10 episodes not showing up

So my issue is that in many of my TV shows, the first 10 episodes and ONLY the first 10 are not showing up and that is with many of the shows. I have removed, rescanned, readded, rescanned, renamed and a plethora of many other things and this is not working. Any help is greatly appreciated

Have you used either of these the naming conventions?
TV Show 01x01.ext, and TV Show 01x02.ext
or
TV Show S01E01.ext and TV Show S01E02.etc?

That’s usually where my problem lies when episodes are missing… The only other issue I’ve had is that I had a year in the title of the TV show folder, and that caused the first few episodes to register as season 19… no real rhyme or reason…

I have tried what you suggested and sadly it is still not working. Do you have any other suggestions?

Can you please share the exact naming and folder structure for one of the episodes not showing?

Here is the folder name for Stargate Atlantis. The naming convention is the same for all episodes, it is just odd that the first ten of each season is not showing up. Episodes 11-24 are all there for each season. Just the first ten are not. Here is the naming convention…

Primary Folder:
Stargate Atlantis

Episode 3
STARGATE_ATLANTIS_S1_D1-E3-Hide-And-Seek

Episode 15
STARGATE_ATLANTIS_S1_D4-E15-Before-I-Sleep

As you see, the naming is the same. It is odd that the first ten do not show up.

And that’s one truly awful naming convention.
It’s a miracle any show up at all.
Someone not on mobile will I’m sure provide a link to the Plex way.
The naming may be the same but it’s horribly wrong.

Ironically, I have tried the plex manner of
Stargate Atalntis - Season1 - Episode1 - Pilot

Stargate Atlantis - S01E01 - Pilot

Stargate Atlantis - S01 - E01 - Pilot

And I get the same results. What is it that I am doing wrong?

Once named wrong it’s adrawn out process to fix. Type Plex Dance into the forum search for the steps involved.

As a side note Stargate Atlantis - S01E01 - Pilot
Is correct.

I will do that. I will let you know what happens. Thank you.

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When you renamed, did you go to the 3 dots and scan library again?

My media often gets added with funky naming conventions, and I correct them after they’ve already loaded incorrectly. A simple ā€œScan Library Filesā€ fixes the problem. Sometimes, it does help to change the folder tree a bit too

Stargate Atlantis/
Season 01

Could be Renamed to:

Stargate Atlantis 1080p/
Season 01

This will sometimes cause the scan to pick up where it previously hadn’t… This all assumes btw that you use the Plex recommended Naming convention of the files themselves… It doesn’t like working otherwise…

Hope that helps.

One other thing to mention, if you have a lot of files to rename then it maybe…(and it really hurts me to say this)… that you should look at a program called Filebot.
It has a Plex friendly Syntax that will hopefully help get your file naming in order. If your files are named in a similar wrong fashion it probably will really help you out.

@Xhaka

Lol, it really hurts you to say. I feel your pain my friend… Filebot… Haven’t used that in forever… I literally rename everything by hand using ctrl+v type number>tab>ctrl+v type number>tab>etc… Because I can’t bring myself to use Filebot!

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And I thought it was just me. :grinning:

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This is caused by embedded metadata in mp4/m4v files. Clear the metadata out before adding the files to Plex or perform this change:

Go to

  • Settings - Server - Agents - Shows - TheTVDB

In there, grab the line ā€˜Local Media Assets’ with your mouse and drag it downwards, so it ends up being at the bottom of the stack of active agents.
Repeat the same under

  • Settings - Server - Agents - Shows - TheMovieDatabase
  • Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - Plex Movie
  • Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - TheMovieDatabase

No, naming convention as in the filenames, not the metadata. The filenames are all messed up when I get them to add to my server, and I have to manually edit the actual filename naming convention so it splits to seasons instead of not being recognized entirely…

Not sure I understand. Plex doesn’t change filenames, so they cannot change during the process of adding them to Plex.

@OttoKerner
Right, when I personally get the files, the filenames are incorrect.
I add them to my library, and plex doesn’t recognize them, because of the funky naming convention. (Expected outcome)
So I go in and change all the filenames manually (My chosen process, I know there’s programs that do this for you)
And re-scan my library, and the files appear how they are supposed to inside of Plex.

We were discussing this because of Wolfclan1000’s filenames he had, which looked like this:
STARGATE_ATLANTIS_S1_D1-E3-Hide-And-Seek

Which is a non-standard naming convention (includes Disk number between Season and Episode)
So plex is skipping over some of his files entirely in the scan. (Likely 10 episodes per disk, and D1 are all getting grouped together as if they are episode 01, but haven’t been able to confirm that yet)

It is pointless to try and find why Plex is doing this or that with non-conforming file names. Stick to the naming conventions and you can reduce missing files and mismatches by almost 100%.

And I recommend you to rename your files before adding them into Plex. Because Plex is storing a ā€˜bogohash’ of your media in its database. If it mis-matched an item because of a non-conforming file name, the bogohash is stuck in the database and Plex will continue to recognize this file as the wrong media – even after you rename it afterwards.
This state can be only cleared with the Plex Dance. Which is bothersome and pretty annoying to do.

Hence my recommendation: rename your files by default.

The Plex naming schema is the most non-ambiguous of them all and is well understood by other media managers/player/servers.
So there is no reason to not adhere to it.

I understand that, which is why I adhere to the naming convention, and told him to do so as well… I just don’t have the luxury of being able to add the amount of files I need to add in a temporary location to rename them and then move them again… This is purely a limitation on my end and I take full responsibility for my own issues. If I end up having to do the Plex Dance because of it, that’s on me :slight_smile: But changing the names before they’re put into the library directory is not an option for me at this point…