Emby folder display issue

[Zelig 48]

Ok. No luck. Could not reverse to 4.8

This is what I did

Stop the server

Rename System folder to system.new

Rename System.old folder to system

Restart the server

So far so good.

Desable the automatic updates so it dosen't update to 4.9

On muy dashboard there nothing but my libraries but i cannot access them.

Go to the libraries setup page but there's nothing there even when i can see muy librarieds on the dashboard.

Try to create a new library but it keeps saying it can't access the drives so can't create nothing. Tried al types of media, all posible paths but nothing, it won't create a library

But i still see them on the dashboard.

So inmensly frustrated i activate the automatic update, so it updates to 4.9, it does and everything is ok.

If anyone knows a method to revert to 4.8 from 4.9 please say so, I just can't stand this new folder view. It's totally useless for me

Any word on if this is going to be dealt with or not?

 

 

 

[Teddy 100]

I'm sorry, if it's not possible to revert to the previous version,

Then I don't understand why the system.old directory is being retained.

As I mentioned, I did it by restoring a full image of the C drive from a few days ago.

Let's hope the developers provide a setup link for version 4.8 until they can fix the folder issue.

Edited November 2, 2025 by Teddy

[mrmixed 77]

2 hours ago, Teddy said:

I'm sorry, if it's not possible to revert to the previous version,

Then I don't understand why the system.old directory is being retained.

As I mentioned, I did it by restoring a full image of the C drive from a few days ago.

Let's hope the developers provide a setup link for version 4.8 until they can fix the folder issue.

I haven't tried either a rollback or a remove+reinstall of my environment yet, so I don't have any advice to offer to @Zelig, but the 4.8 install package is still available at this link: https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Releases/releases/tag/4.8.11.0

[GrimReaper 4739]

3 hours ago, Zelig said:

Ok. No luck. Could not reverse to 4.8

This is what I did

Stop the server

Rename System folder to system.new

Rename System.old folder to system

Restart the server

So far so good.

Desable the automatic updates so it dosen't update to 4.9

On muy dashboard there nothing but my libraries but i cannot access them.

Go to the libraries setup page but there's nothing there even when i can see muy librarieds on the dashboard.

Try to create a new library but it keeps saying it can't access the drives so can't create nothing. Tried al types of media, all posible paths but nothing, it won't create a library

But i still see them on the dashboard.

So inmensly frustrated i activate the automatic update, so it updates to 4.9, it does and everything is ok.

If anyone knows a method to revert to 4.8 from 4.9 please say so, I just can't stand this new folder view. It's totally useless for me

Any word on if this is going to be dealt with or not?

You cannot rollback between different branches - i.e. 4.9 > 4.8 (unless you have a full previous version backup) due to db changes, you'll need to rebuild your library.

3 hours ago, Teddy said:

if it's not possible to revert to the previous version,

Then I don't understand why the system.old directory is being retained.

Cause contrary to above, you generally can rollback within same branch - i.e. 4.9.x.y > 4.9.x.x, though not always, db changes will be introduced during beta cycle every now and then, but between versions it's a guarantee.

Edited November 2, 2025 by GrimReaper

[Zelig 48]

19 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

You cannot rollback between different branches - i.e. 4.9 > 4.8 (unless you have a full previous version backup) due to db changes, you'll need to rebuild your library.

Ok, and how do i do that. 

Can't create any new libraries from inside the server server. It won't let me.

Do I need to delete something ouside the "system" folder?

Along side the "system" folder there's a "programdata" foder witch I guess, is not tuched during an upgrade. Is there something there i need to delete?

 

[Lighthammer 91]

I lost track of my original post on this issue.

I've continued having the same Genre Fold issue and I've been through a metric ton trying to narrow it down.

#1.) I've used Exiftool to go through media and make sure there were NO <genre> tags in the metadata of my media.
#2.) I've used ffmpeg to go through media and make sure there were NO <genre> tags in the metadata of my media.
#3.) I realized the NFO metadata files might be the culprit and went through them with TextCrawler to remove <genre></genre> from NFO files.
#4.) I've vacuumed out the database and restarted.

I don't know where else the empty genre's are coming from.

 

So let me go over the usecase here quick.

- All the genres list here are not intended to be used.
- I've mapped *ALL* Genres to [New] ([New Movies] Showing up are an anomaly) 
- ([2025 - Q1], [2025 - Q2], [2025 - Q3], [2025 - Q4]) are something new I've been trying to better help users see what recent things they might have missed. This isn't important for this setup.
- When you hover over and click the play button on any of the blank genres, they start playing an episode.
- Action, Adventure and Sci-Fi start at "Star Trek: Deep Space 9 - S01E04". Since I know there is a problem here, this is where I've concentrated most my efforts on trying to resolve this problem after I sweeped the ENTIRE server with Exiftool and FFmpeg.
- My series are all manually set to "Series - <Appropriate Genre>" so my genres aren't exploding with an overwhelming amount of shows (I have 1400+ series on the server at this point; better organization is absolutely mandatory).

On this (or another) thread, someone pointed out that the Genres being shown are absolutely from Episodes and not Series and that seems to remain absolutely right. What I can't figure out is where Emby is pulling it from. As I demonstrated its NOT from:
- NFO files
- Media Files

That leaves something in the database.

It's been around a month now since this issue cropped up. This is what my collection looks like without all the random old style genres poping up:

This is scrolled further down for illustration purposes.

Anyone have any beats on how to fix this?

[Happy2Play 9780]

54 minutes ago, Lighthammer said:

I lost track of my original post on this issue.

I've continued having the same Genre Fold issue and I've been through a metric ton trying to narrow it down.

#1.) I've used Exiftool to go through media and make sure there were NO <genre> tags in the metadata of my media.
#2.) I've used ffmpeg to go through media and make sure there were NO <genre> tags in the metadata of my media.
#3.) I realized the NFO metadata files might be the culprit and went through them with TextCrawler to remove <genre></genre> from NFO files.
#4.) I've vacuumed out the database and restarted.

I don't know where else the empty genre's are coming from.

 

So let me go over the usecase here quick.

- All the genres list here are not intended to be used.
- I've mapped *ALL* Genres to [New] ([New Movies] Showing up are an anomaly) 
- ([2025 - Q1], [2025 - Q2], [2025 - Q3], [2025 - Q4]) are something new I've been trying to better help users see what recent things they might have missed. This isn't important for this setup.
- When you hover over and click the play button on any of the blank genres, they start playing an episode.
- Action, Adventure and Sci-Fi start at "Star Trek: Deep Space 9 - S01E04". Since I know there is a problem here, this is where I've concentrated most my efforts on trying to resolve this problem after I sweeped the ENTIRE server with Exiftool and FFmpeg.
- My series are all manually set to "Series - <Appropriate Genre>" so my genres aren't exploding with an overwhelming amount of shows (I have 1400+ series on the server at this point; better organization is absolutely mandatory).

On this (or another) thread, someone pointed out that the Genres being shown are absolutely from Episodes and not Series and that seems to remain absolutely right. What I can't figure out is where Emby is pulling it from. As I demonstrated its NOT from:
- NFO files
- Media Files

That leaves something in the database.

It's been around a month now since this issue cropped up. This is what my collection looks like without all the random old style genres poping up:

This is scrolled further down for illustration purposes.

Anyone have any beats on how to fix this?

Probably should be in one of the previous Empty Genre topics.

But I had the same issue of episode metadata causing this.  Since you say you cleared embedded metadata, I would double check "ffprobe -i "pathtofile" and see what is shows as you know what file to test when you click play on the genre folder.

 

[cp41 42]

I am glad I found this thread. I was looking specifically for this. 

Has there been any indication that the option for Leagcy viewing will be restored in a future update.

Seems like many users have relied on the same folder structure for years and years.

Folders with a single movie were treated like a single item.

Folders with multiple folders of single movies would be treated like a folder and sorted at the top.

I even tried removing movies from folders and having them all sit together on the top level but the system still grouped them as a folder per movie (even when no folder was actually present).

This display option is a move backwards with regards to organization.

[GrimReaper 4739]

1 hour ago, cp41 said:

I even tried removing movies from folders and having them all sit together on the top level but the system still grouped them as a folder per movie (even when no folder was actually present).

Could you share an example of that? As I cannot reproduce that behaviour. 

[dropshadow 12]

On 10/29/2025 at 1:17 PM, Luke said:

Hi, just curious, what is wrong with the movies tab of the library?

i see this is intended, i just posted about this in another thread.

to answer your question - the intent of MIXED CONTENT libraries seems pointless if you cannot view ALL of your mixed content in one pane of glass. it is nice to view by SHOWS or MOVIES however some of my folder structure isn't built around content type, so my views should not be restricted to CONTENT type. it seems odd to allow for MIXED CONTENT libraries while restricting the views to CONTENT to get correct GUI behavior. this is really only an issue with clicking through to the details page for movies when in FOLDER view. my folder structure has been in place since MEDIA BROWSER days. i have 30+ TBs of data. i would really prefer to not change my folder structure.

EDIT: my issues are partly resolved by changing the setting: user icon -> app settings -> display, then check this option: Auto open single items in folder view. this fixed the issue in my browser on the computer, however, my emby client on an Nvidia Shield Pro (android) does not seem to follow this setting and i cannot find this setting within the client itself. is this a server only setting, and if so, why does my client not follow the setting?

what is also interesting is that i know 100% that this flag was ON previously, however after my recent restore, it was unchecked. is this flag getting backed up?

Edited November 8, 2025 by dropshadow

[Teddy 100]

This might help explain the folder issue with version 4.9.1.80.

With version 4.8.11.0, you could create a directory containing all the films of a particular actor, director, or genre, and within that directory, you could find the films related to that actor, as in the example I'm giving.

In this case, the actor is Paco Martínez Soria, (first image) whose film automatically appears sorted at the top as a folder, while the other films as single movies.

When I click on the Paco Martínez Soria folder, (second image) it displays all his movies, and I can choose which one I want to watch.
With server version 4.9.1.80, this behavior is different and not possible.

I've included a couple of images to help illustrate my point.

Edited November 8, 2025 by Teddy

[Zelig 48]

Any word from the devs if this is going to be dealt with.

Do we need to start a "Feature request" post for a legacy folder view so Emby can be usable again?

We need to know, please

 

[GrimReaper 4739]

On 11/9/2025 at 2:35 AM, Teddy said:

With server version 4.9.1.80, this behavior is different and not possible.

Care to expand on this? Are those other movies (not Paco folder) in their own folders or are just out-of-folder media items? How are those folders/files structured on your filesystem? What library paths have you configured? 

[Teddy 100]

Each movie has its own folder with its own metadata.

For example, the folder "Paco" has subdirectories, each containing its own movie and metadata. Version 4.81 automatically sees these folders with multiple subdirectories as folders, not as movies.

To clarify, I'm sending you the structure of another library, with several folders with subdirectories with several movies.

As an example, I have chosen the actor Cantinflas with all his movies in that folder.

[Teddy 100]

From "Cantinflas" to "Tricicle" they are all folders containing several films. Starting with "5 para el infiernol" they are individual films in their own folders.

[GrimReaper 4739]

53 minutes ago, Teddy said:

From "Cantinflas" to "Tricicle" they are all folders containing several films. Starting with "5 para el infiernol" they are individual films in their own folders.

Thanks, I get the gist of your structure now. 

Few minutes of work: you just have to put Sort title from 1 to 15 - or any other naming scheme of your preference (if I counted them correctly) - in "Cantinflas" to "Tricicle" folders Edit Metadata dialog and sort by Title instead of Filename in your Folders view, you should get same presentation as here:

On 11/9/2025 at 2:05 AM, Teddy said:

In this case, the actor is Paco Martínez Soria, (first image) whose film automatically appears sorted at the top as a folder, while the other films as single movies.

When I click on the Paco Martínez Soria folder, (second image) it displays all his movies, and I can choose which one I want to watch.
With server version 4.9.1.80, this behavior is different and not possible.

I've included a couple of images to help illustrate my point.

Edit: You can also save yourself a click by toggling On "Auto-open single item folders" in your user Display preferences, so those other single-movie folders will take you to movie Details page directly. 

Edited November 10, 2025 by GrimReaper
Append

[Teddy 100]

"Few minutes of work: you just have to put Sort title from 1 to 15 - or any other naming scheme of your preference (if I counted them correctly) - in "Cantinflas" to "Tricicle" folders Edit Metadata dialog and sort by Title instead of Filename in your Folders view, you should get same presentation as here"

 

I did that by adding --name, but when I entered the movie and, for example, clicked on an actor, the screen would be empty and there were other problems that I don't remember and I can't reproduce because I'm in the 4.8 version and I don't want to go back to the version 4.9.

(I might be on version 4.8 because I had an image of the entire C drive to restore)

"You can also save yourself a click by toggling On "Auto-open single item folders" in your user Display preferences, so those other single-movie folders will take you to movie Details page directly."

I did that too at the time.

What is certain is that doing all these things in 4.9 results in different behavior compared to 4.8.

 

 

 

 

[GrimReaper 4739]

9 minutes ago, Teddy said:

I did that by adding --name, but when I entered the movie and, for example, clicked on an actor, the screen would be empty

That has nothing to do with Folder view (or any other presentation), if you didn't get other movies/shows actor starred in - that's purely metadata issue. 

9 minutes ago, Teddy said:

and there were other problems that I don't remember

Without specifics, hardly any suggestion can be provided. 

9 minutes ago, Teddy said:

What is certain is that doing all these things in 4.9 results in different behavior compared to 4.8.

As above, it all depends what kind of results you're trying to achieve. 

4.9

Took me less than 3 minutes to sort those (using 1.x naming scheme: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3...). Took me 10+ minutes to create those folders, typing names from your screenshot.

Edited November 10, 2025 by GrimReaper

[Teddy 100]

That has nothing to do with Folder view (or any other presentation), if you didn't get other movies/shows actor starred in - that's purely metadata issue.

Version 4.8 displays the actor's information, photograph, and any films they may have in my database. Version 4.9 only shows a blank screen.

As above, it all depends what kind of results you're trying to achieve. 

The same behavior as in version 4.8

Took me less than 3 minutes to sort those (using 1.x naming scheme: 1.1......

I did the same thing by putting -- before the name and it organizes it well, but that's not the main problem with how the folders look afterwards.

Without specifics, hardly any suggestion can be provided. 

If I ever have time to upgrade to 4.9 for testing, I will, but I don't have time now to upgrade and downgrade again.If I ever have time to upgrade to 4.9 for testing, I will, but I don't have time now to upgrade and downgrade again.

 

Anyway, thanks for your support and time.

 

[GrimReaper 4739]

16 minutes ago, Teddy said:

Version 4.8 displays the actor's information, photograph, and any films they may have in my database. Version 4.9 only shows a blank screen.

As stated, that is an unrelated issue, if you ever upgrade or test 4.9, open a dedicated topic in order to troubleshoot it properly. 

16 minutes ago, Teddy said:

I did the same thing by putting -- before the name and it organizes it well, but that's not the main problem with how the folders look afterwards

Sorry, I don't understand what do you mean by that, "how they look afterwards". 

16 minutes ago, Teddy said:

If I ever have time to upgrade to 4.9 for testing, I will, but I don't have time now to upgrade and downgrade again.

You don't need to upgrade, based on:

1 hour ago, Teddy said:

I had an image of the entire C drive to restore

I would assume you're on Windows - just download portable version from here:

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Releases/releases/tag/4.9.1.80

(embyserver-win-x64-4.9.1.80.7z or embyserver-win-x86-4.9.1.80.7z asset, depending on your OS version) 

Extract to any location of your choice and run embyserver.exe from extracted system folder - you'll have 4.9 instance happily run alongside your existing 4.8 instance, you can test it indefinitely (do shut down your 4.8 instance prior first run of 4.9 server so you can change its ports as it'll run on same default ports 8096/8920 - once default ports changed, restart 4.8).

Edited November 10, 2025 by GrimReaper

[cp41 42]

Listen, there is an issue with folder view now. 

You have said the this is a more accurate representation of folders, but that is not the case. 

4.9 takes movies that are NOT in folders and still treats them like they are in folders.
This was not the case in 4.8.
Here is a test Library I created with four movies. You can see the folder icon in the top left. 
The Folders View is treating these single movies as folders.

But, in my folder structure, these movies are NOT in folders
.

 

We, the users, do not want this. 

We would like the option to have folders and movies treated differently. But right now, in folder view, everything is being treated as a folder.
And that is clearly a bug in the system.
 

[GrimReaper 4739]

17 minutes ago, cp41 said:

Here is a test Library I created with four movies. You can see the folder icon in the top left. 
The Folders View is treating these single movies as folders.

Those are not folder icons, those are media item icons (single items). These are folder icons:

5 hours ago, Teddy said:

Your items also have Year in title - folders don't have years, only media items do. 

17 minutes ago, cp41 said:

We would like the option to have folders and movies treated differently. But right now, in folder view, everything is being treated as a folder.

They are treated differently, if movies are out-of-folders, as in your example. Add any folder there in your test library, next to your 4 movies, and you'll notice the difference. 

Edit: To give some context:

Folder-Folder-Movie-Movie

 

Edited November 10, 2025 by GrimReaper
Screenshot

[Teddy 100]

2 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

As stated, that is an unrelated issue, if you ever upgrade or test 4.9, open a dedicated topic in order to troubleshoot it properly. 

Sorry, I don't understand what do you mean by that, "how they look afterwards". 

You don't need to upgrade, based on:

I would assume you're on Windows - just download portable version from here:

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Releases/releases/tag/4.9.1.80

(embyserver-win-x64-4.9.1.80.7z or embyserver-win-x86-4.9.1.80.7z asset, depending on your OS version) 

Extract to any location of your choice and run embyserver.exe from extracted system folder - you'll have 4.9 instance happily run alongside your existing 4.8 instance, you can test it indefinitely (do shut down your 4.8 instance prior first run of 4.9 server so you can change its ports as it'll run on same default ports 8096/8920 - once default ports changed, restart 4.8).

I'm sorry, but I'm not going to do any more testing (I'm tired). I think most of us who use Emby, and even MediaBrowser, want the folder organization to stay the same as it has been for years. If necessary, I'll stick with the latest version 4.8 of Emby forever.

[GrimReaper 4739]

1 minute ago, Teddy said:

want the folder organization to stay the same as it has been for years

That is up to the Devs, I'm just trying to assist everyone and find equivalent (as far as possible) solutions currently, as this is what we have to work with atm. Will it ever go back as it was? Have no idea. Can some intermediate solutions be found? Maybe, but certainly not without few trials and/or hits and misses. As stated somewhere previously in the thread, I haven't clicked on Folders tab in any of my libraries for better part of a decade - hence some reciprocal assistance to better explain certain scenarios would be welcome. This latest part of conversation stemmed from:

On 11/9/2025 at 2:05 AM, Teddy said:

With version 4.8.11.0, you could create a directory containing all the films of a particular actor, director, or genre, and within that directory, you could find the films related to that actor, as in the example I'm giving.

In this case, the actor is Paco Martínez Soria, (first image) whose film automatically appears sorted at the top as a folder, while the other films as single movies.

When I click on the Paco Martínez Soria folder, (second image) it displays all his movies, and I can choose which one I want to watch.
With server version 4.9.1.80, this behavior is different and not possible.

As far as I see it, it is possible, hence further clarification is asked for. 

I'm not against anyone here, quite the contrary, just trying to help find - if possible - suitable replacement feature. Nothing more, nothing less. 

[Teddy 100]

And we appreciate your support GrimReaper, but understand that many of us have been trying to solve this issue for a long time through own tests, but ultimately only the developers can provide a solution, because when I installed beta 4.9, knowing that folders would behave this way, I downgraded to stable version 4.8, "praying" that the new stable version wouldn't work like this, but I haven't had any luck.

I think most of us want an option in the new version on the server to make it work like 4.8 with folders.

Edited November 10, 2025 by Teddy