I am trying Plex for the second time. I am using a Plex client on a Roku device that’s built into a TCL television to access a video library on a Mac server. It seems to work, but I am disappointed with the flat file system that is presented, rather than the hierarchical file system I have painstakingly maintained on the OS X system
Am I missing something?
Thanks, Jim
Plex isn’t replicating your file/folder organization. While there’s an option to show the content of your libraries By Folders, that’s a rather limited experience.
Instead, Plex uses your file naming / folder organization to match those files and organize your content based on metadata. This will give you a rather flat list of movies or shows to start with but allows you to filter and sort it by various criteria (ranging from title, rating, content rating, available audio/subtitle tracks, duration, release dates…). In addition you can configure your server to automatically create collections (e.g. for movie franchises) as an additional level of aggregation (you can also manually create collections).
TL;DR: Plex isn’t primarily made to display your file system as-is.
It sounds like you want to browse your library based on your folder structures, not the Library interface which is a focus of using Plex to provide metadata and the ‘pretty’ interfaces etc (see @SE56 above). A bit more modern setup but might not fit your specific use case or preferences.
If you don’t need transcoding, you might be happy with DLNA functions instead. There are several ways to do this at a server level (including using Plex) and then using the Roku Media Player channel you can browse your content strictly by folders. You can still get artwork as well (limited mostly to posters).
Thanks
Thanks. Can I ask for more info on DLNA?
You can enable the DLNA server in the Plex Media Server’s settings:
Settings > [Server Name] > DLNA
IIRC the DLNA server is disabled by default and will automatically be disabled if you create a “Plex Home”. The reason for that is that the DLNA server has no means to authenticate different users or devices – it’ll simply broadcast/publish your library inside your home network to everybody who has a DLNA player at hand.
The DLNA server will publish your libraries in a predefined folder structure, e.g.
Plex Media Server: <Server Name>` <- root
Video
<Library Name>
All Movies
Unplayed
Recently Released
... <lots of other groupings, partly based on the Plex library sort options>
By Folder
... <your folders/files as organized inside the folder linked to that library>
Music
Photos
Thanks. I will investigate further
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