Albums are not merged or split as expected

Symfonium album splitting depends mainly on two things:

1. Your media provider.
2. Your tags and provider settings.

Provider-managed albums

For Plex, Emby, Jellyfin, Subsonic, and Kodi, albums are fully managed by the provider and displayed in Symfonium as returned by their API.

Each provider has different default behavior and may provide settings to control album grouping. Check your provider documentation for details.

Symfonium-managed albums

For local device storage, cloud providers, and network shares, album detection is managed by Symfonium. It is based on your tags and the provider’s Split album by setting.

The default settings fit most use cases, but your tags or file organization may require different values.

What “album splitting” means in Symfonium

When Symfonium scans a provider, it groups tracks into albums.

If a track’s metadata does not match every active criterion in Split album by, the track is placed in a different album entry.

Where to configure album splitting

Settings → Manage media providers → Your provider → Edit → Split album by

Available criteria and how they combine

Criterion	Default	Typical use case	Cautionary notes
Folder	Yes	Keep compilations from different folders apart	Will always split identical albums kept in separate directories
MusicBrainz Release ID	Yes	Precise releases, multi-disc sets	If only some files have MusicBrainz tags, you may get duplicates
Album Artist	No	Merge guest-artist EPs under one artist	A single typo or “Various Artists” will split albums
Year	No	Separate reissues (e.g., 1994 vs 2011 remaster)	Make sure the same year is written for every track
Composer	No	Classical libraries	Rarely useful for pop. Leave unchecked if unsure

All checked criteria are evaluated with a logical AND: every selected field must match for two tracks to be grouped.

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