Collections driving me crazy. What's wrong?

[Pirlo1966 22]

Hi

 

I understood the old way of managing collections with subdirectories and [boxset] is no longer working. Therefore I started to change them manually 1 by 1. 

 

So I create new collections by rightclicking a movie, add to collection and type a name for the new collection. Immediately the collection is created with metadata and art and the selected movies indeed are added to the collection. The newly creatd collection shows up fine in the collections tab on my start screen. So far so good. 

I did this for about 25 collections and then I had the bad idea to scan my media library. After the scan almost all collections where no longer visible ion the collections tab. When I add for a 2nd time movies to a particular collection it is recreated and shows up again. A while later (I guess after a new scan(s)) the same collections show up multiple times??? When I delete redundant instances of a particular collection, after a scan again no trace of that collection in my collections tab...

 

I cannot figure out what I do wrong. Herewith a screenshot of what my collections tab looks like.

 

[Luke 42077]

Hi there, what version of emby server are you running?

[Pirlo1966 22]

4.2.0.40

 

Some collections show up just fine. Others are duplicated multiple times.

Edited July 31, 2019 by Pirlo1966

[Luke 42077]

If you edit the metadata on those collections, check the paths they are pointing to. Are the duplicates the same or different?

[Pirlo1966 22]

I took the Captain America collection which shows up 4 times in my Collections tab. All paths are alike:

 

/var/packages/EmbyServer/target/var/data/collections/Captain America Collection [boxset]

/var/packages/EmbyServer/target/var/data/collections/Captain America Collection [boxset]

/var/packages/EmbyServer/target/var/data/collections/Captain America Collection [boxset]

/var/packages/EmbyServer/target/var/data/collections/Captain America Collection [boxset]

[Luke 42077]

Strange. What screen is that?

[Pirlo1966 22]

What do you mean by screen?

[Luke 42077]

What is your first screenshot from?

[Pirlo1966 22]

Screenshot from the collection folder in my home screen

 

 

[Luke 42077]

What version did you upgrade from?

[Pirlo1966 22]

I have no idea but I regularly upgrade. I think I'm probably following closely all your releases.

[Pirlo1966 22]

So. any ideas what might be causing these redundant collections?

[Luke 42077]

Do you also see the duplicates in the metadata manager?

[Pirlo1966 22]

In metadata manager the collections folder is totally empty?

 

I can open Films, Kids etc ... but clicking on Collections does nothing.

 

[Luke 42077]

Ok I'm not really sure what the issue is here so what I would suggest is emptying out this folder:

/var/packages/EmbyServer/target/var/data/collections

Then run a full library scan to flush out the database, then you can try adding them back. Please see if that helps. Thanks.

[Pirlo1966 22]

Hmmm. I see double entries and other weird things in that folder. But when trying to delete subfolders or to emptying the whole collection folder I get permission errors.

 

[Luke 42077]

Well you'll need to be logging into the system with a user that has delete permissions on those folders.

 

Another thing you could try is using the web interface to delete one of them. Does that delete all of the duplicates for that one?

[Pirlo1966 22]

Strange. I log in as the admin of the synology NAS. Will check what changed.

 

Yes, deleting one instance deletes all other instances of a collection.

[Luke 42077]

Do you have a lot of collections? Is it feasible to delete and recreate them?

[Luke 42077]

Actually what you could probably do is first backup the contents of that collections folder, then use the web interface to delete all collections (quickly via multi-select). Then you can copy the contents of that folder back in and run a library scan.

[Pirlo1966 22]

Yes. I have a large movie library and (due to Holywood) a lot of collections. Okay. Wil try out all your tips. But first on my way to a venice-milan holiday. 

 

Thanks for all your help.

[Luke 42077]

Let us know how you get on. Thanks.

[Andythediver 0]

I'm having this exact same issue - i dont scan the library though - so i assume Emby is doing it automatically. 

I've not upgraded in this instance as its a brand new Installation on an xpenology Nas, inside docker {what a nightmare that was!} its version 4.2.1.0

[Pirlo1966 22]

I'm having this exact same issue - i dont scan the library though - so i assume Emby is doing it automatically. 

I've not upgraded in this instance as its a brand new Installation on an xpenology Nas, inside docker {what a nightmare that was!} its version 4.2.1.0

 

Not sure how I solved it after all but because of a volume crashI I needed to install a fresh and clean emby server for synology and now boxsets with the help of the boxset plugin seem to work as expected.

Edited November 12, 2019 by Pirlo1966

[Andythediver 0]

ok - i'm afraid im going to have to own up here.........

I think it's the way I was adding the collections.

if i chose the collection from the dropdown on the lower box, [the upper one remained on new-[see were im going?  ]]

then the collections replicated themselves.

 

If instead, I chose to find the collection from pulling down the top box, then so far [48+hrs] no multiple instances!

sooo - i think its misinterpreting the way the collections were firs created , then reused.???