Can I force Plex to use episode name from the file name this way?

Hello, I am new to Plex Media Server. I have a lot of exercise videos, and it works best in Plex to categorize them as “TV Shows.” However, because both TVDB and THEMOVIEDB are pretty messed up in how they classify or list Excercise videos (and it changes)- I do not want to rely on them. I spent 24 hours renaming all of my files to exactly match the Plex standard for TV shows, and I was disappointed to find that in Plex itself, it only shows the Episode numbers, not the titles.

However, yesterday I was doing a google search, and I found a thread where someone put the episode names first, and it worked - Plex started showing the titles pulling them from the names of the file. Is this true?

So instead of the official way to name TV shows:

TV Shows
P90X (2005)
Season 1
P90X - s01e01 - Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps.mkv
P90X - s01e02 - Plyometrics.mkv

I would to this:

TV Shows
P90X (2005)
Season 1
Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps - s01e01 - P90X.mkv
Plyometrics - s01e02 - P90X.mkv

Will this work?

No. Plex does not look at the filename for episode titles.

It won’t by my experience.
Plex does not get any metadata from the file names themselves.

With that kind of media your best shot is to use the Personal Media agent and to embed your metadata/titles into the file itself.

This is where if Plex were to read NFO files directly it would fix a lot of issues…
Could just create an NFO with <title> the title </title> and be done.

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If you used MP4 files, you could use the embedded title metadata field which Plex will read.

NFO files are text files so much easier to create edit change…
I actually go through the trouble to remove all embed metadata from all media files…

For P90X see thread linked below. This uses MP4 files and embedded metadata as mentioned by @anon18523487. I used Subler, a Mac only tool, to edit metadata. For Windows, try Mp3tag or use Windows Properties (right click → Properties → Details).

… and… IMO… after you’ve leaped through all those hoops…
it was quicker to just edit the item in Plex and be done with it.

How long does that take?
Not long.

And lock the title…

You can edit the metadata in the file or edit the information in Plex.

I prefer the former. That way I’m covered if I lose the Plex database, I move the files to a new Plex server, etc. Plex reads the metadata from the file and I don’t have to manually enter anything in Plex.

Editing the basic metadata is rather easy. You can probably just edit the “Name” field to set the episode name. Plex will pick up show name, season, and episode from the file name.

Yea, but it’ll lock when you edit it - I haven’t edited that one, but it was handy.

Also - if you don’t use The Personal Media Agent and stop Plex from trying to match it - locking anything is a waste of time. When Plex goes looking for that match - it’ll blow every edit you make - locked or not.

Guaranteed.

That’s why I use NFO’s…

I don’t need the hassle or the clutter.
It’s just too easy to handle with an edit and Personal Media.

Not to mention while these flaming hoops are being navigated - if you have to move LMA to the top Agent Slot (I don’t know, just sayin’) every bogus embedded title field in any MP4 in your Plexiverse becomes your worst nightmare.

I don’t need that either…
It’s just too easy to handle with a simple edit.

I have all other agents disabled…
Any rescans and the info is from the NFO…

All is to change with the new scanner anyway…

over my dead body I’ll be forced to use NFO files.
If Plex wants another forum dumpster fire - let that happen.
Stock up on Weenies and Marshmallows.

Having the episode name in the filename or using NFO will not change with the new scanner/agent.

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I was under the impression that the new agent dose not use the NFO files and the agent I do use would not be still useable with the new scanner.

The new agent does the same as the old one regarding NFO. It will read them, but only to find the IMDB ID. That’s all.

You can still use the old scanner with the current NFO importer agent. That won’t be removed AFAIK, at least not for the near future.

What about the new scanner when it’s released and the current NFO importer?

The new scanner/agent is a combo. The old scanner will still be usable with older agent.