SOLVED: See contents of subfolders instead of folders?

[Hamburger7326]

Hi all. New user coming from Plex. If I point a library at a folder which has a bunch of folders inside of it containing videos, is it possible to see only the contents of those subfolders and not the folders themselves? This is probably user error but I've googled, searched on here, looked at the FAQ, and haven't found an answer and haven't found anything in the dashboard either. 

I have a handful of youtube channels I download for offline access. They're organized by folder with the folder being the channel name. Is there any way to just see a list of the videos inside those folders so I can sort it by date added and just see everything that's newly downloaded? I believe I created the library as "Music Videos" for the type since that seemed the closest option to what these are. 

If anyone has any suggestions or can tell me what I'm missing or have done wrong, it would be appreciated.

[skribe]

I'm not totally sure that I understand the goal. If you want to simply use something like a "folder view" where everything is organized according to the folder structure in the file system, that doesn't presently exist. There are some existing feature requests for it, but it's just not implemented right now.

If, instead, you just want to organize things a little differently, it sounds to me like a TV library might work for this. You could have each channel as a "show" and then either structure the underlying media as "seasons" based on year or just use something like an absolute episode order. Then you'd be able to browse the library by show. You might need to use custom NFO files to make sure that the metadata is collated correctly, or look for a plugin that can retrieve metadata for YouTube, if one exists.

[Hamburger7326]

I'm not totally sure that I understand the goal. If you want to simply use something like a "folder view" where everything is organized according to the folder structure in the file system, that doesn't presently exist. There are some existing feature requests for it, but it's just not implemented right now.

If, instead, you just want to organize things a little differently, it sounds to me like a TV library might work for this. You could have each channel as a "show" and then either structure the underlying media as "seasons" based on year or just use something like an absolute episode order. Then you'd be able to browse the library by show. You might need to use custom NFO files to make sure that the metadata is collated correctly, or look for a plugin that can retrieve metadata for YouTube, if one exists.

Thank you but I think it's kind of the opposite. I don't want to see folders at all, only their contents as though they all exist in a single folder on storage. For example, if this is my folder structure on the network share:

folder for channel 1
     |
     --> 20230627 - youtube title.mp4
     --> 20230629 - youtube title 2.mp4
folder for channel 2
     |
     --> 20230601 - youtube title for this second channel.mp4

When I open that library I'd like to just see a list of the videos and not see the folders containing them. Currently I see one folder per channel that matches up with the actual folders inside the data directory I'm giving to JellyFin as the location where the library should look. If I click into a folder I can see a list of the videos within that folder but only that folder. What I want is the entire library to show when I click on it. What I'm seeing in plex with that same folder shared is just a list of files like:

20230627 - youtube title.mp4
20230629 - youtube title 2.mp4
20230601 - youtube title for this second channel.mp4

That's what I'm trying to replicate here. I use folders on the storage so that they're organized when I browse them but when I open the library in JellyFin I don't want to see that those folders even exist. I just want to open the library and get a list of all videos within the library, allowing me to sort across the library by date added to quickly see the newest ones. 

I really think this is user-error on my part and this isn't normal behavior, but no setting I've tried changing has helped and like I said before, no searching has turned up answers. And since it looks like I'm the only person with this problem, that confirms it's user-error. I just don't know where the error is.

[skribe]

I'm not sure that this is user error, actually. I'm just not sure that Jellyfin supports what you're trying to accomplish here. I'm not sure that any library type will simply group everything the way you're wanting. You might be able to use the "Episodes" view at the top of the web ui to simply view all of the episodes irrespective of show grouping, but I'm not sure if that will meet your needs. Give it a try though.

[Hamburger7326]

I'm not sure that this is user error, actually. I'm just not sure that Jellyfin supports what you're trying to accomplish here. I'm not sure that any library type will simply group everything the way you're wanting. You might be able to use the "Episodes" view at the top of the web ui to simply view all of the episodes irrespective of show grouping, but I'm not sure if that will meet your needs. Give it a try though.

That's actually perfect. I deleted the library and re-created it as Shows instead of Music Videos. It initially shows me the folders but when I click on "Episodes" like you suggested, I can see a list of all of the videos within those folders, all grouped together and able to be sorted on date added. 

Thanks again, that's a huge help!

[skribe]

I'm not sure that this is user error, actually. I'm just not sure that Jellyfin supports what you're trying to accomplish here. I'm not sure that any library type will simply group everything the way you're wanting. You might be able to use the "Episodes" view at the top of the web ui to simply view all of the episodes irrespective of show grouping, but I'm not sure if that will meet your needs. Give it a try though.

That's actually perfect. I deleted the library and re-created it as Shows instead of Music Videos. It initially shows me the folders but when I click on "Episodes" like you suggested, I can see a list of all of the videos within those folders, all grouped together and able to be sorted on date added. 

Thanks again, that's a huge help!

Great. I'm glad that'll suit your needs then.

[intoxicus]

I'm not totally sure that I understand the goal. If you want to simply use something like a "folder view" where everything is organized according to the folder structure in the file system, that doesn't presently exist. There are some existing feature requests for it, but it's just not implemented right now.

If, instead, you just want to organize things a little differently, it sounds to me like a TV library might work for this. You could have each channel as a "show" and then either structure the underlying media as "seasons" based on year or just use something like an absolute episode order. Then you'd be able to browse the library by show. You might need to use custom NFO files to make sure that the metadata is collated correctly, or look for a plugin that can retrieve metadata for YouTube, if one exists.

Because the auto metadata flange gets so much wrong, and I don't want to spend time and effort on fixing it all, I just want to see the directory structure I have that's already organized.

It blows me away that it's not a duh obvious of course we're including that feature.

There are so many valid and useful reasons to have the *option* of one, the other, *both.*

Literally, I just switched to Emby today only because it allows this.