External subs not added unless metadata is refreshed

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.24.1.4931
Player Version#: 4.63.0

Hi @OttoKerner , sorry to ping you but you have responded to similar questions before and I figured you are the best person to ask.

I have the issue often reported here about manually added external subs not being added to the plex library unless the metadata is refreshed.

In my case, I have the server setting “Scan my library automatically” turned on and it seems to work fine as new movies added to the media folder trigger a library scan and are successfully added.

When a new subtitle is added however, although it triggers a scan, the sub is never added. The only way they are added is if I manually click on “Refresh metadata” for either a specific item or the whole library.

In other threads, you mentioned hitting F5 or force refresh in plex web should have plex discover them, but that’s not happening in my case. I did F5, shift+F5 and ctrl+F5 and no subs are discovered. Same thing with browsing to the movie in the android app, no subs discovered. Refresh metadata works however.

When I look at the server logs, I can see that adding a subtitle file triggers a library scan automatically:

Aug 24, 2021 08:56:38.293 [0x7f81e193db38] INFO - Library section 3 (Movies) will be updated because of a change in "/crypt/Movies/A Crooked Somebody (2018)/A Crooked Somebody (2018) Bluray-720p (freeman-crookedsomebody2017-720p).en.srt"

However, the scanner does not seem to pick it up:

Aug 24, 2021 08:56:38.293 [0x7f81e193db38] INFO - Library section 3 (Movies) will be updated because of a change in "/crypt/Movies/A Crooked Somebody (2018)/A Crooked Somebody (2018) Bluray-720p (freeman-crookedsomebody2017-720p).en.srt"
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:45.070 [0x7f81e1353b38] DEBUG - Library Updater: Requested that section 3 be updated, force=0, deep=0, subdir= iTunes=0
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:45.070 [0x7f81e1353b38] DEBUG - Library Updater: Queueing section 3
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:45.073 [0x7f81e0d66b38] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity 724ed27b-eca6-42e5-a5d1-c2cc95c8b31f - "Scanning"
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:45.074 [0x7f81e0d66b38] DEBUG - Scanning section 3
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:45.074 [0x7f81e0d66b38] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 724ed27b-eca6-42e5-a5d1-c2cc95c8b31f - completed 0.0% - Scanning Movies
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:45.075 [0x7f81e0d66b38] DEBUG - Job was already killed, not killing again.
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:45.085 [0x7f81e0d66b38] DEBUG - Asked to cull library timeline before time 1629808605, we're starting with 23 items.
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:45.085 [0x7f81e0d66b38] DEBUG - Library timeline cull complete with 23 items left.
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:45.085 [0x7f81e0d66b38] DEBUG - Scanning Movies using en-US(Plex Movie) with 3153 current media items and 1 section locations in the database.
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:45.085 [0x7f81e0d66b38] DEBUG - Performing a scan with 'Plex Movie' (language: en-US virtual: 0).
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:45.085 [0x7f81e0d66b38] DEBUG -   * Scanning /crypt/Movies
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:45.092 [0x7f81e0d66b38] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /crypt/Movies (parent: no)
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:45.833 [0x7f81e0d66b38] DEBUG - Skipping over directory '', as nothing has changed; removing 0 media items from map.
......clipped some......
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:45.998 [0x7f81e0d66b38] DEBUG - Scanner: Processing directory /crypt/Movies/A Crooked Somebody (2018) (parent: yes)
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:46.001 [0x7f81e0d66b38] DEBUG - Skipping over directory 'A Crooked Somebody (2018)', as nothing has changed; removing 1 media items from map.
Aug 24, 2021 08:56:46.001 [0x7f81e0d66b38] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 724ed27b-eca6-42e5-a5d1-c2cc95c8b31f - completed 0.1% - Scanning Movies
.....clipped more.......

Some more info, I’m using the new Plex agent and I have url only nfo files for the movies. Subs are saved by bazarr to the media folder, each movie in its own folder.
Plex is running in docker (linuxserver one)
Media is on an rclone mount on the host system, originally stored on Google Drive. Inotify works as seen in the log messages.

I’d be happy to send full logs if you like.

Thanks

2

External subtitles are only detected when:

  • you are entering the preplay page of the item manually
  • refresh the metadata of the item
  • let your server refresh the metadata of your library periodically, via the Scheduled Tasks
3

Gotcha.

I tried entering the preplay page on both the web client and the android app, and no subs detected.

I also tried F5, shift+F5 and ctrl+F5 in the browser while on the preplay page.

Any ideas?

Thanks

4

@OttoKerner I tried the windows app as well. Entering the preplay page or playing the media does not make plex discover the subs. The only thing that does it is refreshing metadata, which is something that’s not available on most clients.

Thanks

5

Are these clients logged in to the admin account or are these shared or managed users?

Where are the media stored? Outside the server machine?

How often do you add new external subtitles to existing videos? Do these subtitles need to be available right away?
I ask, because there is a job during Scheduled Tasks which can be activated to handle the metadata refresh.

6

All logged in as the admin account.

Media is technically on Google Drive. However, plex sees it as a mounted host volume. I realize remote mounts can sometimes cause issues, but in this case, inotify (auto detect) in plex works for the subs and refresh metadata also allows them to be added to the library.

Most subs are added by bazarr a few hours after the movie is added. Some secondary language ones can be added much later if/when they become available. I do add new movies on a somewhat daily basis.

The main issue is that most clients don’t have the ability to trigger a refresh metadata. So every time I try to use it on a TV streamer, I realize the subs are not loaded, so I have to pull a up the web client on a laptop or a phone and refresh metadata for the item.

I realize I can do the scheduled task for refreshing metadata but it would cause unnecessary strain on the server (and uses a lot more bandwidth on the VPS) since it refreshes all the libraries every 3 days and I have a rather large library.

Thanks

7

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