emby keeps making two albums out of one

[goblin2k3 6]

Really infuriating issue (maybe related to the new version?): Had to change (correct) the name of an album. Emby now wants to separate it into two albums. Updating metadata of the albums and album artists did not help. Changing the file's metadata and reverting them did not help. Removing the file of the one track album and putting it into the album's folder again after a library scan does not help. Removing the nfo-file and doing a library scan does not help (btw: it seems, the nfo file is only created when updating the metadata of the one track album).

I'm really out of ideas. What the hell is going on?

[goblin2k3 6]

Another thing I just found out: Saving the metadata of one of the "albums" will update the nfo in the folder and thus override the metadata of the other "album" (just look at the "runtime" tag)

[user24 313]

What does Emby show for the individual metadata of the bad track compared to a good track?

One way to get to this is, from your Emby tracklist screenshots, click on the RHS three dots and select Edit Metadata (of the individual song).

This may give a clue as to what is being imported from the embedded metadata that may be causing this issue. 

[goblin2k3 6]

Thanks for your quick response!

I can really see no differences in the metadata.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, do all the tracks have the same album and album Artist values?

[goblin2k3 6]

Yes, the values definitely match.

Just tried changing the album title, hoping this would cause a reset. Well, searching the new album title will return the tracks but not the album(s). The album title in the tracks remains unchanged, even when i update the metadata.

[Luke 42077]

Do they have discogs album and musicbrainz album values? If yes then they will also all need to match.

[goblin2k3 6]

There are (identical) Discogs IDs in the files, but emby seems to ignore them. There is no entry in MusicBrainz for the album.

[user24 313]

Hi again, from looking at your info and the Album on Discogs, I am assuming that:

• You originally had a 2-disc album of 24 + 24 tracks that was displaying correctly across Disc 1 and Disc 2 under the one incorrect album title?
• You have embedded Discogs metadata but no MusicBrainz embedded metadata?
• Upon updating to the correct Album title with embedded metadata, using (MusicBrainzPicard or something else?) the album in Emby split into 23 tracks across Disc 1 +  Disc 2, and 1 separate track 13 incorrectly under its own Disc 2?
• Upon changing the Album title to something else for more testing, the Album split into 48 individual tracks in Emby???

This still look like an Album Artist metadata issue to me Here are a few more areas to check:

• Even though you don't have MusicBrainz embedded metadata, Emby may still be fetching info from MusicBrainz directly if you have MusicBrainz turned on as a metadata provider within your Emby music library? 
• If your music folder structure is different from what you have selected for your Emby library then this may be causing problems?
• If you have both AlbumArtist and a "hidden" Album Artist tag then the "hidden" tag could cause issues. You may be able to check this with your tagging program? (in Mp3tag for example - use View>Extended Tags).

The three areas mentioned above, individually or in combination, may be causing the problem??? At least it is something to check, and rule in or out. Let us know what you find or any other info that may help. Cheers!

 

Edited October 1, 2025 by user24

[goblin2k3 6]

Your assumptions are all correct.

Quote

Even though you don't have MusicBrainz embedded metadata, Emby may still be fetching info from MusicBrainz directly if you have MusicBrainz turned on as a metadata provider within your Emby music library?

MusicBrainz is activated as a metadata provider for artists. It is not activated for songs or albums. Same goes for TheAudioDB and Discogs.

Quote

Even though you don't have MusicBrainz embedded metadata, Emby may still be fetching info from MusicBrainz directly if you have MusicBrainz turned on as a metadata provider within your Emby music library?

I have selected the third option (tracks in album folders). This only applies for subfolders, though, as album folders are grouped in folders for genres, composers, artists etc.

Quote

If you have both AlbumArtist and a "hidden" Album Artist tag then the "hidden" tag could cause issues. You may be able to check this with your tagging program? (in Mp3tag for example - use View>Extended Tags).

I cannot see any hidden metadata or differences between the metadata.

[user24 313]

I can’t see anything obvious either. When there are no obvious errors showing up, then it may need a process of elimination. Sometimes the root cause will be found and other times it won’t, but you could still end up fixing it.

A couple of other possibilities (which I doubt is the problem here) are:

• Long path names over 260 characters may cause issues. You have long ones, but they appear to be under 260?
• Blank embedded metadata characters can be “invisible” on the screen but still cause differences if present (so always update a whole Album at once for common data).

Also, when adding music, making changes or testing, I normally rescan the parent folder from the Folder menu tab, rather than the whole library. This is usually much faster and quite reliable. Sometimes "Scan Library Files" doesn’t work for all fields, but "Refresh Metadata" does.

I’ve found that 98% of Emby music data problems are embedded metadata issues and 2% are the Emby database not updating. So here is what you could try, if you haven’t already:

• Remove the problem album altogether from your music library folder and then rescan to remove it from Emby. Check that it has gone.
• Make a new test folder under /Musik (or wherever you want at a lower level) and put a copy of the ‘bad’ album there.
• With a tagging program, Rename the Album to “Test Album” or similar.
• Rename the AlbumArtist to “Test AlbumArtist” or similar.
• Delete all the Discogs metadata.
• Rescan the parent folder to import back into Emby.
• If the Album is still split, then go back to the embedded metadata again and try to pinpoint further by removing fields.
• If the Album now appears as one entity, then work back through adding the correct embedded metadata and moving the Album back to the correct folder. How many steps you take with this is up to you. Hopefully this will also show exactly where the problem is, if the album splits again.

That’s the idea anyway. There are, of course, many other elimination paths to potentially find the problem. Good luck with whatever method you try…

[goblin2k3 6]

Removed the album from emby, deleted the discogs metadata und reuploaded it under the name testalbum with the album artist testartist. It worked even after renaming the album and the album artist. Funily enough: The faulty track still counts as played according to the bulky editor. Anyways: Thanks for your help!