Possible to have emby not group anything at all?

[Samkook 22]

My main pain point about emby has always been that it tries to be too smart for its own good and it refuses to display files directly. Things tend to group up in versions or go inside special menus like for trailers and things.
All I want is to keep track of which files I've watched so I was wondering if there was an option I might have missed that can disable that behavior and only relies on files since my media is already organized exactly the way I want it to be.

For example, I have the fifth element in dvd and bluray and I want to set the bluray as not watched because I haven't watched it yet, but that's impossible even with them being in completely separate libraries since toggling watched is done on the movie instead of the files. And to make things worse, one of the dvd extra is grouping up as a version of the dvd so I can't keep track of which extras I've watched properly either.
I could mess up my naming convention and force the extra to not group up, but that would mean messing up my own organization, which I don't want to do and it would only fix a small part of the problem.

Edited September 29 by Samkook

[Luke 43402]

Hi, have you explored the options for each of your libraries?

[Samkook 22]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, have you explored the options for each of your libraries?

Did you have something specific in mind? I try to mess around them every few years, but never found anything satisfactory.


The biggest issue is mostly caused by the player. The web UI one is too limited with the formats it supports so that's only a last resort option and the best player I know for it is kodi, but if the media isn't tagged as movies or tv shows, it handles it extremely poorly when at all so I have to set my tv shows and movies libraries to those if I want it to see it and display the watched status.

Even if I were to use something like how videos, it has issues of its own, like for example I have a video with no filename(it's just called .mp4 and emby doesn't see it at all, which is somewhat understandable, but wouldn't be an issue if it simply showed the files, which it should detect as a video since it has a video extension).

[Luke 43402]

On 9/29/2026 at 1:38 PM, Samkook said:

Did you have something specific in mind? I try to mess around them every few years, but never found anything satisfactory.


The biggest issue is mostly caused by the player. The web UI one is too limited with the formats it supports so that's only a last resort option and the best player I know for it is kodi, but if the media isn't tagged as movies or tv shows, it handles it extremely poorly when at all so I have to set my tv shows and movies libraries to those if I want it to see it and display the watched status.

Even if I were to use something like how videos, it has issues of its own, like for example I have a video with no filename(it's just called .mp4 and emby doesn't see it at all, which is somewhat understandable, but wouldn't be an issue if it simply showed the files, which it should detect as a video since it has a video extension).

Hi, in library options there is a section called Automatic Grouping.

[Samkook 22]

20 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, in library options there is a section called Automatic Grouping.

Yes, for multi-part movies, which I do want for discs that you need to flip over and such that create separate files, wouldn't want 2 library entries for that.

But one of the actual issue I meant is that it's treating the movie itself as one entity instead of the library entry being one entity, regardless of file grouping.
If a movie is watched, every file that is set to be that movie will be set to watched, grouped or not.

In short, the problem is this: It's not setting the library entry as watched, it's setting the movie as watched, which is bad because I want to know what I've actually watched.

The second issue is that even setting the library entry as watched would be a problem with how emby currently does things because a library entry will absorb trailers and different versions, which I want to keep track of which I've watched and which I haven't.
If I watch a movie but not the trailer for it for example, I want to know.

Basically, I want to precisely keep track of what I watch and what I don't, it's simple as that. Tracking at the file level would be perfect for me, but emby tries to be way too smart for its own good, which has always been my main issue with it.

Edited October 10 by Samkook

[Luke 43402]

Quote

But one of the actual issue I meant is that it's treating the movie itself as one entity instead of the library entry being one entity, regardless of file grouping.
If a movie is watched, every file that is set to be that movie will be set to watched, grouped or not.

HI there, can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

 

[Samkook 22]

How specific do you need it to be? I did explain a specific example in my first post(difference was I had a 3rd file also set to the movie), one bluray rip file in a library and one dvd rip file in another library, both using movie as metadata and both files set to the same movie. Then you toggle watched and it gets applied or remove on both.

If you need me to be hyper specific, let's call one library "Bluray Discs" with the file "The Fifth Element (1997) Eng 2160p.mkv" and the other "DVD Discs" with the file "The Fifth Element (1997).mkv", both set to be the movie "The Fifth Element" in the metadata.

[ebr 16938]

6 hours ago, Samkook said:

How specific do you need it to be? I did explain a specific example in my first post(difference was I had a 3rd file also set to the movie), one bluray rip file in a library and one dvd rip file in another library, both using movie as metadata and both files set to the same movie. Then you toggle watched and it gets applied or remove on both.

Hi.  That is by design.  The user data is keyed on the provider ID.  This not only allows the same movie to be treated as such but it also allows your media to be re-located and not lose this data.

To get around this, you would need to remove or change the provider ID(s) on the items.  Of course, then that will mean that this data will not be recoverable if you move or rename the file(s).

[Samkook 22]

Yes, I figured that was the case, which is why I asked if it was possible to disable that grouping behavior instead of reporting this as a bug and that's also why I said emby tends to try and be too smart for its own good.

It's kind of a problem when you want to accurately track what you watch though, which is my #1 desire and the reason I never got emby premiere even though I've been using emby since 1 week before the app went paid.
Being able to track pathless file names(so you can move them, but not rename them without losing the watched data) is what I would want since it's plenty flexible and accurate(and also keep track of offline files as well would be ideal since I want to keep track of everything I've watched instead of just what I have).
That would allow to track versions and such watch data as well.

Edited October 11 by Samkook