# Documentation on medta data files?

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/documentation-on-medta-data-files/602832>\
**Category:** Metadata & Adding Files\
**Tags:** server-linux\
**Created:** [June 12, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/documentation-on-medta-data-files/602832 "2020-06-12T17:21:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![StanGreen\_MComputerSolutions\_com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StanGreen\_MComputerSolutions\_com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/StanGreen_MComputerSolutions_com)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/documentation-on-medta-data-files/602832/1 "2020-06-12T17:21:50Z")

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I keep seeing references to the metadata, but I cannot find any documentation that clearly lays out the file types, their content and how they are formatted. Where can I get this documentation?

Thanks,  
Stan

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**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 6:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/documentation-on-medta-data-files/602832/2 "2020-06-12T18:05:30Z")

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I’m not sure I get what you’re looking for…  
There’s the support articles describing how to name your files for Plex to recognize/match them to download information from its online sources.  
[https://support.plex.tv/articles/categories/your-media/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/categories/your-media/)

If you’re referring to so called “nfo” files… Plex currently only has super rudimentary support for those. Namely it’ll simply look for an IMDb ID in such a file to improve its matching.  
Therefore… Plex widely ignores any format schema for those files – could be a text file containing basically nothing but the IMDb ID.

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**Author:** ![StanGreen\_MComputerSolutions\_com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StanGreen\_MComputerSolutions\_com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/StanGreen_MComputerSolutions_com)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 6:56pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/documentation-on-medta-data-files/602832/3 "2020-06-12T18:56:53Z")

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OK, I get it now. The docs use: Optional\_Info.ext but this is just for example. The ext in my case would be the mp4 file extension.

Thanks,  
Stan

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/documentation-on-medta-data-files/602832/4 "2020-06-12T19:01:40Z")

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Ah… you’re referring to the naming of tv show episodes.  
This refers to any text you place after the `sXXeYY` pattern (where `XX` refers to the season and `YY` refers to the episode number). You can use that to include e.g. the episode title but Plex will not consider it – so it’s freely available for your personal use 😉

> - Many of our naming instructions mention having `Optional_Info` at the end of the file name. As the label suggests, it’s optional, but many people like to use it for things such as an episode title; such optional info is ignored by Plex when matching content.

[https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/)

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/documentation-on-medta-data-files/602832/5 "2020-09-10T19:01:46Z")

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