Duplicate metadata series folders

[pigpog8 8]

I probably didn’t go about this the right way, but I had an Anime library that used the Tv Show content type. I found out about Mixed Content libraries, so I made a new library in addition to the old, added the same folders that went into the original Anime library, along with a new Anime Movie folder. Then deleted the original Anime library, leaving only the new Mixed Content one. 

Now, in the Mixed Content library, there are duplicates for several series (but not all of the series, see screenshot). Some duplicates have less episodes than their duplicate counterpart. Most duplicate series have exact same number of episodes.

I checked the Metadata Manager, and for some reason there are duplicate folders of series (see screenshot). Of course, I hadn’t altered or moved my files and folders in my computer.

How do I remove all of these duplicates? I’ve tried rescanning the library several times, I tried refreshing metadata, I’ve also tried scanning metadata.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, are they actually different folders? What are we looking at a screenshot of?

[pigpog8 8]

6 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi, are they actually different folders? What are we looking at a screenshot of?

Hi, it seems like Emby thinks there are. But for example, Chainsaw Man only has one folder location on my computer. Some series even appear as 3 duplicate folders in the Metadata Manager, but in my files, there is only one folder for the show.

[Luke 42077]

If you open the metadata editor on them, what does it list for their paths? 

[pigpog8 8]

6 hours ago, Luke said:

If you open the metadata editor on them, what does it list for their paths? 

Each duplicate has the same exact path. So looking at Chainsaw Man, for example, both of the duplicates show:

 

E:\Anime\Chainsaw Man (2022)

 

[pigpog8 8]

I'm moving the Chainsaw Man folder out of the library location that Emby uses, then do a Scan, then Refresh Metadata.

After the Scan, I noticed one of the duplicates went away, which is good so far, but for some reason 1 remains even though Chainsaw Man should no longer show up in the library (and it's the one that shows 2 episodes unwatched, even though it should show 0 unwatched, strange). Hopefully the metadata refresh will fix that? Still waiting for that to finish.

Also, both the scan and metadata refresh are taking/took quite a while, much longer than they used to. I'm worried the metadata folders are "clogged up" or something?

Edited December 2, 2025 by pigpog8

[pigpog8 8]

This seems to have fixed the issue. Even after the metadata refresh, the Chainsaw Man with 2 unwatched episodes remained. I even checked to see if i can play the episodes, and obviously it could not since there was no file to link to. 

I then deleted the series from Emby, added the show back into its proper folder, and strangely showed up again with 2 unwatched. Guess that works for me, no duplicate series anymore.

I'm now doing the other 10 or so series that also had duplicates, same way. Luckily it seems like while slowly moving the folders to a temp folder outside of the library, Emby is updating and actually removing all of the entries for those shows, not leaving them like Chainsaw Man did. 

 

My last worry from all this - will it always take so long to do a Scan in this specific library? Did this whole issue cause some metadata files to be duplicated? Is there a way to purge duplicate metadata or "unused" metadata, or is me removing the duplicate series taking care of this? @Luke

I can mark the previous post as a Solution, I just want to answer those final questions first.

[Luke 42077]

Hi there, please attach the Emby server log from when the problem occurred:

How to Report a Problem

Thanks!

 

[pigpog8 8]

Unfortunately, I don't have the logs from when this occurred, as it was days ago. Everything does appear to be working a bit better in regard to this issue, though. Thank you.