Hello

I am somewhat confused by splitting in the shares. I have read a few posts, a couple of guides and space invaders shares video.

My folder structure

Movies (SHARE)

• 720p Horror

• 720p SciFi

• 1080p SciFi

• 1080p Other

  • move name.mp4

  • movie name.nfo

  • movie name.fanart

  • movie name 2.mp4

  • movie name 2.nfo

  • movie name 2. fanart

• 2160p Comedy

• 2160p Action

I use this setup for kodi and plex as I prefer a movie having a primary genre, and I create smart playlists using locations.

Its been my style for some time, and it may not be everyone's choice.

OK so I have these shares over four disks, lets say disk 1, 2, 3, 4

I have manually put all the 2160p in disk1\ Movies\

The same with 1080p folders in disk2\Movies\

And 720p in disk3\Movies

I have then manually created folders in disk4 - 2160p Comedy and 2160p Action but inside they are blank.

Now in the future when I goto my smb share and copy a new movie into the combined share. I want a 2160p to go to 2160p drive, and 1080p to go to 1080p.

Then when the 2160p has reached capacity, it puts the next movie into disk 4.

The Settings I have chosen:

Allocation: Fill Up

Split level: Split only the top level directory as required

Have I got this right?

Please note I've upgraded my drives and added a couple hence the change.

What I do not want to do is break the share e.g. break movies to say 2160p Movies. I want the share to remain as movies.

Thank you for any help and advice,

Chris

Edited October 27, 2025Oct 27 by SmokeyColes

23 minutes ago, SmokeyColes said:

Then when the 2160p has reached capacity, it puts the next movie into disk 4.

This would not happen as the Split level precludes that unless you are putting them into the ‘2160p Comedy’ or ‘2160p Action’ which already exist on disk4. You would manually need to create the ‘2160p’ folder on disk4 to get it start being used. In addition the allocation method is probably not relevant in your case as split Level overrides allocation method. However for reference High Water is normally preferred as it minimises switching between drives.

4 hours ago, SmokeyColes said:

OK so I have these shares over four disks, lets say disk 1, 2, 3, 4

I have manually put all the 2160p in disk1\ Movies\

The same with 1080p folders in disk2\Movies\

And 720p in disk3\Movies

I have then manually created folders in disk4 - 2160p Comedy and 2160p Action but inside they are blank.

Now in the future when I goto my smb share and copy a new movie into the combined share. I want a 2160p to go to 2160p drive, and 1080p to go to 1080p.

Then when the 2160p has reached capacity, it puts the next movie into disk 4.

The Settings I have chosen:

Allocation: Fill Up

Split level: Split only the top level directory as required

Honestly with how strict you're trying to micromanage your share and subfolders, you're better off choosing the "Manual: Do not split directories" and then creating the directories exactly where you want them.

Otherwise with a Top level split that you have selected, you're going to end up with a Movie share on each disk and then also potentially having one of each subcategory on each disk if the fill allocation changes as you hit the highwater mark on each disk. Basically by the time highwater has cycled through each disk (lets say each disk is 50%) the 2nd round of highwater could leave you with the "Movie" share on each disk and having all of these sub folders on every disk as well: (this is kind of an extreme example but this is what it could look like at the end)

Movie (disk1,2,3,4):

• 720p Horror (disk1,2)

  • movie1 (disk1)

  • movie2 (disk1)

  • movie3 (disk2)

  • movie4 (disk2)

• 720p SciFi (disk2,3)

  • movie4 (disk2)

  • movie5 (disk2)

  • movie6 (disk2)

  • movie7 (disk3)

• 1080p SciFi (disk3,4)

  • movie8 (disk3)

  • movie9 (disk3)

  • movie10 (disk3)

  • movie11 (disk4)

• 1080p Other (disk1,2,3)

  • movie12 (disk1)

  • movie13 (disk1)

  • movie14 (disk2)

  • movie15 (disk3)

• 2160p Comedy (disk3,4)

  • movie16 (disk3)

  • movie17 (disk3)

  • movie18 (disk4)

  • movie19 (disk4)

• 2160p Action (disk1,2,3,4)

  • movie20 (disk1)

  • movie21 (disk2)

  • movie22 (disk3)

  • movie23 (disk4)