When do and don't Specials appear as seasons?

[ServerNoob005 2]

Good evening,

I'll be brief, but again to give quick background on myself: Plex user checking out emby. Title is as above. I have 2 anime tv shows. One that has 6 specials and one that has 2 specials. What I am unable to understand is that they are made the same way with regard to folder structure and yet react differently in Emby. I have read through the naming documentation and the positioning rules emby offers but I fail to understand when Emby does and doesn't make seasons. I like seasons, personally, especially if the specials are disconnected from the content contuinuity.

In the case of Yuru camp, which I have 6 specials in the Season 00 folder I get them as seasons, which is exactly what I want.

 

In contrast, with Little Witch Academia, I get the following, and I don't understand why. The folders have been structured the same, emby knows there are 2 seasons but displays the 2 specials in the Season 1 lineup, and right clicking on the first two gives you the "Show Season" option. Which will show the two alone. Is there some rule about how many need to be present to "Count" as a season?

The only weird discovery that sadly not fix things was doing "Show Season" to Starting Over the first episode of season 1. Emby had actually included the specials in it. I removed them, but it did not fix the issue. I also did try changing the order (DVD, absolute, etc) but this also had no effect.

Please advise, and thanks for reading this, and I apologize if this is answered already somewhere else.

 

 

[Neminem 1518]

Try playing with these display settings.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Yep should be the option shown above. 

Always show season folders

Show all episodes for only Single Season Shows

Show all episodes of all seasons together (same as above as there is only one true season)

Sorry looks like some minor changes coming in 4.9

@Lukelooks like there is a order issue on the specials in 4.9 as they are reversed.

Within Season 0 vs shown above in season row.

 

 

Edited July 13, 2025 by Happy2Play

[pwhodges 2012]

For the positions of the specials you also need to check the metadata for each episode, which contains fields defining where they will be shown (these can also be blank to have them not show within a season).

Paul

[ServerNoob005 2]

Thanks Friends,
 

Neminem, got it— I figured there had to be a display setting somewhere, but I somehow missed the “Display” setting (looked at the library and media settings but not that).

That said, I suppose I’m a bit disheartened that it’s not on the show level. While putting it on the display level makes sense on paper, enough exceptions and weirdness with media and tvdb occur that it’s more complicated that way imo, and it seems impossible to actually get what I want.

Option 2 would be best, if it did what I expected it to, but it does not sadly. In essence I like “If it’s one season, no season display. But, it if it has specials, display seasons.”  That is also assuming the absolute order has a version with specials not as specials like Violet Evergarden where the special is instead made episode 5 and the other episodes numbers are changed.
 

Likewise, I can’t even recreate Happy2Play’s option 2 post. Little Witch stays as it is in my original post with the specials in front and not in their own section.

Guess maybe that is food for thought for the devs, but for now I guess I need to do a bit more experimenting, but it’s likely I will be lazy and just use option 3, despite its silliness in a lot of cases. Regardless, thank you all for your assistance. And if you have any additional thoughts, please let me know.

Edited July 13, 2025 by ServerNoob005

[pwhodges 2012]

26 minutes ago, ServerNoob005 said:

specials in front and not in their own section.

Specials are treated internally as season 0.  But you could specify in each of their metadata that they should go before episode 999 of the last season - that would push them to the end.

I agree that more options to control the display more finely would be good.  I guess the devs try to balance the extra complication against the confusion it might cause to some...

Paul

Edited July 13, 2025 by pwhodges

[Happy2Play 9780]

31 minutes ago, ServerNoob005 said:

Likewise, I can’t even recreate Happy2Play’s post. Little Witch stays as it is in my original post with the specials in front and not in their own section.

Well that is a change in 4.9 beta server.

But overall Emby stopped getting positioning data from TVDB unless it is Critical to Story "yes" (Not all specials show this data on TVDB per website, but believe it is in the api data).

So you have to manually apply Positioning data for most specials now.

Example from an old special Emby did years ago.

For your comment on Absolute numbering that is an issue as Provider does not provide Specials in that number scheme.

Your example Violet Evergarden Absolute still does not relist/reorder existing 13 episodes.

 

But DVD order does but that comes back to how your media is organized/named to properly use that order as Emby does not magically move/rename your content.

 

Overall Specials can require some manual work depending on the presentation you want and how your media is actually organized/named.

Edited July 13, 2025 by Happy2Play

[Happy2Play 9780]

But Extras have more options now depending on your structure but are all Season 0 unless placed within season or next to episode.

https://emby.media/support/articles/TV-Naming.html#tv-extras