Adding TV Shows

Server Version#:1.13.6.5339

I’m having issues adding tv shows to the Plex Media Server.

Before I explain the issue I must stress that I have tested this with both non conventional and Plex’s recommended naming methods and this issue still occurs with both.

I originally had my Plex Media server pristine except for a few seasons of Becker and Arrow where they wouldn’t be confined to season by season folder. All was sorted show by show, and season by season with the appropriate metadata attached. I thought I would just remove the entire playlist & just re-add the media I was watching as there was a lot of content I wasn’t viewing & start again.

Re-adding shows into a new playlist has proved difficult. Once I add a show such as Stargate SG-1 all the seasons come through with House MD Breaking Bad or Pokémon metadata (which I don’t even have?).

I can manually fix this issue by going into each & every season & hitting ‘Fix Match’, however there surely must be a way to do this without the need for wasting all this time with this method?

The worst part once I have manually fixed this issue with Stargate SG-1 is if I upload another series it reverts all my previous changes back to the way they originally were. Now these are the same files that I had originally on my Plex server before I removed the first playlist and have tried renaming a few seasons with Plex’s naming criteria, but to no avail.

I never had this problem the first time around. Any ideas?

Preparation:
Go to

  • Settings - Server - Agents - Shows - TheTVDB

In there, grab the line ‘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

Verify that your tv show library only points to the folder TV Shows
in a folder hierarchy

TV Shows /
   TV Show Title (year) /
      Season 01 /
         TV Show Title - s01e01.mp4
         TV Show Title - s01e02 - optional description like episode title etc.mp4
         ...

No additional folder levels - no less either.


  1. Look up your show on TheTVDB
  2. Take the title as it is used on TheTVDB. If there is something in parentheses, take that too. If the title contains invalid characters (depends on your file system), like § : % *, simply leave them out.
  3. Check the naming and the folder structure of your show. Name the top folder of the show exactly after the title on TheTVDB. No abbreviations. No additional subfolders. No aliases. Add the (year) in parentheses when episode 1 of season 1 of this show was aired.
  4. Name the episode files according to the above linked naming guide. Use the same title as for the top folder. Show's Title - s01e01 - additional info.ext (’- additional info’ can be left out)
  5. After you corrected the naming and folder structure, perform the Plex Dance with all files for this show.

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