Adding another version of a movie in the same path causes one version to appear deleted

[captain_caveman2k]

Server Version#: 1.25.6.5577
Player Version#: 1.41.0.2876-e960c9ca

Prior to the v1.25.6.5545 release I have been seeing an odd issue where I:

• Record a movie from OTA DVB-T in Plex using the DVR feature
• Add an alternative version to the same path
• Either manually perform a library scan or wait for the automatic early morning scan to occur
• And witness the original recording appear to be marked as deleted

It was good to see a fix in this release for #13373 (Adding another version of a movie in the same path could cause one to unmatch) which on the surface of things seemed similar to the issue I was having:

Plex Media Server

Plex Media Server 1.25.6.5545 is now available to Plex Pass users in the Beta update channel. NEW: (Collections) Promoted smart collection filtering based on selected user (#12605) (QNAP) Allow PMS to automatically accommodate configuration changes (QTS & QuTS) (QNAP) Improved Start/Stop control in App Center. (Stream Metadata) Provide additional detail in display titles for HDR streams (#12492) FIXES: (Hubs) Custom hubs are not deduplicated anymore (#13338) (Hubs) Fix collection hub visib…

When I upgraded to 1.25.6.5545 and the next time I added an alternative version of the a movie to my library, the original version didn’t appear to be deleted as I had been experiencing and I could merge the two together

However, I have just repeated this since upgrading to v1.25.6.5577 and my issue is back

Is this a regression, is my issue different to #13373?

[Fallenfederation]

I don’t have much knowledge in things but since people don’t really help in this forum maybe I have a potential reason for your issue.

You sure that the videos are not merging? When plex has 2 movies that it matches the same it will merge them. Example I have 2 versions the The Muppet Christmas Carol one that is the main movie release one that has the deleted song in it. But plex doesn’t see the difference between them so they are marked the same and put together.

Go to movies, up at the top where you can change how they are sorted click all, and change it to duplicates. If your movies is listed them, that’s what happened, if that is the case click the 3 dots and click split apart. That will give you 2 of the same movies in your list just name or adjust the movie to fit what you want.

[captain_caveman2k]

@Fallenfederation

I don’t have much knowledge in things but since people don’t really help in this forum maybe I have a potential reason for your issue.

Many thanks for your reply - it is much appreciated.

@Fallenfederation

You sure that the videos are not merging? When plex has 2 movies that it matches the same it will merge them. Example I have 2 versions the The Muppet Christmas Carol one that is the main movie release one that has the deleted song in it. But plex doesn’t see the difference between them so they are marked the same and put together.

Yeah I’m pretty sure. Below is a screenshot of my recently recorded movies on the home screen:

I’ve then added another copy of Memento. In this particular instance, another movie has recorded so the library has updated and the home screen is now as follows:

As you can see, the original entry for the recording shows the deleted icon and the very latest entry on the left if I click on it to reveal the file details, shows both copies.

I can’t delete the original recording as that will delete the file of the recording that is listed under the second (newer) entry… I supposed I could delete the file from the first entry, delete the original entry and then re-add the recording but then I end up back in the same scenario when the library next updates.

Since this first started happening, a couple of months ago, I have just been merging the entries and living with the fact that some movies have 3 copies listed under their file details when there are only two files on the file system

[captain_caveman2k]

In additional the duplicates I was seeing when adding an alternative version of a movie I am now seeing duplicates for the majority of Movies and TV shows (as of a few weeks ago) that I record.

As such my home screen now shows the following, for example, which is a complete mess:

The TV shows, that have the recycle bin icon have two entries in my library for each episode but the second entry is for some reason marked as “unavailable” (even though the paths are identical).

My recorded movies are also acting in a similar manner, except as you can see, I end up with two copies on the home screen, the first (that has the recycle bin icon) appears to have the over the air (epg) metadata -whilst the second entry (that doesn’t have the recycle bin icon) has full metadata (description and actor information etc…) as obtained using the Plex Movie agent.

Is anyone else seeing anything similar?

Server version is: 1.26.1.5798.

[Volts]

I wonder if this could be caused by the old files being matched by the old agent, and the new files being matched by the new agent, and it stumbling a little bit.

If you’ve upgraded agents, you might want to Refresh Metadata on the whole Library. That will update old IDs to new IDs.

If you compare the XML Information for one of the new entries and a “Trash Can” entry (like the Memento pair) what’s the first guid:// value for each entry?

[captain_caveman2k]

@Volts

I wonder if this could be caused by the old files being matched by the old agent, and the new files being matched by the new agent, and it stumbling a little bit.

If you’ve upgraded agents, you might want to Refresh Metadata on the whole Library. That will update old IDs to new IDs.

Thank you for the reply and for the tip - I will give that a go.

@Volts

If you compare the XML Information for one of the new entries and a “Trash Can” entry (like the Memento pair) what’s the first guid:// value for each entry?

I had trouble trying to launch the View XML from the Plex for Windows client as it tries to open a URL with my server’s internal IP address in it:

But if I use app.plex.tv then it opens a URL with a dashed version of my external IP address and I could view the XML successfully.

I took a look at Bloodshot as that was the latest movie in my library. The guid attribute that is present in the video tag for the version with the recycle bin is:

guid="plex://movie/5fc689455c7239002d360cc8"

Where as the second version (without the recycle bin) is:

guid="plex://movie/5d776b9ead5437001f7a504b"

This version also has some Guid tags which reference IMDB, TMDV and TVDB which the version with the recycle bin doesn’t have:

<Guid id="imdb://tt1634106"/>
<Guid id="tmdb://338762"/>
<Guid id="tvdb://54113"/>

[Volts]

That’s not quite what I expected to see.

They both have plex:// guids, so they were both matched with the current agent.

But it’s also interesting that the guid has changed. I wonder if that’s contributing.

But I don’t know when or why Plex would change metadata guids, and I wouldn’t expect it to happen super often.

What’s your file naming? Folder per movie? Big pile of files?

[captain_caveman2k]

@Volts

That’s not quite what I expected to see.

They both have plex:// guids, so they were both matched with the current agent.

It seems that the first item (with the recycle bin) is the item added straight after the recording from the Plex DVR functionality that I use as it also has the following tags which the second doesn’t:

<Channel id="77307" filter="channel=77307" tag="004 C4 (Channel 4)"/>
<Channel id="77308" filter="channel=77308" tag="015 C4P1 (Channel 4 +1)"/>
<Channel id="150138" filter="channel=150138" tag="049 4SEVEN (4Seven)"/>
<Channel id="77309" filter="channel=77309" tag="104 C4HD (Channel 4 HD)"/>

As I have the library settings set to:

• Scan my library automatically
• Run a partial scan when changes are detected
• Include music libraries in automatic updates

It appears to add the second item upon running a scan immediately after the recording has been added to the library. My settings haven’t changed recently but this behaviour in Plex has as it never used to do this until about 3 weeks ago.

The original problem that I posted about, regarding the Momento movie has been happening for a while (which I thought was fixed in #13373 but then came back).

@Volts

What’s your file naming? Folder per movie? Big pile of files?

For the latest problem (which started around the 22nd / 23rd April - the last movie recorded before that was on the 20th April and that didn’t show a duplicate) it is the default DVR naming convention with only one file in one directory per movie. For example:

/mnt/Media/Movies/Bloodshot (2020)/Bloodshot (2020).ts

I must admit I was torn about raising a new issue for the latest problem or adding to this post - in the end I went for the latter as the two problems seem to be related.

[captain_caveman2k]

@captain_caveman2k

@Volts

If you’ve upgraded agents, you might want to Refresh Metadata on the whole Library. That will update old IDs to new IDs.

Thank you for the reply and for the tip - I will give that a go.

After this reply I set a Refresh Metadata going but unfortunately it didn’t resolve the duplicate recordings that I have been seeing for the last 3 weeks. It did remove the duplicate of Momento (that I had from February) from the library although when I clicked on the file details it listed three files - two had the original filename of the recording from Plex DVR and the third was the alternative copy that I have.

However, after my second reply I saw that a new beta of the server had been released this afternoon - so I upgraded from 1.26.1.5798 to v1.26.2.5797 and again started a Refresh Metadata going.

To my surprise, and joy, all the duplicates recordings disappeared from the home page, even the duplicate filename for Momento disappeared from the file info dialog - so only two are listed now.

I then repeated this for my TV shows library, and again the second entries for all the shows I have recorded over the last 3 weeks disappeared as well.

There is nothing specifically about duplicate library entries in the release notes but on the surface my problem appears to be fixed

I have some recordings scheduled for later tonight so we will see what happens then.

[Volts]

@drzoidberg33 do you mind me pinging you here? Does this behavior make sense, or that the update would change it?

Maybe a cleanup migration?