I have seen some very old posts ( a few years in some cases) for his but not seen a solution, or it exists but have not found it yet (apologies if is the case!)
I have read articles on folder structure, i.e. you can create a parent for a collection of movies, then a subfolder for each movie to put any subtitles/posters etc in them . e.g
Movies (parent folder)
…
…
Horror (Sub folder )
Annabelle (subfolder)
Annabelle (film)
Annabelle subtitles
Annabelle poster (if needed)
The Crazies (subfolder)
The Crazies
The Crazies subtitles
Resident Evil (subfolder)
Resident Evil
Resident Evil subtitles
But when you add your Movies parent folder, you will see a number of ‘grey folder/icons’ of the subfolder. You can click on these, select the next folder to get to the film. Now I have read that there was a request a few years back I think it was, requesting a way to customize these parent folders (or subfolders) so you are not seeing these grey icons but I cannot see a good way to do the above ?
I thought maybe the answer was to create a collection like ‘horror’ but I found this casued issues and I ended up with all the films in the ‘root’ where I just wanted to click on a parent folder and find all related films (or subfolders) underneath but not see the ‘sea’ of grey icons which I don’t think you can change/create your own posters for.
As mentioned I found an article requesting this years ago but didn’t see a solution or the ‘feature’ was never done, so what do people do out there with their movie collections ? how do you best view your structure ?
I have read that other media software allow more flexability but to be honest, I kind of like the Plex ‘look and feel’ I am just not sure the best way of organising the files that make it look nice when using a subfolder? or is the best way NOT to put posters/subtitles in separate folders but just put them all together …it just seems messy in that way, least on the hard drive!
Just wondered how other organise their libraries as a sea of grey icons isn’t good to look at
I’m not exactly sure what you mean by seeing a list of grey folders?
Most commonly there’s no need (no value add) by adding additional layers of folders to your library folder:
Movies <- folder linked to your movie library
Movie Name (release year)
Movie Name (release year).ext
...
So you put every film in a separate folder … but wha if you want to group some (trying to avoid the word collections), so if you wanted a folder under ‘Movies’ called ‘My Horror’ for example, and you wanted to put films under there of that subject. This woudl show your subfolder as a grey icon, which I can understand as its one you have made up hence no artwork for it.
I’d just like to see a folder in my library which says ‘Marvel’ for example, and under here would be Cap or IronMan etc etc then I’d like to go to Plex on web or your tv and see these grouped folders such that I can go into them and see a list of just those films. The parent folder shows up as grey (as mentioned no where yet you can assign artwork to these folder icons). Maybe collections is the way you do this but I’d say collections is more for grouping the same films in a series like resident evill, die hard, harry potter etc etc ?
I’d just like to see a folder called horror or home movies and just see those underneath but be able to put an image on the folder?
It maybe I am setting this all up wrong and my NAS box should just be a Movies parent folder and every film under it would have its own folder, I’m just thinking some people might want to put a collection of similar films together and not sure if its ‘collections’ I need to do as unless they are alphabetically in the same order , then they woudl appear A-Z in my movies ‘view’ and not in a grouped folder - I may not be explaining it correctly, I just don’t know if it is possibly to see in plex a folder called ‘XYZ’ with films of my choice within it and give this ‘XYZ’ an image else if shows up as grey on the screen.
Plex will only display your actual folder structure when displaying the library By Folders. Folders have no metadata whatsoever.
Folder mode is however more of a derelict of the past.
There’s other means to group / access media based on such groupings (though no need to reflect it using any folder representation). You’ve already mentioned collections – you could also use a smart collection based on genre and other criteria if you don’t want a collection that interferes with how the movies are displayed in your library.
There’s also a rather new Categories that lets you access movies by their genres without further filtering.
Yes, that is correct. I see on my NAS box a folder called Westerns which have folders/films in there which are of that genre. From what Tom is saying, this is indeed via Libraries which is perhaps not the way I shold use it.
Yes Tom, I am using the old derelict of the past, stuck in my ways and (stupidly) thought this was the best way then have a folder under there like horror or westerns and stick in films of that type in there. BUt you are correct , I did see the Categories once in there so the best solution would be on the Hard drive, to add all films un der one main ‘movie’ parent in a folder of their own , then either use IMDB or movie db etc to categorise them automatically or I guess edit individual ones.
Perhaps there is a way you can create your own category (if wanting home movies of wedding…birhtday etc) or tha mayeb in the future then you coudl add a category type to a film etc.
I did try collections once but it didn’t agree with me (I haven’t sen a smart collecitons or what the difference with those are) and no I did something wrong - I’ll have to look up at the differences between categories and collecitons and how to use them as no doubt there are posts for those.
I’ll try to get out of the old habbits as this is my downfall here, lol, I’ll just add all media with their own folder and try using plex manus to organise these and not via a folder structure such as Windows uses. My own fault for seeing ‘library’ and using this as a way to see my media and trying to make it fit in that ‘folder’ type way, doh! I’ll get with the times, much appreciated.
A lot of people just create a different library for each subgenera
You could have
Horror
Westerns
Comedies
Drama
Ect….
Instead of all those being under one parent folder in the same library you would see those choices in the main selection pane on the left-hand side on the home screen
If you already have those separated into the appropriate folder the hard work is done
You just have to create the library and point Plex to the right folder
I have different libraries for movies, tv, new releases, documentaries, sports, ect…
Thats a good point and I guess with my current situation, it would make sense and possibly less work however, you’d end up with a long ‘menu’ like your in your image, it does hurt your eyes as you guys say, and maybe you’d have issues on say a film which could be in more than one place - you could add them in two places I guess but this could end up messy.
I think I need to go with either the collections / smart collections or the categories route. I’ll have a search through and see the differeces and see what looks good for me / suits me best.
I think part of the original issue I had was that the home page on my Plex had Recommended and Library, thus I went for library which looked familiar with folder type view, which is where I went wrong. Had my Plex started with genres or categories etc then I would have viewed this differently as far as how I want to do my set up, and therefore not be scratching my head trying to do things which Plex isn’t built for, due mostly as folder/files is old way of looking at things.
Irrespective of collections / categories, at least I know to just treat my NAS box as one parent folder with every film underneath in their own folder with subtitles file if there is one, with any posters if I want to do that too for that ‘film’. It will take time to set it all up but that will give me time to see which collection / categories route I want to go down.
I have made a start with media changes and have to say I am impressed, my only issue is I can see background on collections (for individual movies) but not for the collection ‘parent’ folder but I think think that is my Samsung TV Plex ‘app’ whch lets face it, TV apps will be quite restrictive compared to a tv pc / stick. I suspect that can be resolved when I install a proper Plex app on a Firestick and run it from that and not my TV
My question to you though, is that you mentioned ‘New Categories’. Do you have any links to info on this new ‘Categories’ as I am struggling to find anything, only the wrong things so far.
I’m referring to this tab/pivot of a library. It’s basically a quick-access to the genres in your library (without the need to click on Filter/All > Genre and picking a genre):
I had seen that under the live tv / plex movies but not for adding to your own homepage / how to configure / add artwork etc etc, that woudl be pretty cool if that is possible so you coudl have Library, collection or genre as a tab or pinned option.
You should see the background image if you use a Firestick. I don’t have my Fire TV hooked up right now but I see the background on my Nvidia Shield which uses the same android TV app
I don’t see it on HTPC though
I don’t see the “categories” feature at all. I think because I haven’t updated to the latest server version but it appears to be per library? Not something you can add to the home screen?
Not seen any info on Plex on it but I’ll have to see if I can see where it is for ‘personal’ library unless I cannot see it as its a plex pass - I’m considering picking up a years worth of the pass but currently only use plex on one tv, plan to use it on laptops etc next year so not sure worth it until I can use it on other devices.
Maybe they will let you configure it in a future update.
I might see it soon then as I actually have a 4k Firestick due tomorrow as Samsung TV Plex app isn’t the best. Firestick might give me background images on my collections too as they don’t see to appear, only the folder images work in collection but normal library entries are fine for background/folders.
I’ll update to latest version over the weekend and hopfully I’ll see the gernre option. Thx
