Add Top-Level library scan, in addition to Deep Scan

Feature Suggestions
1

Currently, when you add a new TV show to a TV library and click “Scan Library Files” it does a “Deep Scan” that looks for new top level directories, as well as scanning existing top-level directories for new subdirectories, and new files in every subdirectory. If the only new addition is a single show with one season containing one episode, plex still scans every other show in the library, every season, and every episode. Not only is this inefficient, but it can take a very long time with large libraries.

I propose adding a new “Top-Level” scan:

  1. Looks for new top-level directories
  2. If one is found, it looks for subdirectories and scans them as per usual
  3. It does not scan subdirectories of already-existing top-level directories

This would be a much faster and more efficient way to detect new library entries. Keeping the current Deep Scan would allow users to detect new shows and individually-added episodes at the same time, if needed.

2

If you take a look at the scanner logs, you’ll notice that Plex is basically already working like this. The scanner checks the last-modified date of the show-level folders in your library and compares those to dates stored in your server’s database. If there’s been no changes to an underlying file/folder, that timestamp is still the same, so Plex won’t proceed scanning the folder‘s content, moving to the next directory.

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