Server Version#: 1.41.4.9463
Player Version#: 4.145.1
Client: TCL RokuTV
Server: Windows10 laptop
Hello. Yesterday, shortly after the big 2025 announcement about Plex Pass subscription prices, all of my extras stopped displaying on both my client and in the web app/server. They had been displaying properly for over 4 years and counting.
Absolutely nothing changed in my setup. All my drives are online. All files – movies AND properly-named extras – still play in VLC.
I have rebooted both computer and router. I have refreshed media. I have scanned libraries. I have ensured all libraries are looking at Local Metadata in the agents.
I first noticed this happening live on my server laptop: While clicking on individual movie pages, I scrolled down to see the Extras, which were there – then they suddenly began disappearing while I watched. They have never returned.
Is this now a paid feature and that’s why they are no longer working?
No, local extras are not restricted to Plex Pass members.
As you mention you’ve configured the Local Metadata in the agents… what agent are you using (please check the agent setting in the library itself, not the server Agents settings which only apply to some legacy agents.
Extras are picked up when you refresh a movie’s metadata – not as part of scanning / refreshing a library.
If that’s not making a difference, you might want to take a look at your server logs (or share them here).
The log is showing a lot of activities where Plex no longer seems to find certain media (which could be your extras, though the only references I could see are named a bit oddly.
Can you share one of the examples for which the extras no longer show – e.g. a screenshot of those files and their directory structure?
Your scan also seemed to find some major inconsistencies in your files. Plex scanned 296 files/items which it considers to be a duplicate of “Zero Dark Thirty” (scanned file matches the hash of Zero Dark Thirty).
Are you sure those files are ok / the same / untouched?
PS: You might want to review your naming for different editions – there’s a few files where you included e.g. a suffix like (Theatrical) and (Director's).
For Plex to pick those up as different editions, use {edition-Theatrical} and {edition-Director's Cut} instead. … but one step at a time.
Can you give me an example of certain media that seemed named a bit oddly? So i can look it up?
I’ll make a screenshot of file structure later tonight, what exactly do you need to see and how do I make it happen visually in File Explorer?
Yeah, I have no idea what’s going on with Zero Dark Thirty. I think Plex is bugging out. The files themselves are there and play fine in VLC.
As for editions…I don’t have Plex Pass. I’m using Plex Free, or however the free version is referred to. I just don’t want to subscribe to something that has proven very problematic in many areas, until it’s more solid. I make different versions work using Split Apart, and simply Unmatch the version I prefer the least, to keep the versions separate. They’re never in the same folder, either.
Just pick one that has extras which are no longer showing up in Plex.
Preferably include the path of the folder added to your library, the path to the Movie folder and movie file name / estra file names in the movie folder / subfolder. Sometimes a screenshot can get a lot of that in a single go.
So it looks like they rewrote the code to acommodate only one movie file, when it comes to making Extras work. I’ll explain:
I’ve always kept my ripped movies on separate drives according to format, i.e.:
Drive E - DVD
Drive F - BLU
Drive G - 4K
Drive H - (small conversions of the above)
I prefer this separation as I can quickly access them in a list style, or easily back them up sans extras. It’s kludgy having to rifle thru individual folders for each film, and I do not trust Windows Search to be accurate.
Anyway, when I set up my libraries in order to make Extras appear, I did the following:
Make an EXTRAS folder;
Inside would be placed individual folders for every single film, i.e. “Alien (1979)” etc;
Inside each film’s folder was its extras (properly suffixed) – plus a tiny PROXY VIDEO FILE (about 300kb) that would serve to “activate” the extras to display on the movie’s main page;
In the libary’s “Add Folders” section, I would add the directory for (1) the actual movie files (the rips and conversions existing on separate drives) and (2) the directory for the Extras.
Voila! Every version of the film would be collected in one library entry, with the extras appearing! It worked fantastically.
But now, with the new 1.4.1.xxx update, Plex has erased this capability suddenly.
So I did a test, and made a new library consisting of just the Extras, meaning I added just the Extras Folder that, remember, contains only the extras and the tiny PROXY VIDEO files.
The extras suddenly appeared again! However, that means the real movies themselves aren’t available to play inside this library. Just the extras.
So there it is. The new code won’t allow multiple versions of a movie to work with Extras. I’m guessing this is a move towards making you need access to EDITIONS in Plex Pass, which I don’t have. For now, I have to use separate libraries for Extras and Movies, as Plex backtracked the simplicity of this feature.
Are you adding those drive letters to the same library?
I have a few tv-show extras which are filed in a different top-level folder linked to the same library and just double-checked they’re working fine for me (no editions involved).
I wonder why you wanted to add a dummy file to begin with?
Though, that’s probably the explanation why the scanner considered ~300 files to be the same item (given it’s copies of the same dummy file).
Seems awfully complicated to filter out some files from a backup.
Yes, all those drives are added to the same library.
This isn’t for TV extras, which has never worked for me; I had to add TV Extras to the Season folder as “s00eXX” for them to show up at all, and then personally rename in the library.
I explained why the dummy file: I don’t want all my movies embedded individually into folders. I like seeing them in a list in their own folder. I often copy certain movies in chunks to other drives/flash USB/etc for various reasons like travel or work. We all have our preferences, I guess? I tried the other way and it created way more work with laborious mouse-clicks.
I’m not sure what seems complicated about it? Having worked in the film industry, I like to keep things granular and separate, then combine them in a more efficient way (much like SFX tracks in a mix), and this is/was very efficient when it worked. Directing the library to 4-5 different drives takes about 30 seconds.
I can only venture a guess that the scanner considering ~300 files to be the same item was some momentary glitch. It happens. Plex is often kludgy and slow.
Remember, my above method had been working flawlessly for over 4 years. That time is over, apparently.
remove the proxy files – those should be 100% obsolete / unnecessary. If you’re concerned you might need them anyway… just move them outside the library folder for now.
do a scan of your library files and wait for it to finish – that should give us a clean slate
pick a movie that has extra files that don’t show up in Plex – refresh that movie’s metadata and wait 1-2 minutes for everything to settle
pick a new set of logs to share – when posting the logs, please mention which movie you had picked to refresh its metadata (helps endless searching).
That’ll hopefully give us a more clear picture.
As a side note:
tv show extras work great if you stick to the naming convention (to the letter) – the only limitation is that currently not all platforms are able to display extras on all tiers of a show (show, season, episode).
not sure what you experience as kludgy and slow – in my experience Plex works great if you stick to the expected naming schema and structures.
If I remove the PROXY movie files from within the established movie extras folders, then there’s no movie file to tell Plex to activate the displaying of the extras. Are you saying that Plex no longer requires a movie file inside the Extras folders like previously? Because for 90% of my movie folders, only a PROXY file exists within it. And I’m not going to move thousands of movies into them. I say this because for the ~10% of the extras folders that do contain actual movies, their extras do not display either, currently.
For TV extras, I tried the naming convention to the letter, and it mostly doesn’t work. The only ones that work are listed on TVDB. But the other extras that haven’t been officially identified as such, that I’ve personally had to name, do not show up. So I just put them in a generic “s00eXX” format.
Correction: Plex is kludgy and slow because I have video-related background programs working while using it, some that can’t be paused in order to do a quick update in Plex. Plex needs to multitask better, I suppose.
