Multi-version movies only displays two versions

[austinchief 5]

I have movies in my library that have multiple versions, but emby only shows two (2), and it seems to change if I add/replace a source and then re-scan.

For instance, I have Star Wars with 6 different versions:

- 1080pDTS.mkv

- 1080p.mp4

- 2160p.mkv

- 4K77Ai.mkv

- 4K77.mkv

- Theatrical.mp4

Ok ... while drafting this topic, I decided to delete ALL .nfo files in the library directory and re-scan.    Now, instead of showing the 1080p and Theatrical, it shows Theatrical and 4K77.     I don't get it!!!

 

[Happy2Play 9780]

Will have to look for similar topic but do you have any parental controls or tag restrictions on account?

Does it only affect this account?

[austinchief 5]

I searched the forum for a similar topic, but did not find one ... would happily accept a pointer to a relevant topic thread!

Haven't checked every user account, but I believe it does impact others.    Will check!
I do have an "unused" parental control tag.    Let me remove it from all user accounts and rescan library.
 

[Happy2Play 9780]

Only issue I see is you mentioned you deleted nfo files.  So the question would remain if you are using Parental controls and if each items metadata/tags have been removed properly.

 

[Luke 42078]

Hi, in the 4.8.8 stable release there is an issue causing multi-version to be limited to 2 versions in some situations.

The fix will be in 4.8.9 and is currently in the beta channel if you need immediate relief. Thanks.

[austinchief 5]

@LukeThanks for the acknowledgement and option for the Beta.    I will wait until 4.8.9

@Happy2PlayYou nailed it!     I removed all the unused tags on the library elements, and as parental controls ... scanned the library again and now all multi-versions are showing up.

Not sure I understand the root cause of why parental control tags limited it to showing 2 versions, but I'm fully operational again!    Thanks for the prompt responses, you guys are AWESOME!!!

[Happy2Play 9780]

36 minutes ago, austinchief said:

@Happy2PlayYou nailed it!     I removed all the unused tags on the library elements, and as parental controls ... scanned the library again and now all multi-versions are showing up.

Not sure I understand the root cause of why parental control tags limited it to showing 2 versions, but I'm fully operational again!    Thanks for the prompt responses, you guys are AWESOME!!!

To a point we would need to know your exact user settings and what tags were applied to media as for multi-version it would have to be applied to each versions nfo as the UI only applies to one version.

[austinchief 5]

1 hour ago, Happy2Play said:

To a point we would need to know your exact user settings and what tags were applied to media as for multi-version it would have to be applied to each versions nfo as the UI only applies to one version.

Here is the nuts and bolts of the parental controls:

I added a tag "Restrict" to about 20 movies to block access if a user had the parental control "Restrict items with tags" added.      

There are a total of 14 users, 13 had the restriction tag added, one did not (ie SuperUser).

The multi-version movies in-question did NOT have ANY tags added to them.

I ended up moving the "restricted" movies into a separate "movie" type library, and restricted access to the library in each user "access" tab, and unchecked the restricted library.    This made my life easier as it did not entail adding a tag to each metadata, just had to store the restricted movie on my server in the restricted library path.

What else can I detail for you ... I want to help!

[lordairivis 9]

On 7/31/2024 at 6:31 PM, Luke said:

Hi, in the 4.8.8 stable release there is an issue causing multi-version to be limited to 2 versions in some situations.

The fix will be in 4.8.9 and is currently in the beta channel if you need immediate relief. Thanks.

Sorry for having to perform some thread necromancy, but I just started running into this issue as well running 4.8.11.0. I am also using tags to hide some items from my personal view, and it's still causing movies grouped with more than 2 items to only display 2 items in the dropdown.

I have a movie with 3 different versions all in different folders but in the same Movies library. I can correctly select and group all 3 versions into a single library item, but as long as I have any tags being filtered for using the parental controls on my account, only 2 items are displayed in the dropdown. If I remove the parental control filter, all 3 are displayed.

[Luke 42078]

5 minutes ago, lordairivis said:

Sorry for having to perform some thread necromancy, but I just started running into this issue as well running 4.8.11.0. I am also using tags to hide some items from my personal view, and it's still causing movies grouped with more than 2 items to only display 2 items in the dropdown.

I have a movie with 3 different versions all in different folders but in the same Movies library. I can correctly select and group all 3 versions into a single library item, but as long as I have any tags being filtered for using the parental controls on my account, only 2 items are displayed in the dropdown. If I remove the parental control filter, all 3 are displayed.

So keep in mind that they are still three separate library items, but just grouped together. That means when you apply tag parental controls, all three of them individually need to match the criteria.

[lordairivis 9]

None of the 3 versions of the movie have the tag that I am filtering by in the parental controls, and it's not even consistent which file is left out from the dropdown.

The files in question are named like so:

/Movies/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Bluray-1080p].mkv
/Movies4K/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Bluray-2160p].mkv
/MoviesAlt/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) (Minus Color) [Bluray-1080p].mkv

I'm filtering based on the tag "exclusive" which is not applied to any of these 3 different versions (in fact, each of the different versions do not have any tags at all), and sometimes after splitting/rescanning the library/regrouping, only the 2 1080p versions are selectable, and sometimes one of the 1080p versions and the 4K version are selectable. If I get rid of the parental control filter on my account, all 3 versions are selectable and as soon as I add the filter back in the parental controls one of the versions disappears from the dropdown.

Edited July 17, 2025 by lordairivis

[brothom 177]

@lordairivisI had a similar way of "discovering" how to use multi-version files and found the following solution to be working best:

/Movies/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - 1080p.mkv
/Movies4K/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - 4K.mkv
/MoviesAlt/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - 1080p - minus color.mkv

My best best is that the special characters in the name cause the identification to fail.

Additionally, I also found that using numbers in the parent folders causes issues.
For example this (sometimes) doesn't working:

/MoviesAlt/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/4K/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - 4k.mkv
/MoviesAlt/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/1080p/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - 1080p.mkv

But this does (replacing 4K and 1080p with UHD and HD, non-numeric):

/MoviesAlt/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/UHD/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - 4k.mkv
/MoviesAlt/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/HD/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - 1080p.mkv

 

[lordairivis 9]

6 hours ago, brothom said:

@lordairivisI had a similar way of "discovering" how to use multi-version files and found the following solution to be working best:

/Movies/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - 1080p.mkv
/Movies4K/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - 4K.mkv
/MoviesAlt/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - 1080p - minus color.mkv

My best best is that the special characters in the name cause the identification to fail.

Additionally, I also found that using numbers in the parent folders causes issues.
For example this (sometimes) doesn't working:

/MoviesAlt/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/4K/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - 4k.mkv
/MoviesAlt/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/1080p/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - 1080p.mkv

But this does (replacing 4K and 1080p with UHD and HD, non-numeric):

/MoviesAlt/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/UHD/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - 4k.mkv
/MoviesAlt/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/HD/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - 1080p.mkv

 

I've tried all manner of naming the files but it's definitely the tags and parental controls filtering that is causing this issue, although I don't understand why. It's not that the files are failing to group properly, it's that something about the parental control filtering is causing one of the members of the group to become hidden even though the tag being filtered for is not applied to any of the files in the group.

[brothom 177]

@lordairivisif one of the version disappears ONLY when parental controls are enabled then one of these versions must have different metadata than the others. 
Can you sure the schema of your parental controls and possible also an NFO extract of all 3 movies? 

[Happy2Play 9780]

14 hours ago, lordairivis said:

None of the 3 versions of the movie have the tag that I am filtering by in the parental controls, and it's not even consistent which file is left out from the dropdown.

The files in question are named like so:

/Movies/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Bluray-1080p].mkv
/Movies4K/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Bluray-2160p].mkv
/MoviesAlt/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) (Minus Color) [Bluray-1080p].mkv

I'm filtering based on the tag "exclusive" which is not applied to any of these 3 different versions (in fact, each of the different versions do not have any tags at all), and sometimes after splitting/rescanning the library/regrouping, only the 2 1080p versions are selectable, and sometimes one of the 1080p versions and the 4K version are selectable. If I get rid of the parental control filter on my account, all 3 versions are selectable and as soon as I add the filter back in the parental controls one of the versions disappears from the dropdown.

Do you write nfo files with media?

Are you allowing or excluding tags in parental control?

Testing this added three versions in different folder in same library

search for media

Manually grouped them

Logged in with different user with "exclusive" allow tag

No media showed up as nothing is tagged.

Logged out and back in with admin

Tagged the grouped media 

Logged in with restricted user

One movie showed up from the grouped media ie the one Emby shows as primary when you go to edit metadata on the grouped items.

Now I changed from Allow to Block and restricted user saw two versions grouped as one ie Emby primary item for group has a tag.  One issue where edited metadata does not propagate to all versions.

Got the same results in 4.8 and 4.9

So in the end you will have to look at the metadata for each item.

 

 

[lordairivis 9]

6 hours ago, brothom said:

@lordairivisif one of the version disappears ONLY when parental controls are enabled then one of these versions must have different metadata than the others. 
Can you sure the schema of your parental controls and possible also an NFO extract of all 3 movies? 

Attached the nfo files for each of the different versions I have. They all appear to be basically the same except for obviously the title/sorttitle and video file details.
 

4 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

Do you write nfo files with media?

Are you allowing or excluding tags in parental control?

Testing this added three versions in different folder in same library

search for media

Manually grouped them

Logged in with different user with "exclusive" allow tag

No media showed up as nothing is tagged.

Logged out and back in with admin

Tagged the grouped media 

Logged in with restricted user

One movie showed up from the grouped media ie the one Emby shows as primary when you go to edit metadata on the grouped items.

Now I changed from Allow to Block and restricted user saw two versions grouped as one ie Emby primary item for group has a tag.  One issue where edited metadata does not propagate to all versions.

Got the same results in 4.8 and 4.9

So in the end you will have to look at the metadata for each item.

 

 

My nfo files are generated elsewhere, not by Emby, and are stored alongside the video files. I am restricting by 1 tag, "exclusive", and currently none of the 3 files have any tags applied to them at all:

Minus One (1080p):

Minus One (2160p):

Minus One Minus Color:

IMDb, MovieDB, TMDb entries are all identical and everything else in the metadata window looks to be identical as well between all 3 versions.

The parental controls look like this for my account:

If I remove the tag from parental controls, I see all 3 versions after grouping the items. If I then add the tag back, one of the versions disappears. Sometimes when the items are grouped and I have the parental control filtering enabled, I will see just the main 1080p version and the 2160p version, and sometimes it's just the 2 1080p versions, but this probably has to do with which item Emby considers to be the primary item as it does not change unless I ungroup/regroup the 3 versions. Obviously something is different about these 3 files, but I am nearly certain that it's not the metadata.

All the files exist on the same NFS network share with the same permissions to all files and the emby user has the appropriate permissions to this location.

Grouped versions with parental controls as above enabled:

Grouped versions with the parental control restriction removed:

Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Bluray-2160p] [TrueHD Atmos].nfo Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Minus Color] [Bluray-1080p] [EAC3].nfo Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Bluray-1080p] [EAC3].nfo

Edited July 17, 2025 by lordairivis

[lordairivis 9]

Not able to edit my last post for some reason so sorry for the double posting. My Movies library is set to have Nfo as the only Metadata reader, and no Metadata savers are enabled.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Not sure then as the nfo and ui are not showing the tag I can only guess a database issue.

Have you verified the Access tab for the library? @lordairivis

Is this reproducible in a different/new/test library with this content?

Edited July 18, 2025 by Happy2Play

[brothom 177]

@lordairivisI'm having the exact same issues as @Happy2Play- none of the items will group at all in no way using your structure:

I modified my Movies library to include:

X:\Media\Movies
X:\Media\Movies4K
X:\Media\MoviesAlt

and created the following files:

X:\Media\Movies\Godzilla Minus One (2023)\Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Bluray-1080p] [EAC3].mkv
X:\Media\Movies\Godzilla Minus One (2023)\Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Bluray-1080p] [EAC3].nfo
X:\Media\Movies4K\Godzilla Minus One (2023)\Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Bluray-2160p] [TrueHD Atmos].mkv
X:\Media\Movies4K\Godzilla Minus One (2023)\Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Bluray-2160p] [TrueHD Atmos].nfo
X:\Media\MoviesAlt\Godzilla Minus One (2023)\Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Minus Color] [Bluray-1080p] [EAC3].mkv
X:\Media\MoviesAlt\Godzilla Minus One (2023)\Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Minus Color] [Bluray-1080p] [EAC3].nfo

This will just cause three different entries to be created because the (probably because the filesname are wildly different). Below is the homescreen latest Movies:

This is a blank installation with only a handful of entries and NFO metadata readers enabled.

Besides just creating the files, did you do anything else to get these to group? Did you manually edit something outside of the regular emby process?

[lordairivis 9]

9 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

Not sure then as the nfo and ui are not showing the tag I can only guess a database issue.

Have you verified the Access tab for the library? @lordairivis

Is this reproducible in a different/new/test library with this content?

The user in question is my personal user and is an admin user with full access to all library items.

@brothomI manually group the items by multi-selecting and chosing Group Items from the menu in the top right

As a test, I created a new test user and created a new test movies library with this structure (these are copies of the same files from my real Movies library):

/Test1/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Bluray-1080p] [EAC3].mkv & .nfo

/Test2/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Minus Color] [Bluray-1080p] [EAC3].mkv & .nfo

/Test3/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) [Bluray-2160p] [TrueHD Atmos].mkv & .nfo

I logged in to my server with this user and was able to see each different version of the movie. I manually grouped the 3 items into 1 item and all 3 versions were selectable from the dropdown. I added the tag "exclusive" to the parental controls and set it to block items with that tag, and now only 2 versions are selectable from the dropdown. If I again remove the tag from the parental controls, all 3 versions become selectable from the dropdown.

As a test, I deleted the existing .nfo files from each of the directories and enabled Metadata saving for the test library. I rescanned the files and verified that Emby generated new nfo files next to the movie files. Then I manually grouped them again, and again with the parental control filtering disabled I was able to see each of the 3 different versions in the dropdown. I re-added the parental control filtering, and once again only 2 of the 3 versions is selectable in the dropdown at the top.

I am at a complete loss as to what is going on here. This installation of Emby is fairly old, and has been upgraded numerous times to be up-to-date with the current 4.8.11.0 version. Is it possible there is something left over an from older pre-4.8.9 version of Emby (prior to the fix earlier in the thread referenced by @Luke) in the database that is causing this issue? I've been using Emby since at least before v4.8.9 although I can't remember exactly which version I initially installed.

I don't know how much help it will be, but just in case I enabled debug logging and went through the whole process outlined above of grouping the items and adding the tag and have attached the logs here in case there's something useful in there for someone to look at. I think the next thing I will try is to vacuum the database and see if rebuilding the DB will solve this issue for me.

EDIT: Vacuuming the DB did not help, still the same issue.

embyserver.txt

Edited July 18, 2025 by lordairivis

[brothom 177]

@lordairivisjust to be clear; the user that can't see all items when grouped and in parental mode; can this user see all three separate media entries when they're not grouped? 

 

I actually try to let Emby handle all my grouping and logic so I'm really curious what happens if you don't group them, but give them the same names and let emby handle creating the versions.

In my case this works flawlessly:

\\X\Series\Foundation (2021)\Season 01\HD\Foundation (2021) - s01e01 - The Emperor's Peace - 1080p.mkv
\\X\Series\Foundation (2021)\Season 01\UHD\Foundation (2021) - s01e01 - The Emperor's Peace - 4K.mkv

These are grouped as the screen below automatically:

This also works for movies: 

\\XI\Movies\The Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King (2003)\UHD Extended\The Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King (2003) - 4K Extended Edition.mkv
\\XI\Movies\The Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King (2003)\HD Theatrical\The Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King (2003) - 1080p Theatrical Edition.mkv

To my knowledge Emby takes the "first part" of the filename for identification "The Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King (2003)" and the second part(s) " - 4K Extended Edition" and "- 1080p Theatrical Edition" which then become versions of the "first part".

Can you try to see if that works, if manual grouping doesn't?

[lordairivis 9]

26 minutes ago, brothom said:

@lordairivisjust to be clear; the user that can't see all items when grouped and in parental mode; can this user see all three separate media entries when they're not grouped? 

 

I actually try to let Emby handle all my grouping and logic so I'm really curious what happens if you don't group them, but give them the same names and let emby handle creating the versions.

In my case this works flawlessly:

\\X\Series\Foundation (2021)\Season 01\HD\Foundation (2021) - s01e01 - The Emperor's Peace - 1080p.mkv
\\X\Series\Foundation (2021)\Season 01\UHD\Foundation (2021) - s01e01 - The Emperor's Peace - 4K.mkv

These are grouped as the screen below automatically:

This also works for movies: 

\\XI\Movies\The Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King (2003)\UHD Extended\The Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King (2003) - 4K Extended Edition.mkv
\\XI\Movies\The Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King (2003)\HD Theatrical\The Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King (2003) - 1080p Theatrical Edition.mkv

To my knowledge Emby takes the "first part" of the filename for identification "The Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King (2003)" and the second part(s) " - 4K Extended Edition" and "- 1080p Theatrical Edition" which then become versions of the "first part".

Can you try to see if that works, if manual grouping doesn't?

Yes, with or without the parental control filtering in place, both my personal user and the test user I created are able to see each of the 3 versions of the movie as long as they are not grouped. I've tried all varieties of naming the files and they don't automatically group because (I assume) the files are in different folders on the network share, due to limitations of other software not related to Emby.

As another test I created a new movies library with a copy of each version of the movie in a single folder and named them like this:
/TestLibrary/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - HD.mkv
/TestLibrary/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - UHD.mkv
/TestLibrary/Godzilla Minus One (2023)/Godzilla Minus One (2023) - Minus Color.mkv

I removed the existing .nfo files and enabled metadata saving for the test library and had Emby generate the appropriate nfo files, which it did successfully for each version of the movie in the folder.

With parental control filtering enabled, the items did automatically group but I can still only select between 2 of the 3 versions. If I disable the parental control filtering and change nothing else, I am able to select between all 3 different versions. I attached the nfo files that Emby generated here, and they appear to be identical except for obviously the file information. This genuinely appears to be related to the parental control filtering.

Godzilla Minus One (2023) - HD.nfo Godzilla Minus One (2023) - Minus Color.nfo Godzilla Minus One (2023) - UHD.nfo

Edited July 18, 2025 by lordairivis

[Happy2Play 9780]

4 minutes ago, lordairivis said:

I've tried all varieties of naming the files and they don't automatically group because (I assume) the files are in different folders

Correct but will change in 4.9 as you have options to group per library

But I am out of ideas as I cannot reproduce the issues in 4.8 or 4.9 even using your nfo files.  As no media shows up with your nfo files as they do not contain the blocking "Tag".  And all show up when removing the "Tag" restriction.

 

[lordairivis 9]

13 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Correct but will change in 4.9 as you have options to group per library

But I am out of ideas as I cannot reproduce the issues in 4.8 or 4.9 even using your nfo files.  As no media shows up with your nfo files as they do not contain the blocking "Tag".  And all show up when removing the "Tag" restriction.

 

Just to be clear, since your post was not exactly clear to me: this isn't an issue with the items grouping or not grouping, or the items appearing or not appearing in the library when ungrouped. The items are all visible in the library when ungrouped and are being successfully grouped regardless of whether it's done manually or automatically by Emby. It's an issue with the visibility of the items in the group based on whether or not the parental controls are enabled, despite none of the items in the group being tagged in a way that should be affected by the parental controls.

I appreciate everyone's help and input in trying to figure out what's going on here, but to me this looks like a bug in the software. Maybe I've hit some weird edge case that I'm not able to identify.

[brothom 177]

1 hour ago, lordairivis said:

...

I appreciate everyone's help and input in trying to figure out what's going on here, but to me this looks like a bug in the software. Maybe I've hit some weird edge case that I'm not able to identify.

As a programmer I can safely say that anything that looks like a bug, always has a logical explanation lol.

The thing is that we can't reproduce this issue on new installs so it has to do with something in the database. Wiping these items would be a good start.

I don't know if you have an extra PC or laptop on which you can try to reproduce this bug yourself? That'll help us a lot too since we can't reproduce it and you're currently the only one that can.