Agent matches shows but does not populate episode data - manual meta refresh works

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
1

Server Version#: 1.40.3.8502
Player Version#: 4.129.1
unRaid Version#: 6.12.10
Docker: Plex Official: Latest
Agent used: Plex Series
Scanner: Plex TV Series
Episode Ordering: TheTVDB

Hello all,

This has been going on for some time now.

When a new single episode is added the agents populate all the metadata no problem

When I import a new show with lots of episodes the agent matches the show (producing show level artwork and meta data) but does NOT grab any show level data.
If I go into plex on web player from show level select refresh metadata, all episode level meta data is populated.

It is getting tiresome to go in and manually refresh any time I have a show added with more than a couple of episodes.

Any clues on what I can do to fix this?

TIA,
Greg

2

Would need some server logs to see what’s happening. That is not normal behaviour.

3

Ok, let me get a show with a season or two and import to create the problem and will then upload the logs.

Any log file in particular or log settings I should do on server side beforehand?

4

Here is a system.log. It has some errors I am not sure how to interpret.

com.plexapp.system.log (30.2 KB)

Which specific log is best for TV Show episode agent data pull? I will look through the agent thetvdb and moviedb logs to see if they have errors, before just uploading.

EDIT: Enable Plex Media Server debug logging was off. I turned it on, rebooted and now the system log has a lot more info. Looks like a lot of error relating to plug-ins?

com.plexapp.system.log (30.0 KB)

EDIT #2: TheTVDB log is showing a big error also. I go back across a few of the older logs and the error is present in all 5 logs. Also in themoviedb log.

com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb.log (7.8 KB)
com.plexapp.agents.themoviedb.log (11.8 KB)

5

No those aren’t the logs, just follow this link: Server Logs

It explains how to get the logs zip file.

6

Here is zip with full collection of logs vs me pulling out a few and posting them.
Just prior to downloading these logs, I just ran an import on Star Trek Enterprise Season 01 and the issue happened. Pasting in a pic of what the episodes look like. Once I do a manual refresh, all info will populate.

Plex Media Server Logs_2024-05-31_08-04-10.zip (4.8 MB)

image
image746×664 42.9 KB

7

In an effort to make some progress, I did the following

  • fresh new install, and then stopped new install
  • stopped original server, moved database files and preferences.xml to fresh install
  • started new install. All looks good and sonarr connections working fine
  • import season Star Trek season 2 via sonarr to plex.
  • plex imports season 2 but does not populate episode data, just like old install
  • manual refresh metadata, episode data is populated.

Here are logs from the fresh install import described above.

Plex Media Server Logs_2024-05-31_10-09-13.zip (240.6 KB)

EDIT: note that in previous post with full set of logs, I used autoscan in conjunction with sonarr; autoscan triggered the plex scan. In the log attached to this post, autoscan was turned off and a scan was triggered manually from plex. No episode data in either method.

8

reporting back with results of more efforts/tests:

In previous post I mentioned reinstalling a fresh docker and moving my files over, which did not fix the issue.
This morning, I deleted the docker image in unraid, and then reinstalled each docker. This effort was to try and get a fresh install of all plex server files inside the docker image layer.
I also turned off ‘autoscan’ in sonarr and had the autoscan docker itself turned off.

Imported Star Trek Enterprise season 04 via sonarr. Manually ran a full tv show library scan.
Issue still occurred. As the show is named “Star Trek: Enterprise” and Sonarr added a hyphen in replace of the colon “Star Trek - Enterprise - S04E01”, I wanted to make sure the extra hyphen was not an issue. So I imported a show called Vinyl. Same issues still occurring.

At this point I have done all of the following:

  • Fresh re-install of plex
  • Ran DBRepair.sh against database (no issues, full rebuild & re-index, pruned)
  • Full refresh of metadata for TV Show library.
  • Tested various shows with autoscan and without.

Here are logfiles from test done today.
Plex Media Server Logs_2024-06-03_09-00-51.zip (3.9 MB)

In the logs, there are shows imported via sonarr upgraded files (it’s always sunny in philedelphia) and metadata is fine; I assume due to fact metadata was already there. Star Trek Enterprise and Vinyl are shows I imported for testing and metadata was not populated in initial scan; I had to trigger a manual metadata refresh at show level.
New import/scan of individual episodes are still being added just fine, issue only happens when multiple episodes are imported at same time for a single show.

@drzoidberg33 anything else I can try to help get this diagnosed and fixed?

9

A couple of things to try:

You appear to have 2 levels of “TV Shows”, which one has been added to the library? It should be “/data/user/TV Shows/TV Shows/” and not “/data/user/TV Shows/”.

Secondly, your naming schema does not comply with the recommendations from Plex. Season folders should only contain “Season xx”, there is no need to repeat the show title in the Season folder.

https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/

10

Hi Flanders,

For first point:
I have used data/user/TV Shows/TV Shows for many many years now with no issue. The reason I do this has to do with unRaid split level settings. Seems odd that this would all of the sudden cause a problem with multiple episode auto metadata vs. manual refresh.

Second point:
I have been naming my season folder like this for over 15 years. Another seems odd that all of the sudden it does not cause a problem with single episodes but does with multiple episodes imports and metadata population. This is easy enough to test though, so will run some test today and report back.

Additional thoughts?
Thanks for the reply.

11

No issue here, this is what Plex expects. It would have been a potential problem had you been pointing to the first TV Shows folder.

Regarding naming, as another poster elegantly put it “non-standard naming works until it doesn’t”. You have been lucky up to this point, but following the recommended conventions will certainly rule out any file structures as a root cause and ultimately help troubleshoot if there is indeed an underlying issue in the software.

Unfortunately I don’t have any more suggestions, good luck.

12

Changing the season naming convention from ‘show name - season xx’ to ‘season xx’ did not fix the problem. Individual episodes from existing continuing shows, metadata pulls in fine. Adding a new show or new season, no episode data until I do a manual refresh.

New show import - show level match with metadata

show match
show match1049×436 44.4 KB

no episode metadata
no episode data

do a manual refresh metadata from show level and episode data populates
manual refresh

13

If you haven’t already as a test don’t use sonarr in this part of your work flow.

As the test, have sonarr copy to some temp location, then once it’s finished it’s download manually copy to your plex library location.

Also, what scanning options are you using in your library settings?

1 Like
14

Also as @Flanders mentioned – you naming is bad which may or may not be a factor in this issue you are seeing. As examples …

Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.831 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'NOVA (1974)/NOVA - Season 49' (ID 31668) to time 2024-06-01 14:51:04.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.832 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Nashville/Nashville (2012) - Season 02' (ID 45997) to time 2024-06-02 11:49:38.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.833 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Nashville/Nashville (2012) - Season 03' (ID 4920) to time 2024-06-02 17:30:25.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.833 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Nashville/Nashville (2012) - Season 04' (ID 4921) to time 2024-06-02 12:35:50.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.833 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Nashville/Nashville (2012) - Season 05' (ID 4922) to time 2024-06-02 01:58:43.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.833 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Nashville/Nashville (2012) - Season 06' (ID 4923) to time 2024-06-02 01:44:48.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.833 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Nashville/Nashville - Season 02' (ID 4925) to time 2024-06-02 11:49:38.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.833 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Nashville/Nashville - Season 03' (ID 4926) to time 2024-06-02 17:29:56.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.834 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'New Amsterdam (2018)/New Amsterdam (2018) - Season 04' (ID 17947) to time 2024-05-28 21:02:06.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.842 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Oz' (ID 18809) to time 2024-05-29 09:52:34.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.848 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Person of Interest/Person of Interest - Season 01' (ID 19073) to time 2024-05-28 14:35:22.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.849 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Phineas And Ferb/Season 03' (ID 13774) to time 2024-05-27 17:28:39.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.852 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Pretty Little Liars (2022)/Pretty Little Liars (2022) - Season 02' (ID 32929) to time 2024-05-30 01:34:32.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.856 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Real Time with Bill Maher/Real Time with Bill Maher - Season 22' (ID 31652) to time 2024-05-31 19:46:05.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.878 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Star Trek - Enterprise' (ID 45987) to time 2024-06-03 08:28:05.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.878 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Star Trek - Enterprise/Star Trek - Enterprise - Season 01' (ID 45991) to time 2024-05-31 11:43:06.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.878 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Star Trek - Enterprise/Star Trek - Enterprise - Season 02' (ID 45990) to time 2024-05-31 10:04:04.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.878 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Star Trek - Enterprise/Star Trek - Enterprise - Season 03' (ID 45998) to time 2024-06-02 12:08:30.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.878 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Star Trek - Enterprise/Star Trek - Enterprise - Season 04' (ID 46004) to time 2024-06-03 08:31:07.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.879 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Star Trek - Strange New Worlds/Star Trek - Strange New Worlds - Season 01' (ID 17084) to time 2024-06-02 08:06:26.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.880 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Star Trek- Discovery/Star Trek - Discovery - Season 05' (ID 32255) to time 2024-05-29 23:46:12.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.885 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Sullivan's Crossing/Sullivan's Crossing - Season 02' (ID 32333) to time 2024-06-02 17:38:51.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.894 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'The Big Door Prize/The Big Door Prize - Season 02' (ID 32775) to time 2024-05-28 18:42:01.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.897 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'The Chi/The Chi - Season 06' (ID 24127) to time 2024-05-30 21:38:38.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.915 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'The Midwich Cuckoos/The Midwich Cuckoos - Season 01' (ID 17251) to time 2024-06-02 15:19:19.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.920 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'The Outlaws' (ID 16058) to time 2024-05-30 14:27:22.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.920 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'The Outlaws/The Outlaws - Season 03' (ID 45984) to time 2024-05-31 02:00:29.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.941 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Top Chef/Top Chef - Season 21' (ID 32219) to time 2024-05-30 02:21:03.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.947 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'UFC/UFC - Season 2024' (ID 31734) to time 2024-06-02 08:23:36.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.948 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Under the Bridge/Under the Bridge - Season 01' (ID 32342) to time 2024-05-29 11:09:11.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.952 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Vinyl' (ID 46001) to time 2024-06-03 08:50:13.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.952 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Vinyl/Vinyl - Season 01' (ID 46005) to time 2024-06-03 08:51:10.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.954 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'We Are Lady Parts' (ID 15858) to time 2024-06-02 14:03:03.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.955 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'We Are Lady Parts/We Are Lady Parts - Season 02' (ID 45999) to time 2024-06-02 14:03:09.
Jun 03, 2024 08:56:51.956 [22789905062712] DEBUG - Updating directory 'Welcome to Wrexham/Welcome to Wrexham - Season 03' (ID 32889) to time 2024-05-31 03:33:23.

This should be …

Star Trek Enterprise (2001)\Season 01
Star Trek Enterprise (2001)\Season 02
Star Trek Enterprise (2001)\Season 03
Star Trek Enterprise (2001)\Season 04

Have you reviewed → https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files as you have deviated away from recommendations which can cause all kinds of funkyness.

15

Sure, I can give that a test. Will also use filebot to rename files and then place in main show folder in plex path to see if a 100% bypass of sonarr does the trick.

For scanning, I have all folder monitoring within plex server setting turned off.
I had been using ‘autoscan’. Sonnar sends signal to autoscan, autoscan has plex update show only versus full library scan. Had been working fine and still does as I turned off autoscan completely for all of my test and I get same results with or without autoscan.

previously and now for testing:
“Scan my library automatically” and “When changes to library folders are detected, only scan the folder that changed.” are both turned off.

for testing manual scans I click the 3 dots to right of library on home screen and select “scan library files”, which does a full library scan.

16

Best of luck. On the off chance this is helpful here is the filebot syntax I use for TV Series which works perfectly (at least for me).

{n} ({y}) {"{tmdb-$id}"}/{regular ? 'Season ' + s.pad(2) : 'Specials'}/{n} - {s00e00} - {t}{subt}
17

I did a test with series folder set to “Season {season:00}” does not make a difference. Still have the problem. Also, with season folder set to “Season xx”, tried adding new season to existing show and new show with new season. Did not work.

For Enterprise: The show formal name is “Star Trek: Enterprise”.
In Sonarr media management settings colon replacing was set to “smart replace” and that gave me the extra hyphen for “Star Trek - Enterprise”. I have since changed the setting to ‘delete’.
In test I tried “Star Trek Enterprise”. Did not work. I then imported new show called “Vinyl” to test spaces, hyphens and all of that in title. Still did not work.

18

Okay, what scanning options are you using in your library settings ? Screenshot please if you can.

19

I edited my reply to your previous question once I realized I did not answer the question.
But here is a screen cap to accompany the answer.
image

test with filebot is underway. I have radarr add TMDB Id to movie folder name, but for Shows I have been using the plex.id file that sonarr can place inside the main folder. Used your script with both year and ID in main show folder, will see what happens.

20

Used filebot with script to name raw files for a season that had not been imported to a show yet. Copied over new main file folder name. Angie Tribeca (2016) {tmdb-61969}
Then moved existing “season 01” folder to new folder with tmdb id.
Then manually moved new “season 02” folder and files with names created by filebot script.
Manual full library scan
season one new location was found and updated. No change to metadata as I had already done a manual scan to populate
Season two files were found - but still no metadata on initial import. Also have not mentioned previously that when this happens, there is no season xx artwork, it defaults to main show artwork. Once I manually update metadata, the season artwork shows up.
image

Once I do a manual metadata refresh for show.
image

Given that sonarr was completely bypassed and I used filebot with a script proven to work in another system, I have to believe there is some kind of bug causing the issue.

I have even updated firmware and rebooted my router as part of the find a fix efforts.

1 Like