Fixing "duplicates" & Grouping

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.14.1.5488
Player Version: Irrelevant. Use chromecast

First question:

So i’m trying to fix the “duplicates” in my classic Dr. Who collection. Many of the earlier episodes are split into multiple parts some of which each have their own “sub” title. Like this:

Doctor Who - S01E01 (001) - An Unearthly Child (1) - An Unearthly Child
Doctor Who - S01E01 (001) - An Unearthly Child (2) - The Cave of Skulls
…
Doctor Who - S02E09 (017) - The Time Meddler (3) - A Battle of Wits
Doctor Who - S02E09 (017) - The Time Meddler (4) - Checkmate

Filestructure is currently as follows:

showname - SeasonXEpisodeY (total episode number) - Full Episode name (Episode partnumber) - Episode Sub title

I’d like to keep the full episode name AND the episode subname without them showing up as duplicates while being possible to play them consecutive through plex. I just can’t get it right even with following https://support.plex.tv/articles/200265006-naming-multi-file-tv-show-episodes/. Anyone have any idea on how to do this?

I can make such a split episode available for testing if someone wants to look into this themselves. (files obviously will be deleted after they have been downloaded)

Question 2:

They’re currently also in 2 seperate folders in the root of the plex library

  • Root
    – Doctor Who (1963)
    – Doctor Who (2005

I’d like to group them up in 1 folder with 2 subfolders, but when moving them, plex gets confused with the meta data i believe. Ideally i’d like them

  • root
    – Doctor Who
    — Doctor Who (1963)
    — Doctor Who (2005)

Anyone know how to achieve this?

2

Plex matches against TheTVDB.com, which shows these as separate episodes.
Doctor Who - - Season 1 - TheTVDB.com

Following their naming, your file names would be:
Doctor Who - S01E01 - An Unearthly Child.ext
Doctor Who - S01E02 - The Cave of Skulls.ext
etc.

This should work. Point the TV library at Doctor Who, not at root. Pointing at root will confuse Plex (and no other library can point at root either). Alternately, you could individually add the 1963 and 2005 folders to the library.

If you move/rename files, whether movies or TV shows, you need to perform the Plex Dance to ensure Plex has the correct file location, metadata, etc.

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That is the exact opposite of what is advisable.
The library must only point at ‘root’, not at the ‘Dr. Who’ folder.

4

Thank you for the correction. I thought having the two subfolders, one for each year, would confuse Plex.

5

I would think it should simply be how mine works;

\tvshows\Doctor Who (1963)\Season 01\Doctor Who (1963) - s01e01 - title.mkv
\tvshows\Doctor Who (2005)\Season 01\Doctor Who (2005) - s01e01 - title.mkv

with \tvshows\ being the, or one of the roots for the tv library

6

Oops. I missed that.
Then you are right – kinda. It would only work if there were a separate library, only for the ‘Doctors’.

Never introduce arbitrary subfolders.
All tv shows must live in their own show folder directly under the ‘root’ of the library.
And the ‘Doctors’ of 1963 and 2005 are technically different tv shows, so must be separated.

[edit: precisely like @TeknoJunky has shown above]

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Yes. That’s what I was shooting for. Maybe I was reading too much into @Ch3vr0n’s file/folder organization.

Agree @TeknoJunky’s is best.

8

I have the same Doctor series, back when I setup the file names I placed the sub titles in [brackets] so they were ignored by Plex… I know later there was some talk not to use [brackets] for ignoring text… has that been resolved…

Doctor Who - S01E01 (001) [An Unearthly Child (1)] An Unearthly Child
Doctor Who - S01E01 (001) [An Unearthly Child (2)] The Cave of Skulls

or does this still work

9

brackets should be fine, I use them for encoder info [x264] [ac3]

however if you want the metadata pulled correctly, you must put them in the episode order of tvdb.

should be

Doctor Who - S01E01 (001) [An Unearthly Child (1)] An Unearthly Child
Doctor Who - S01E02 (001) [An Unearthly Child (2)] The Cave of Skulls

10

your right, i missed that, cut and paste… you know…
Yea I used to put most of that in [brackets] but started using () instead…
There was some issue with using the [brackets] just cant remember what it was…

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@OttoKerner

Root - isn’t a directory lol. It’s the ROOT of the TV library entirely. Like you have a computer drive root C:\ where all your other “main folders” are (like Program Files, Windows,…). In this case root holds like

  • Airwolf
  • Arrow
    …
  • Doctor Who (1963)
  • Doctor Who (2005)

So yeah i obvioulsy SHOULD be pointing the TV librairy to “Root” in thise case or i’d “delete” all my other shows from the library. Root in my post is the same as \tvshows\ in @TeknoJunky’s post.

I didn’t say they werent. I said MINE are split into multiple parts. As i indicated into the first post

[quote]Doctor Who - S01E01 (001) - An Unearthly Child (1) - An Unearthly Child
Doctor Who - S01E01 (001) - An Unearthly Child (2) - The Cave of Skulls[/quote]

Where the part behind the third - is the individual parts name.

So @nydave69 If i’m understanding you correctly all i’d need to do to fix my “multiples” is to rename from

Doctor Who - S01E01 (001) - An Unearthly Child (1) - An Unearthly Child
Doctor Who - S01E01 (001) - An Unearthly Child (2) - The Cave of Skulls

to

Doctor Who - S01E01 (001) [ - An Unearthly Child (1)] - An Unearthly Child
Doctor Who - S01E01 (001) [ - An Unearthly Child (2)] - The Cave of Skulls

etc… ?

As to the “organising” of the 2 series. I realised they’re seen as individual series, although in my mind they arent. The first season of the new (2005) series follows directly after season 26/27 from the classic show. I think it even uses the same doctor. Not sure, can’t verify. Havent started watching until i can get the “duplicates” fixed". And hey, what is little ol’ me going to do against views set by the international community ^^, right, nothing :stuck_out_tongue:

I figured it wasn’t going to work, was just a minor side question. I’ll keep them in their individual directories then in the root of the TV library.

12

I ran a quick test & tried that. Plex shows them as duplicate episodes.
The problem is they both have S01E01.
Screenshot%20(206)

If you change the second one to S01E02 then the episodes are listed correctly.
Screenshot%20(207)

1 Like
13

See now isn’t really correct, by the shows producing record. S01E02 IS “The Daleks - Parts 1-7”

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@Ch3vr0n @nydave69

you may hate it, you may fight it, you may throw your hands up in disgust.

but if you want plex to pull the proper tv metadata, you must organize by the tvdb episode lists.

1 Like
15

In the first years each episode had its own show name and was part of a sub title.
later they just used the sub title and what part it was in…
The Power of the Daleks (1) through
The Power of the Daleks (6)

that’s from season 4

16

it does not matter what is right or wrong.

it only matters if you want plex to pull the proper tv metadata.

if you do, then you must use the tvdb episode naming convention.

you are beating a horse that has been dead many many years.

17

I feared as much. Guess i’ll have to compromise. I have all parts of each episode in their respective folder under the season

  • Season 1
    – Doctor Who - S01E01 (001) - An Unearthly Child - Parts 1-4
    – Doctor Who - S01E02 (002) - The Daleks - Parts 1-7

Guess i’ll have to be content with that and rename the individual files themselves according to thetvdb.com file names. It’s the best of both worlds i guess. A compromise.

@nydave69 I checked, your right. Well guess it’s not that hard then to rename 3 seasons like above. Was worth a shot. At least now i’ll be able to watch them through plex instead of burning them to a DVD-RW in order to watch the episode parts correctly.

Can’t beat something you didn’t know before :slight_smile:

I’ll live. Guess i have some renaming to do over the weekend.

18

Yea, just didn’t want you killing yourself for just a few seasons.
You still and insert the sub titles in [brackets] in the file name for your own benefit.

19

Do note also, that drwho is far from the only tv shows that are beholden to the particularities of the tvdb.

feel free to peruse the tvdb forums for their rules and attitudes about various shows and what is the ‘correct’ or appropriate episode orders.

you might want to wear welding goggles and gloves while doing that too :fire:

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Guess i know enough. Thanks for the help ppl.