I’m having a bit of trouble syncing the Metadata for Dragon Ball Z Kai Season 2, as you can see it’s pulling down completely different metadata than to that of the actual show:
The way I have the files named (and you can see the file previews here): imgur.com/bZEPFdE
and then this is how they’re appearing in the plex app: imgur.com/XymTq8V
Does anyone have any suggestions? I’ve tried adding the years they were released to the naming convention, refreshed, fixed match, removed the files from my videos folder and re-added them. I’m a little bit stumped!
Plex matches against the TVDB.com for TV shows. I do remember others having issues with this series. You could search the forums to see if there is a satisfactory solution. I can provide external links that might be pertinent.
One thing you should know and will give you a great advantage when naming and structuring TV Shows is that complete capitulation to Plex’s naming/structuring standards for TV Shows is the ONLY way to achieve anything that can be called ‘reliable’. The first step in this process is:
use FileBot - it will go to TVDB and get the name of the show they’re using, then in two seconds name all your stuff correctly, or
go to TVDB yourself, get the name and rename your files to match TVDB.
Dragon Ball Kai @ TVDB: ドラゴンボール改 - TheTVDB.com
“Dragon Ball Z Kai” will also work (I actually tested with this naming).
My test files - one each for Season 01 and Season 02 - produced instant, fully populated matches using this exact naming/structuring:
A TV Show Library
…Dragon Ball Z Kai\ <— your use of (2009) isn’t necessary, but it probably won’t hurt either (probably)
…Season 01\ <— you have absolutely not got these right - and you will have to comply (Season 1 will work)
…Dragon Ball Z Kai - S01E01.mp4
…Season 02
…Dragon Ball Z Kai - S02E01.mp4
FileBot (link in my signature) can handle that for you automatically or manually in seconds.
What FileBot can’t do is remove possible embedded metadata in the Title Field of MP4/M4V files ( I use MP4 files - stripped of all metadata). Plex will read this info and prefer it over a perfect file name/structure (you don’t have any of those yet), but you can combat that situation by moving Local Media Assets to the bottom of every agent list you can find. All tabs in TV Show and Movies here: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200241558-Agents
Just drag LMA to the bottom of the list and drop it.
If you do have embedded metadata this will cure any potential issues, if you don’t it won’t matter. LMA will do what it has to from the bottom (I also have LMA at the bottom of my Agent Lists). If you don’t use MP4/M4V files don’t worry about it - if you ever want to use MP4/M4V files, do worry about it.
Renaming/restructuring is best performed OUTSIDE the library and you’ll need to write a new bundle for the show so The Plex Dance® was invented:
bring names and structures into compliance (FileBot is your friend)
replace corrected show into library
update library
All Steps. In Order. No Shortcuts.
A Partial Plex Dance® is as good as no Plex Dance® and could be called something, but it ain’t The Plex Dance®. The goal is to create a brand new bundle with all the right stuff in it and the only way to do that is to destroy the old bundle (clean bundles) and write a new one.
This can be called ‘movement’, but not ‘Dancing’ and it’s certainly not The Plex Dance®:
Lol the real issue is that the tvdb only sees kai as two seasons, the first season being episodes 1-98. which is why season two tries to fill in the data for episode 99 and so on. This is silly, as clearly this show doesn’t have two seasons. Laziness on the part of thetvdb is the real issue here.