I am trying to add “20th Century Battlefields” to my library, but it flat out WILL NOT show up.
I have copied and pasted the EXACT spelling to the name of the folder on my Windows computer that contains the episodes, BUT IT WILL NOT ADD!
I cannot imaging that this is the first time that this has happened to anyone, but despite searching for every thing on this site that I can think of, I seem to be missing something!
How do I FORCE Plex to add a TV series to a library?
I added this TV show to a test server and it shows up. Folder structure and naming:
C:\Users\jchaller\Videos\TV Shows\20th Century Battlefields\Season 01\20th Century Battlefields S01E01.mp4
If the naming was incorrect to begin with, you should perform the Plex Dance with the entire series.
I don’t have the series, but going by the plex naming conventions, try a naming convention like this:
TV Shows <— The library points here and the name can be whatever you want.
---------20th Century Battlefields <— This folder holds the season folders
------------------Season 01 <— This folder holds all the episodes for season 01
-------------------------20th Century Battlefields - s01e01 - 1918 Western Front.ext
-------------------------20th Century Battlefields - s01e02 - 1942 Midway.ext
-------------------------20th Century Battlefields - s01e03 - 942 Stalingrad.ext
etc…
credit to @Elijah_Baley for the layout
While I do not have this series I have loaded many BBC series made for TV like - The World at War or Victory at Sea and have found the TV database located at www.thetvdb.com invaluable.
For a naming convention this format has always worked for me:
TVShows\20th Century Battlefields\Season 01 (if you have only one season the season NN folder is not required).
Then add your episode files named as - 1918 Western Front - s01e01.ext Anything after the season episode identifier is solely for your use and ignored by Plex till the file extension whatever it is like MPG, MP3 etc.
The 2nd episode would add as - 1942 Midway - s01e02.ext
The remaining add the same way just changing the episode name and episode number. While this will not look in order when you view it in the filing system Plex will sort on the Season number followed by the Episode number. So in Plex it looks great.
Hope this helps.
I figured thuis out, when I started getting messages saying that these files were open by another program. SO I rebooted Windows and Voila!
I f****** hate Windows/
FIVE HOURS OF MY LIFE WASTED!
Just a follow-up to my 1st reply here is an image of what I do
Since you guys seem to understand this process very well, I’d like to ask you a different (but not entirey unrelated) question:
How do I add something to my library that is NOT in The TVDB? For example: Chef vs Science The Ultimate Kitchen Challenge (2016)? You can find out about this program here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0752bbd
How do I manually add it?
And here is another ‘oddity’. How do I add this? PQ17 An Arctic Convoy Disaster
@RandyJCA said:
Just a follow-up to my 1st reply here is an image of what I do
It is not 100% correct, (even though it may work for you).
The order of the season/episode code and the episode title should be at least reversed.
Though the best / most reliable match, you’ll get when you include the show’s title in the episode file names too: Victory at Sea - s01e01 - Designs for War.mp4
Software like Filebot allows you to make changes to the name schema quickly and painlessly.
Just name the series as suggested with all the seasons and episodes. Plex will add them in sequence even if they are not found on any database. What you have to do all by yourself is update the artwork for the Posters and backgrounds by hand. I just save jpg’s found using google (images) to a hard drive and browse to them and add them in Plex. Remember to “Save Changes”.
@pforkes Chef vs Science The Ultimate Kitchen Challenge (2016) is listed with TheTVDB
BBC Documentaries
Season 2016
76 : Chef Vs Science: The Ultimate Kitchen Challenge
I usually keep documentaries in a different library - TV Documentaries.
I would create a folder - BBC Documentaries and then a season folder - Season 2016. The episode would be 76
Went ahead and tested…
C:\Users\jchaller\Videos\TV Shows\BBC Documentaries\Season 2016\BBC Documentaries S2016E76.mp4
PQ17: An Arctic Convoy Disaster is part of the same series - different season.
BBC Documentaries
Season 2014
1 : PQ17: An Arctic Convoy DisasterThanks to you all. I have learned more in the last hour (about Plex) than in the last year.
Thanks you.
Thanks! I have been battling with this documentary for over an hour - changing folder names, file names, episode and season numbers, etc. All to no avail.
Turns out that if you search for the title on the TV DB site it comes up with one hit - and it’s the wrong one. If you search manually through BBC Documentaries it appears there as well. So it has two entries. I guess Plex picks up the wrong one first.
It seems to me that TV DB’s search is broken.
