@paco @BenAveling it is just a stupid electronic device

@paco ah sorry. Just misunderstood your wording that it was unhelpful putting them together - thought it was an issue. I’ll bow out.

@NitP Well the unhelpful part is mixing all these things in one screen full of stuff. The problem isn’t that the 2 Blacula films were automatically pulled into a collection. That’s fine and I like it.

The problem is that Blacula is next to Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, and Captain America. I have put effort into organising them all. But the apps (Jellyfin, Swiftfin, Infuse) insist that THEY do the organising. They ignore all the directory structure and just pull all the films out.

They offer alphabetical, (THEIR notion of) genre, by date, by rating, by recently added, etc. But the one way they won’t show me is the way I organised them myself. That is infuriating. So if you have tips on how to get my folder hierarchy in one of these apps, I’m all ears. Plex does it with a bit of effort. I can’t get this view at all on Jellyfin.

@paco I don’t really use it as I’m a Neanderthal with all my movies in one folder and shows in another then rely on client side filters.

But I do add my top level ‘media’ folder as a source in Infuse as a favourite (I do not scan or add this folder to the Infuse library). Accessed from the home screen it allows me to browse the folder hierarchy directly (and it maintains metadata - posters, watched status, descriptions etc.). Not sure if that’s what you’re after.

@paco Well, Jellyfin decided this is the way to go

There is docs about how they expect your media to be structured: https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/media/movies

So not only doesn't it care about your hierarchy it even has own expectations about naming.

Not that you have to like it, but I'm just saying this is how they expect you to organise your media.

I'm not sure but you might be able to see your structure in the metadata manager.

@sheogorath @paco
Emby has a 'folders' view, if Jellyfin also does you might be able to get that to look the way you want.

I gave up on my own file organization/naming; I really never go into the file structure to play movies or music any more. I can use tools to rename based on metadata, and I just make sure the metadata is right.

@sheogorath I would be perfectly happy to rename into whatever works best. But the problem is organization. It's flat. They put 500 movies into a single scrollable screen. There is simply no hierarchy. No subdivisions.

I mean, there's a little subdivision at the highest level: "TV show" versus "Movie." And I can do it by "Genre" as long as I either tag all 500 of my films with my idea of genre, or just let them do it.

I think my 500 films is non-trivial, but hardly the biggest collection out there. I'm sure tons of people have more. Do people with 1000 and 2000 videos really just have this one screen with 1000 things on it and then they search? I am baffled to find myself belonging to an insignificant minority on this issue.

@paco@infosec.exchange if you want to see subdivision by genre, you need to create more library, not only one.
don't create the librairy on /movies but on /movies/action ...
you have already the sorting done, so lucky you i guess...

@oldsysops That idea had crossed my mind. I’m going to try that. Thanks.

@paco
There is a folder view, which you can activate in Dashboard - Libraries - Display tab - Display a folder view to show plain media folders.

This is from a forum post in 2019, I'm away from home unable to verify this at this time, but worth a shot?

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/jellyfin/comments/e7klst/folder_view/

@toucheatout I'm fairly sure that view has been removed. I came across some recent (2024) debates and discussions on the Jellyfin forums. It definitely seems like the developers don't expect anyone to do any organization of their media at all.

@paco With Jellyfin I’ve found I have to either manage genre metadata in my video files or hand create collections. Like I have Criterion collection and a Ghibli collection.

I’ve never tried organizing by folder personally, because of how many movies seem to defy categorization. Does Drunken master go in kung fu or comedy?

I’m a bit weird so I enjoy tagging movies with all their appropriate genre so Jellyfin works okay for me.

@paco I heard that putting one of those cozy cat tunnels around the bottom of the tree is supposed to placate them?

@kimlockhartga Maybe for some. He’s one of these cats that loves to be high up. But sometimes he gets under things. Maybe that’s worth a shot.

@paco I saw it in videos, like several of them. People said they were sold out at a lot of places, because it worked so well and caught on. Like you say, though, they're no universal truths when it comes to cats.

@paco
I know for sure that you can even feed them way higher voltage on that 5V pin, although not for long. Took me only two burnt ESPs before I checked that trimmable voltage regulator.

@paco lifetime membership in Hitler Youth?

@paco That's how you end up with teeny tiny gifts.

@paco Be careful. It's a slipper-y slope!

@paco Me too! Can you explain *why* you have favourite socks? 'Cos I have no idea. Pretty sure I wouldn't be able to tell which socks I was wearing in a blind experiment.

@hosford42