For Halloween, I decided to create a totally separate directory and Library to store a collection of scary movies. I copied a few scary movies I already had in another directory to a new directory, and obtained others I didn’t.
Halloween library points to X:\media\Halloween
Movies library points to X:\media\DVD
Neither library point to the other directory.
One movie I’ve watched an hour of appears twice in On Deck.
Each listing in on deck points to the respective other folder.
If I select one of them, it asks if I want to start at the same place for both.
Not a bug, this is actually an intended feature, but probably not intended for your use. The idea is that when you have the same movie in different libraries, it is to separate them such as different languages or 3D versus regular, etc. So when you partially watch a movie, you can continue watching any other version you have. i.e. You start watching a 3D movie at home, you then go out and continue watching the regular version on your mobile device. You come home and finish watching in 3D.
A change to this would be a feature request, but I think there is 1 already but I can’t find it right now.
But, they’re the exact same content, same quality, not different, only in different libraries.
Even if I had multiple quality streams/3d/resolution, whatever, that doesn’t make sense to me that this isn’t a bug.
From your explanation, how would I know which to pick from the on deck if I did have a multiple stream type (3d or whatever) quality title for that content? I’d still have to “guess” as to which one to click on depending on the client, and then would it error if I clicked the wrong one, or would it switch appropriately for whichever client I was using?
On Deck never shows what library it’s in for most items/clients.
Right, this feature was not meant with your use case in mind. in the intended use the user would need to do something to distinguish the different versions such as picking a different poster or modifying the name of 1 so you could tell them apart. There is no magic, it takes a little work. Plex will play whichever is chosen so it is up to the user to make sure they can tell the versions apart.
@JamminR - I have created libraries for “special” occasions and to avoid the doubles showing up I set up the directory structure and libraries like this (using the main movie directory you used in your example):
X:\media\DVD —> Main movie library points to this folder
… all of the movies that are NOT Halloween movies
make a new folder inside the “DVD” folder called Halloween
X:\media\DVD\Halloween --> The Halloween library points to the new sub-folder
… all of the movies that are ARE Halloween movies
Now, when the server does it’s magic, the movies in DVD and in DVD\Halloween are included in the main library. The Halloween library will only have the movies in the Halloween sub directory.
The final step, to get rid of the doubles showing up in “On deck” and “recently added” - in the Advanced settings for the Halloween library, **make sure the “include in Dashboard” setting is unchecked or cleared. **
This works pretty well for me - new movies show up in recently added no matter which folder they are in, the doubles disappear, use less disk space because there are no copies, and when Halloween is over, delete the special library and all of the Halloween movies are still available, but only through the main library
@leelynds , thanks for the tip. I’ll keep it in mind.
Unfortunately, I want my server users, including myself, to be able to keep up with latest greatest (watch/added/etc) for any special library I add. Removing from dashboard squelches that feature and the fun ‘whatever fun library’ reasons behind it.
I’ve retyped a reply to this ‘feature’ for the past 10 min, and realize I’m having trouble writing civilly. So, my nicest re-write:
This feature is just plain crazy, and makes no logical sense from the point of the end user.
When it comes to app design, I’m both technical, and good as an end user. I’ve had experience in various hobby code projects for years.
This sounds like one of those features that was thought of in a developers mind with little feedback from the end users, and when end users decide to question or give feedback, they’re told ‘nope, planned that way. Makes sense to a developer so it’s in concrete’
If I were not technical, I’d have no idea why / how I should have to go in and change movie posters for different quality types for different libraries, and it just doesn’t make sense that it appears twice for the exact same.
Thanks for your time in trying to explain it. I get it, but it will likely never make sense to me.
Glad To See This In Action…
I Use The Same Exact Logic for example
M:\Family\Christmas\
so during the holidays I can have a Library for Christmas movies but the rest of the times the movies can be found in the Family Library. It also avoids the need for additional copies.
