Multiple Versions But There's a Catch....

[TIMFLIX1138]

Figured it all out. Left my OP below for future humorous reference. I have the Merge Versions plug-in installed and it had a scheduled task set on a daily schedule I wasn't aware of. That is what got my movies to merge previously without me knowing it was happening (Mando just did it like magic). The "DVD" movies not having proper NFO metadata kept them from being included. Added the proper NFO file for a few, ran the plug-in and presto all 3 versions show up. Awesome!

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I have 3 Movie libraries for actual movies on my JF server. The first is my main regular movies library with almost 8,000 movies. The second if for 4K movies and is seperate because I don't currently have the infrastructure for 4K so I only have 12 movies in here, all duplicates of 1080p movies in my first library - all Star Wars films. Both of these libraries are virtually the same setup, Movies in seperate folders with the MOVIE TITLE (YEAR) Then Format Data and each contains all relevant artwork, trailer and of course metadata NFO files locally. 

The third I call my DVD Movies library for simplicity but it is actually a library of duplicate movies from my main library that are, mostly, 1080p H264 AAC versions that are easily compatible with Apple devices for download portability. These movies are all in seperate folders with matching MOVIE TITLE (YEAR) formatting and each folder only contains the movie file and a poster image file without any extension to the filename. I use Media Monkey to import and embed some metadata and poster artwork for almost all these movies so they carry that info with them no matter where I move them to. I've done this for various reasons and still continue for most of them. Anyways...

I noticed the other day that in my main library when selecting one of the Star Wars films I was seeing JF combine the multiple versions making them selectible. But this was only for the main 1080p full BD rip and the 4K full BD rip versions. JF ignored the "DVD" version. My guess is because of the imbeded metadata in the "DVD" version not matching or being read in the same manner as the NFO metadata of the other 2 versions since the file names and folders match up to the end of the year. I tried creating a metadata NFO file for one of the movies but that wouldn't be read by JF. I then removed all the metadata info from the "DVD" file and rescanned but JF still pulled to metadata I guess it already had stored. In all attemps, JF never combined this title with the other "main" titles.

I tinkered more, gave the "DVD" version a filenames a DVD suffix and JF rescanned that one with the proper NFO metadata (this is with embedded metadata mostly removed) but that still didn't combine versions. Added the DVD suffix to the folder as well and still. no bueno. 

So I'm stupmed as this is cool and would be nice to be able to select any version of these duplicates in the times I may want to (no need to stream a 4K file to a phone over wifi with crappy headphones) but I'm unsure what is messing this up. Should I try removing all embedded metadata from these "DVD " movies and create NFO files like all other movies have? Should I just add NFO files and then replace this "DVD" library with a new version of the same thing that will scan the new files? Should I sacrifice a lamb the the Gods? I just dunno.

[TIMFLIX1138]

Going to ask here but is there a way to turn off the little icon denoting a n entry has multiple versions available? It's a bit much especially when there's also the icon for watched already covering the artwork.

[TheDreadPirate]

I can't answer the question, specifically, but I imagine there is some CSS you could add to your theme to remove it. Obviously this would be web only.

[TIMFLIX1138]

Found it

/* Turn Off Multiple Versions Icon */
.mediaSourceIndicator {
display: none !important;
}

[TIMFLIX1138]

OK follow-up. After some work to bring all my movies in the "DVD" library up to speed with their counterpart NFO I realized the Merge Versions plugin requires THDb IDs in the metadata to do the merge, which makes sense, accept THOUSANDS of my movies were scrapped for metadata over my near 15 years of building my library through my old process in Kodi which didn't use TMDb sources. So I'm left with 3 choices.

TLR I am looking to rescraped the metadata for all 8,100+ movies with the new scrapper that pulls IMDb, TMDb, RT, Metacritic and so on info. This is going to keep me busy for some time and introduces a new variouable: Sort Title. I would LOE for JF to ignore certain punctuation in sorting alphabetically and rather than remove every comma, apostrophe, colon and so on in 8,100+ potential movies I found this method to add characters for JF to ignore.

Code:

Method 2: Global Configuration Fix (For Advanced Users)If you have a massive library and do not want to fix individual items manually, you can tell the server backend to strip apostrophes globally by modifying the server configuration file.Locate your system.xml file inside your Jellyfin config folder.Docker: Look inside your mapped /config volume.Windows: Look inside C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\jellyfin\config.Linux: Usually located in /etc/jellyfin/ or /var/lib/jellyfin/config/.Open system.xml with a text editor.Search for the <SortRemoveWords> block.Add an entry containing only an apostrophe or common apostrophe-heavy prefixes to see if the filter catches them:xml<SortRemoveWords>
    <string>the</string>
    <string>a</string>
    <string>an</string>
    <string>'</string>
</SortRemoveWords>
Use code with caution.Save the file and restart your Jellyfin Server.Scan your library again to rebuild the database sorting tables.

However my Windows setup doesn't have a Jellyfin folder in the AppData. Is this instead in the Program data folder?

[TheDreadPirate]

The default location is C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin.

[TIMFLIX1138]

Thanks, my peg-legged friend. I did find it there, added a few extra strings, figures I'd messed everything up but then realized I needed to stop the server before messing with the file. Got it working now!

And so the task of updating the NFO for 8,100 movies begins!

[TIMFLIX1138]

Does JF ignore the characters added into the settings file if they are in the sortname field of the metadata or does JF respect the entirety of the sortname, punctioation and all, for the actual sort?

[TheDreadPirate]

Settings file? I'm assuming we are talking about NFOs since you mentioned sortname.

And can you provide examples? I think I know what you're asking, but I'm not 100% sure.