# How do you add premade collections to a user’s library in Adalo?

Choose whether premade collections stay shared or become user-owned copies, then preserve their movie relationships instead of copying only the title.

- Canonical URL: https://adalocado.com/answers/add-premade-collections-to-user-library
- Verification: Documented from current sources
- Topic: Database and Relationships
- Skill level: Beginner
- Last reviewed: 2026-08-14
- Index status: index-now

## Short answer

Decide whether each premade collection is a shared template or an editable user copy. For a shared template, relate the user to the existing collection and display its related movies. If users can edit it, create a separate user-owned collection and recreate the movie relationships; adding only the title does not copy the contents.

Treat saving and copying as different operations. Saving can relate a user to the existing template; copying creates a new record and must also recreate the relationships that give the collection its contents.

## Intended outcome

A user can add a premade movie collection and still see its movies, with ownership modeled according to whether that user may edit it.

## Requirements

- Premade Collections and Movies connected by a relationship
- A User collection
- A decision about whether added collections remain shared or become editable copies

## Step by step

1. **Choose the ownership model**

   Keep premade collections shared when users only need to save or view them. Create user-owned copies when each user may rename or edit a collection independently.

2. **Preserve the movie relationship**

   For shared collections, relate the User directly to the existing Premade Collection so its related Movies remain available.

3. **Copy editable collections deliberately**

   If the collection must be editable, create a user-owned Collection record and recreate its relationships to the source Movies. Copying a Name field alone cannot copy related records.

4. **Filter the library by user**

   Show collections related to the Logged-in User, then open each collection in record context so its related Movies can be listed.

## Why it works

- A relationship points to an existing collection and preserves access to its related movies; copying scalar fields creates a new record without those relationships.
- Shared templates avoid duplicate data, while user-owned copies support independent edits at the cost of explicit copy logic.

## Data model

| Collection | Properties | Relationships |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Premade Collections | Name and template metadata | Many Movies; optionally many Users when templates stay shared |
| User Collections | Name and ownership metadata | One User; many Movies when users need editable copies |
| Movies | Movie details | Related to premade or user-owned collections |

## Common failures

### The collection appears but contains no movies

Check whether the workflow created a new collection with only its title. Relate the user to the original template or recreate every movie relationship on the user-owned copy.

### One user’s edits affect everyone

The app is still using a shared template. Create a separate user-owned record before allowing edits.

## Testing checklist

- [ ] Save one shared premade collection and confirm its movie list remains populated.
- [ ] Create an editable copy for one user and confirm changes do not alter the original template or another user’s library.
- [ ] The ownership model is explicit
- [ ] A saved shared collection displays its existing movies
- [ ] An editable copy belongs only to the intended user
- [ ] Two users do not overwrite each other’s editable collections

## Limitations

- This is an accepted community pattern and has not been reproduced by Adalocado in a current builder project.
- Duplicating a record and its related records can require multiple actions or a backend workflow; the forum source does not establish one universal copy implementation.

## Community evidence

### [How can a user add ready-made collections/selections to their collections?](https://forum.adalo.com/t/how-can-a-user-add-ready-made-collections-selections-to-their-collections/65451/2)

The accepted reply distinguishes a shared collection from a separate user-owned record and notes that editable user copies need their own stored record. Boundary: The reply does not provide a verified end-to-end copy workflow for every related movie.

## Sources

- [Adalo forum accepted solution](https://forum.adalo.com/t/how-can-a-user-add-ready-made-collections-selections-to-their-collections/65451/2)
- [Adalo Help: Relationships](https://help.adalo.com/database/relationships)

Markdown version: https://adalocado.com/answers/add-premade-collections-to-user-library.md