Custom collections let you group titles in Plex however you like, whether that is a superhero franchise, a director’s filmography, a holiday movie list, or every episode of a show you rewatch every year. This guide walks you through building both manual and automatically updating collections, tidying up how they look, and making them easy to find from your Plex home screen. It is written for anyone running their own Plex Media Server who wants a cleaner, more personal way to browse their library.

What you’ll need

  • A working Plex Media Server with at least one library already set up and scanned
  • Admin access to the server, or permission from the admin to manage collections
  • the Plex app on desktop, mobile, or the web, signed in to your server
  • Enough storage to hold the media you want grouped, since a collection can only include titles that already exist in a library. If your library is growing, external drives such as a Lexar Muse SSD or a Lexar Muse Ultra Slim portable SSD are a practical way to add space for new movies and shows before you start organising them into collections.

Creating a manual collection

Manual collections are the simplest way to group titles yourself, one item at a time or in a batch.

  1. Open the library that contains the titles you want to group.
  2. Select a title and open its details page.
  3. Tap the more options menu (usually shown as three dots) and choose the option to add it to a collection.
  4. Choose to create a new collection and give it a clear, descriptive name.
  5. Repeat the process for each remaining title, this time selecting the collection you already created instead of making a new one.

If your library view lets you select multiple titles at once, tick each one first and then add them to the collection together, which saves time when grouping a large franchise or series.

Creating a smart collection

A smart collection updates itself based on rules you set, rather than titles you add by hand. This is useful for ongoing groupings, such as everything from a particular decade, genre, or actor.

  1. From your library, open the option to view or manage collections.
  2. Choose the option to create a smart collection.
  3. Select the library it should pull from, then set your filters, such as genre, year, actor, or content rating.
  4. Choose a sort order for how titles should appear inside the collection.
  5. Save the collection and give it a name that describes the rule you have set.

Because smart collections rely on metadata, titles with missing or incorrect details may not appear even though you expect them to. Checking and correcting metadata is worth doing before relying heavily on smart rules.

Customising how a collection looks

Once a collection exists, you can make it stand out rather than leaving it with a default, auto-generated thumbnail.

  1. Open the collection you want to edit.
  2. Choose the option to edit its details.
  3. Upload or select a custom poster and background image, or generate one from the artwork of the titles inside it.
  4. Add a short summary describing the collection, and adjust the sort title if you want it to appear in a particular order alphabetically.

If you want more control over artwork across your whole server, it helps to first use custom posters, since the same approach applies to collection artwork as it does to individual movies and shows.

Pinning and sharing collections

A collection is only useful if you can actually find it again. Most collections include a visibility setting that controls whether they show on the library’s main browse screen, whether they are hidden from view, or whether they are pinned somewhere prominent such as your home screen for quick access.

If other people use your server, keep in mind that what they see depends on their account permissions. If a collection is not appearing for a family member or friend, it is worth checking how you manage Plex user permissions for that library, since restricted access can hide entire sections of your content, including collections built from them.

Using collections across libraries and devices

If you run separate libraries for movies and shows, remember that a standard collection is generally tied to one library type at a time. Understanding how to manage multiple Plex libraries makes it easier to decide whether content should live in one combined library or stay split, which affects how collections behave.

Collections show up the same way on most Plex clients, whether you are browsing on a phone, a smart TV app, or a dedicated streaming box such as the Dune HD Homatics Box R 4K Plus. If a collection looks fine in the app but not on a client device, try refreshing that device’s Plex app or restarting it before assuming something is wrong with the collection itself.

Tips and troubleshooting

  • If a collection appears empty, double check its visibility setting first, then confirm the titles inside it still exist in the library and have not been moved or deleted.
  • Smart collections that seem to be missing titles are usually a metadata problem rather than a Plex fault. Correcting genre, cast, or release year tags on the affected titles usually fixes it.
  • If you have recently added storage or moved files, and new titles are not appearing at all, see this guide on how to fix Plex not detecting new files before assuming the collection tool itself is broken.
  • Keep collection names short and consistent. Long or inconsistent naming makes them harder to browse, especially on TV-sized screens.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a collection and a playlist in Plex?

A collection groups related titles together on the library browse screen, such as all films in a franchise, while a playlist is an ordered list built for continuous playback, more like a queue you watch through in sequence.

Can a collection include titles from two different libraries?

Generally, a standard collection is built from titles within a single library. If you want movies and shows combined, you would need to manage that through how your libraries are structured rather than through the collection itself.

Do smart collections update automatically as I add new media?

Yes. A smart collection re-checks your library against its saved rules, so new titles that match the criteria are added automatically once they are scanned into the library.

How do I delete a collection without deleting the media in it?

Deleting a collection only removes the grouping itself. The movies, shows, and episodes inside it stay exactly where they were in your library and remain fully playable.