Fix match to single TV episodes

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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HI
I have fixed movie match issues. I have fixed TV series match issues. What I can’t seem to find is the ability to fix individual TV EPISODE issues.
For example, I have 7 seasons of a show. In season 6, there are 3 episodes, and within Plex, they are titled the same (with the same descriptions). However, on the hard drive, each file is correctly named (with different titles), and consistent with the nomenclature of the other 5 seasons that are displaying correctly within Plex. No idea why season 6 is screwed up, but I’d like to “fix the match” for those episodes.
Therefore, how do I fix single episodes of a TV show??
Thank you!

2

Fix your file names.
No, the argument that the first seasons got recognised OK, is not helpful.

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201543057-Why-is-some-of-my-content-not-found-

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220687-Naming-Series-Season-Based-TV-Shows

If you need help with a particular show, show us the folder names and file names you are using ATM.

3

Hmmm…the reason I mentioned the first seasons being successful is because they are named identically. Here are the paths (root from external HDD):

Example of correct match is season 4. Below is the name of the file on my HDD, and below that, the title assigned by Plex:
\TV SHOWS\Sherlock Holmes\S04E01 - The Sign of Four
The Sign of Four

Season 6 incorrectly matches the title of the episode. Below is the name of the file on my HDD, and below that, the title assigned by Plex:
\TV SHOWS\Sherlock Holmes\S06E01 - The Master Blackmailer
The Master Blackmailer (1)

\TV SHOWS\Sherlock Holmes\S06E02 - The Last Vampyre
The Master Blackmailer (2)

\TV SHOWS\Sherlock Holmes\S06E03 - The Eligible Bachelor
The Last Vampyre

I thought the above was adequately explained in my initial post - sorry for any confusion.

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You are using the wrong show title as folder name.

There are 3 different tv shows, all titled ‘Sherlock Holmes’.
Plex cannot know, which one you have. Unless you name it unambiguously.

The way to do that, is to look up your show on TheTVDB.
And then to use the exact title which is used there also for your folder and file names.
And while you are on it, please make your folder structure strictly adhering to Plex’s demands.
Which means: no individual subfolders per episode, but subfolders per season.

For your particular case it’d look like this:

\TV SHOWS
   \Sherlock Holmes (1984)
      \Season 06
         Sherlock Holmes (1984) - s06e01 - The Master Blackmailer (1)
         Sherlock Holmes (1984) - s06e02 - The Master Blackmailer (2)
         Sherlock Holmes (1984) - s06e03 - The Last Vampyre (1)
         Sherlock Holmes (1984) - s06e04 - The Last Vampyre (2)
         Sherlock Holmes (1984) - s06e05 - The Eligible Bachelor (1)
         ...

You can do all of this painfree with the right software: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/191687/plex-naming-schemes-for-filebot

After you have renamed all files and folders, you need to perform the Plex Dance to clear the previous mismatches out of Plex’s database.

5

For that particular series I found that it was better to put them in my “Movies” folder as movies.

I named them like:
Sherlock Holmes The Master Blackmailer (1992).mp4
Sherlock Holmes The Last Vamypre (1993)

Plex recognizes them as movies just fine and by having “Sherlock Holmes” in the sort name Plex even groups all my various “Sherlock Holmes” together.

6

Thank you for your replies!

OttoKerner - I do understand what you’re saying. What’s weird is literally every other episode has been correctly matched. The difference seems to be in your example - presumably from some sort of database from which Plex draws. My direct rips from the DVD have three episodes in season 6. Hence I named them that way. The database that you’re referencing implies that there are 6 episodes (part 1 and 2 for each title).

That means the database is correct for seasons 1-5 and 7, and my naming format is correctly being matched to that database, ironically even for the “mis matches” - S06E02 is matching to S06E02 in the database as a part 2, which is NOT that way on the DVD since parts 1 and 2 are the same episode.

That’s a) clearly the issue; and b) incorrect!! I’ll manually correct them, copying and pasting the descriptions for the messed up episodes. Guess I should communicate the issue to the dbase holder???

I appreciate the links to the Filebot - had a look at it - weird installation procedure for Windows…might try it first on my test laptop.

Elijah - thanks for the suggestion! Glad to hear someone out here enjoys it, too :slight_smile:

7

TheTVDB lists the episodes liek they were aired the first time. Which apparently happened with every real episode divided into 2 parts. So it went into the database.
The best way for you might be to just name your files as
Episode 1
Episode 3
Episode 5
thus leaving out the even episode numbers and be done with it.
You could then edit the episode titles and change the (1) to (1+2). Or edit the description to begin with “Double episode!” just to avoid confusion later on.

8

I have 2 TV shows both named Dracula. One is from 2013, the other is from 2020 (first episode just aired).

Folders:
Dracula 2013
Episodes
Dracula.2013.S01E01
Dracula.2013.S01E02
etc

Dracula 2020
Dracula.2020.S01E01

the 2020 show has only one episode so far.

Unfortunately Plex added the first episode of the 2020 show as a duplicate to the first episode of the 2013 show. I do not know how to fix this.

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  1. Look up your show on TheTVDB
  2. Take the title as it is used on TheTVDB.
    If there is something in parentheses, take that too.
    If the title contains invalid characters (depends on your file system), like § : % *, simply leave them out.
  3. Check the naming and the folder structure of your show.
    Name the top folder of the show exactly after the title on TheTVDB.
    No abbreviations. No additional subfolders. No aliases.
    Add the (year) in parentheses of when episode 1 of season 1 of this show was aired.
  4. Name the episode files according to the above linked naming guide.
    Use the same title as for the top folder. Show's Title (year) - s01e01 - additional info.ext (’- additional info’ can be left out)
  5. After you corrected the naming and folder structure, perform the Plex Dance with all files for this show.

Watch out for embedded ‘Title’ metatags in mp4/m4v files. They can confuse the scanner and cause a mismatch. It is best to remove them, or at least change the priority of the Local Media Assets agent (which is responsible for reading them):
Go to

  • Settings - Server - Agents - Shows - TheTVDB

In there, grab the line ‘Local Media Assets’ with your mouse and drag it downwards, so it ends up being at the bottom of the stack of active agents.
Repeat the same under

  • Settings - Server - Agents - Shows - TheMovieDatabase
  • Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - Plex Movie
  • Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - TheMovieDatabase
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