I have movie: d:\movies\animation\The Pirates.mp4
I have another: d:\movies\action\Hackers.mp4
I have refreshed the re-scanned my library. When I show duplicates, the movie Hackers shows up as a duplicate. Clicking Info says it is in the for-mentioned 2 locations.
You need to fix the match for “The Pirates”. But, you also need to reconfigure how you are naming and storing your media because it plays a HUGE part is how the scanner picks up the media. If you don’t fix this you will continue to have matching issues with your media. See below.
The biggest hurdle to using Plex may be in naming the video files properly. The article Duke linked will tell you that a movie should be labeled MovieName (release year).ext
I did a quick search to try to find out what movie “The Pirates” could be. Animation helps narrow down a bit, but I assume it is The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (2012). It’d be best to use the full name, but the year will greatly help Plex in identifying which Pirates movies you mean.
TO ANSWER YOUR ACTUAL QUESTION
Since it thinks these two files are the same, you can Split them apart. Click the triple dot on the movie poster and choose the Split Apart option. This will separate them back out into two entries. Then, double check the Get Info again to verify which is which, and then do Fix Match… or Match… depending on if Plex was able to identify them properly.
However, if you are going to go to the work to correct all your movie files (could be thousands?), I recommend you delete the library first. Fix all your movie titles. Refer to TheMovieDB for proper file names and release years. Then, when you are finished, remake the library again. You may be amazed at how many movies just match automatically and correctly.
Well thanks to your comments I’m getting closer. Being a cartoon I didn’t actually play it. So I did, and the full title is: The Pirates! Band of Misfits.
So I went to the folder, and renamed the file to the full title.
When I re-scan the library I can’t find it. I search for the full title, or just pirates and it’s not showing up.
Does it take sometimes? I verified it is the right directory as I can see all other moves in that directory in the Plex interface.
I think that Plex matches the file name from TheMovieDB for movies, by default. If you don’t like the official name for the movie, you can try the alternate (US) title of The Pirates! Band of Misfits for the filename. But Plex will match it (if it does), and fill in the movie name as The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (2012). If you want the misfits title, you can go ahead and modify the metadata for the movie by clicking on the pencil icon and entering a new name (the Sort name changes automatically too, but that isn’t relevant here for this movie). It then locks in that name (the lock button next to the title in the metadata pane turns orange) so that further metadata refreshes will not change it again.
There’s been a few movies that I liked the US name more, so I over-rode Plex matching to the alternate. One such movie is All Creatures Great and Small. It actually has 3 different US names, but it wants to default to the stupid Ooops! Noah is Gone… title instead.
I ended up just using what TheMovieDB uses for filenames, then edit the metadata in Plex afterwards. I’m looking ahead to if I have to rebuild my Plex server and I want the names to match automatically in the future.
Sorry for being a pest. But another question/problem. I have:
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II (Disc1)
The Godfather Part II (Disc2)
The Godfather Part III
When I add them to Plex, it assumes Disc 1 and Disc 2 are the same so joins them. I’ve tried different naming conventions, including file names to no avail. The last thing I did was name the Disc 1 to: The Godfather: Part II. Did a refresh and no metadata is updated in Plex, there’s no poster and the Info page is basically empty.
Appreciate any ideas. I’ve tried refreshing several times. I’m pretty new at this stuff.
It’s a good thing that it joins them, assuming Disc1 ends exactly where Disc2 starts. Plex should seamlessly combine them and play them together as if they were one video. Refer to this article (again) and scroll down to the Movies Split Across Multiple Files section. It mentions that any file named identically to another, with a modifier on the end of the name, will be combined automatically. The modifiers are:
cdX
discX
diskX
dvdX
partX
ptX
If you wish to NOT have Plex combine them this way, then use a different modifier text than any of the above and Plex will not combine them together. What you will then want to do is make sure Plex matches both movies to the same The Godfather Part II. It may combine them here into one entry like it did with The Pirates and Hackers like last time, so split them again. (This combination is a different kind than a multi-file combine if you use those modifiers I told you about. You cannot uncombine those as long as you use those words)
Now, you should have two entries in your library named the same movie. I’d recommend you edit the metadata of each entry by clicking the pencil icon, and changing the Title field to your preference. You need to be able to tell the two entries apart from this library view.
Did you read over the naming conventions? This is the ONLY way it is going to work for you. Need to use the standard naming conventions so plex scanners can pick up the different files correctly.
It should be named as such.
/Movies
/The God Father Part II (1974)
The God Father Part II (1974) - pt1.mp4
The God Father Part II (1974) - pt2.mp4
pt1 is the Disc 1
pt2 is the Disc 2
Both of the disc files should reside in the same folder labeled as "The God Father Part II (1974).
Please go and read over the naming conventions and fix your movies.