I've seen this before too--my only explanation is that whoever created the child profiles never contributed an update to the parent profiles with them as box set contents?

Quoting primetime21:

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I've seen this before too--my only explanation is that whoever created the child profiles never contributed an update to the parent profiles with them as box set contents?

It could also be that the updated parent profile hasn't been approved and released yet. Since the children are new profiles they are approved much faster than the parent.

The key to the problem is that the linkage is only in the parent. So let's examine the ways that the children may be added:

1) Parent and child profiles created at the same time.
All profiles will go directly to the screening queue and will be released together. No problem. When you add the parent profile to your collection you will be prompted if you want to add the children as well.

2) Child profiles added to an already existing profile.
The child profiles will go directly to the screening queue and will be released as soon as they have been screened. The updated parent profile will go to voting, and will be released several days later. When you get the update for the parent profile you will be prompted if you want to add the children.

So what could possibly go wrong here?
Well, case 1 is almost foolproof. Worst case scenario, the parent gets declined (for whatever reason) while the children gets approved. If someone at a later date adds the same parent profile they may not be aware that the children have already been approved. Not very likely.

For case 2, as primetime21 mentioned, the biggest problem is if the contributor forgets to contribute the updated parent. Without it, the online database has no way of knowing where the children belong (or even the fact that they are children).

If the parent is contributed, there will be that voting period while the children remain orphaned. Should the child profiles be held back until the parent is released? No, what good would that do? The only difference would be that if you actually searched for them, you wouldn't find them.

Theoretically, "Check for child profiles" should never find any children unless you have already declined to download them when prompted to do so. In reality, that does not seem to work. I don't know how it happens, but it is my experience that I often find that profiles in my collection are not in sync with the online database, even though I have not seen any update. That is a big problem.

Quoting huskersports:

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I always contribute the "empty" parent profile first. Once that's approved I will profile/contribute each of the child profiles one by one, in rapid succession

So, if I understand correctly, you contribute the parent with the boxset content entered, but you contribute the corresponding children only when the parent has been approved. That's a scenario that I hadn't taken into consideration.

It does have one drawback. It takes at least one day for the children to be approved. If anyone downloads the parent before the children have been released, they will of course not get any prompt to download the (as yet nonexisting) children. And when the children are released they won't get any prompt either, since the parent has not changed. So in this case the only way to find out that there are children would be to select  "Check for child profiles". Not quite ideal, even if it only affects anyone who downloads the parent on day one.

Quoting AiAustria:

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Does the online database remove invalid links?

I don't think so. Removing potentially correct child links would be a lot more unproductive than keeping invalid links.

If I remember correctly (which should never be assumed) you can't see any invalid links in a profile unless you examine the XML export of it. Or perhaps I should say "unused links", because when I noticed it, they were links to child profiles that I had not downloaded. But the point is that links that don't have the corresponding child profiles don't show. In your local collection there would be no way for the program to know if they are "unused" or "invalid". So with that in mind, there wouldn't seem to be any compelling reason to remove invalid links.

I will take the chance to hijack this thread for my own purpose.

I wonder, for creating alternate versions of a child profile, if it's the correct, best and fastest way to, pardon my analogy, "kidnap" a child profile from another profile, change the locality and then make the alternate ([Disc ID] #1) child profile?
Under the following conditions:
1. There are two box sets of the same set of movies
2. The discs share the same Disc ID
3. Disc specifications are the same

And a follow-up question: Does the same Disc ID mean that all discs have the same specifications and content?

Quoting AndyEN:

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Quoting MikaLove:

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And a follow-up question: Does the same Disc ID mean that all discs have the same specifications and content?

The short answer is yes. The longer answer is, if there are multiple movies on the same disc, it's conceivable, though rare that the movies will have different audio, etc within the disc. But things that would span the entire disc such as region coding would be the same. So if a disc ID has English 2.0 for one movie and English 5.0 for another, that would be true regardless of which larger set the disc IDs were in.

OK, great thanks. Good to know.
For the example I have in mind though there's only one movie "per disc", but sharing the same Disc ID (as mentioned). So then it'd be safe to assume those are identical to the bit?