Asked by many...BUT I'm asking anyway: Plex changing movie information I set

General Discussions
1

I set all my 3D movies titles to be 3D movie name. Thus, I have Alice in Wonderland and 3D Alice in Wonderland. Plex rudely changes all those edits at times. It’s not even every time it updates the database which is set to every 12 hours. Sometimes it’s a day or 3 or 5 later. And it doesn’t do everyone when it does it. I set the lock when I change the names because otherwise it will set the SORT ORDER to 3D automatically also. Which I do NOT want.

I see from the MANY posts about the locks not working that this is a huge problem for many. Is there anything that can actually be done to stop PLEX from changing anything we do to the displayed name? Also the posters will change at times. I set my 3D posters to any that have 3D on them and I usually pick other posters from the main one that PLEX chooses. This is way more rare but I did notice today that a few that I set yesterday were changed back to the ones they were originally.

I am on Win 10 64 bit with 32g memory and my movies and shows are on external drives. This is a dedicated media server for Plex.
Plex version: updated every time so newest always
Chrome: Again, always updated to newest versions

I seem to remember someone posting once about changing the order of agents when Plex kept grabbing the info from inside the files. (naming movies like: This.Movie.Name.1974.IkOH.blah.blah.blah When it should have been: This Movie Name)

Would any of those have anything to do with this issue? If so, or if not, it still boils down to this…no matter what setting is on or off in PLEX server the server should NEVER change a displayed name, sort order, poster, or any other setting that the server owner manually sets as they desire it. Am I wrong???

Thanks for any help…

Greg

3

Thanks for such a detailed reply. I feel bad because I already know all of that. I guess I should have written that I have been doing this for a long time and know that information. I am sorry I did not and wasted your time. I have been using (and paid for) Filebot since it was quite new. I love it!!!

This is a new issue. I know I have to save the INFO when I make changes. I have the files named correctly. They are all matched correctly.

However, I have REFRESHED meta-data several times as I am adding large amounts of new files every couple days. This brings me to my comment and original issue. Even though I am refreshing that data PLEX should NEVER change what I have edited and locked. And personally, maybe I’ll post this as a feature request to be ignored like so many others, I don’t think PLEX should ever change anything (locked or not..ie, posters, backgrounds, etc..) that a user changes manually and saves. This also is NOT changing the names back EVERY time. I can add 3D to the front of the displayed title, save it, and it will stay that way for days or weeks. Even with meta-data refreshing. Then, change. I can have 3 movies (Jurassic Park 1, 2, and 3) all named with 3D in front of the movie name (displayed name) and it may change JP1 back but NOT change JP2 or JP3. There doesn’t seem to be a rhyme nor reason for when or which.

A simple way to fix this issue is to simply add a setting to NOT have PLEX ever change what a user changes. I have read this issue in many threads. So I know this issue is had be a huge number of people. Figure using basic human behavioral statistical figuring, for every 1 person that posts they have the issue 25-30 actually have the issue. :slight_smile:

Until PLEX does this basic user friendly fix, I am just wondering if anyone has figured out how to make it stop changing at random TITLE (display) names/posters.

Sorry for not spelling out what I know and have done in the original post… I really do appreciate your (ANDY) time in your reply..

Just as reference, here is the Filebot naming scheme I came up with and use:

{n.upperInitial().replace(':', ' -').replace('?', '!') } {'(Part ' +pi} {' of '+pn +')'} ({y}) {"[$Certification, $minutes Min]"} [{actors.take(3).join(', ')}] [{genres.take(3).join(', ')}] [{fn.match(/3D/)+', '}{vf}, {ac}@{af}]

Giving me file names like this:

    Jurassic World (2015) [PG-13, 124 Min] [Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Irrfan Khan] [Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi] [3D, 1080p, AAC@2ch].mp4
    
    Gods Of Egypt (2016) [PG-13, 127 Min] [Brenton Thwaites, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Gerard Butler] [Fantasy] [1080p, AC3@6ch].mkv

Greg

5

#1
Is this on? If so, turn it OFF:
Settings - Server - Library - ‘Empty trash automatically after every scan’

#2
Have you verified that your movies always get successfully ‘matched’ ?
(It is sometimes difficult to notice if a movie delivers all metadata itself by means of embedded metadata.)
Take a look at the movie’s Plex XML info and look out for the guid="..." key.
If it has local: in it, that is an alarm sign. It means the movie is unmatched and Plex will occasionally try to match it again. During this it will change its identity and lose your manually edited title.

6

@trumpy81 said:
I have all of the movies you referenced and I have never had them change on me, but then I don’t have the 3D versions and I don’t need to change the titles for any of those.

If Plex is changing them, then it must mean they have not been matched properly or that match has been updated at the online database. That can happen if you match with the TMDB because any user can make changes there.

If you use the Plex Movie agent (iMDB) then only ‘professionals’ are able to change things there, so their database is much more stable with far less changes.

Check the View XML data for the files that are changed and see which DB they are matched against.

I did have an issue with some of my TV Shows, some episodes and specials that matched previously were suddenly changed, but after a little investigation I found that the changes were made at the TVDB, so I had to rename and reorganise a few episodes.

— I use Plex Movie agent as my first one for pulling data from.
— I checked the xml files. They all look correct in there. I notice also when I look at the … menu after selecting the movie the options are FIX MATCH and MATCH. Which I have read means they are matched correctly.

Like I stated, this is an odd thing as it doesn’t do every movie that I have re-titled and it doesn’t do the ones it does every time I run update meta-data. What sucks is that I wouldn’t notice it at all if I were not doing so much work on the movies and adding so many new ones every day.

@OttoKerner said:
#1
Is this on? If so, turn it OFF:
Settings - Server - Library - ‘Empty trash automatically after every scan’

#2
Have you verified that your movies always get successfully ‘matched’ ?
(It is sometimes difficult to notice if a movie delivers all metadata itself by means of embedded metadata.)
Take a look at the movie’s Plex XML info and look out for the guid="..." key.
If it has local: in it, that is an alarm sign. It means the movie is unmatched and Plex will occasionally try to match it again. During this it will change its identity and lose your manually edited title.

— It was on, it is now off.
— I have not seen local in the xml where you cited. I will check it periodically just to be sure as I keep adding new movies and tv shows…

Thanks guys!!!

  • Greg
7

@ChefGS said:
— I checked the xml files. They all look correct in there. I notice also when I look at the … menu after selecting the movie the options are FIX MATCH and MATCH. Which I have read means they are matched correctly.

You probably mean FIX MATCH and UNMATCH.
Because when you see MATCH, it means the item is unmatched.

9

@OttoKerner said:

@ChefGS said:
— I checked the xml files. They all look correct in there. I notice also when I look at the … menu after selecting the movie the options are FIX MATCH and MATCH. Which I have read means they are matched correctly.

You probably mean FIX MATCH and UNMATCH.
Because when you see MATCH, it means the item is unmatched.

Yes, that’s what I meant. I was at work when I wrote it so wasn’t looking at my server. Oddly enough, I have done it from work many times so I guess I could have. LOL!!!

10

@trumpy81 said:
It’s something that is occuring during maintenace I feel, but I have no idea exactly what would be going on without knowing what is being changed and when.

I have a suggestion, but no idea if it would work or not. Install WebTools and use that to install ExportTools. Run ExportTools with maximum output and output a csv or xlsx file of your Movie library. Then when you notice something has changed after you output the file, output the Movie library again in ExportTools and then compare the two files.

That should show what has changed and that may help track down the issue. You would be looking for all of the things Otto and I have pointed out in the View XML files and you would be comparing the same filename/s in each csv/xlsx file.

WebTools Github: Issues · ukdtom/WebTools.bundle · GitHub
WebTools Plex Forum page: http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/126254/rel-webtools/p1
WebTools Help Wiki: Home · ukdtom/WebTools.bundle Wiki · GitHub

I have that installed and used it to get a copy of all the files I lost when my old hard drive crashed. I still had the database so that saved my life as far as being able to rebuild… I will do exactly what you mentioned…thank you.

Greg