Show being treated as a folder instead of a show

[duranbong]

I recently installed Jellyfin and got it to scan my media library. It worked great for some things, and failed to recognise others. That was fine, my naming had been all over the place, so I started renaming stuff according to the guide, regularly getting Jellyfin to rescan along the way to make sure it was working.

For some media this was fine, but for a few no matter how I rename things it won't detect that a folder is actually a TV show. For instance, with my Cowboy Bebop folder I have tried:

• Renaming the folder to include the year (trying both "Cowboy Bebop (199" and "Cowboy Bebop (1998-1999)")
  
• Renaming the files to match the scheme in the guide (they are now all "Cowboy Bebop S01EXX - <Episode name>.mkv" - I also tried without S01 since it's a one season show)
  
• Manually identifying each individual episode using its IMDB id
  

Each time refreshing the metadata of the whole library (using the "new and updated files" option).

But despite all this, there's a folder icon instead of an unwatched episode count in the corner of the folder in my media library and the show doesn't shop up in the "Next Up" section. Most annoyingly, unlike my shows that it has correctly identified, there isn't an "identify" option in the context menu! It looks like when Jellyfin has decided something is a "folder" rather than a "show" there's no way to tell it otherwise.

Is there something I've missed? I can't find anything that I'm doing that is different to the guidance.

[paulc]

I created the series under my cartoon folder which holds all my cartoon tv shows with a dummy video renamed to episode one of the series and it showed up for me as a tv show. I then identified it as the 1998 instead of the 2021 series.

Cartoons
-Cowboy Bebop (1998 ) (no spaced, darn emoji)
--Season 01
---Cowboy Bebop (1998 ).S01E01.Stray Dog Strut.mkv

Here's the tvshow.nfo  that Jellyfin created. 

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<tvshow>
  <plot>In the year 2071 humanity has colonized the entire Solar System through the use of "Phase Difference Space Gates". A catastrophic accident occurred during the development of the Gates, damaging both the Earth and the Moon, heavily irradiating the surface, and forcing most of mankind to evacuate to other planets of the Solar System.

Wherever humanity goes, so goes its criminal element, and thus the need for those who hunt criminals. The newly formed solar system police reinstated the bounty scheme of the Wild West. Cowboy Bebop is the story of the four inhabitants of the spaceship Bebop, and the living they barely make at bounty hunting.</plot>
  <outline>In the year 2071 humanity has colonized the entire Solar System through the use of "Phase Difference Space Gates". A catastrophic accident occurred during the development of the Gates, damaging both the Earth and the Moon, heavily irradiating the surface, and forcing most of mankind to evacuate to other planets of the Solar System.

Wherever humanity goes, so goes its criminal element, and thus the need for those who hunt criminals. The newly formed solar system police reinstated the bounty scheme of the Wild West. Cowboy Bebop is the story of the four inhabitants of the spaceship Bebop, and the living they barely make at bounty hunting.</outline>
  <lockdata>false</lockdata>
  <dateadded>2024-05-17 12:22:27</dateadded>
  <title>Cowboy Bebop</title>
  <originaltitle>カウボーイビバップ</originaltitle>
  <rating>8.5</rating>
  <year>1998</year>
  <mpaa>TV-MA</mpaa>
  <imdb_id>tt0213338</imdb_id>
  <tmdbid>30991</tmdbid>
  <premiered>1998-04-03</premiered>
  <releasedate>1998-04-03</releasedate>
  <enddate>1999-01-24</enddate>
  <runtime>25</runtime>
  <genre>Science Fiction</genre>
  <genre>Drama</genre>
  <genre>Comedy</genre>
  <genre>Animation</genre>
  <genre>Adventure</genre>
  <genre>Action</genre>
  <genre>Western</genre>
  <genre>Anime</genre>
  <studio>TV Tokyo</studio>
  <tvrageid>3157</tvrageid>
  <tvdbid>76885</tvdbid>
  <tvmazeid>1121</tvmazeid>
  <actor>
    <name>Aoi Tada</name>
    <role>Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV</role>
    <type>Actor</type>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Unshou Ishizuka</name>
    <role>Jet Black</role>
    <type>Actor</type>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Kouichi Yamadera</name>
    <role>Spike Spiegel</role>
    <type>Actor</type>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Gara Takashima</name>
    <role>Julia</role>
    <type>Actor</type>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Megumi Hayashibara</name>
    <role>Faye Valentine</role>
    <type>Actor</type>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Hikaru Midorikawa</name>
    <role>Lin</role>
    <type>Actor</type>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Miki Nagasawa</name>
    <role>Judy</role>
    <type>Actor</type>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Nobuyuki Hiyama</name>
    <role>Shin</role>
    <type>Actor</type>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Norio Wakamoto</name>
    <role>Vicious</role>
    <type>Actor</type>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Takehiro Koyama</name>
    <role>Laughing Bull</role>
    <type>Actor</type>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Tsutomu Taruki</name>
    <role>Punch</role>
    <type>Actor</type>
  </actor>
  <actor>
    <name>Miyuki Ichijou</name>
    <role>Anastasia</role>
    <type>Actor</type>
  </actor>
  <id>76885</id>
  <episodeguide>
    <url cache="76885.xml">http://www.thetvdb.com/api/1D62F2F90030C444/series/76885/all/en.zip</url>
  </episodeguide>
  <season>-1</season>
  <episode>-1</episode>
  <status>Ended</status>
</tvshow>

[TheDreadPirate]

I think the "1998-1999" might be throwing it off. The year should only be the initial release year.

Here is how I named my Cowboy Bebop files. Never had an issue with Jellyfin not identifying it right away.

Cowboy Bebop/
├── s01e01.mkv
├── s01e02.mkv
├── s01e03.mkv
├── s01e04.mkv
├── s01e05.mkv
....etc....

[duranbong]

Hmm, the only real difference between our setups there is you've got a seaon 01 folder. I've just tried that and it now recognises the season 01 subfolder as a show... But it thinks the show is Angry Birds Toons, and the top level folder called "Cowboy Bebop (1998 )" is still just a folder.

Looking further, all the shows that Jellyfin is failing to recognise are single-season shows. I'm guessing it's a problem with having a mixed shows and movies library. I've moved my movies to a separate folder and made new movie- and show-specific libraries and it's working a lot better now.

Cheers for the help!

[TheDreadPirate]

Yeeeeep. The mixed library is a legacy type, has not been maintained much, and we strongly discourage its use.