Episodes match to wrong show

[noktulo]

Server Version#: 1.19.5.3035
Player Version#:n/a

This is an issue I’ve had for at least a year at this point. Random episodes of shows will be matched to RuPaul’s Drag Race. The files are labeled and located correctly in their own shows’ folders, but in Plex they show up as episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race. (They’re often in season 13 or 40 even though there is no such season of RPDR.) I’m not sure how to fix the issue as there’s no Fix Match option when I right-click on the episode.

[tom80H]

Fix Match is only available on the Show level.
As this appears to be about individual episodes… I suppose those episodes are in mp4/m4v/mov files with embedded metadata? If you have local media assets prioritized over the online repositories used by the agent, this can result in Plex trying to assign the episodes based on that embedded content instead of using the file structures.

[noktulo]

I’ve opened the MP4 in VLC and it does not appear to have any embedded metadata.

[JuiceWSA]

Show us your file names and structures with the file path all the way back to the root.

This:

Results instantly in:

A TV Show Library Folder (not the root)\ <---Library aimed here - ONLY
...RuPaul's Drag Race\
......Season 07\
.......RuPaul's Drag Race - S07E01.mp4

If you don’t trust VLC to inspect your mp4 file metadata (I wouldn’t), do this and make sure embedded metadata isn’t making a nuisance of itself:

Video File Naming

With LMA in priority, Embedded Titles within MP4/M4V files are preferred - even over a perfect file name. Local Media Assets should - AT ALL TIMES - remain enabled (unless specifically instructed to turn it off). Local Media Assets should be ‘Demoted’, to the bottom of the stack of active agents under ALL tabs in Shows and Movies, but should NOT be disabled. Local Media Assets is needed for many things - it doesn’t need to be given Tip-Top-Priority (as Plex has so hatefully placed it as it’s …

[noktulo]

The files are on a Synology. Here’s the file structure there.

Plex runs on a NUC running Ubuntu. I mount the Synology shares as volumes, as seen in this screenshot from the Plex Media Info dialog:

This is how that episode shows up in Plex:

(Note that I have lots of episodes of both QI and RPDR that appear in their correct locations.)

[noktulo]

I also tried moving Local Media Assets to the bottom priority and refreshing metadata on that episode but it doesn’t seem to have made a difference.

[JuiceWSA]

Too many dashes.

TV/
.....QI/
.......Season 17
..........QI - S17E12 - Quagmire [WEBDL-720p].mp4

Instant gratification - All in [Brackets] is ignored and what you have isn’t a valid file name (unless you ‘ignore’ some of it) - no matter how many years you’ve been doing it that way.

LMA is also at the bottom of the stack - everywhere it matters.
('cause occasionally I may use an mp4 file)

[noktulo]

I’m sorry I’m having trouble following — are you saying adding brackets to the filename should fix it? I did that and rescanned the library and refreshed the metadata on the file and it didn’t change anything.

[ChuckPa]

This is how proper naming matches. Is this what’s desired?

Sample from my QA library

[chuck@lizum QI.531]$ ls -laR
.:
total 104
drwxr-xr-x  16 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 ./
drwxr-xr-x 932 chuck chuck 45056 Jun 30 13:17 ../
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 Season 00/
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 Season 01/
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 Season 02/
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 Season 03/
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 Season 04/
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 Season 05/
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 Season 06/
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 Season 07/
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 Season 08/
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 Season 09/
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 Season 10/
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 Season 11/
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 Season 12/
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck  4096 Sep 29  2016 Season 13/

./Season 00:
total 44
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 Sep 29  2016 ./
drwxr-xr-x 16 chuck chuck 4096 Sep 29  2016 ../
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   23 Apr 26  2016 QI - S00E01 - Pilot.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   50 Apr 26  2016 QI - S00E02 - Bonus Bits & Bloopers - Series 1.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   50 Apr 26  2016 QI - S00E03 - Bonus Bits & Bloopers - Series 2.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   59 Apr 26  2016 QI - S00E04 - Comic Relief 24 Hour Panel People Special.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   34 Apr 26  2016 QI - S00E05 - The Making of QI.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   43 Apr 26  2016 QI - S00E06 - Sport Relief Special 2012.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   50 Apr 26  2016 QI - S00E07 - Bonus Bits & Bloopers - Series 3.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   32 Apr 26  2016 QI - S00E08 - Banter, Part 1.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   32 Apr 26  2016 QI - S00E09 - Banter, Part 2.mkv

./Season 01:
total 56
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 Sep 29  2016 ./
drwxr-xr-x 16 chuck chuck 4096 Sep 29  2016 ../
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   22 Apr 26  2016 QI - S01E01 - Adam.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   27 Apr 26  2016 QI - S01E02 - Astronomy.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   33 Apr 26  2016 QI - S01E03 - Aquatic Animals.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   23 Apr 26  2016 QI - S01E04 - Atoms.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   29 Apr 26  2016 QI - S01E05 - Advertising.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   27 Apr 26  2016 QI - S01E06 - Antidotes.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   28 Apr 26  2016 QI - S01E07 - Arthropods.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   25 Apr 26  2016 QI - S01E08 - Albania.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   24 Apr 26  2016 QI - S01E09 - Africa.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   26 Apr 26  2016 QI - S01E10 - Aviation.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   22 Apr 26  2016 QI - S01E11 - Arts.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   24 Apr 26  2016 QI - S01E12 - Advent.mkv

./Season 02:
total 56
drwxr-xr-x  2 chuck chuck 4096 Sep 29  2016 ./
drwxr-xr-x 16 chuck chuck 4096 Sep 29  2016 ../
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   22 Apr 26  2016 QI - S02E01 - Blue.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   23 Apr 26  2016 QI - S02E02 - Birds.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   23 Apr 26  2016 QI - S02E03 - Bombs.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   23 Apr 26  2016 QI - S02E04 - Bible.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   23 Apr 26  2016 QI - S02E05 - Bears.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   25 Apr 26  2016 QI - S02E06 - Beavers.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   26 Apr 26  2016 QI - S02E07 - Biscuits.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   22 Apr 26  2016 QI - S02E08 - Bees.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   22 Apr 26  2016 QI - S02E09 - Bats.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   23 Apr 26  2016 QI - S02E10 - Bills.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   23 Apr 26  2016 QI - S02E11 - Beats.mkv
-rw-r--r--  1 chuck chuck   23 Apr 26  2016 QI - S02E12 - Birth.mkv

[JuiceWSA]

@noktulo

are you saying adding brackets to the filename should fix it? I did that and rescanned the library and refreshed the metadata on the file and it didn’t change anything.

Plex attaches a ‘hash code’ to a Show/Episode so it can more easily do what it does. What that means is if you want to make a meaningful change in how the hash has your show by the short hairs, refusing to change it… You Plex Dance not just one episode - the entire show.

The Plex Dance ™

The purpose of this is to remove all cached metadata and xml data for an item that Plex usually keeps. This helps when you want to “start from scratch” for particular item move all files for the media item out of the directory your Library is looking at, so Plex will not “see” it anymore scan the library library (to detect changes) empty trash clean bundles (in the menu next to server name, when accessed under ‘More’. Or alternatively under Settings - [server name] - Manage - Troubleshooting.…

This means you:
remove the show from the library
scan library
empty trash
clean bundles
Fix the show names with the brackets - or just name them properly as Chuck has, or as I have, with Valid File names…
put the show back
scan library

Then if the Gods are smiling on us - the issue is fixed.
This won’t help if there’s something in the path that’s odd, but I can’t see any oddness and Chuck didn’t either, or he would have mentioned it.

Yes - it’s always easier to do it right the first time and Filebot is invaluable in this situation because it is relentless doing mindless, tedious, mind numbing, repetitive tasks - instantly and perfectly.

FileBot

I type 120wpm, but I can’t type as fast as FileBot can and I can’t go to the database in question instantly, get the name they use and name and structure my files with that name, in less than a second.

I’m good, but not that good.

You can use it for a year for some small pittance - clever, 'cause after 10 minutes you know you can’t live without it and buy the lifetime license - no matter what that costs - it’s worth 10X that. Easy.

Filebot will also put all your Movies in a unique folder - and name them with various little things you may find useful - and put those things in a [Bracket] if you tell it to… It can’t know what a WEBRIP is, of course, but it can sniff out other identifiers and apply them to episodes or movies as you see fit:

I recently put over 4 THOUSAND movies in unique folders.
Even with Filebot it took a while - but my descendants would still be doing it long after I’m dead without FB.

Whatever it costs - worth every penny.

When your file names and structures are PERFECT - if you have a problem it’s not that, at least. If your file names and structures are NOT perfect - we don’t know what’s wrong.

[noktulo]

The Plex Dance did work, thank you! I’ll start using brackets in my filenaming convention.

[ChuckPa]

If I may offer FileBot naming templates which I use:

1. /nas – obvious
2. /nas/movies & /nas/tv – also obvious

Movie naming rule

/nas/movies/{n} ({y})/{n} ({y})

Episode naming rule

/nas/tv/{n}/Season {s.pad(2)}/{n} - {s00e00} - {t}

n = name
y = year
s = season (with – padded to 2 digits)
t = episode title