This issue exists in Plex server for a long time now, so, probably, there are earlier threads. Where, however, I didn’t find the right answer.
Still, I’d like to give it another shot.
For identifying my movies I use the Plex movie scanner and the Plex movie agent. In the library settings I have set automatic collections to the minimum of 2. And I have set the option to hide items if they are part of a collection. My movies are sorted by the folder/file system as Plex pointed out.
Well, this is what Plex does: It is making collections allright, however, it’s making a load of 1 movie collections, too. It was set to 2, remember? And it’s getting crazier. For example, for the Johnny English movies Plex is making a 2 movie collection (as it should), but for both movies two 1 movie collections, too.
This has nothing to do with how my movie folders are set up, for, for example, Kodi or Emby don’t show this strange Plex issue. Of course, I can delete the 1 movie collections, however, some of them are returning magically after a rescan. Although deleting a collection cannot be undone. At least, this is what I see when I want to delete a collection. So, deleting a collection cannot be undone? Seriously, Plex?
I wonder why Plex is not able to solve this issue, which is existing for years now.
Are those by chance mp4/m4v/mov files with embedded metadata? If your library is configured to prefer embedded metadata, Plex will use the Album tag as collection — even if it’s below the threshold for automatic collection creation.
That’s the only scenario I’m aware of which could create collections in Plex outside the regular automatic approach. I’m not aware of any issues with automatic collections (except maybe the occasional hiccup if somebody on The Movie Database creates weird collections that get picked up by Plex before their mods can catch them / clean them up).
Some of the movies involved are mp4 files. Not all of them.
However, when I uncheck the preference of embedded data, Plex has another issue. For example: I have The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. As you may know it is a two part movie. Both movies are each in its own folder, and are .mkv files with part 1 and part 2 respectively added as Plex instructs. Plex doesn’t know how to handle this, it gets totally confused. Only one movie is visible, but in the info screen I see a reference to both folders. Both movies have their own IMDB number, so, there should be no problem.
I tagged both movies with Media Elch, but this does not help. That is obvious, of course, as .mkv files generally don’t have embedded data. Still, with embedded data enabled, the problem has vanished. Except for the 1 movie collections issue.
Plex server is a strange peace of software (-;
The funny thing is, this issue does not show up with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
My guess is you didn’t include the release year in the folder/file names of the two mockingjay movies. Hence Plex interprets the - Part 1, - Part 2 section as a suffix indicating the movie is a stacked file (1 movie split across multiple files)
This works on my server. Plex recognizes them as separate movies.
/Movies
.../The Hunger Games Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)
....../The Hunger Games Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014).mkv
.../The Hunger Games Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)
....../The Hunger Games Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015).mkv
You could also add the IMDB ID to the folder and file names, as that provides Plex the exact match for each. Plex Dance the movies when you rename the folders & files.
/The Hunger Games Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) {imdb-tt1951265}/The Hunger Games Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) {imdb-tt1951265}.mkv
/The Hunger Games Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015) {imdb-tt1951266}/The Hunger Games Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015) {imdb-tt1951266}.mkv
This is how I have setup my folders, too. Only, without the IMDB-id. But it’s good to know how to use them in folders and files. I was not aware of this. Thanks for your support. For now, Plex is working fine, after enabling “prefer embedded data”, and removing all 1-movie collections manually. But, when I ever need to set it up from scratch, your information might come in very handy (-:
