Can't create new library with Plex Video Files Scanner

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#:1.42.2.10156

Since 1.42.2.10156 I can no longer create new libraries with the Plex Video Files Scanner. This is a regression from version 1.42.1.10060.

How to reproduce:

  • Settings → Libraries → Add library
    • select “Other videos”, next
    • select video directory
    • select advanced tab, chose “Plex Video Files Scanner” and “Personal Media”
    • click “add library”
    • displays error message “Your changes could not be saved.”

The same process works as expected with the 1.42.1.10060 release.

Log files attached, timestamp is around Dec 06, 2025 12:52:23.

Dec 06, 2025 12:52:23.518 [140546182662968] INFO - Request: [192.168.39.105:49251 (Subnet)] POST /library/sections?name=Other%20videos&type=movie&agent=com.plexapp.agents.none&scanner=Plex%20Video%20Files%20Scanner&language=xn&importFromiTunes=&enableAutoPhotoTags=&metadataAgentProviderGroupId=&location=%2Fmedia%2Fyoutube%2FWandering%20Where (6 live) #7d7 TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (ach1000)
Dec 06, 2025 12:52:23.518 [140546182662968] WARN - [Req#7d7] Could not convert “metadataAgentProviderGroupId” (“”) to the correct type
Dec 06, 2025 12:52:23.518 [140546233305912] INFO - Completed: [192.168.39.105:49251] 400 POST /library/sections?name=Other%20videos&type=movie&agent=com.plexapp.agents.none&scanner=Plex%20Video%20Files%20Scanner&language=xn&importFromiTunes=&enableAutoPhotoTags=&metadataAgentProviderGroupId=&location=%2Fmedia%2Fyoutube%2FWandering%20Where (6 live) #7d7 TLS GZIP 0ms 509 bytes (pipelined: 6)

2

Don’t use that anymore. It is one of the “legacy” scanners, which will be gone from Plex soon-ish.
Use the default that is automatically selected when creating a new “Other Videos” library.

3

Good call. Is there a reliable way to get the new scanner (Plex Personal Media) to use the filename for the video title (instead of extracting it from the file metadata)?

4

Either remove the embedded meta data, or correct them.

5

Thanks. Was hoping to avoid that, but is probably the best way forward.

For future people reading this, you can bulk update MP4 files to write the filename to the metadata title with:

exiftool -v "-Title<Basename" <filename>

If you’re using yt-dlp (or similar) to download files, you can update the video title to include the uploader, date (and id) to match the Plex naming convention with::

yt-dlp ... --parse-metadata '%(uploader)s - %(upload_date)s - %(title)s [%(id)s]:(?P<title>.+)' ...

Finally, use the updated title as the filename with:

yt-dlp ... -o \"<directory>/%(title)s.%(ext)s\"