Plex How To Create Collections

Plex Collections

Since Plex is based on Kodi, we'll be offering a lot of great Plex tutorials. This tutorial is how to Add/Manage and Delete Plex Collections.

Plex Collections let you group your content together. For example, if you want to group all of your "Matrix" movies together, or if you want to group your content together based on the actors, artists, etc. Collections can be used for all types of content, such as Music, TV Shows, Movies and so on.

To get Collections, you must be running Plex Media Server version 1.11.0.46+. If you're not running a supported version, you'll need to upgrade first.

These Player apps support Plex Collections:

Apple TV
Matricom G-Box (Android)
Xbox One
iOS
macOS (desktop)
PlayStation 4
Plex Media Player
Plex Web App
Amazon Fire TV
Android (mobile)
Android TV
Roku
Smart TV (LG 4K/UHD [webOS 2.0+], Samsung 2016+ UHD)
Windows (desktop)

How to Add Items to your Plex Collection

First, you'll need to create a collection by labeling an item with the Collections tag. You can add as many items as you want by similarly connecting them to that tag. You'll need to be in the items' Edit Details Screen to perform the action. To do this:

From the item, open the "Edit Details" Screen.
On the left, go to the "Tags" tab.
Find and click on the "Collections" Box.
If the collection doesn't exist, type a name in, otherwise choose it from the list.
Click "Save"

Plex Collections - How To Add / Find Items in Collection

Searching the Library for a Collection

There's 4 different methods you can use to locate a collection:

Filter: Filter your results by the Collection
PrePlay screen or Item Details screen
Library view By Collection
When browsing a library, they will be Inline or Collapsed

Filter the results by Collection

This method will simply remove all of the items that you're not looking for (not part of the Collection). This is not the same as the "PrePlay" Screen mentioned above.

Plex Collections - How To Add / Find Items in Collection

The Item Preplay / Details Screens

The Collection may be shown as "Related" information when you're viewing the Preplay / Details screen. This only works for movies and TV library sets.

Plex Collections - How To Add / Find Items in Collection

Browsing the Library per the Collection

When Opening a collection, it goes to the "collection PrePlay" screen as shown here:

Plex Collections - How To Add / Find Items in Collection

Inline and Collapsed with Other Items in the Library

These will appear only if the library is sorted by Name or Title. It doesn't apply to not episodes or seasons but applies only to viewing the library by shows when it comes to TV libraries. Opening a collection goes to the "collection preplay" screen as shown below displayed in more detail:

Plex Collections - How To Add / Find Items in Collection

Display options for the Collection Inline library

This can be set or changed on the Advanced tab when creating or editing the corresponding library. It is possible to collapse collections for Movies and Television as well as Other Videos libraries so that an entry for the collection appears along with other items when viewing your library.

Plex Collections - How To Add / Find Items in Collection

Options for these Settings:

Show collections and their items: Collections items are shown along with items belonging to a collection also still appear in the main library when viewing.
Hide items which are in collections: Do not show the item in the main library when browsing if an item belongs to a collection. Entries for collections are shown with the results.
Disabled: Don't display collections with results at all but show items. They will only be shown in the libraries collection tab regardless of individual collections settings.

These "inline collections" will only appear when the library is sorted by Title/Name when turned on. For TV libraries, it applies only when viewing the library by shows and not episodes / seasons.

PrePlay Collections

PrePlay is a section of Collections and contains the items in that library that belong to the selected Collection. By adding items in different libraries to identically-named collections, you can relate them to each other. For example, you can have Matrix related movies, TV shows, and music albums all in a "Matrix" collection so they're similar to each other. It can also include items from other libraries that are in a collection with the same name.

Plex Collections - How To Add / Find Items in Collection

You can Customize your Collections

You'll notice that you have up to 4 images once you create your Collection. Here you can modify the collection's metadata to add a custom poster, a summary, a background image (art), and decide if it will be ordered by release date or alphabetically on its preplay screen. There's a lot of customization that you can do here to fit your taste.

Click and Open the Web App
Switch to view by collections if not already selected
While hovering on a collection poster or on its preplay screen, select the Edit Icon.
Change it until you're satisfied

Plex Collections - How To Add / Find Items in Collection

Removing Collections

Switch to view by collectionsif you you're not already.
Click the … menu on the collection poster or preplay screen and choosingDelete.

It will remove the collection tag from the corresponding items but not delete the actual items. Only the Admin of the server can actually delete any items.