Emby (Premiere) not creating collections

[FatherSaint 25]

I had manually configured Collections as I added content; Lord of the Rings, Underworld, Denzel Washington movies, Jason Stratham movies, etc. I did a complete rebuild of my Movies library, which broke my manually created collections.

- A consistent naming convention has been observed, for example: A Quiet Place (2018) [tmdbid=447332]

- Each movie is in its own folder under the parent of MOVIES - I have .NFO files being written to each movie folder

- Minimum Automatic Collection Size is set at 2

Emby has created a very small number of collections and only a couple of those actually have all of the movies in the series, even though they exist in the main MOVIES folder.

I can't find a way to proceed with this, so any help would be much appreciated!

[darkassassin07 652]

What metadata providers do you have enabled and is 'import collection information' enabled?

 

[FatherSaint 25]

Time will tell, but I think that you may have saved the day!

I put my settings to what you're showing in the screen capture and set my library to scan. I did NOT have "Import collection information..." checked and the downloaders weren't checked as your screen capture.

Thanks very much for your help. I wasn't sure where to even look, so now I have an excellent start on this situation!

[Luke 42078]

Please let us know how things go. Thanks.

[FatherSaint 25]

Windows 11 Pro HTPC, current version

Emby Server 4.8.10.0

I've requested a rescan of the Movies library a couple times AND have restarted the computer a couple times. At some time in the past, Emby did create a few collections, but since then has not created any more for all of the additional series movies, such as Underworld, Hunger Games, etc.

This isn't the end of the world, but it would be nice if it was working.

: These are my settings in the Movies library. I didn't include any log files because I wasn't sure WHICH of them might help and didn't think that something like issue would be logged anyway?

Windows 11 Pro, 

 

 

 

 

[Luke 42078]

Hi, I would try refreshing the metadata on all of the movies belonging to the underworld, hunger games collections and see if that helps.

[darkassassin07 652]

 

 

The scan library task is just checking for new media; it's not going to do anything with the media emby has already imported.

[Happy2Play 9780]

And possibly a server log as only way I can see it failing is if you have issues communicating with TMDB.  Or maybe you have locked metadata?

[FatherSaint 25]

3 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, I would try refreshing the metadata on all of the movies belonging to the underworld, hunger games collections and see if that helps.

Yes, that did it! I thought that scanning the library files was the thing to do, but refreshing the metadata on each of the movies in the series created the collection and added the movies to it. They even have a poster of the movie series saying "Collection" so that's a nice feature as well.

• It seems like the thing for me to do now is to refresh all the metadata on the MOVIES library to have Emby create all the collections that it can?
• I'd like to also have collections for specific actors like Denzel Washington, Jason Stratham, etc. I assume that will be a manual process, or is there a way for Emby to figure that out?

This is really great. Thank you all for helping me with this. Sometimes there are movies in a series that don't have consistent titles and I can easily lose track of all the associated ones. Having collections REALLY improves our experience.

[Luke 42078]

Quote

It seems like the thing for me to do now is to refresh all the metadata on the MOVIES library to have Emby create all the collections that it can?

When you change library options you need to refresh metadata on existing content if you want to apply the new options to content that is already imported.

[Luke 42078]

Quote

I'd like to also have collections for specific actors like Denzel Washington, Jason Stratham, etc. I assume that will be a manual process, or is there a way for Emby to figure that out?

There isn't an automated way, but is this really necessary? You click on Tom Cruise and then you see everything for Tom Cruise. What extra value would a Tom Cruise Collection bring?

[FatherSaint 25]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

There isn't an automated way, but is this really necessary? You click on Tom Cruise and then you see everything for Tom Cruise. What extra value would a Tom Cruise Collection bring?

I'm old and set in my old man ways, although I'm willing to adapt. 

You're right, of course. Thank you for your help and guidance. I'll just initiate a metadata refresh on everything AND use the actors for their movies as you suggested.

It's so fantastic to have access to Emby Server and the support is always amazing. I know that many will read my post and think something like 'is he dumb' but I just couldn't see the solution.

I had JUST gone through everything in Movies and TV Shows with FileBot, Powershell scripts and manually to make it all consistently named and didn't want to face doing that again anytime soon.

[FatherSaint 25]

@Luke

This is officially amazing!

I just checked in on Emby and it has clearly been VERY busy! I now have Collections for all kinds of Movie series, some that I didn't remember even having!

LAST QUESTION: I've never done anything but the most basic stuff with Emby and have always been thrilled with it. I'm struggling to find actors as you suggested in order to find all of their movies.

On my Roku Ultra I am just not finding a way to do that.

This is probably another stupid one, but any help would be greatly appreciated!

Edited January 29, 2025 by FatherSaint
Removed error in text

[FatherSaint 25]

Googling has suggested From the main menu, go to the "People" section within your library but this is a matter of I would if I could but I can't (because that's not there, that *I* can find, at least.)

[Luke 42078]

Hi, if you click on a movie or show then you can also click on the actors for it. You can also find an actor via search and also in the favorites section.

[FatherSaint 25]

9 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, if you click on a movie or show then you can also click on the actors for it. You can also find an actor via search and also in the favorites section.

@LukeYes sir, thank you! I did know about it from within a movie or show. I haven't been designating Favorites, although that sounds like something that would help with recommendations.

My main problem with this came from Googling where I read a Reddit comment in a relevant thread to search for the actor IN the Movie library. I now know that is absolutely wrong.

Thank you again to you and everybody who helped me with all of this. My Emby experience, which I already loved, has significantly improved with automatic collections and actor searching. I had created so much work for myself doing these things manually... sigh.

[ebr 16184]

6 minutes ago, FatherSaint said:

to search for the actor IN the Movie library. I now know that is absolutely wrong.

Hi.  As I noted in your other topic, that should still work in the Roku app - as long as there is actually a movie with that actor in that library.

[FatherSaint 25]

9 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  As I noted in your other topic, that should still work in the Roku app - as long as there is actually a movie with that actor in that library.

@ebr

Yes, but oddly, it does NOT work in the library, where there are quite a few of their movies. Only from the main start page. Which is fine, even good, because it saves me the step of entering the library.

I can record a video if actually seeing the situation would be helpful.

[ebr 16184]

As long as you are happy with the behavior now, we're good.

Thanks.