Managing Separate Music Libraries in Jellyfin

[MattBlackOnly]

Hi,

I'm having some issues with how Jellyfin handles my music libraries and was hoping someone could offer some guidance. 

I have two separate music libraries in Jellyfin:

Music/
  ├── Artist/
  │    ├── Album/
  │    │    ├── track1.mp3
  │    │    ├── track2.mp3
  │    │    └── ... 
  │    └── Another Album/
  │          ├── track1.mp3
  │          └── ...
  └── Another Artist/
        ├── Album/
        │    ├── track1.mp3
        │    └── ...
        └── ...



Tracks/
  ├── track1.mp3
  ├── track2.mp3
  ├── track3.mp3
  └── ...

The Problem
It seems like Jellyfin is getting confused when an artist appears in both libraries. If an artist has even a single track in the Tracks folder, Jellyfin treats the Tracks folder as an album for that artist. For example, if I have a standalone track like:

Tracks/
  ├── Example Artist - Single Track.mp3

Then, Jellyfin displays Tracks as an album for "Example Artist." This behavior doesn’t seem correct because the Tracks folder is supposed to act as a flat, unorganized collection of songs, not as albums.


Expected Behavior

• The Music library should correctly display artists and their respective albums based on the folder structure.
  
• Songs for the Tracks library should not be shown when viewing an artist in the Music library.
  
• The Tracks library should show all tracks in one flat list without being categorized into albums or associated with artists in the Music library.
  

Questions

1. Is this a bug or expected behavior?
   
2. Is there a way to configure Jellyfin so that tracks in the Tracks folder aren’t treated as albums for artists?
   
3. Are there any best practices for organizing mixed music libraries like this?
   

Any advice or workarounds would be much appreciated, thanks in advance..

[TheDreadPirate]

IIRC, this is a known issue that is a side affect of how Jellyfin's database works. That should, hopefully, be resolved with the EFCore refactoring that should be part of 10.11 (no promises).

[MattBlackOnly]

IIRC, this is a known issue that is a side affect of how Jellyfin's database works.  That should, hopefully, be resolved with the EFCore refactoring that should be part of 10.11 (no promises).

I have a couple of quick follow-ups:

1. Do you have any links to discussions or references about similar issues?
   
2. How will this change affect my setup? Specifically, will it ensure that tracks don’t all appear as a single album under the artist?
   

Thank you, @TheDreadPirate!

[TheDreadPirate]

This is the ticket I am thinking about. Their music is not structured the same as yours, but the underlying cause is the same, I think.

https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/issues/12764

The EFCore library DB refactor has been a work-in-progress for months, possibly years. It is a massive PR. Over 20k changes.

https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/pull/12798

The full extent of the changes in Jellyfin's behaviors is not fully known yet.

[MattBlackOnly]

This is the ticket I am thinking about.  Their music is not structured the same as yours, but the underlying cause is the same, I think.

https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/issues/12764

The EFCore library DB refactor has been a work-in-progress for months, possibly years.  It is a massive PR.  Over 20k changes.

https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/pull/12798

The full extent of the changes in Jellyfin's behaviors is not fully known yet.

Again thank you @TheDreadPirate