In some cases, when Plex is doing channel scans, it assigns the same channel identifier for multiple channels… This causes many channels that should work to be dropped. I have absolutely no idea why this is happening, and is obviously a pretty serious bug that needs to be fixed. Anyway, luckily for us (that have been posting for help without luck) there is a way to modify the database to get it to work.
1. Start a channel scan and let it complete like normal.
Plex will add the channels to the database, however, it will not add them correctly. But, the scan works well enough that it does get the correct channel number.
2. Download a database browser if you do not already have one.
I used: http://sqlitebrowser.org/
I imagine any database browser will work fine, but I’m not really sure.
3. Open up your plex data store directory, and head for the database.
For me, this was located at C:\Users\MYUSERACCOUNT\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Plug-in Support\Databases
The file was then com.plexapp.plugins.library.db. You’ll need to open your SQL browser, and then open this file with it. I just dragged the file in and it worked fine.
After you’ve opened the database, click the browse data tab. Open the table media_provider_resources. On the row with the identifier tv.plex.grabbers.tunerservice scroll to the far right and you’ll see a data column. It should contain xml. For me, it contained…
Here was mine: https://pastebin.com/FyZDqkCv
As you can see, there are many channels with the same identifier. As far as I can tell, this identifier has no other purpose besides for Plex to manage the channels. Just change it so that all of your channels have a different one. Here’s my example:
Here is how I fixed mine: https://pastebin.com/Yw7kKGzK
After doing that, copy your changes back into the database. Then click Apply, save the database and close.
4. Head back to the DVR settings.
Click the option to enable more channels. Your channels should now all be showing up. After you map them to EPG, you just click save. Enjoy using your DVR finally. NOTE: If you click scan again, you will need to repeat all of these steps.
