Unable to prevent the merging of two folders/shows into 1 tv show

[katbyte 40]

I have two shows: "V the original mini series" and "V the final battle" and emby keeps wanting to combine them into a single show and i've not been able to figure out a way to keep them separate.

I have tried adding them 1 by 1, removing both, scanning, editing both tvshow.nfo to the correct tmdb and nothing else, adding back 1 by 1

but emby always wants to merge them and there doesn't appear to be any way to edit what show an episode belongs to, or "split show with multiple folders apart"

whats the best way to solve this?

The file structure is in a lettered path tv/v/*

:

and in emby 

 

[katbyte 40]

tried some more things and now its worse as its merged them with V the series, theres clearly some sort of weird logic that insists these three folders (V (1984)) are the same series no matter what i do

[Luke 42077]

HI, there isn't any weird logic. It is all based on the external id's of each series, and whether they are the same or not.

[GrimReaper 4739]

5 hours ago, katbyte said:

whats the best way to solve this?

V comes up every so often:

 

[katbyte 40]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

HI, there isn't any weird logic. It is all based on the external id's of each series, and whether they are the same or not.

Except emby is somehow deciding the wrong external ids even why i try to force it to use specific tmdb ids. then once merged into a single series there is no way for me to change the ID that is used for a folder? there doesn't seem to be a "split folders apart" into separate series action that would allow me to then correctly identify them.

23 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

V comes up every so often:

 

i followed this by deleting all metadata files in the folders and adding the ID to the folder name and scanning - it still is merging the final battle and series folders together into a single series 

[GrimReaper 4739]

3 hours ago, katbyte said:

i followed this by deleting all metadata files in the folders and adding the ID to the folder name and scanning - it still is merging the final battle and series folders together into a single series 

You likely still have TVDB as library top-preferred provider, only putting tmdbids in folder names won't be enough. As said:

1) Put TMDB on top of your preferred meta-providers list; name series folders as:

V - The Original Miniseries (1983) [tmdbid=14141]

V - The Final Battle (1984) [tmdbid=75896]

V (1984) [tmdbid=75893]

Refresh Metadata/Scan media library. Lock the items once scraped, revert TVDB on top afterwards. 

OR

2) Reorganize your folder structure putting both The Original Miniseries and The Final Battle episodes as Season 0 Episodes 1 through 5 of The Complete Series.

Depends whether you want to have three TV shows or only one. 

Edited September 25, 2025 by GrimReaper

[katbyte 40]

always have TMDB at the top for my libraries

[GrimReaper 4739]

Then something else is amiss, possibly db was not cleared. 

Have you tried:

1) Remove all three series folders from your TV show root

2) Run Scan media library scheduled task to clear the db

3) Remove any NFOs from series folders, if any

4) Ensure TMDB is top-preferred provider for series/season/episodes, you can untick/tick it again 

5) Move series folders back to TV show root

5) Run Scan media library

If it still doesn't work, post server log afterwards. 

[GrimReaper 4739]

One more thing you can try:

1) Remove all three series folders from your TV show root

2) Run Scan media library scheduled task to clear the db

3) Remove any NFOs from series folders, if any

4) Ensure TMDB is top-preferred provider for series/season/episodes, you can untick/tick it again 

5) Disable library option to "Automatically merge series that are spread across multiple folders" 

6) Move series folders back to TV show root

7) Run Scan media library

8 ) You'll have two same shows listed now in your library, re-Identify incorrectly identified one

Edited September 25, 2025 by GrimReaper

[katbyte 40]

i couldn't get the id in the folder names to work no matter what i did, but deleting everything but tvshow.nfo and just putting 

Quote

<tvshow>
  <uniqueid type="tmdb" default="true">14141</uniqueid>
</tvshow>

in it, for all 3, then moving them in and scanning finally did the trick.