Automatic Collection Creation?

[DarWun 349]

How do you recreate collections automatically after deleting them? I accidentally deleted the metadata from /var/packages/EmbyServer/var/metadata/collections for one of my collections [REC] Collection. Emby will no recreate it. I have selected TheMovieDb as the collection metadata provider in the Collections library. The option is enabled in the Movies library to Import collection information from metadata downloaders. But when I check the metadata for the movies in the collection, there is no Collections field even though it is in the .nfo file.

I've refreshed metadata for each movie in the collection. And the tmdbcollection field from the .nfo file still does not show up as a field in Emby.

I can manually recreate the collection. But I'd like to know why Emby isn't automatically recreating it.

 

[Luke 42077]

They get created then fetching movie metadata, so just deleting them will not have them get recreated.

[DarWun 349]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

They get created then fetching movie metadata, so just deleting them will not have them get recreated.

Okay, I figured it out. I had refreshed metadata for the first two movies in the collection individually. That did not result in the collection be created. In order to create the collection, I had to select all four movies in the collection using multi-select and then refresh the metadata for all the movies as a group.

After doing that the collection was recreated.

Edited November 13, 2025 by DarWun

[Luke 42077]

Refreshing them individually should have been fine. Best guess is you didn’t wait until it had all finished.

[DarWun 349]

13 minutes ago, Luke said:

Refreshing them individually should have been fine. Best guess is you didn’t wait until it had all finished.

I waited. I did an individual refresh of the first two movies in the collection a few hours before I posted (I did not refresh metadata for the final two). The collection was not created even after a library refresh. I did the multi-select metadata refresh after I had posted. Only then was the collection created. I'll delete another collection and try to recreate to see if my experience is the same.

[glengrant 8]

On 11/13/2025 at 12:46 AM, Luke said:

Refreshing them individually should have been fine. Best guess is you didn’t wait until it had all finished.

Hi Luke, I really didn’t want to bother you, but… I think the automatic creation of collections is partially broken. I'm using the 4.9.1.90 

Here’s what happened: there’s a 3-movie collection. The first movie had already been in my library for a while, and I added the other two just last week. When Emby scanned the library, it did create the collection, but it only included the two newly added titles.

I didn’t think too much about it at the time: the identification for the first movie was correct, the TMDb ID was present and accurate, and I even double-checked everything directly on TMDb, all fine. So I just added it manually and didn’t dig further.

But now it happened again in an identical situation: a movie already in the library (properly identified), and when I added the sequel, the collection wasn’t created. I managed to make it appear only after reading this thread: I first refreshed metadata on the newly added movie, nothing happened; then I refreshed the metadata on the one that was already in the library, and instantly the collection was created.

I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to work ; right now it seems that collections are only being auto-created when you refresh metadata on movies that were already in the library. 

 

 

 

[GrimReaper 4739]

9 minutes ago, glengrant said:

Hi Luke, I really didn’t want to bother you, but… I think the automatic creation of collections is partially broken. I'm using the 4.9.1.90 

Here’s what happened: there’s a 3-movie collection. The first movie had already been in my library for a while, and I added the other two just last week. When Emby scanned the library, it did create the collection, but it only included the two newly added titles.

I didn’t think too much about it at the time: the identification for the first movie was correct, the TMDb ID was present and accurate, and I even double-checked everything directly on TMDb, all fine. So I just added it manually and didn’t dig further.

But now it happened again in an identical situation: a movie already in the library (properly identified), and when I added the sequel, the collection wasn’t created. I managed to make it appear only after reading this thread: I first refreshed metadata on the newly added movie, nothing happened; then I refreshed the metadata on the one that was already in the library, and instantly the collection was created.

I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to work ; right now it seems that collections are only being auto-created when you refresh metadata on movies that were already in the library. 

Which is to be expected, as the original movie very likely didn't have any collection information/wasn't part of the set at the time or release and/or import. 

Once refreshed, you've got updated data, i.e. movie set info. 

Edited November 26, 2025 by GrimReaper

[glengrant 8]

Ah, got it. So that’s actually the intended behavior:
if a movie is already in my library and the collection gets created later (because a sequel comes out), Emby won’t auto-create the collection unless I refresh the metadata of the original movie.

So if I want collections to stay up to date, I basically need to refresh metadata on that library from time to time.

[Happy2Play 9780]

4 minutes ago, glengrant said:

Ah, got it. So that’s actually the intended behavior:
if a movie is already in my library and the collection gets created later (because a sequel comes out), Emby won’t auto-create the collection unless I refresh the metadata of the original movie.

So if I want collections to stay up to date, I basically need to refresh metadata on that library from time to time.

Sort of yes as Emby changed how Collections were created awhile back to use item <set> metadata so if media was in your collection/library before that field was added it will require refreshing.

Just like when addition movies are created years later to create a Collection one would have to refresh that really old item that existed before the thought of a Collection.

Edited November 26, 2025 by Happy2Play

[DarWun 349]

2 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

Sort of yes as Emby changed how Collections were created awhile back to use item <set> metadata so if media was in your collection/library before that field was added it will require refreshing.

Just like when addition movies are created years later to create a Collection one would have to refresh that really old item that existed before the thought of a Collection.

There currently is not a collection ID field in the metadata screen for media included in a collection.

Should there be? I'm fairly certain there was at one point in the past even though there is an item with the collection ID in the "nfo" file. But it has not been a field for awhile.

Edited November 26, 2025 by DarWun

[Happy2Play 9780]

8 minutes ago, DarWun said:

There currently is not a filed in the metadata screen for media in collections.

Should it be showing up as a field when viewing the metadata in Emby for an item automatically added to a collection? I'm fairly certain it did at one point in the past. But it has not been a field for awhile. There is a tag for the collection ID in the "nfo" file.

No @Lukehas not exposed that field in metadata editor. 

[GrimReaper 4739]

14 minutes ago, DarWun said:

I'm fairly certain it did at one point in the past. But it has not been a field for awhile.

IIRC it was removed from Edit metadata dialog sometime during 4.6+ cycle few years ago due to a change in as how collection data is stored in the db. 

Edit: Needed a minute to find an old image. 

Edited November 26, 2025 by GrimReaper
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