Well I thought about multiple libraries for my content of over 3000 movies but I decided against it because I often sit down with little idea of what I want to watch and browsing my whole library makes more sense than than trying to browse one library and if nothing I like shows up then backing out of that library and choosing another and so on until I find something I want to watch.
I tried another approach where I had several libraries and another that contained all the folders of the others. Plex does not care if libraries overlap. That approach was better but still far from perfect so I went back to one library containing everything.
Now Plex has provided a tool that pretty much solves my problem, collections. Collections provide everything I need as far as separating my media and still allowing me to browse with minimal adverse impact.
There are still some problems with collections but, at least for now, Plex is still working on smoothing out the bumps in the collections road. Hopefully the most major problems will be resolved before Plex decides to move onto other features. Plex rarely finishes features but, maybe, they will get close to finished on the collection feature.
+1 to collections.
you can also use the regular filters to restrict the movies displayed by 1 or multiple criteria (custom filter).
however I do have multiple libraries…
for movies
regular movies
shorts
alternate editions of movies in my library (e.g. for various cuts, alternate endings, some animated movies / star wars with different language titles/texts) – at least until there’s an option to “cluster” those editions into 1 library record (fingers crossed)
for music
actual music
soundtracks (which I don’t want to play alongside regular music)
comedy albums
I have only separated content I absolutely don’t want to show together (or cannot yet organize as integrated as I want it to be ;))
since the introduction of inline collections you’ll also be able to “link” collections from various libraries (e.g. having a Matrix collection for the soundtrack as well as the movie franchise, having a Marvel collection for the actual movies as well as the one shots in the “shorts” library)
Basically to save checking TV Series for new episodes etc. I keep completed Seasons in the main TV Library and then any incomplete or downloaded episodes I keep in a temp library so that I can check for new episodes.
Once a series completes I move it to the main library
Same with Films, I keep them in a temp library before I rename and check them before moving to the main Film library.
I have more than 40+ libraries alone on my mom’s server primarily because Plex isn’t robust in what she needs it to do for her. I have had to break down the movie, tv, and other stuff into separate libraries due to the lack of Collections at the time. Now that Collections have been introduce I will take a look at how I can consolidate the libraries again. My method that I chose was to break down things into group based numbers, similar to having cable packages with Sports channels being in the 500’s, Movie Channels in the 300’s and Music channels being 700’s and local tv being from Channel 2 through 100. I broke it down for her so all she had to do was scroll, select the library, press play. And after experimenting with her server I did the same to mine and I think it works best for us this way. Any thoughts?
What I did notice is when editing a Plex Library I was able to add emoticons to the name section but whatever emoticon was used, say a TV emoji or music note, it would show up a different way on different OS systems like on Android vs. iOS. I wish we could hide unused or less used libraries though.
I suppose it’s all about how someone gets the best value from their setup.
Personally I tend to use the available filters to access movie subsets such as genres, decades, watched/unwatched… but that’s just me
Not sure however if you’re aware… if those music videos of your Mom’s are from artists in your music library / libraries, you can link those (check out Settings > Server > Agents > Artists / Albums; if you activate local media assets you can tell Plex in which folder to search for music videos – after the next refresh, those will be displayed on the artist view).
i ended up with 4 main libraries(kidmovies,kidshows,movies,shows) then created 2 more libraries called allmovies/allshows. these two libraries include all from the 4 main and are what I use on my managed account. easy enough. if it’s a movie it will be in library allmovies and if its a show, it’s allshows. 3d and 4k have their own libraries. also i give out the 4 main libraries as shares to friends/family. it’s up to them to parent control the libraries…
The only thing i don’t like about this setup is plex has to scan twice. but. whatever. i can live with that…
right on about the music videos, but for my mom’s music video’s I found a ton of crap from youtube that’s all compilation stuff of say a video mix of doowop 50’s and 60’s songs and or say clips of Johnny Mathis or the Rat Pack that don’t work well if I added them to a specific artists. So instead they’re added into a folder how I have it. In fact, my plex server is refreshing my music collection metadata because I installed the music video agent MUVIO MUSIC VIDEO AGENT earlier this morning at like 3am. I’m on the 11th hour of ? to go lol It should be done scanning for music videos no later than 8pm tonight.
