Several problems with Collections

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
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Server Version#: 1.42.2.10156
Plex Web Version: Version 4.152.0
Player Version#:
OS: Windows

I finally started to play with Collections. I have to admit this a really cool feature that shows a lot of promise. Unfortunately, I’m having several issues as follows:

  1. The option in Advanced Filters to sort by Year, Title, etc but it only works until I click “Update Collection”. Then you have to wait a while before the sort takes affect. Why the heck isn’t it instant? I wasted so much time trying to figure out why the selected sort didn’t take affect, only to learn eventually it will.

  2. Plex uses a “gear” icon to represent a Smart Collection. Since the gear icon in every other product represents “settings”, this could not be more intuitive! Why not do something simple like a “S” in a circle or something? Crazy to ignore industry standards.

  3. Based on what I saw in this video, Collections can contain Multiple Libraries, however, I was not able to get that to consistently work.
    https://youtu.be/TF8L-gSSlb4?si=g3Z4CFP44w_xkqHO&t=533

    For instance,
    I have 4 libraries with Robert Redford as an actor, where I created a collection called “Robert Redford” in each library. The Libraries are Movies, Westerns, Movies Mom and TV Shows. Library counts with him in them are Movies=34, Westerns=2, Movies Mom=1, and TV Shows one Talking Pictures episode. Based on the YT video, once in a Collection, I should see same named collections from other Libraries at the end of the movies in the current collection. This is hit and miss.

    Results:

  • The collection in Talking Pictures shows the episode, 1 movies from Mom Shared, 2 Movies from Westerns, zero movies from the Movies library.

  • The collection in the Movies library shows the 1 in Mom Shared and 3 in Westerns, but not the TV Show episode.

  • The collection in Mom Shared library only shows the 2 movies from Westerns.

  • The collection in Westerns only shows the 1 movie from Mom Shared.

  • Even though Redford appeared in “Avengers: End Game” and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, I get zero movies when I filter by him in my “Movie Sets” library.

    How is it possible same named collections from various libraries show up in some, but not all of those libraries?

  1. You can’t select multiple movies at one time to add them all at once.
  2. Collections don’t have the alphabet letters along the right edge.
  3. The poster that’s auto created for a library doesn’t display right away. It appears to be created each time you view the collection. This should be cached, so Plex doesn’t recreate it each time.
  4. Collections within Collections has been asked for by many since sometime before 2018.
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The gear icon doesn’t represent a collection.
It represents a collection (or a playlist) that is based on filters. i.e. a “dynamic” collection (or playlist).
Which means if the filter criteria change, the contents of the collection/playlist change as well.

And filters can only be applied within a particular library.
So you cannot create a dynamic collection which combines items from several libraries.

That functionality is limited to “manual” collections - i.e. those which were created by explicitly adding items to a collection.

https://support.plex.tv/articles/201273953-collections/

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@OttoKerner, thank you for responding with some details.

Regarding (Item 2) the gear icon, here’s the statement from the article:
“Smart collections will have a gear icon on the top right of its poster to indicate it is a smart collection.”

Yes I know that a collection can only be applied to a specific library. This is the nested collection feature I mentioned (Item 7) that people have been asking for over 7-years. That being said, Item 7 as detailed in the supplied video link (cued to starting point), is a way to get same named collections from other libraries to be listed at the bottom of a same named collection. This would be the perfect workaround if it worked consistently. Are you attempting to say that Smart Collections will not work consistently, therefore I have to manually apply a collection to each item?

4

I went through and deleted all the “Robert Redford” Smart Collections that I created in the various libraries. Then I manually applied the same Collection tag to each. Now all libraries show other Robert Redford libraries, except for the Robert Redford collection from the “Movies” library only shows 1 of the 35 movies from it in all the other related libraries. This is true even though when in the Robert Redford collection in “Movies” library shows all the tagged movies from that collection.