Discovered Multiple Spoken Language and Technical Items within the Plex Server

Plex Media Server
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Server Version#: Version 4.145.1
Player Version#:
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>

Plex Media Server Logs_2025-03-06_11-54-57.zip (5.5 MB)

The server is installed on a Windows 2019 Data-server. I have no other issues with anything running on this server.

I am approaching this not just as an End User but more importantly as a Software Engineer, with lots of experience. As such, I am very familiar with the ASCII Table and the numeric values each character is assigned. I mention the ASCII Table, as each char, if nothing else, should be handled by that value. I’m not sure but this might be the root of some of the issues I have. I know from first hand experience that I can enter that ASCII number for any char and it will appear as the char and not the number. I’m also Certified in SQL Database.

1 - I’m bilingual English/German. I speak fluent in both languages. Plex offers only 1 of my 2 languages to be set in the preferences. This also might be part of my issue. A good example of this is Babylon 5. It is originally in English but instead I have it in German and have matched it in German. Plex however treats it as if it was English every time refresh tis performed. I will provide examples between both languages.

2 - The Titles between English and German are not the same good example: “I’m Going to the Store” = “Ich gehe in den Laden”. German does not capitalize every word in the title, this is considered incorrect. German Titles follow the German sentence structure, only the Begining letter in sentence and all Nouns are ever capitalized. Another example: “in German” = “auf Deutsch”, auf always appears as Auf, this is incorrect.

3 - I have films in both English and German. I try to keep them separated so others are not confused. In other media applications this is easy. A good example is for German begin the title with Zz… Plex erases this Zz and places the Show back within where it believes it should be, changing the German Title back to English. I’ve tried various ways to do this same thing within Plex. I’ve tried Zz Deutsch or ZzDeutsch or Z9 Deutsch or finally Z9Deutsch. None of these variations mater, Plex cleans them out and reverts back to Plex’s original metadata.

4 - I unmatched the Shows using the Plex tools. Technically this should remove the title and metadata from within Plex. This appears to be true until Plex does its next scan. Plex reverts everything back to how Plex’s original metadata says it should be. Why? This reverting back should never happen. What database code/rules is Plex using?

5 - I’ve left the locks Orange as well as turning the locks off. This also doesn’t change anything.

I’m not sure why Plex doesn’t follow normal Database rules, keeping titles and sorting the way the End User specifies it should be.

As an IT professional I don’t understand why things are this way with Plex.

I’m not afraid to modify the “database” only the tool is never specified other than “Database Tool”. Which one and what is the Database structure? Need more information then just that. I’ve seen many cases where editing a Database in one application does not allow the modification to take effect.

I personally would say these issues fall into one or more of the following:

  • Bug within the application
  • Single spoken language behavior - should allow for multiple languages
  • Forcing all Languages to follow English Title rules - this I would say is actually a language issue - Remove the conversion tool or make it be language grammatically correct.
  • Poor database architecture/design
  • Faulty metadata scans and changing things back to how Plex originally assigned the supposed metadata.

Plex please get back with me to me regarding the Language issues as well as the technical issues. These items are time consuming. You believe you have them fixed, only to discover Plex has broken the titles/sorting again.

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I cannot reproduce this issue. If I set a show to German it stays like that after refreshing.

Can you give me exact steps you’re taking to trigger this issue.

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Plex is not a file browser, which simply shows you all your files in the same folder structure as you have them stored.
Instead, it uses the folder structure and the file names to recognize the titles of your series and movies and match them to external metadata. All of this is stored in its internal database.
Because of this, and how this database is structured, there are consequences for the user.
One of these consequences is: Each show can only exist once in a Plex library.
You cannot add the same show in different language versions to the same Plex library.
Doing this would require support for Editions in TV Show libraries, which are currently only available in “Movie” libraries.

For now, you’d need to create different libraries. You could use one to collect all the English stuff and the other for all the German stuff.
Then you can pick a separate language for all the metadata (descriptions, titles, posters etc.) within a library.
(tip: for single shows, you can define a deviating metadata language in the properties of that show)

A better solution would be to have both languages within the same file. Then the audio and subtitle tracks are chosen automatically, based on each user’s language preferences. This of course requires that all audio and subtitle tracks can be synced to the one single video track.
Another downside to this is that you have to decide on one language for the metadata.
If the majority of your Plex users demand German media, you should probably pick German for the metadata as well. But you can set your own account language preferences that you will automatically get the English audio, if it’s available.

P.S. your description of the automatic capitalization of titles sounds like you are using a generic DLNA-compatible player to access your Plex server.
Just don’t. The DLNA code in Plex is decades old by now and is limping barely along. It doesn’t look like it will get a major update any time soon.
Use one of the officially supported Plex clients instead https://support.plex.tv/articles/categories/player-apps-platforms/

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