There is “Fix Match” menu item on Movies and TV Shows top level. This is used to fix incorrect matches.
For movies it works fine. You can manually type in the movie name and then select among matches to find the best one.
For TV Shows, you can only fix the show name. If individual episode is incorrectly matched, there is no way to fix the matched episode/season. It would be logical to have “Fix Match” option on episode level also, where you could manually set episode/season.
Most of my files come from VDR. Usually the time episode information is correct, but I have had some cases where season is not set and Plex imports it to season1… Would be nice to fix that in just a few clicks.
There is another thread where another user had file name “01 Doll No. 123.mp4” which Plex thought is Season1 episode 23… This kind of mismatch could also be easily fixed.
FileBot link in my signature. Filebot can monitor an arrival folder, fix the stuff in it then copy or move stuff to where you need it.
Armed with those three weapons you won’t need to fix the match on TV Show Episodes.
01 Doll No. 123.mp4 - doesn’t even come close. It’s not in the same neighborhood. It’s not even on the same continent.
Using the guide, TVDB and Filebot I have successfully indexed 100s of thousands of items and had to use Fix Match maybe 6 or 7 times. It’s simply easier to name and structure correctly once - then watch it.
When your stuff looks like this you’ll not have many problems:
Duplicated show name (red)
Duplicated season number (green)
And the two pairs can easily be different, which is the biggest issue with this naming scheme. The folder structure is superfluous at best, and misleading and confusing at worst.
I also don’t like (hate really) the cluttered text in the file name list, but that is more personal preference than an actual problem.
I’m not really interested in knowing what kind of episode names people have. All my recordings are conveniently named “00001.ts”, and that isn’t changing.
This feature request is for “Fix Match in episode level”.
There is “Fix Match” for movies.
There is “Fix Match” for series top level, if the whole series name is identified wrong for some reason!
There is no “Fix Match” at episode level.
All the other invalid matches could be fixed by renaming files. To be consistent, either remove “Fix Match” completely or add to episode level also.
@JuiceWSA said:
Using the guide, TVDB and Filebot I have successfully indexed 100s of thousands of items and had to use Fix Match maybe 6 or 7 times. It’s simply easier to name and structure correctly once - then watch it.
How did you use “Fix match maybe 6 or 7 times” when such option is not available?
@Zuikkis said:
I’m not really interested in knowing what kind of episode names people have. All my recordings are conveniently named “00001.ts”, and that isn’t changing.
The feature you ask for will most likely never happen. The dev’s of Plex see nothing wrong with the current tv folder structure. It’s going to be very difficult using Plex with names like that.
I know most people on this forum will argue with me but you don’t need to have the title of the show in the episodes title or even the title of the episode itself. A simple sXXeXX is all you need. It is a compromise but til Plex can catalog by absolute order this is the only way. And as you said on another thread where all files of a show can be in the root. But, It is a compromise.
I don’t want to change the folder structure, just add “Fix match” menu item to the GUI? I can’t see what there is to lose if that is added, why anyone should oppose that?
You’re right, you won’t lose anything by adding it but the belief is- if the show is correct then all the episodes will be correct. A ‘fix match’ would not be needed.
The thing is Plex puts all the responsibility on us to make sure everything is correct before adding it.
@NewPlaza said:
You’re right, you won’t lose anything by adding it but the belief is- if the show is correct then all the episodes will be correct. A ‘fix match’ would not be needed.
That might be true if you use internet pirated content which usually have consistent names.
My files come from TV, and sometimes there are errors. Like the new Twin Peaks which aired without season number, just “ep1, ep2” etc. Plex thought this was season 1 and fetched the 1990’s show’s data. I did fix this by editing VDR’s metadata manually, but I was amazed that I couldn’t set episode/season manually from inside Plex…
Twin Peaks is a good one. It originally aired in 1990 then they decided to continue the story and most online sources see the new continuation as season 03.
Of course IMDB doesn’t.
I don’t much about VDR stuff. Hell I nothing about other then it records video to disk. Can you not set the VDR to save into a season03 folder under custom filenames or filemask?
VDR creates really funny named directories which usually have no logical meaning (to humans), and then “00001.ts” file with the video data. But there is also “info” file inside each directory, which contains the metadata. This file is in text format and is reasonably easy to understand and edit.
I have a custom python scanner which reads this info file and feeds season/episode information to Plex. It works very well usually, I have about 2000 video files in the library and there were only a few wrong matches. Yet I found it mysterious that I couldn’t fix them inside Plex, without modifying VDR metadata…
@JuiceWSA said:
Using the guide, TVDB and Filebot I have successfully indexed 100s of thousands of items and had to use Fix Match maybe 6 or 7 times. It’s simply easier to name and structure correctly once - then watch it.
How did you use “Fix match maybe 6 or 7 times” when such option is not available?
I’ve never had to use Fix Match on a TV Show. Filebot names it properly - or I add the unlisted show to TVDB - when Filebot can’t find it. Easy.
I’ve been using Windows Media Center for decades and there was a way, if I recall, to change the name format so that when MCEBuddy automatically picks up the recording and converts to MKV or MP4 - while cutting out the advertising - it’s able to match to TVDB, name and structure perfectly for Plex and add them to my TV Show Library - in a completely automated process: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1321322/#Comment_1321322
I see them when they show up in Recently Added - then I watch them.
(sometimes I do have to fix/add one-off documentaries I plan to keep, but for watch and delete stuff I just throw them in an ‘Other Videos’ library - watch and delete).
I do wish you luck with your quest - it’s never going to happen, but good luck anyway.
I don’t understand the negativity on this forum on general. How did this thread turn into “filename syntax competition”?
I’m not interested in this filename discussion as it does not affect me. It should have no place in this thread.
I simply asked for a simple feature that already exists for movies, and TV shows top level. There’s no logical explanation why it isn’t available on episode level. That’s all.
The thing you need to know about this site is we use it for rants, discussions, and sometimes help.
And asking for a feature to be added has major consequences in itself. It’s like 50% negative. Trying to suggest something that, in your mind, should already be there. The devs are like wth, what do you know. Then you got to deal with all the people that feel it’s a stupid idea and what good would it do, blah, blah, blah… Then you got the sarcastic comments.
Personally, I never had a single episode mis-matched before. I have had all the episodes mis-match once or twice but can’t imagine trying to “Fix Match” for every episode.
Early on we all found out it’s easier and faster to submit to Plex’ demands, than it is to fight the beast. I’d rather watch media than f*** around with it.
Just ran into this issue while setting Plex up, thought Kodi was the only one with this fundamental flaw in matching / scraping.
TV shows should just be matched based on the file name, and only if that fails should it look up at the parent folder/tree for season / show info. Matching based on the top level folders which may exist only for organization purposes just creates a whole bunch of unnecessary work and annoyance.
@Morfraen_ said:
Matching based on the top level folders which may exist only for organization purposes
Your right. It is, and because of this well organize structure is the reason most apps stick with it. Why reinvent the wheel? Having a few dozen episodes in a single folder ain’t hard to look at and manage but who wants 10,000 episodes in a single folder? Not to mention there will be alot more user errors if this was the case. Just take a look at this post to see how tiny errors could really drive you insane. https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1562473/#Comment_1562473
PLEX is pretty lax when it comes to episodes which is a blessing.
And how would a fix match work for episodes anyway? I mean, are you going to match it to another episode from the series? Does that particular episode already exist in PLEX. Will that not conflict with existing episodes? The question should be, why is it not correct to begin with? This comes down to user error, online databases, and MP4 files(which might be looked at as user error).
