believes that the all the folders are the same show because they share part of a name. But they are different. But that's ok - not everything has to be perfect.

Used to be that I could manually correct this problem. (PS - the names of the folders are COMPLETELY different after the first 2 words).

I used to be able to use the context menu on the item in the correct season and identify it as being a different show as well as identify the entire SEASON in the show as a different show. E.g. I would click on the 3 dots for season 8 and identify the correct show, and I could click on the 3 dots for season 3 episode 3 and identify it as a new show. Where do I do this now?

Even in metadata manager, even though the folders are clearly different, ownership has been given to a single show and I am unable to separate even the folders. How do I resolve this? (there is no "identify" in the folders any more.) I simply have to accept the decision of Emby to make them the same show.

Edited June 8, 2024 by amazingstories
Needed more details.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Sorry this is hard to follow but Emby does not identify off of Season or Episode and will identify from show for entire show at least from a TVDB perspective.  TMDB is a little different.

Yes at Show level there is a way to change Display order from Aired, DVD, Absolute (only applies to TVDB data)

Nothing here has changed in a really long time though even in old outdated 4.7.14.0.  But a specific example specific example with library metadata provider order will be needed.

[Luke 42078]

Hi there, yes, can you please provide a specific example, including how your files are named and organized as well as what you see in Emby Server?
 

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

[amazingstories 2]

Ok. Let me try this differently. I have folders named by show and then by season and then episode. Emby auto-scans the shows. I used to be able to inform Emby which season and which episode even (if it was in a different FOLDER) that the identification was wrong.

In metadata manager, you would see:

TV (located on nas 1)

+ Sesame Street

[folder] Season 3  /var/lib/nas1/Sesame Street/S03

[folder] Season 8 /var/lib/nas1/Sesame Street Kids/S08

[folder] Season 10 /var/lib/nas1/Sesame Street Kids/S10

TV (located on nas 2)

+ Sesame Street Kids

[folder] Season 8 /var/lib/nas2/Sesame Street Kids/S08

I used to be able to tell emby that Season 8 of Sesame Street Kids in the nas1 folder is really "Sesame Street Kids" using "identify"

I used to be able to tell emby that Season 10 of Sesame Street Kids in the nas1 folder is really "Sesame Street Kids" using "identify"

At the end of this process, I would have the following:

TV (located on nas 1)

+ Sesame Street

[folder] Season 3  /var/lib/nas1/Sesame Street/S03

+  Sesame Street Kids

[folder] Season 8 /var/lib/nas1/Sesame Street Kids/S08

[folder] Season 10 /var/lib/nas1/Sesame Street Kids/S10

TV (located on nas 2)

+ Sesame Street Kids

[folder] Season 8 /var/lib/nas2/Sesame Street Kids/S08

 

It may have been a long time for you, but I remember doing this just before I upgraded to 4.7.14.0.

I still need this feature. I'm not relying on just TVDB and throwing up my hands. The system simply mis-identified folders which I need to correct. I used to have a simple way to do so.

 

Right now I have no way to rename/move a folder out of the wrong series after it was auto-identified. I used have this ability.

[Luke 42078]

Hi, that is all still there. Can you show screenshots of what you see in Emby server? Thanks.

[amazingstories 2]

How do I send the screenshots privately?

[amazingstories 2]

Sent you the screenshots. As you can see, the "identify" is only in the series but not in the folders. It used to also be in the folders.

[amazingstories 2]

So am I doing something incorrect?

I do recall in earlier versions of emby, the identify menu was present within the season folders. I'm no longer seeing that.

I also am unable to update emby on my bionic odroid - I guess there are new dependencies?

Edited June 9, 2024 by amazingstories

[Happy2Play 9780]

3 hours ago, amazingstories said:

I do recall in earlier versions of emby, the identify menu was present within the season folders. I'm no longer seeing that.

I just check 4.6.7.0 as it is the oldest portable I have installed, and it doesn't have identify at Season/Episode level and personally don't remember it ever being an option.

But sound like you may need to disable "Automatically merge series that are spread across multiple folders" and reidentify wrongly identified shows.

[amazingstories 2]

I had an older version. (4.6.4.0)

My problem remains. How do I correct the show for a show folder when 2 different show folders have been grouped into a single show via detection (or even manually) incorrectly?? How do I separate the two after the fact?

I remember because I had to separate Quantum Leap and Charmed and a few others.

Edited June 9, 2024 by amazingstories

[Happy2Play 9780]

Separate is easy you disable the library option "Automatically merge series that are spread across multiple folders" as already mentioned.  Then each has to be identifed properly at Series level.

[amazingstories 2]

Where is this option located? Will I have to merge existing items? Or this will allow me to merge new ones? How do I split items that were already merged?

Edited June 9, 2024 by amazingstories

[Happy2Play 9780]

9 minutes ago, amazingstories said:

Where is this option located? Will I have to merge existing items? Or this will allow me to merge new ones? How do I split items that were already merged?

It is a Library setup option and should unmerge all existing items after scan.

 

[amazingstories 2]

Ok and how do I go about merging the ones that are the same after the fact? I feel like I need to be asking for a complete set of instructions. Is there a manual somewhere?

[Happy2Play 9780]

There is no either or here as you would have to identify all misidentified and then reapply setting so they get merge properly.

[amazingstories 2]

I'm still not following. Perhaps you're skipping over parts of the thought. If I click the checkbox and let it run, what will I have to merge and HOW?

[Happy2Play 9780]

You can lonely merge with that library option so if something is identified incorrectly or merge to something is should not be you have to unmerge, identify properly, and reenable the library option to merge.  

 

I done really test scattering media in may different folder but everything I have tested properly merges to their proper shows as everything is named alike in different folders.

But have personally never seen identify at season level as Series folder controls its content.

I guess maybe Appling TVDB season id in metadata but have never really messed with this as misidentification happens at Series level.

[pwhodges 2012]

This sounds to me as if you are struggling with the results of not following the Emby naming guidelines...

Paul

[Happy2Play 9780]

1 hour ago, amazingstories said:

I had an older version. (4.6.4.0)

Even getting this version from GitHub does not have Identify at Season level.  Personally have never seen it or am totally misunderstanding this topic.

Edited June 9, 2024 by Happy2Play

[amazingstories 2]

@Happy2Play"Scattering files..." You make that seem like an intentional event that I went and moved files into separate folders on separate drives. Notice, one series starts on NAS 1, and then ends on a seprate NAS, NAS 2. "Can't get it to mis-scan" - *WHEN* you collection spans multiple terabytes, feel free to get back to me on the "I can't see why it happened." It has happened and I did not cause it - that's all that matters. I'm trying to rectify it. I appreciate that you don't TEST for these things. I'm not faulting anyone for not having encountered it. I have encountered it and I didn't see it in my beta-test either. I'm trying to solve it or understand how to solve so let's keep things focused on the how to fix and not on the "you must have done something horribly wrong to get here." When you have 30,000+ of TV stored, you berate me for my misadventures.

LMAO. "Not following guidelines." @pwhodgesPlease let's not jump to conclusions. If you had looked at my explanation, you would have seen that I had multiple NAS drives where if one NAS drive fills up, you populate another. You don't go about moving partial series to the new drive because now you have a partially unfilled NAS drive. The WHOLE PURPOSE of a media center is to collect multiple sources into one. Not to berate paid subscribers about what they're doing wrong without ASKING or UNDERSTANDING that the rules have already been followed.

All. I'm a paid up Emby premiere subscriber and have been a beta tester for years. I'm not putting anyone one here down. I'm attempting to be polite. I would request the same courtesy.

Thanks.

Edited June 9, 2024 by amazingstories

[Happy2Play 9780]

I went to DrivePool years ago so 24 drives all appear as one.  So sure drive wise everything is scattered across all the drives but no program knows that as it only see the virtual drive.

Guess you can wait for dev to comment but have never seen what you want/describing ever being in Emby.

[amazingstories 2]

Good news everyone. After removing the "merge automatically" ALL of the incorrect merges have successfully separated.

The error in the auto-merge seems to be based on the length of the name of the first series. When it matches subsequent "auto-merges," it only considers the text length of the original series.

E.g. You can replicate this as follows:

100 days: The first adventure

100 days the first adventure/S01

100 days the first adventure/S02

100 days: The first adventure continues

100 days the first adventure continues/S02

100 days the first adventure continues/S03

100 days: The first adventure explored

100 days the first adventure explored/S04

100 days: The first adventure expanded

100 days: the first adventure expanded/S05

If you have a series "100 days: the first adventure" originally, and then ADD these other folders with auto-merge, you will get "100 days: The first adventure" for all of them. Is this the expected behavior that it will take the shortest name and match them only up to the same number of characters?

This set of folders exemplifies the exact scenario that has happened both within the SAME NAS as well as across 2 different NAS drives when collected under one media center.

After "unsetting" auto-merge, and rerunning the scan, these folders have separated.

[amazingstories 2]

@Happy2PlayI have a bunch of RPI NAS's and Buffalo NAS's all CIFS v3 (Samba) mounted on a Linux media center. So each NAS appears as a folder and then the libraries are in paths below. So 1 library is a bunch of folders. DrivePool - linux tool or windows? I only use Linux. My media center linux machine collects all the NAS's into one folder structure. DrivePool allows you to merge different drives as if they were on the same drive - like

Edited June 9, 2024 by amazingstories

[Happy2Play 9780]

1 minute ago, amazingstories said:

If you have a series "100 days: the first adventure" originally, and then ADD these other folders with auto-merge, you will get "100 days: The first adventure" for all of them. Is this the expected behavior that it will take the shortest name and match them only up to the same number of characters?

Well no but depend on what the logs show and the providers return.  But adding year to naming scheme would probably eliminate an issue but would have to personally test this scenario.

[amazingstories 2]

Maybe we can collaborate on a limited test on the next beta run.

P.S. You're presuming I'm adding these folders by hand. At 30,000h of TV and counting, it would be safe to assume, in my case, the folders are created automatically from the direct name of the show itself.

Edited June 9, 2024 by amazingstories